Sanka was one of the world's first brands of decaffeinated coffee. Decaffeination is the act of removing caffeine from coffee beans and tea. ... A cup of coffee // Coffee is a popular beverage prepared from the roasted seeds – commonly referred to as beans – of the coffee plant. ...

Decaffeinated coffee was invented by a team of researchers led by Ludwig Roselius in Bremen, Germany, in 1903. It was first sold in Germany in 1905/1906 under the name "Kaffee HAG" and then came to the United States in 1909/10 where it was first marketed under the name "Dekafa" or "Dekofa" by an American sales agent. Ludwig Roselius (born June 2, 1874 in Bremen; died May 15, 1943) was a German coffee merchant and founder of the company KAFFEE HAG. As a patron, he supported artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker and Bernard Hoetger and turned the street Böttcherstraße in Bremen into an artwork. ... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...

In 1914, Roselius founded his own company called Kaffee Hag Corporation in New York, which marketed its decaffeinated coffee under the brand name "Kaffee HAG" that was well proven from the European business. 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

When the company was confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian during World War I and was sold to an American businessman, Roselius lost not only his firm, but also the US-trademark rights in the name "Kaffee HAG". To re-establish his product, he had to use a different brand name and chose Sanka (from the French words "sans caféine," which means "without caffeine"). An Alien Property Custodian is someone who has been employed to handle an enemy citizens property, which has landed in the United States. ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard...

Sanka was first marketed in the United States in 1923. At the beginning, it was sold in two "Sanka Coffee Houses" in New York, but soon it also came into retail. With its bright orange label, the package was easily identifiable, and due to intensive advertising campaigns and the General Foods Corporation taking over its distribution in 1928, Sanka became a nationwide sales success in the late 1920s. 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... General Foods Corporation was a company established under that name by Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1929. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

An odd fact about Sanka is that the bright orange label that made it easily identifiable to consumers found its way into coffee shops around the country in the form of the decaf coffee pot. Coffee pots with a bright orange handle are a direct result of the American public's association with the color orange with the Sanka brand and therefore all decaffeinated coffee. (However, those that serve rival Folgers coffee usually have green handled pots for decaffeinated.) Folgers Coffee is a major brand of coffee in the US, part of the food and beverage division of Procter & Gamble. ...

Kraft's corporate archivists, however, have no record of a definitive link between Sanka and orange-handled carafes, which could just be a result of lost records over the years.

The product was known in the 1970s for a series of television ads featuring actor Robert Young (who was also playing Dr. Marcus Welby at the time), in which he encouraged various individuals to switch to Sanka, and thus bring down their blood pressure and become less anxious and irritable. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Robert Young (February 22, 1907 - July 21, 1998) was a popular American actor, who was the son of an Irish immigrant father and an American-born mother. ... Marcus Welby, M.D. was a popular medical drama that aired on ABC from late September 1969 to May 1976. ...

External links

• Kraft Foods - Ludwig Roselius
• The History of Coffee
• Historical packaging of Sanka