H and H Tea

H and H Tea sat in the same non-coffee grocery family as H and H Spices, H and H Cocoa, and H and H Extracts—lines named beside coffee on the Welcome post and About page. Drying, blending, and carton or tin packaging could ride on equipment and artwork pipelines already tuned for H and H Blend and High Grade coffee, which is why tea labels sometimes echo paper-label and Art Deco coffee eras on the same shelf.

Tea tins and cartons are much scarcer here than coffee tins; each new example is written up as its own post.

Timeline

The brand spans at least four decades, from the June 1921 Evening News “H AND H BLEND CEYLON-INDIA TEA” launch ad through the July 1958 Light giant-iced-tea premium promotion. By 1923 the line was being promoted as “first in sales at local San Antonio stores” (per the August 1923 Light special edition) and was sourced from Ceylon, India, and Java Orange Pekoe regions. The 1921 Pioneer Concern article records H&H tea reaching 65% store distribution in San Antonio in its first year — “surpassing all expectations.” A photograph of the cartons surviving in the trade-show booth shot is from c.1950 (see Manufacturers association booth); after 1958 the line begins to fade from primary advertising in this collection’s window.

Original launch — June 1921

The earliest documented H and H Tea advertisement is from the San Antonio Evening News, Tuesday, 14 June 1921, headed “Have You Ordered Your Tea… Yet?” with summer iced-tea seasonal framing. The carton illustration in the ad explicitly reads “H AND H BLEND CEYLON-INDIA TEA” — the same line listed as “wanted, no packaging photographed” in the products list below. The 1921 ad establishes the brand-name and carton design even though no surviving carton specimen has been catalogued yet. Tagline: “GUARANTEED TO PLEASE.” Signed Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas.

August 1923 — “H and H GUARAN-TEA” brand variant and money-back guarantee

The San Antonio Light of 26 August 1923 (p. 63), in the factory special edition, carries a scroll-format display advertisement under the heading “Our Proclamation” that markets the tea product under the name H and H GUARAN-TEA — “imported Orange Pekoe Tea, especially selected to meet the taste of the most exacting ice tea drinkers. It is packed in handy round tins.” The ad includes a money-back guarantee: “Go to your nearest grocers, try a round can of H&H Tea, take it home and serve it to your entire family. If they do not unite in praising it as the best tea that they have ever drunk, return the unused tea to your grocers and your full purchase price will be refunded.” The ad is signed by the company president. Source: 1923-08-26-san-antonio-light-our-proclamation.

“GUARAN-TEA” appears to be a punning brand-name variant rather than a separate registered mark — playing on “guarantee.” No USPTO filing for this term has been found. The round-tin format documented here aligns with the Aug 10, 1923 News ad confirming the switch to round tins.

August 1923 — “Now Packed in Round Tins”

The News (San Antonio), 10 August 1923: ad headed “Drink H and H Tea” — “Now Packed in Round Tins / At the Home, Club or Picnic / Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.” This confirms that by August 1923 the packaging format had transitioned to round tins — the round tin is now the primary retail format, superseding whatever earlier packaging was used. The ad predates the 26 August 1923 Light special edition by just over two weeks and aligns with the tea campaign push during that period. Source: 1923-08-10-drink-h-and-h-tea-round-tins.

September 1929 — iced tea ad with tin illustration

San Antonio Light, Friday, 27 September 1929, p.36: large display ad — “Thousands praise H AND H Orange Pekoe TEA — Iced — ‘You’ll praise it, too.’“ Slogan: “Its flavor will suit you to a ‘T’.” Illustration shows a tall iced-tea glass beside the H AND H Orange Pekoe TEA round tin — the tin label reads “H H / ORANGE-PEKOE / TEA” in a stacked format. The ad is dated September, pushing iced-tea use into the end of the warm season. Signed Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas. Source: 1929-09-27-h-and-h-orange-pekoe-tea-iced.

1923 — Orange Pekoe promotion

The San Antonio Light of 26 August 1923 carries a vertical display for H and H Orange Pekoe Tea under the heading “Iced Tea for Summer” (one of several panels in the all-day special edition on Hoffmann-Hayman). The ad records three operational details about the tea line:

  • Sourcing: Orange Pekoe from Ceylon, India, and Java.
  • Brewing instructions: one teaspoon to five cups; freshly boiled water; brew five or six minutes; pour over ice; sweeten to taste.
  • Trade-partner footer: “The same excellence of H. W. Taylor Co., Philadelphia.” H. W. Taylor Co. is a Philadelphia tea house; the precise relationship (supplier, blender, or licensor) is not yet documented in this collection — flagged as an open research lead.

May 1927 — Summer iced-tea campaign; yield and brewing claims

San Antonio Express, 11 May 1927, p. 10: H&H Orange Pekoe Tea summer display ad makes specific yield and technique claims:

  • Yield: “about three hundred glasses of full strength tea from every pound”
  • Brewing instructions: boil in an earthenware pot; infuse five minutes; pour over chipped ice
  • Garnish: “a sprig of fresh mint lends added zest”
  • Money-back guarantee: return unused portion for full refund if not delighted
  • Slogan for tea: “You’ll Praise It, Too” — the same secondary slogan as H&H coffee ads, applied to the tea line by 1927

Source: 1927-05-11-san-antonio-express-1927-05-11-page-10.

