The Decline of Cold Cereal in the age of the Millennials

[IowaDee]

Why yes, yes I do.  I will claim it an Iowa's northern most outpost.  Every  New Year's Day,I shall sit on my new land and eat a large bowl of frosted flakes while gazing  across the Bering Straits at Putin riding shirtless on his steed.    

[MetsFan5]

I think most working people, including Millennials, want something savory for breakfast, if they are going to take the time to actually have it. In NJ it's the classic Taylor ham, egg and cheese.  It's quick, portable and delicious. Milk isn't something most people who work in excess of 15+ hours a day can keep on hand without getting spoiled. 

 

Heres one perspective. I don't particularly agree with it, but here it is:  https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/why-millennials-dont-eat-cereal/food-and-drink

[liuzhou]

On 29/02/2016 at 8:38 PM, IowaDee said:

I think the best book on the subject of food faddists is The Nuts Among the Berries.  It was published in, I think, 1977 but worth searching out if the topic interests you.  I also seem to recall that the author did an updated version but have not read it as yet.

 

The author of The Road To Wellville, T. Coraghessan Boyle, cites The Nuts Among the Berries as a major source along with Cornflake Crusade by Gerald Carson.

 

Wellville  an interesting, amusing fictionalised version of the Kellog story. I've only read the novel and never saw the movie. Nor have read his factual sources. I will try track them down.

 

There is a controversial breakfast cereal café which opened in London in 2014. Their menu is here. I have no idea who their clientele are. It certainly isn't me.

 

 

[Jaymes]

19 hours ago, rotuts said:

@IowaDee  

 

do you think you would be able to see Russia from your Square Foot ?

 

Actually, that's quite possible.  There most definitely are some remote locations in Alaska from which one indeed can see Russia.

 

And I'm pretty sure your square foot isn't in the middle of downtown Anchorage.

 

Perhaps you should investigate.  Perhaps your square foot is laden with wild blueberries upon which you can munch as you gaze across the water at Russia.

[rotuts]

Id be hoping that a portion of the S.F. was on a river bank that was Yet Un-Fished so you could

 

just scoop up Massive Salmon's with a net.  the other bit on the bank would have BB's and other tasty thorny fruit.

 

just saying.

[Print]

Breakfast cereals those days were made from real cereal and whole grain such as Oat,bran.corn,and such and are call "cereal" which contain protein, carbohydrates, calcium, fiber, iron, folic acid, and zinc and less fat, sodium, sugar, and cholesterol and are good for the health and help fight cardiovascular disease. which are good for bowel and metabolic health
Breakfast cereal these days which are targeted for Children - AKA JUNK FOODS are not really and con-not claims as cereal.
-They are fortified with vitamins and minerals are catchy but it doesn't mean it's a healthy choice or relevant as Kids can get vitamins and minerals from other food. Most of these are sugary cereal contain more sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavoring.
eg sugary Cocoa Krispies cereal.made from processed, nutritionally-depleted rice starch and sugar (and more sugar), It just a Puff up rice that are roll it around in liquid sugar,

[Chris Hennes]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

There is a controversial breakfast cereal café which opened in London in 2014. Their menu is here. I have no idea who their clientele are. It certainly isn't me.

In the US we have Cereality, started in 2001, when one of the founders said he was "inspired to create a home for cereal, away from home for the 95% of the American public who claimed to enjoy it."

[rotuts]

""    Cocoa Krispies ""

 

i remember when these came out

 

Im that old

 

I wanted a box  Nope said the Parents  etc etc etc

 

eventually I bought my own box.  I was a local Entrepreneur

 

I didn't just have One Paper Route, I had Two

 

so I got a box

 

got some Ice Cold Milk  ( 4 % , yes 4 %  those were the days )

 

and started with a bowl, then another bowl, etc etc until the box was finished.

 

No seizures that I recall ....

 

but the couple of scoops of milk at the bottom of the bowl were the Best Chocolate Milk i ever had.

 

Ever.

