From the Cereal Aisle: Sweet Wheats!

Product: Sweet Wheats! Cereal
Company: Nabisco
Years: 1971-197?

Image By Jason B. on Flickr

Come on, Nabisco....quit yelling. There is absolutely no need to use an exclamation point in the name of your early 70's cereal called "Sweet Wheats!". I mean, you even went as far as to not use all caps, instead choosing the subtle approach of using all lower case letters. But then, boom, you drop in that exclamation point all willy-nilly, and damn it Nabisco, it's unnecessary.

But then again, so was your cereal, Nabisco, as it only lasted 2 or 3 years tops.

I know what your all thinking: Kellogg's Mini Wheats.
Yep, I was thinking the same thing too. Mini Wheats were introduced in 1971, same time as Sweet Wheats!!!!!, but the original Kellogg's offering was actually the larger size. The bite size version wasn't around until 1980. So I won't go as far as to say Nabisco copied Kellogg's, or vice versa. They both had an idea for a lightly sweetened wheat cereal. Kellogg's won.
Probably because they DIDN'T YELL AT THEIR CUSTOMERS, NABISCO SWEET WHEATS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nabisco did have a cool box design, with a quartet which included 3 children and a blue kangaroo, which from what I understand of the early 70's (mostly from watching Krofft), was completely normal. Willy, Milly, Big Boo and Blue Kangaroo. They would sit around all day, eating cereal, playing jams, playing with the Kanga-zoom that came free inside, and contemplating future career paths once the cereal was discontinued. 3 of them went on to form 80's pop group "Kajagoogoo",  and one ended up in the San Diego Zoo, which if you ask me is a horrible place to keep a little girl locked up.

What the hell was I talking about again?

Oh yeah, SWEET WHEATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cool box, not as cool of a cereal. Just another blip in the breakfast cereal history books.

From the Snack Aisle - Kellogg's Pokes

Product: Pokes Snack
Company: Kellogg's
Years: 1967 - ????


"How'd you like a poke in the mouth?" I thought to myself upon seeing these packages for the first time, thinking I was being clever and a bit dirty.
But then I did a little bit of research, and I found that Kellogg's did indeed use that tagline.
"A Poke in the mouth makes a hit in the tummy", to be exact. Great (dirty) minds think alike, I guess.

 
Image/Boxes by Grickily

So this is what I know about Pokes:
1. They came in 4 flavors. Corn, Cheese and Bar-B-Q were the original 3 flavors, and Potato Pokes were added sometime shortly after.

2. These were "Tasty little Snack Baskets", which look like they just took some Chex and opened up one end....a clever snack shape I don't think I've seen before (Bugle's are pretty similar in execution)

3. The boxes are AMAZING. I mean...LOOK at them. The Potato Pokes have an Irish Potato creature on the front! The Corn Pokes have a crazy looking Indian corn creature on it! The Cheese Pokes have a smiling hunk of (alpine?) Cheese on it! The Bar-B-Q Pokes have a ........cowboy looking......what is that.....a hunk of coal? Ok, that one I'm not sure about. But the boxes reek of the late 60's, and I would love to have a set for my collection.

4. The Reason I don't have them in my collection is because they are Rare, and Expensive if you do find them. A Corn Pokes box sold on Hakes Auctions last year for $600. My wife would kick me out of the house if I spend $600 on ANY box (unless there was a diamond ring inside of it, for her).

5. I'm not sure if these were sold in the US and in Canada or only in Canada. The only advertising I could find for them was in the Montreal Gazette, and it says on the Coupon "Kellogg's Company of Canada, 1968". I know there are Kellogg's cereals that you can only get in Canada, so maybe this was along the same lines? I never had there while they were in stores, so maybe someone can confirm for me.

I couldn't find a lot of info on these, like many of the slightly less popular brands of the 60's-70's. But an important addition to the shelves of Gone But Not Forgotten Groceries none the less.

Leave a comment if you remember these awesome yet slightly creepy looking snacks! 