1934 — San Antonio Register placement

Two 22 June 1934 San Antonio Register H and H Tea advertisements (part 1, part 2) extend the documented run from the 1923 Light special edition into the mid-1930s. The Register was San Antonio’s African-American weekly newspaper; the twin placements are the project’s earliest record of H&H tea marketing in the Black press during the segregation era, and document distribution channel breadth beyond the Anglo-press Light and Express-News readership in the 1923 special edition.

Products

H and H Tea (house mark)

  1. High Grade Orange Pekoe (and related Orange Pekoe & Pekoe) — cardboard cartons (e.g. San Clemente, 2015; sealed 3½ oz example, 2017)
  2. Choicest Quality Orange Pekoe & Pekoe — 3 oz carton — small black/red/gold carton with “Choicest Quality” banner; not in collection, documented via a reference photograph on the Reference gallery (staged beside an H and H Crystalvac coffee jar and a High Grade Vacuum Packed Coffee tin).
  3. Early cylindrical tea tin — paper-label era with Orange Pekoe / Ceylon & India banner and lightning TEA mark (2025 addition)
  4. H and H Orange Pekoe Tea — referenced in older advertisements as early as 1927 (dating on retail pieces is worked out per post)
  5. H and H Tea — 4 can sizes — the 10 March 1934 The News product display (post) shows 4 tea cans of graduated size stacked together, confirming at least four tin-format size variants in March 1934. No individual size labels legible in the scan.
  6. H and H Tea jars — 2 sizes — the same March 1934 display shows 2 tea jars alongside the cans. Tea jars are otherwise undocumented in this collection; no specimen or label has been catalogued.

H and H Blend (tea)

  1. H and H Blend Ceylon-India Tea (1921–) — documented in the 14 June 1921 Evening News launch ad (carton illustration shows the lettering “H AND H BLEND CEYLON-INDIA TEA”); on the Wanted list because no surviving carton specimen has been catalogued in the project’s collection yet.

Master Chef (tea)

  1. Master Chef tea bags (1950s) — listed under Master Chef Coffee as a target format; no physical example in the archive so far.

Packaging

Chronological feel: early tin, then the 1930s-style Orange Pekoe carton, then a second sealed carton. See Collection posts for full narratives and extra angles.

  1. Early H and H Tea tin (paper-label era)

Early H and H Tea tin with Orange Pekoe Ceylon and India banner

  1. High Grade Orange Pekoe carton (face panel)

H and H High Grade Orange Pekoe tea carton

  1. Same carton — side panel (mentions key-wind coffee tins)

H and H Orange Pekoe tea carton side panel

  1. Sealed 3½ oz Orange Pekoe & Pekoe carton (2017)

Unopened H and H High Grade Orange Pekoe and Pekoe tea carton

Ephemera

H-H Tea cartons appear in a rare trade-show photograph with Master Chef coffee: Manufacturers association booth (black-and-white table shot with stacked cans and tea boxes).

Collection posts

Reference photography

Choicest Quality and other tea reference frames appear in Reference (including cartons not in Our Collection); in-hand tins and cartons are under Packaging.

Newspaper & period branding

H and H Tea carton art from the 26 Aug 1923 San Antonio Light products display (full page).

H and H Tea carton from the 26 Aug 1923 products display

Open questions

  1. H. W. Taylor Co. relationship — the 1923 Light footer reads “The same excellence of H. W. Taylor Co., Philadelphia.” Precise nature (supplier, blender, licensor, or marketing rhetoric) remains undocumented.
  2. 1921 carton specimen — the H AND H BLEND CEYLON-INDIA TEA carton illustrated in the 14 June 1921 Evening News ad has not been located in any surviving form.
  3. Master Chef tea bags (1950s) — wholesale-booth photograph implies cartons; no physical example or print ad has surfaced.
  4. Post-1958 silence — after the July 1958 Light giant-iced-tea premium the tea line drops out of the project’s documented sources; whether the line was discontinued, renamed, or simply no longer advertised in the captured window is unresolved.
  5. 1934 Register ad detail — copy, pricing, and carton iconography on the twin 22 June 1934 placements pending re-OCR pass.

Wanted

From Wanted and the “Known products” tea block:

  1. H and H Tea, Orange/Pekoe — 3 oz (Choicest Quality carton documented via Reference gallery only — no physical example yet), 4 oz, and 6 oz (and other 6 oz variants called out in the list)
  2. H and H Blend Ceylon-India Tea (1921) — bags, tins, or cartons with readable copy
  3. Master Chef tea bags (1950s)
  4. Advertising, menus, or photographs of restaurant or hotel tea service under Hoffmann-Hayman brands

Contributed photos only still help—use contact if you have a lead.