 

maybe it was the 4 % milk.   Foremost Milk.  Special Gurnsey Cows

 

that's what the carton said.

[IowaDee]

I would love to check out my square foot but seeing as how I have never paid a cent of property taxes, I'm not sure if I should  Also I heard a rumor that there may be a warrant out for my arrest as a suspected cereal killer

[Norm Matthews]

I remember that deed to land up North but I thought it was a square inch in the Yukon. In any case, they took it back some years later.

 

PS I found this is from Wikipedia: It appeared in newspapers around the country.

 

 "Get a real deed to one square inch of land in the Yukon gold rush country" and, "You'll actually own one square inch of Yukon land".^[1] The promotion was tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon radio show which Quaker Oats was sponsoring at the time."

 

and this:  

"Due to $37.20 in back taxes, the land was repossessed by the Canadian government in 1965, and the Great Klondike Big Inch Land Company dissolved in 1966. The land is now part of the Dawson City Golf Course.

To this day, Yukon officials receive letters and phone calls about the deeds. The land office of the Yukon currently contains an 18-inch thick file folder of correspondence regarding the promotion."

Edited March 2, 2016 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I have been really disappointed that cereals have changed their formulation. Cheerios is not what it used to be. IIRC, Apple Jacks used to be more like Frosty-Os with dried apple bits -kind of like the old, original Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios. There's more, but, many of these changes have not improved the product.

[rotuts]

a square inch is not enough to catch fish, as far as I can tell

 

but Sgt Preston and his dog Yukon King I have in B&W videos on my computer. from the early '50's

 

don't ask, and I won't tell.  I might have some early green hornet for TV too

 

how do these facts connect to cereal ?

 

Quaker Oats.

Edited March 2, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Quaker Oats (a cooked cereal) was the sponsor of Sgt. Preston at the time.  

[IowaDee]

Only one little stinkin' inch?  And in the Yukon too?  Boy is my memory going.  But I digress, must check for messages on my Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring.  I ate a lot of crappy cereal for one dumb inch.  My parents put one over on me.  Told me it was part of my future vast estate...

[Kerry Beal]

One of my favourite scenes from A Christmas Story! 

[gfweb]

Those cereal boxes spell road trips in the station wagon...single-slice-of-cheese-on-white-bread lunches...sputnik looking down at me...

 

Good times (except for the food).

[Franci]

Shelby, I'm born too in 1974. A lot of this talking to me if really American. Not that I never had rice crispies or corn flakes ever...but for Italians milk was always warm. The idea of having a cold milk in the morning it was just considered odd. But the normal breakfast growing up was the standard european/italian thing: tea and cookies, fette biscottate (tartine, the French would say) with jam, or a cookie or a brioche. In my house never caffe' latte, I've always hated to mix coffee and milk.

Now, to my kids, sometimes they ask for cereals and I avoid them at all cost. I don't see any nutritional value in them. I can be a total snob when it comes to food. My son would have as a preference a sweet breakfast, home made brioche, crepes, bread and jam. My daughter usually she would ask for the same thing I'm making for her for lunch. So, not so uncommon a soup or a snitzel :-) If it's a matter of time, I don't see why the decline, nothing faster than that. If it's because people think it's just sugary stuff with no nutritional benefits, so, well, I understand the decline. I prefer my kids to have porridge.

[andiesenji]

6 hours ago, rotuts said:

""    Cocoa Krispies ""

 

i remember when these came out

 

Im that old

 

I wanted a box  Nope said the Parents  etc etc etc

 

eventually I bought my own box.  I was a local Entrepreneur

 

I didn't just have One Paper Route, I had Two

 

so I got a box

 

got some Ice Cold Milk  ( 4 % , yes 4 %  those were the days )

 

and started with a bowl, then another bowl, etc etc until the box was finished.

 

No seizures that I recall ....

 

but the couple of scoops of milk at the bottom of the bowl were the Best Chocolate Milk i ever had.

 

Ever.

