Alamo Cook Book (Hoffmann-Hayman imprint)

· Published for Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas

Bibliographic detail

• Title: Alamo Cook Book
• Author / compiler: Unknown (no compiler credit on the held copy; TBD — verify on inside front matter)
• Year: Unknown (no date printed on the booklet; TBD — verify in-hand)
• Publisher / imprint: Published for Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas
• ISBN: N/A (retail premium booklet, no ISBN)
• Pagination: TBD — verify in-hand
• Cover price: 50¢ (printed in the border of the front cover)
• Format: Stapled, buff-paper retail recipe booklet

Physical description

Stapled, buff-paper softcover booklet. Front cover carries a black silhouette/view of the Alamo, the title Alamo Cook Book, the publisher line Published for Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas, and a printed 50¢ price in the border. Back cover is a full advertisement for the H and H Blend line: H and H Blend at 35¢/lb, with a line drawing of a one-pound tin, the tagline Nothing better at any price, and the roaster line repeated. Interior printing in black on the buff-paper stock. Condition: TBD — verify in-hand.

Provenance

Acquired 24 July 2014 in person at Magic Carpet Books, a used-and-rare San Antonio bookseller. Accessioned as HH-BOOK-2014-0004. The shop encounter was opportunistic — the booklet surfaced in the H&H-related searches Magic Carpet had on hand. Acquisition source category: vendor (per accession record).

Why it matters

This is first-party Hoffmann-Hayman company-branded ephemera, not a reprint — a retail premium booklet the company commissioned (or jobbed via a community / civic group) to circulate the brand alongside Alamo iconography. As such it is:

1. A directly attributable H&H marketing artifact — sits in the company’s paper (vs tin) run alongside the surviving Master Chef and Original Blend tins as a same-period merchandising voice.
2. A primary-source price anchor for the H&H Blend line — the back-cover ad fixes the brand at 35¢/lb with the tagline Nothing better at any price. The implied period (when 35¢/lb was current pricing) is a dating anchor for related advertising and packaging where dates are absent.
3. A cross-promotion record between the Hoffmann-Hayman brand and the Alamo / Bexar County civic identity that runs through other H&H advertising of the era (San Antonio newspaper clippings frequently pair the coffee with regional landmarks).

The booklet pairs in the KB with the H and H Blend brand page, the Hoffmann-Hayman company page, and any newspaper-clip evidence showing the Nothing better at any price tagline in print advertising — see brands/h-and-h-blend-coffee.md.

Notable contents

• Front cover: Alamo view + Hoffmann-Hayman imprint + 50¢ price.
• Back cover: Full H and H Blend advertisement — one-pound tin line drawing, 35¢/lb price, Nothing better at any price tagline, roaster credit.
• Interior: Recipes (specific recipe inventory TBD — verify in-hand). Whether coffee figures into the recipe text or only the wrapper advertising is a TBD that informs whether this is a single-purpose marketing booklet or a genuine community cookbook with sponsor backing.

Related

• brands/h-and-h-blend-coffee.md — the brand advertised on the back cover.
• companies/hoffman-hayman-company.md — the commissioning publisher.
• places/the-alamo.md — the cover iconography.
• library/index.md — full library holdings.

Open questions

• Publication year — unknown without date imprint; the 35¢/lb price anchor may help date by comparison to dated H&H advertising.
• Compiler / contributing authors — TBD; inside front matter likely names a women’s group, civic organization, or in-house attribution.
• Print run / edition — likely single, but unverified. Are other copies known to surface in the SA used-book trade?