Business: Coffee Breaks

Coffee with cream and sugar—and chicory, wheat, molasses, bran and caramel?

With the cost of brown gold hovering above $4 per Ib. and sales beginning to fall off, producers are hustling a variety of substitutes, additives and extenders to take the sting out of coffee prices. General Foods, the biggest U.S. coffee roaster (Maxwell House, Yuban, Sanka) is test marketing a new brand, called Mellow Roast, that is a combination of coffee and other ingredients —46% wheat, bran and molasses in the instant. Mellow Roast ads not only stress low price (about $2.90 for...