He was selling soybeans to be grown as the replacement for coffee. After roasting, grinding and brewing the resulting beverage was praised in his ad below.
Postum was concocted around this time. If you haven't ever drunk it I can tell you it isn't too bad...but like coffee it ain't!!!!! Cook was cashing in on this craze for healthful coffee substitutes. Early Postum (I think) was also brewed from the toasted and ground wheat berries, but later versions were instant Postum. That is the one available now.
Someone in an old article from this time talks about wheat coffee (Postum) as wheat soup. :-) A real coffee lover I'm guessing!
New Domestic Coffee Berry.
The best coffee substitute ever discovered— many pronouncing it as good as the genuine, and is superseding in a great measure store coffee as its merits become known. It is the
poor man's friend. It is the hardiest, easiest raised and most productive of any plant I
ever saw. While growing it is a perfect sight to behold; fruits from the ground up, and on
the limbs in every direction, the pods touching each other.
In the south two crops of coffee can be raised in a season by planting the first crop early.
Many claim that by mixing a few grains of store coffee with the Domestic, combining
the flavors, they obtain a more delicious and aromatic beverage than the imported
article.
