Coffees that remain in the memory

There are two brands of coffee that have remained in the Venezuelan feeling, not only because of the quality of the product, but also because they were accompanied by intense publicity on radio and television for many years, becoming favorites of the population.

The first one, to which I am going to refer, is “Fama de América”. A coffee that accompanied me during my childhood and a good part of my adulthood. It was the coffee par excellence that was used in most homes and also the most popular.

It is a coffee that has been in the local market since 1927 and that became widely known in the decade of the 60's, when television arrived in our country. Its advertising contains a catchy and funny jingle that says: “By the aroma I know it, Fama de America, the best coffee.

I remember very clearly the jingle in black and white: A picture of an ideal family where dad was resting next to a swimming pool, mom was putting together a vase in the garden, to both the aroma of freshly brewed coffee reaches them, they suspend what they are doing to say: they are brewing, passing a girl who opens the kitchen door and asks the cook (I do not remember the name): “Fulana are you brewing? The girl responds, intoning the jingle: “By the aroma I know it, Fama de América, the best coffee.

Nowadays this advertisement would not be aired and would be penalized for ethnic discrimination, since the family was white and the cook was black. Returning to the subject, the advertisement had a deep impact on the consumer and that was the coffee that he/she drank.

Over the years the coffee company suffered a setback due to political issues that I am not going to go into in depth, what is certain is that the coffee lost its quality and with it the loyalty of the consumers.

By that time, other coffee brands were already competing in the market, among them was “Café el Peñon”, a company founded in 1947 that also competed in advertising, this one did not have a catchy jingle but a slogan.

The advertising was based on presenting images of Venezuelan traditions, where people in different activities shared a coffee and at the end a voice-over said: “Negrito, with milk or brown... the tastiest is the Peñon” and indeed it is a good coffee, but you cannot find it in all supermarkets, even today, the two supermarkets that I visit frequently, do not sell it.

A few days ago, I visited another supermarket and found both Fama de America and El Peñon, I took pictures of them to make this post, but I did not dare to try them, because I like the coffee that I currently drink.

The truth is that these two brands of coffee have remained for many years in the taste of Venezuelans, and the advertising campaigns of both have remained as a testimony of an era whose social characteristics are very different from those of today.