RSS Feeds: What is Postum?
A better question would probably be "What was Postum?", since Postum is no longer being manufactured. The name of the product should give you an idea of the name of the person who was behind the development of the product.
I have some Postum-related articles on another blog and I believe it's more appropriate to move them here because Postum was a popular coffee alternative. This is just one of the articles I wrote — the only changes are the reformatting. I moved another article from a different blog (it was the only one on the subject) and it has already been here on this blog for some time.
Postum History
Postum started as a caramel cereal coffee that was being brewed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan while Charles William Post was a charity patient there. Post found the recipe when he was snooping in the kitchen and obtained it from Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of the corn flakes breakfast cereal. Kellogg gave the recipe to Post willingly, having no way of knowing it would be the start of a major corporation.
C. W. Post founded the Postum Cereal Company in 1895, which was headquartered right there in Battle Creek, Michigan, with Postum as his first product. It was a powdered, roasted grain beverage made from wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and maltodextrin from corn. Post and Dr. Kellogg both believed that caffeine was unhealthy and Postum was marketed as a healthy alternative to coffee.
Postum became very popular with the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Mormons, or the Church of Latter Day Saints. The people of both religious groups didn't drink hot, caffeinated beverages and didn't suffer from the jittery side effects that coffee gave some people. According to the director of the estate of an Adventist co-founder, Post himself was not an Adventist.
Postum Cereal Company changed its name to General Foods Corporation in 1929 after acquiring other food brands and merged with Kraft Foods in 1989. Kraft Foods spokeswoman Laurie Guzzinati told Taashi Rowe of the Adventist News Network that the company stopped making Postum in the fall of 2007 because the demand for it was so low that manufacturing it no longer made sense.
Postum Future
There are people attempting to revive Postum in one way or another. I'll be adding some of that information to the other posts I'm moving over here.
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A lot of us here in Saratoga Springs still drink it as there is a small organic food shop that stocks it as well as a number of fine teas.
Ah, Postum. My father use to tell me my grandparents and others in our family survived on the stuff during World War II when coffee was rationed. I think my Grandmother had some containers of it in her cupboard.
Sounds interesting, I will have to check out Postum.
My mother gave me Postum when I was little and wanted to drink coffee with the "grown-ups," and she wouldn't allow it as coffee would "stunt my growth." I have always liked the taste of it, especially with a little cream and sugar. What a treat! I started drinking it regularly again when I developed reflux. I can't believe Kraft took it off the market (without any warning, too). I have tried other coffee substitutes like Teecino and other barley and chicory drinks, but have been unable to acquire a taste for them. I hope there is enough of an uproar from us Postum fans that Kraft brings it back.
Anthony Clark @Tourist Guide´s last blog: Mauritius