 

maybe it was the 4 % milk.   Foremost Milk.  Special Gurnsey Cows

 

that's what the carton said.

Lordy!  My stepdaughter used to put CocoPuffs in the blender with a cup of my half & half and make a "milkshake" - (this was in the late '60s, early '70s prior to the "smoothie" advent).  She would then retreat to her room to get ready for school and never brought the glass back. So once a week I would make her retrieve all the yucky glasses from her room and wash them by hand.

I cleaned the VitaMix myself.  My stepson, into body building, would sneer at the CocoPuffs - he made his protein drinks in the blender with odd ingredients that smelled awful and looked worse.  He treated cereals like poison.  My husband who got up much earlier always wanted a hot breakfast and wouldn't eat cold cereal in any form.  He couldn't stand milk - he was probably lactose intolerant but that was before the syndrome was well known.

[rotuts]

the Puffs were never even remotely as 'good' as the Krispies  for the final slurp of Choc.Milk

 

its that final slurp that matters here.

[blue_dolphin]

I usually only buy cold cereal when I have house guests but thread is making me want to buy a box of Grape Nuts and some milk.  

[Kim Shook]

Jeanne – loved your mention of Quisp.  Especially since this was my dessert the other day:

 

 

Proof that, at age 56, I am still not as grown up as a Millennial!

 

 

 

This thread reminds me of one of my favorite quotations by Michael Ruhlman:

 

“Many argue that breakfast is their favorite meal and of course it's "the most important meal of the day" (who came up with this slogan?—I do fine on coffee and Crest)…”

 

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Kim Shook (log)

[rotuts]

WoW

 

KS

 

send us a pic of the box !

 

As far as I can see

 

that's life time ++++  of FluFF and Sugar!

 

good for you !

 

 

might as well enjoy it now  

 

so you have 4 % milk ?

 

consider some 1/2 and 1/2 

 

juts a little.

 

gobbler   gobble.

[Katie Meadow]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_breakfast_cereals

 

This is a pretty comprehensive list of cereals. The article notes which cereals changed names but don't note the date of that change, which is too bad. For instance Corn Pops are listed as 1951 and it is noted they were originally called Sugar Pops. They don't say when the name was changed. I must have eaten a lot of Sugar Pops and Rice Krispies. My parents ate a lot of toasted English muffins and never made a hot breakfast except on weekends.

 

One of the most interesting aspects of cereal consumption was that the boxes provided reading material and business opportunities, so reading and math skills became an integral part of breakfast. Sending box-tops in for a toy became a way of negotiating and parents were not any part of it. Wasn't that the first time you ever put a stamp on an envelope and wrote an address on it without being prompted or cajoled? My husband goes a step further. He claims he learned his first lesson in cheating: that if you sent the box-bottom in for another toy it always worked.

 

Too bad my brain has deteriorated. I remember the cereals I ate, but not the ones my daughter, 28, had when she was little. I do know that whatever she was eating my husband was eating as well. He remembers mini-wheats (sometimes frosted) and cheerios (regular) as part of their regular breakfast in the 90's. If my husband (the shopper) brought home Shredded Wheat or Chex I would eat that once in a while, but I was already married to toast.

 

I think it's funny how much nostalgia there is over cold cereal for boomers and gen x-ers. My only real nostalgic moment over cereal now comes if I open a fresh box of cheerios. That heady smell doesn't last long; by evening the thrill is gone. But I haven't done that for years.

[demiglace]

These are the cereal boxes with the 45's on them. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=1960s%20Cereal%20Boxes%20with%20records%20on%20them&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=1960s%20cereal%20boxes%20with%20records%20on%20them&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=

I uses to eat Muffets for breakfast, I swear they absorbed at least a quart of milk each !

[Kim Shook]

Here you go, rotuts:

I neglected to mention that it is topped with generic 'marshmellows' that I got at a bulk store, has two packets of Equal and a mere dribble of milk (I don't care for milk much and hate soggy cereal).