The Vintage Seattle Coffee Brand That Didn't Make It Past The 1970s

While coffee has historically been used as a "pick-me-up," a way to start one's morning or round out one's evening, it's morphed into an incredibly social activity. Coffee shops have become hangout locations, study spots, and even date night locales. Cities take pride in exceptional coffee shops and coffee brands, especially those in the hub of coffee notoriety, aka Seattle, Washington.

On a deep dive into six vintage coffee brands that don't exist anymore, we discovered the dearly departed Gold Shield coffee brand. Although technically the first roastery opened in Seattle in 1887 by D. Davies & Co., the Schwabachers opened Schwabacher Brothers & Company in 1869, which sold a variety of clothing, hardware, groceries, and most importantly, coffee. Schwabacher Brothers & Company pioneered Gold Shield coffee, a brand that the company roasted and manufactured itself. The company's slogan became "'Always Good,' All Ways," which it printed on every can of coffee and several advertising posters around the city.

Based in the heart of Seattle, Gold Shield was one of the city's first true leaps into memorable coffee, helping it to evolve into the hot spot of coffee innovation it's become today. The brand was one of the first to wholesale its coffee to other retailers in the city, which only contributed to its growing popularity throughout the early 1900s. A trademark for the Gold Shield name was filed in 1926, though the brand only remained under Schwabacher Brothers & Company for another 30 years.

In 1957, the Gold Shield brand was sold to the Crescent Manufacturing Company, another Seattle-based company that specialized in spices and seasonings. Crescent Manufacturing, though, focused more on Gold Shield's line of nuts than its line of coffee, and eventually sold the brand off again when competition got tough. Eventually, Seattle's coffee scene forever changed with the ascent of the Pike Place Market — most notably Starbucks (which opened its first store in 1971). The history of Gold Shield's eventual closure becomes murky, but we do know that the brand didn't make it through the '70s, fading into nothing more than a piece of Seattle's long and varied coffee history.