The Great American Cereal Book

Page 1


16

Pl a n t i ng t h e s e e ds a n d f i l l i ng t h e b ow l s

Granola

Brought to you by: Sanitarium Food Company First poured: 1880s Milked until: Unknown What was in it for you: Biscuits made of baked wheat flour, cornmeal,

and oatmeal Crunch on this: This was Dr. John Kellogg’s first official cereal

concoction.

Granose Flakes

Brought to you by: Kellogg’s First poured: 1896 Milked until: 1900 What was in it for you: Flaked wheat Crunch on this: Granose was the first flaked cereal.

Granula

Brought to you by: Our Home Granula Company First poured: 1863 Milked until: Unknown What was in it for you: Ground biscuits from graham flour Crunch on this: Dr. James Caleb Jackson invented Granula and is

credited with producing the first ready-toeat cold breakfast cereal. It was tasteless and as hard as a rock, and had to be soaked overnight in milk just to be edible the next morning.

Grape-Nuts

Brought to you by: Post First poured: 1897 Milked until: Still crunching What’s in it for you: Small nuggets of

whole-grain wheat and malted barley Varieties: Raisin Grape-Nuts, Organic


18 6 3 –18 3 9

17

Grape-Nuts All in the family: Grape-Nuts Flakes (year unknown), Grape-Nuts O’s

(year unknown), Grape-Nuts Trail Mix Crunch (year unknown) Notable spokescharacters: Comic strip star Jerry on the Job (1938), a boxing glove (1955) Slogans: “Brains are built by Grape-Nuts.” “Try that million-dollar flavor!” “Every little Grape-Nut packs a wallop all its own!” “Makes red blood.” Crunch on this: This was Post’s first stab at the cold-cereal market. According to Post, Grape-Nuts got its name because its inventor, C. W. Post, claimed that grape sugar was formed during the baking process and that the cereal had a nutty flavor. Post included a little booklet, “The Road to Wellville,” in each Grape-Nuts package in 1904. Naturalist Euell Gibbons promoted Grape-Nuts in the 1970s. In one commercial, he sat on a log in the woods, poured milk on a bowl of Grape-Nuts, and exclaimed, “Its naturally sweet taste reminds me of wild hickory nuts. I call GrapeNuts my back-to-nature cereal.”



18 6 3 –18 3 9

Opposite: Grape-Nuts cereal advertising from 19xx

19


Breakfast of Champions Some kids dream about playing at Yankee Stadium or scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Others have even loftier athletic ambitions—they yearn to be seen on a Wheaties box. The following are the best of the best who appeared on boxes of Wheaties while they were at the peak of their game. 1934: Lou Gehrig, Baseball

1956: Duke Snider, Baseball

1934: Jimmie Foxx, Baseball

1959: Esther Williams, Swimming

1935: Dizzy Dean, Baseball

1964: Bart Starr, Football

1935: Babe Didrikson Zaharias,

1977: Bruce Jenner, Track and Field

All-around*

1937: Bronko Nagurski, Football 1937: Mel Ott, Baseball 1938: Bob Feller, Baseball 1938: Lefty Grove, Baseball 1939: Johnny Mize, Baseball 1947: Hank Greenberg, Baseball 1951: Otto Graham, Football 1952: Roy Campanella, Baseball** 1956: Bob Cousy, Basketball

1984: Mary Lou Retton, Gymnastics 1986: Walter Payton, Football 1987: Chris Evert, Tennis


1988: Michael Jordan, Basketball

2003: Kevin Garnett, Basketball

1989: Johnny Bench, Baseball

2004: Pedro Martinez, Baseball

1992: Barry Sanders, Football

2004: Peyton Manning, Football

1993: John Elway, Football

2005: Shaquille O’Neal, Basketball

1995: Dan Marino, Football

2006: Chris Carpenter, Baseball

1995: Cal Ripken, Jr., Baseball

2007: Tim Duncan, Basketball

1996: Dale Earnhardt, Auto Racing

2008: Kevin Garnett, Basketball

1998: Brett Favre, Football

2008: Bryan Clay, Decathlon

1998: Richard Petty, Auto Racing

2010: Lindsey Vonn, Skiing

1998: Tiger Woods, Golf 1999: Mia Hamm, Soccer

*First female athlete on box-front

1999: Lance Armstrong, Cycling

**First African American athlete on box-front

2000: Pete Sampras, Tennis 2002: Emmitt Smith, Football 2003: Wayne Gretzky, Hockey


