Radio Coffee Tin, Biston Coffee Co., St. Louis, MO. Circa 1925

I like this coffee tin from the Biston Coffee Company since it shows an old phonograph radio or record player like instrument in the graphics on the can. I have seen other Radio brand coffee tins with radio waves emitting from the name on that version of can also. One has to realize that the concept of radio being available to the general public was still in its infancy for the most part when this brand was conceived. I would assume the company was simply trying to utilize the new technology in helping popularize their Radio brand of coffee.


The Biston Ooffee Company was based in St. Louis, MO and was a fairly large coffee manufacturer and repackaging producer in the city. St. Louis at this time was the largest coffee distribution city in the Midwest simply due to all the supplies coming up the Mississippi River and being distributed on the cities landing to the waiting coffee houses just off the rivers edge. Subsequently once the coffee was packaged it was sent up the rivers to the far north and to the far south, or along the railway lines which went to the West Coast from the city via Union Station, once the busiest train station outside of New York City.