Birth of Cyrus Melikian (November 24, 1920)

Cyrus Melikian was an Armenian American coffee industry pioneer credited with several inventions, like the coffee vending machine and the first fresh-brew machine in the U.S. that gave great impulse to coffee consumption among the American public. He was also instrumental in the invention of coffee pods.  

Khoren Cyrus Sirak Melikian was born on November 24, 1920, in Philadelphia to refugees from the Armenian Genocide. He graduated from Northeast High School and was working while attending the University of Pennsylvania when he was drafted.  

While serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1944, Melikian wanted a cup of coffee in Ohio, but it was not available between meals in the cafeteria. He and a friend, Capt. Lloyd K. Rudd (1922-1997), reluctantly got cold sodas from a vending machine. “I looked into it,” Melikian said in an interview many years later, “and discovered that a vending machine serving hot beverages simply did not exist at that time.” 

At the end of World War II, Rudd and Melikian, who had studied engineering and business at the University of Pennsylvania, raised $25,000 from investors and added $30,000 of their own to start Rudd-Melikian, Inc. After nine months of work, they gave birth to the nation’s first hot coffee vending machine in Melikian’s basement. 

In November 1946, the machine was put to the test during a Philadelphia Eagles’ game. In 1947, Rudd and Melikian grossed $1 million in sales and were manufacturing 40 coffee vending machines a week at a factory in North Philadelphia. In the late 1950s, the company went public; by 1965 they had 300 employees, and sales had percolated up to $7 million. Two years later, they sold their company for an undisclosed amount, and Rudd retired to California. The company, whose name was changed to RMI (Refreshment Machinery, Inc.), became the world’s largest maker of coffee vending machines. 

In 1969, Melikian and his sons started Automatic Brewers & Coffee Devices, Inc. (ABCD) first in Horsham, Penn., and then in Conshohocken, Penn., from 1979 onwards. In 1965, Melikian and another engineer, Harry Klaus, perfected a machine that makes espresso coffee “pods” — hermetically sealed, nitrogen-flushed foil pouches filled with enough ground espresso beans for one or two cups. For many years, the company has produced millions of pods a year and sold them — along with grinders — to upscale hotels and restaurants all over the world. 

Cyrus Melikian passed away on November 27, 2008, at the age of eighty-eight. His sons and grandsons have continued his business after learning from Melikian himself.