Marshmallow, Marshmallow, Marshmallow! With the advent of the presweetened cereal came the appearance of marshmallows in breakfast cereal. These sugary bits were known as “marbits” colorful, shaped, dehydrated marshmallow bits— and they have been a common ingredient in cereals for over forty years. General Mills enjoyed the first successful foray into mixing marbits into cereal with Lucky Charms. John Holahan, a General Mills vice president in 1963, invented the marbits that made Lucky Charms so successful. The idea came to Holahan when he cut up a few orange marshmallow “circus peanuts,” stirred them into a bowl of Cheerios, and enjoyed the result. Marbits are made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. The ingredients are melted together and whipped until foamy, and then the coloring is added. The mixture is extruded into shapes, like Play-Doh or pasta. It is then cut into individual pieces and dried. The folks at General Mills continued to work on the process until they were able to perfect a marshmallow that wouldn’t release moisture into the cereal, and cause it to clump together. They also developed a process to combine colors and make intricately shaped marbits. Lucky Charms was the first cereal to use marbits, and continues to be one of the best-selling cereals at General Mills. More than thirty brands featuring marshmallows have dotted the cereal landscape since Lucky the Leprechaun first began touting his favorite in 1963. Many of the brands that featured marshmallows were established


cereals that simply added marshmallows to the mix. Out of all of the marshmallow cereals created, the first eleven were produced by General Mills. No other manufacturer jumped on the bandwagon until Ralston came out with Ghostbusters cereal twentythree years after Lucky Charms became the first marshmallow cereal. Furthermore, no other company used marshmallows in its cereals until Post added them to Alpha-Bits in 1990. Kellogg’s didn’t create a new cereal with marshmallows until Cinnamon Marshmallow Scooby-Doo in 2002, though it had already added them to existing cereals.


154

pr e s w e e t e n e d b a by b o om e r s

Quisp

Brought to you by: The Quaker Oats Company First poured: 1965 Milked until: Still crunching What’s in it for you: Sweetened puffed corn shaped like mini flying

saucers All in the family: Quake (1965), Quangaroos (1971) Notable spokescharacter : Quisp the alien Slogan: “Vitamin-powered sugary cereal, quisp for quazy energy.” Crunch on this: Quisp was the brainchild of the Jay Ward Animation

Studio, which also brought us Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, and other enduring cartoon characters.

Rally

Brought to you by: Kellogg’s First poured: 1970 Milked until: 1971 What was in it for you: Sweetened wheat squares Crunch on this: Kellogg’s sold this cereal with the line, “Try the new

taste in nutrition.”

Riceroos

Brought to you by: Kellogg’s First poured: 1968 Milked until: 1968 What was in it for you: Shredded rice All in the family: Corneroos (1968) Crunch on this: Kellogg’s hoped to compete with Quaker’s Rice Chex

and Corn Chex with this similar line.


194 9 –1970

155


336

m a k e a t oy, m a k e a mov i e, m a k e a c e r e a l

Sun Crunchers

Brought to you by: General

Mills First poured: 1994 Milked until: 1996 What was in it for you:

Unknown Crunch on this: General Mills gave fifty thousand boxes of this cereal to a group of students from Iowa State University to promote the solarpowered car they built.

Sun Flakes

Brought to you by: Ralston First poured: 1985 Milked until: Unknown What was in it for you: Cornflakes sweetened with NutraSweet Varieties: Sun Flakes Wheat and Rice (year unknown), Sun Flakes Corn

and Rice (year unknown) Crunch on this: Sun Flakes had a run in the generic cereal aisle, but has since been discontinued.

Sunrise

Brought to you by: General Mills First poured: 1999 Milked until: 2001 What was in it for you: Honey-sweetened corn and wheat hexagons Crunch on this: Sunrise was the first certified organic cereal from a

major manufacturer.


1981–2010

337


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.