From the Cereal Aisle: Raisins, Rice & Rye

Product: Raisins, Rice & Rye Cereal
Company: Kelloggs
Years: 1980-?

Image by Bolio88 on Flickr

Since starting this blog, I am finding out that there are literally thousands of products that I have never even heard of before, many of them even having been available in my lifetime.

The latest product in the "how did I miss this?" category I stumbled upon by accident while sorting through my collection of vintage VHS tapes of old TV shows with original commercials. During an airing of "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" from February 1981, I found a commercial for a cereal called "Raisins Rice & Rye". I made a bewildered face to myself, then hopped onto the computer to find, well, not much.

But I did find the commercial on Youtube:

The only other info I could find was from the great folks over at Mr. Breakfast.

This is taken from a magazine ad for the cereal:

People of Raisin Persuasion! Introducing Kellogg's Raisin Rice & Rye

People of raisin persuasion, we've got a whole new raisin cereal for you. Kellogg's Raisin Rice & Rye cereal.
First, we blended the delicious taste of crunchy rice together with the satisfying taste of hearty rye into one incredibly flavorful flake.
Then we added raisins! Raisins, raisins, raisins.
People of raisin persuasion, awake and reach for your spoons.
Make Kellogg's Raisin Rice & Rye a part of your nutritious breakfast.
What a combination!
For people of raisin persuasion.


And that, my friends, sounds racist to me.

So is that why it is simply a footnote in the long history of Kelloggs cereal? Or is it that you throw up in your mouth a little bit when I say "delicious Rye cereal"?

Or maybe it's both.

Either way, it wasn't around very long, so I will proudly add this to the cereal aisle here at Gone But Not Forgotten Groceries.

From the Snack Aisle: 4 Minute Fudge

4 Minute Fudge
Company: Salada/Kellogg's
Years: 1974-Early 80's


What do we want? FUDGE! When do we want it? NOW!!!!

Seriously, was there actually a time when people were saying "Man, I could go for some fudge right now, but I don't even have 5 minutes to wait for it....I wish someone would come out with a product that could satisfy my fudge urges."

Now, I'm not sure if Salada is the original company and was later bought out by Kelloggs or what (as you can see below by the coupon), but as far as I can tell, it's a miracle this product lasted in stores for more then 4 minutes.


Here are some product reviews from the Lakeland Ledger, November 12, 1975 :

"I sure didn't have fudge in 4 minutes, I had a soupy mess" - Karel Hammer

"The texture is not smooth .... it takes 15 to 20 minutes to make this fudge, despite what the label says. My Grandchildren did not like the candy, they said it was too grainy." -Doratea Addison

So if this stuff was so bad, why was it still being sold until at least 1980? Did they reformulate the recipe? Or are people just suckers for fast fudge, even if its not fabulous fast fudge.

This product is gone, and this one might be forgotten too. Correct me if I'm wrong.

From the Cereal Aisle: OJ's

OJ's Cereal
Company: Kellogg's
Year: 1985-87


image by dustincropsboy

You don't see a lot of orange flavored cereals, and there is a very good reason. People enjoy drinking a glass of OJ with their morning cereal, not pouring it directly over the cereal. Orange flavored milk? Ugh.

OJ's was a fun new cereal when it came out in 1985. It claimed that "every bowl had the Vitamin C of a 4 oz glass of Orange Juice. Plus a delicious Orange taste your kids will love!"

Well, they didn't. It lasted for just under 2 years and was gone.

The cereal did have one thing going for it, a cool mascot called OJ Joe, a cattleman who rode around on an orange and corralled and roped other oranges that he then took to the Orange Processing Factory where they were brutally squeezed to death to make the very cereal that he was on the front of. The humanity.

If you remember OJ's and were a fan, you can sign an online petition that's out there trying to get Kelloggs to bring it back: http://www.petitiononline.com/bjchsdcb/petition.html

And if you have any memories, be sure to comment below.