By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
Since the pandemic, “virtual coffee hours” have popped up both in formal settings and informal gatherings. As social beings, humans have an innate need to bond and for centuries we have connected through sharing a hot (or cold) drink together. While there are several ways to get your morning pick-me-up, mid-day spark, or evening soother in Tiffin, all in one convenient place, the public face of coffee and tea options has changed in our community quite a bit over time.
Tea has been a beverage that has been consumed in various forms by cultures worldwide for centuries. The Chinese had been cultivating and harvesting it for centuries before it first appeared on American soil. Once they began trading with Europeans, millions of tea chests were shipped through companies like the British East India Company to Europe.
One of the defining moments in U.S. history is, of course, the Boston Tea Party, which occurred on December 16, 1773. Hundreds of chests of tea from the British East India Company were dumped into the Boston Harbor in response to a tea tax. But because tea was so important to the culture of colonial Americans, they began smuggling tea from Dutch counterparts for their continued supply.
Meanwhile, Native Americans in what would become the United States were brewing their own concoctions with wild plants found in their habitats. One native plant that is still widely used today in tea is sassafras. The indigenous peoples throughout the Northeast, including Ohio, would use smaller roots for simmering and pieces of larger roots for medicinal purposes. They used honey or maple sugar as a natural sweetener.
Today, we’ve expanded our inherent love of tea to create an endless amount of brews. Before the Great Depression, Tiffin was home to a branch of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (29 Washington St.), a chain of grocery stores in operation from 1859-2015. For sixty years it was the largest grocery retailer in the country but had started as a small chain of retail tea and coffee stores in New York City.
An ad for the Buskirk’s Tea and Coffee Store in the Columbian Blue and Gold Yearbook 1917.
Many people may prefer the milder taste of tea, but the other half of U.S. citizens crave the stronger tests (and effects) of coffee, a drink that came much later to the American palette. A poll taken in 2014 resulted with 46% choosing coffee, 24% choosing tea, 19% preferring both equally, and 10% preferring something else entirely.
In Tiffin, coffee appears to mirror this trend. Throughout old yearbooks, city directories and other publications, are advertisements for coffee for sale, coffee shops, and equipment for brewing. The Duffey & Sankey Groceries and Provisions carried Old Glory Coffee at 43 S. Washington St. The Beesh Co. sold coffee, tea, spices, extracts and more in the early 1920s. They also carried crockery, china, graniteware, glassware, silverware, aluminum-ware, lamps, vases and brass goods.
On 61 Washington St. in the 1890’s was Martin and Negele Groceries and Provisions, which roasted and packed 37,000 pounds of coffee ground per year using a two-horsepower engine, which they placed in the front window to “attract the attention of passerby”. As an added visual bonus, the steam from the engine was pumped into a giant coffee pot mounted on a post outside.
More recently, a gourmet coffee and tea shop, Village Bean Barrel on 66 East Market St., offered 25 kinds of gourmet coffee beans all the way from Colombia and Jamaica, and 44 tea options. On the “south end” was the Gibson Coffee Shop in the 1930s-1960s. Many remember the Tiffin Bake Shop, which closed it’s doors within the last few decades. Thankfully, Tiffinites still have locally-owned, small-town service shop options like Sabaidee’s and Bailiwick’s.
Former Tiffin-Seneca Public Library Director, Pat Hillmer (left), converses with a woman at a tea party sponsored by the Friends of the Library in 1994 at the now defunct Solarium of the Towne and Country Club. The guest-of-honor was actress Susan Crobaugh Willis. A photo album with other photographs from this even can be found on the Seneca County Digital Library at https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27
Although many busy American buy their coffee and tea “to-go,” coffee shops remain a gathering place. In the 1600s and 1700s, coffee and tea rooms were once a place of the elite to discuss intellectual ideas and philosophies. These rooms “catered to a specific clientele and were frequented by politicians, writers, stock brokers, sea-faring merchants, and other socialites.” The unofficial members would pay a penny to enter and, because of the atmosphere of the clientele, they became known as “penny universities.” In early America, this included members of the Whig Party, the Royal Society, and others. (Isaac Newton was known to frequent one, but hot cider will be reserved for another discussion.)
