Cheerios + Circus Peanuts = Lucky Charms? (Fun Facts about Food Friday)
Yep, that’s right.
Lucky Charms are actually the result of a challenge given to product developers back in 1962 to come up with a creative twist on one of their main cereals (either Cheerios or Wheaties). John Holahan came up with the idea of mixing circus peanuts with Cheerios. General Mills’ advertising company suggested marketing it around the idea of charm bracelets and voila, Lucky Charms were born!
Another fun fact is that the “cheerio” portion was not originally sugar coated, but it didn’t sell very well, so they tossed in more sugar and people suddenly loved it. It stayed the exact same way until 2005 when they released chocolate flavored ones and then later on, marshmallow treats.
Margarine used to be pink! (Facts about Food Friday)
Here’s a fun “did you know?” and no, I’m not talking about the pink Parkay in the picture above!
Back in the 1870s and 1880s, in an attempt to restrict the sale of margarine even more than their taxes and labeling laws, they forced manufactures to add pink coloring to margarine. The idea was that the pink would make it unpalatable and less desirable, and therefore, discourage people from buying margarine instead of butter.
The color bans started in big dairy states like New York and New Jersey (no surprise, right?) and even created an entire underground market for bootleg colored margarine (yes, that was a real thing) and food coloring capsules so that consumers could need in the yellow color into their margarine to make it look more like butter again.
Between the color rules and the taxes, it cut margarine sales down immensely (to about 40% of their previous sales). Eventually the Supreme Court jumped in and overturned the laws, but as many as 80% of Americans didn’t have access to yellow margarine (oh noes!).
Fast forward a little more than a century and Parkay actually intentionally released the colored Fun Squeeze versions of margarine above in hopes of making it MORE desirable and fun, so that people would be more likely to buy it. Everything cycles back around eventually, huh?
~Edit~ Oh, and I don’t think Fun Squeeze is still sold in stores, but you can get it on Ebay! http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARKAY-FUN-SQUEEZE-SHOCKING-PINK-MARGARINE-BOTTLE-/190155035809
Does American chicken taste like Australian chicken? (Wordless Wednesday)
Filed under: Things I didn’t need to know….but now do.
Recent Comments