World's Finest Coffee

No free refill

When I worked at a (scratch that) the Dunkin' Donuts in Norwich, Connecticut, in the late 1970s, the sign outside read "World's Finest Coffee." A bold claim, to be sure. But given the rather weak competition in those days, at least in most places, perhaps not entirely farfetched.

This was before Starbucks, before five different flavors of Green Mountain Coffee at every highway rest stop, before people said espresso instead of expresso. If you ordered decaf, it would come out of a little orange packet of Sanka. A cup of coffee was 35 cents. We ground the beans and then brewed the coffee. As long as the volume of customers was high, the coffee was fresh. By way of contrast, we only changed the doughnuts a couple times a shift.

Well, Dunkin' Donuts has reigned in its ambitions a bit. According to the NBC Connecticut, the chain has lost its bid to patent the phrase, "Best Coffee in America." A bitter pill to swallow.