Tiffin boasted one in 1859, operated by Andrew Arndt. Jr., Marshal Bibb, H. Rogers, Louis Brown, Fred Grummel, Justin Schneider, and Michael Welter.
These coffee rooms typically only allowed men, but Tiffin’s later coffee rooms embraced women, too. Della Shawhan Laird and a Mrs. S.B. Sneath of the local Presbyterian Church installed the “Murphy Coffee Rooms” in the building at the corner of Market and Monroe Streets, which became a social center with “good music and refined entertainments.” For a short-lived time, these were sponsored by female members of the local churches and even provided a kindergarten class and light lunches. As they dwindled in popularity, Mrs. Shawhan-Laird donated funds to keep them open.
Likewise, a member of the Tiffin League of Women Voters recalls informal conversations held at Joan Groce’s helped eventually facilitate more formal discussions by this influential group in Tiffin some ten years after the fact.
For those who don’t particularly enjoy neither coffee or tea, hot chocolate has become a popular alternative, especially for children. Students at a one-room schoolhouse near Bascom would enjoy soup and hot chocolate following winter recesses in the 1920’s before electricity was installed in the building around 1930. However, hot chocolate is only recently a cheap commodity.
Chocolate is an exotic plant that requires heat and humidity. Europeans may have brought traditional teas to this continent, but it was the indigenous peoples of Central America who introduced the cocoa bean to explorers.
After watering down the pulp, Mayans flavored their chocolate drinks with cornmeal and chili peppers. Once the Spanish conquistadors introduced it in Spain and it began to catch on, Spaniards used chilies, anise seed, vanilla, almonds or hazelnuts, cinnamon, Alexandria roses, pepper and white sugar in different measurements to sweeten the natural bitterness of chocolate. Sometimes they even mixed it with beer or wine.
Whatever your drink of choice will be this Thanksgiving, remember to thank the many individuals who brought that drink to your table, from the discovery stage to the grocer who sold it to you. It takes a community of people working together to support the bonds we create over a shared drink at our family gatherings. Happy Thanksgiving!
Works cited:
American Indian Rights Association. The Pathfinder Directory. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/38656/rec/1
Bascom Area Sesquicentennial 1837-1987. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/41849/rec/1
Dildine, Frank. “Dildine From Wilderness to City.” 1930. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/22126/rec/1
Downtown Tiffin Where History Sparkles. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/43081/rec/1
Historical and Business Review Seneca County 1891-1892. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/15697/rec/1
“Hot Chocolate Drink History: Rediscover True Hot Chocolate.” What’s Cooking America. https://whatscookingamerica.net/beverage/hotchocolate-history.htm
Howe, Barbara. “Building of the Week.” Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28007/rec/1
Lengeman III, William I. “A Brief History of the Tea Chest.” January 7, 2013. English Tea Shop. https://blog.englishteastore.com/2013/01/07/a-brief-history-of-the-tea-chest/
Moore, Peter. September 23, 2014. “Poll Results: Coffee and Tea.” YouGov America. https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2014/09/23/poll-results-coffee-and-tea
Paajanen, Sean. “An Abridged History of Hot Chocolate: Its Changes over the Years.” Feb. 6, 2019. https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-history-of-hot-chocolate-764463
Rontondi, Jessica Pierce. “How Coffee Fueled Revolutions and Revolutionary Ideas.” Feb. 11, 2020. The History Channel. https://www.history.com/news/coffee-houses-revolutions
Scott. “The History of Coffee Houses.” August 20, 2015. Driftaway. https://driftaway.coffee/the-history-of-coffee-houses/
Seneca County Museum Dedication 1942. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/34958/rec/2
Seneca County Historical Society. Fort Ball Gazette March 1990. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/41029/rec/1
Smith, Howard. “The What, How and Who of It: an Ohio Community in 1856-1880 by Howard Smith.” Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/16074/rec/1
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Wikipedia. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26P