There’s nothing like a good cup of coffee — especially a strong, robust cup of coffee. We’re not talking about the kind that is strong enough to make you into a psychopath, but perhaps the kind that will fire you up enough to grab a gun and go hunting for bears.

Does that sound intriguing to you? If you like coffee, there’s a good chance you have had at least one cup of a brand that could have had “Drink this when you hunt bears” as its slogan. Instead, it has a more subtle slogan. Like the first, it owes its origin to one man who happened to have been the President of the United States.

Our story begins with John Overton, a man with a vision and a penchant for luxury. In the 1850s, he built a five-story, 240-room hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a marvel of architecture, boasting massive chandeliers, the finest marble, and artwork that could make even the Louvre blush with envy. Overton’s hotel was to be the crown jewel of Southern hospitality, rivaling the finest establishments in New York and Chicago.

His grand plan was interrupted by the Civil War. Overton’s luxury building was commandeered by the Union Army and transformed from the once opulent hotel into a barracks and POW camp. By the war’s end, the hotel was stripped bare, a shadow of its former self.

It was not destined to remain desolate. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the hotel was renovated and reopened in 1869, reclaiming its status as Nashville’s premier destination for the elite. It was a place where deals were made, love was professed, and fortunes were won and lost — all under the glittering chandeliers of the hotel lobby.

Now, let’s fast-forward to the 1890s. Nashville was becoming a hotspot for coffee connoisseurs, with several companies vying for dominance in the coffee market. Among them was the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., helmed by the enterprising Joel Cheek. Cheek-Neal’s coffee soon became the best-selling brand in Nashville. The best place to sample it was in the lobby of the company’s top customer, Overton’s luxury hotel.

Perhaps our story would end there, had it not been for a fortuitous presidential cameo. On October 21, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Nashville, primarily to tour Andrew Jackson’s former home, The Hermitage. Needing a bit of a caffeine pick-me-up, Roosevelt made his way to the hotel to try Nashville’s favorite coffee.

Roosevelt sat in the lobby and sipped from the delicate china cup. According to The Nashville Banner, the president beamed and said, “This is the kind of stuff I like to drink, by George, when I hunt bears.” A nice endorsement, to be sure, but not exactly the sort of thing that will inspire many housewives to stock up on the brand.

We should also point out that we are grateful the president worded his endorsement the way he did. If he had said, instead, “This is the kind of stuff I like to drink, by George, when I go bear hunting,” it might have raised the question about whether he intended to say, “…when I go bare hunting.” Given Roosevelt’s taste for adventure, we might be writing an entirely different article today.

We must point out a couple of unresolved controversies at this point. There is some question about which brand of coffee Roosevelt was drinking when he made his statement. H.G. Hill claimed it was their Fit for a King coffee. The Cheek-Neal Company insisted it was their brand that pleased the president’s palate.

Not wanting to miss out on claiming the presidential endorsement, Cheek-Neal took the opportunity and ran with it, advertising that its coffee had earned Roosevelt’s approval. In doing so, they also reported something else Roosevelt said — or perhaps didn’t say. It is undisputed that Roosevelt made the comment about hunting bears. There remains some debate whether he followed up those words with another comment — the one that Cheek-Neal appropriated as their slogan: “Good to the last drop.” Over time, the tale of Roosevelt’s praise and the slogan became inextricably linked, cementing Cheek-Neal’s claim of approval from the highest levels of government.

We must also mention one additional detail. If the Cheek-Neal Company doesn’t ring any bells for you, that’s not surprising. In 1928, it was purchased by the Postum Company, later renamed as General Foods. Also, although Cheek-Neal produced the coffee, that’s not the name by which the product was known. The coffee’s slogan became inseparably connected to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, so it’s probably appropriate that the brand became known by the place where it was first available to customers. Long before Cheek-Neal’s bear-hunting brew could be purchased at grocery stores around the world, becoming the top-selling coffee in the world, if you wanted to taste it for yourself, you had to go to the lobby of John Overton’s luxury Nashville hotel. The place where you could get coffee that was “good to the last drop” was the Maxwell House.

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