General Foods Brand to Completely Disappear?

General Foods International Coffee

General Foods International Coffees, the last stand of the General Foods brand, might be on its way out. It appears that the coffee’s maker, Kraft, is testing a new Suisse Mocha under the Maxwell House brand. In the photo here, at right is the older version, General Foods International Coffee that is “from the makers of Maxwell House.” At left is what appears to be the new version.

General Foods once sold three coffee brands, Sanka, Maxwell House and General Foods International Coffee. When General Foods merged with Kraft, the company became Kraft General Foods. Eventually, the General Foods was dropped, but the Kraft survived.

Kraft would do well to keep some vestige of General Foods around, though fewer know it than a decade ago. The brand has tremendous goodwill; pity Kraft has not figured a way to take advantage of it.

Part of the problem is that when the General Foods corporate brand disappeared, the small coffee brand lost the promotional value of General Foods. Brands such as Jell-O, Tang, Sanka, Gaines, Maxwell House, Post, Kool-Aid and the like were all advertised as sub brands of General Foods. Whenever the product was advertised, General Foods was mentioned. That halo is gone.

Author

  • Garland Pollard

    J. Garland Pollard IV is editor/publisher of BrandlandUSA. Since 2006, the website BrandlandUSA.com has chronicled the history and business of America’s great brands.

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13 Comments

  1. I still remember the 15 years of Carol Lawrence TV commercials for the “decadent” General Foods International Coffees…
    My mother used to buy them… Instant coffee for people with CLASS!!!

  2. Oh my god!! These posts are priceless. I used to shovel this stuff in my mouth dry as a kid, so I know how good it is. Sad that its gone, and I agree, really sad that no one had made much of an attempt to replace it.

  3. I, too, cannot find International coffees (the original ones) anywhere 🙁
    This sux!
    why do ppl mess with something that is already great? “New and Improved” doesnt mean anything when something is already THE BEST!!
    I want, and deserve, my original International Coffees!!
    What does it take to get what we want??

  4. OMG….this new generation of store helpers had NO idea what I wanted a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for the Peppermint Mocha ‘cuz I was going to add just a teaspoonful (maybe 2) to a bundt peppermint cake recipe I wanted to try out! Found hazelnut, vanilla, orange, & caramel creamers and/or the MH versions, but no GF. (Started drinking Suisse Mocha as a li’l girl when my foster mom’s daughter would come home to WV from CA with her tin of it..I felt like such a grown-up!) ?

  5. Suisse Mocha International coffee is no longer carried at Walmart and Kroger? Where can I find it? drinking it for 25 yr +

  6. Please please please don’t change or do away with swiss mocha. It is the only kind I like and order a lot at a time.

  7. Sandra Simmons #3 comment stated exactly what I would have said, but I want to add to it. Is there any way at all possible to bring General foods International coffee back!!!!! after all I do not like regular coffee, never drank it and never will except for a little bit in a glass with much ice, milk, and plenty of sugar. This new thing they came out with tastes just like regular coffee smells. It is terrible!!!! My mom and step dad always drank Maxwell house regular coffee, and never wavered from it, but I do not like coffee only GFIC French vanilla café, other than that I am a tea totler.

  8. I’d buy several varieties of GF International coffees a month for guests who loved the break from conventional coffee. Now they’re no longer available…WHY would any company be so short sighted as to stop production from a golden goose?
    They must have known the most purchased flavors if nothing else.
    The crap flavors by competitors will eventually disappear as well due to slack sales.
    Who’s in charge at GF INTERNATIONAL COFFEE???
    That moron needs to be REPLACED because they’re costing millions of dollars in lost revenue!
    Give the consumer what THEY WANT, not what some idiot in an office determines!

  9. I went to 20 different supermarkets trying in vain to find General Foods international coffees, but to no avail. However there seemed to be plenty of imitations of the version under the guise of maxwell house.

    Since I’ve been an faithful customer of the GF International Coffee since it first came out, (give you some idea of my age! lol), you can imagine how disappointed I was not being able to find not 1 (one) single can of the original brand. This coffee brand then, tasted like your fancy lattes from the more expensive coffee shops today! You could actually take a break from whatever you were doing with a cup of whatever flavor you chose and actually feel like you were indulging in decadence.

    Well I settled on three cans of its imitations at the end my search. Got home, had a cup, and as I expected, tasted awful. Just goes to prove a point, originators can’t be imatated!! So long GF International you were great while you lasted. You will be missed (at least by this loyal customer).

    GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN 🙁

  10. General Foods also sold Yuban coffee in addition to Maxwell House, Sanka and International.

    As far as General Foods disappearing altogether I must ask: has there really been any respect by Kraft to honor original General Foods brands anyway? In my opinion, Kraft hasn’t paid a bit of respect to original GF brands for the last 15 years. I miss the GF color dot logo but that too had been made defunct by Kraft 20 years ago. I believe Kraft has longed worked to have the world forget that there ever was a General Foods at all – and that’s somehow very disconcerting and sad.


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