Something’s brewing in Twin Peaks and I had to find it. When I first discovered TwinPeaksBlog.com, I became obsessed with figuring out the central items in a particular image of Lucy Moran at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Station. After many cups of coffee and several internet searches, I have identified the automatic coffee brewing system in the kitchen – Mr. Coffee, Sr. Model SR101/SR10. Here’s how I found it.
THE IMAGE THAT STARTED IT ALL
In episode 2.004, Lucy Moran is seen making coffee in the Sheriff’s Department’s kitchen. I wanted to find everything in this photo. Some of the items were already identified such as the green mug and the CCX Trucking. I helped Steven identify the Thermo-Serv mugs and the Sweetheart line paper cups sitting atop the coffee machine.
My interest in identifying these items centers around their connection to coffee. Twin Peaks and coffee are together entwined in my memory. I fondly remember cruising around in the fall of 1990 to the strains of the recently released soundtrack and drinking my first cups of coffee at a couple of local diners. My town’s versions of the Double R. However, unlike Cooper’s “black as midnight on a moonless night,” I preferred lots of cream and lots of sugar. More like “pale as a cloudless sky at sunset.”
Coffee takes on such mythic importance in the show, it is practically a character in its own right. Twin Peaks coffee, however, is no loner and can usually be seen with its constant companions, doughnuts and pie. Starting with the pilot episode, we see them together. Carafes of hot coffee. Copious amounts of donuts…some bear claws too.
IDENTIFYING THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT COFFEE MAKER
One would expect that with all the coffee that the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department goes through in a day, they would have an industrial-style coffee maker as seen in cafes and restaurants.
However, this is not the case. In season two, they leave their brewing to a compact, 10 cup version of Mr. Coffee.
HISTORY OF MR. COFFEE
In 1968, Vincent Marotta, Sr., and Samuel Glazer founded North American Systems, Inc. (NAS). The high school friends had owned and operated a real estate development company from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s. Based near Cleveland, Ohio, NAS was originally a coffee delivery service.
According to an issue of Cleveland Magazine from December 1983, Marotta came up with the idea for the Mr. Coffee automatic drip coffeemaker “in 1970 while recuperating from an operation on a benign brain tumor.” He explained his motivation for creating a better cup of coffee to Forbes in 1979: “I didn’t like the taste of coffee at home or even at other homes.”
Unlike a traditional percolator (sans fish), the key to Mr. Coffee was the water. It percolated through the coffee grounds at 200-degrees Fahrenheit. Marotta hired two former Westinghouse engineers, Edward Able and Erwin Schulze, to handle the technological aspects of the product’s development. Able, who held the patent on the original coffee machine he created for Marotta, “signed over his commission rights to NAS, and the company began production of the coffeemaker in 1972.”
Not surprisingly, the coffee machine was an instant success. Sales exponentially grew nearly over night and “seized ten percent of the American coffee-making business” by April 1974. Interestingly, Marotta convinced Joe DiMaggio to become a spokesperson which only helped make Mr. Coffee the number one machine in the world. ABCNews.com shared a fascinating article about Marotta’s quest to get the former Yankee baseball player to serve as a pitchman (they agreed over a handshake!).
In the 1980s, Mr. Coffee endured a leveraged buyout and two significant changes in ownership before being acquired by Health O Meter Products, Inc. (eventually known as Signature Brands USA) in 1994. In 1998 Sunbeam Corporation (eventually known as American Household, Inc.) purchased Signature Brands. In January 2005, Jarden acquired American Household, Inc.
Glazner died on March 12, 2012 at the age of 89, while Marotta passed on August 1, 2015 at 91.
MR. COFFEE, SR. BREWING SYSTEM
Here is another look at the Mr. Coffee, Sr. packaging. It’s model SR101.
This is the back of the packaging. Notice the deep-brew basket as it will be seen in Episode 2004.
The identifying marks on this coffee maker include:
- The left side (side with power button) has a brown stripe
- The right side has two feet at the bottom
- The water reservoir on top doesn’t have a lid
- The decanter (Model D-7) has small, white flowers and an open, rounded, black handle
APPEARANCES OF SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT COFFEE MAKER IN TWIN PEAKS
Believe it or not, the machine only appears in two episodes. The first is the aforementioned Episode 2004. When Cooper is speaking with Lucy, we can see the coffee filter basket on the counter.
A closer shot is seen later in the same episode. When lighting flashes, the machine is illuminated on the countertop.
The final appearance is in episode 2.008 when Lucy is seen holding Gwen’s baby. That brown strip on the machine is barely visible in the background.
If you happen to buy one of these, just make sure that when you finish the last cup of coffee, kindly make another pot!
This is great. But if someone is going to recreate this setup, I should think they’d do everything possible to ensure it makes great coffee. This is the Pacific Northwest, so you know freshly roasted beans are available in that area. I’m guessing (hoping, really) that they never show Lucy scooping coffee grinds. If that’s correct, I’m free to assume that there’s a coffee grinder somewhere out of shot. In fairness, given the cheapness of the brewer, I’d have to assume the grinder is fairly basic. Maybe a traditional crank grinder that is in a nearby shed or a garage? That’d be a very Lynchian thing to do.