Cereal - Breakfast of champions!
How many Americans do you think start off their day with some kind of cereal? Probably quite a few! But do you also know that as little as 150 years ago, cereal was not around? It’s true. People ate meat and eggs in their meals solely 150 years ago for breakfast. But thanks to two very opportunistic men, W. K. Kellogg and C. W. Post, who saw a need for something quick and simple to be fed to hospital patients, the cereal was born.
Kellogg invented corn flakes and Post invented Grape nuts. Both were invented around the early 1900’s. They are both still enjoyed today! The original kinds were flat flakes, until different processes allowed puffed cereal to be invented. The first of that kind was Kix. The top three brands today are Kelloggs, Post and General Mills.
By the 1950’s another market was found and expanded upon: children! By adding sugar to the cereal, kids became hooked. They also thought of many of gimmicks, such as toys or prizes inside the box, and games and trivia on the outside. The decoration of the boxes also became very important. Cartoon characters were also invented such as Tony the Tiger and Trix Rabbit. Some of the oldest characters are the Rice Krispies Snap, Crackle and Pop. This also played well with television advertising! It suddenly became fun to eat in the morning! And how many of us remember fighting with siblings trying to get to the end of the cereal box to get to the toy (or dumping out the entire box to get the toy first!)? Breakfast in the morning has become fun for children! The choices are endless. Today, the grocery has an entire isle devoted to cereal. They have ones that crunch, ones that dunk, ones that taste like other food, and of course, sprinkled in there, are the healthy ones! Every child has a favorite!
If you are interested in searching out a particular site, search the Internet for all the different brands and names. Each site will have a copyright at the bottom to protect the privacy of each cereal. This is a very competitive market! They all have a policy page and of course, they will not have their recipes on these sites. If you need to contact them about ingredients, they will have phone numbers on the boxes as well as the websites.
Today, there is a cereal for all members of the family. Sit down and begin your day together with the bowl for breakfast!