Maxwell House Coffee Logo History

Maxwell House is a brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Foods. It is named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennesee. The coffee was provided to the hotel beginning in 1892 by local manufacturers, Leon T. Cheek and Joel Owsley Cheek, who developed the blend. In 1901 Cheek and a partner, John Neal, established the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company. The name was changed to Cheek & Neal (later Cheek-Neal) Coffee Company in 1903.

The Maxwell House logo consists of a cup from which the last drop appears to be falling and has the slogan "Good to the last drop". In 1917, Cheek-Neal began using a "Good to the Last Drop" slogan to advertise their Maxwell House Coffee. The company attributes the "Good to the Last Drop" quote to US president was,Theodore Roosevelt, claiming that the former President had taken a sip of Maxwell House Coffee on a visit to Andrew Jackson's estate, The Hermitage, near Nashville. On tasting the coffee, he had proclaimed it to be "Good to the Last Drop."


For several years, the ads made no mention of Theodore Roosevelt as the phrase's originator. By the 1930s, however, the ads began to mention the former President's name. In modern times, Maxwell House has distanced itself from its own original claim stating that the slogan was actually written by Clifford Spiller, former president of General Foods Corporation and did not come from a Roosevelt remark overheard by Cheek-Neal. The phrase remains a registered trademark for the product and appears on its logo.