Sanka

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Sanka was one of the the world's first brands of decaffeinated coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee was invented by a team of researchers led by Ludwig Roselius in Bremen, Germany, in 1903. It came to the United States in 1909/10, first marketed under the name "Dekafa" or "Dekofa" by an american sales agent. In 1914, Roselius founded a company called Kaffee Hag Corporation in New York, which marketed it's decaffeinated coffee under the name "Kaffee HAG". When the company was confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian during World War I and was sold to an american businessman, Roselius lost not only his firm, but also the US-trademark rights in the name "Kaffee HAG".

To re-establish his product, he had to use a different brand name and chose the name Sanka (from the french words "sans caffeine"="without caffeine").

Sanka was first marketed in the United States in 1923 and soon became easily identifiable by its bright orange label.

An odd fact about Sanka is that the bright orange label that made it easily identifiable to consumers found its way into coffee shops around the country in the form of the decaf coffee pot. Coffee pots with a bright orange handle are a direct result of the American public's association with the color orange with the Sanka brand and therefore all decaffeinated coffee. (However, those that serve rival Folgers coffee usally have green handled pots for decaffeinated.)

Kraft's corporate archivists, however, have no record of a definitive link between Sanka and orange-handled carafes, which could just be a result of lost records over the years.