The Mystery of Pop Tarts
Why are Pop Tarts not in a resealable bag?
Anyone who has ever had a Pop Tart knows that there is a serving size of two pastries in a single foil wrapper. My question is why? The two pastries in one package I can answer later in the article, but it drives me crazy why they are not in a resealable pouch? What if you just want one pastry and want to save the other one for another day? Sealing it up with tape creating your own flap leads to a problem with keeping the other one fresh. Ever bite into a Pop tart after the foil wasn’t taped well enough? Hard, crunchy, stale pastry and crispy sugar if it is the one with frosting. Yuck!
POP (T*)ART
Pop-Tarts debuted in 1964 , beating rival Post’s “Country Squares” to the market and were named after the pop art movement and Andy Warhol. Let’s go back to 1963. Kellogg was experiencing overwhelming success in the cereal market: Fruit Loops were gracing shelves as a bright, colorful addition to breakfast, along with Mini-Wheats and Apple Jacks. The added benefit of cereal is that it can stay on store shelves without spoiling for several months.
Post, Kellogg’s main competitor, hadn’t struck the same cereal-gold (we know them nowadays for Fruity Pebbles). But, they had something that would make them breakfast king over Kellogg: they found a way to keep fruit filling fresh without being refrigerated. Post was about to revolutionize the way families had breakfast as Moms could send their kids off to school with handheld pastries full of fruit filling. But Post spoke too soon. They announced their food invention before their product hit the shelves. What at first had been a sure-fire win for Post now turned into a business opportunity for its competitors. Thus, the Kellogg Pop-Tart was born. Two in a package was for economic reasons (cheaper).
The original Pop-Tart flavors were not frosted and your basic flavors: strawberry, blueberry, apple-currant (a flavor that would later be changed to apple-berry, as no one could really describe what a currant was) and brown sugar cinnamon. It would take another three years for Kellogg to create a frosted Pop-Tart that wouldn’t pose a fire hazard when a kid tried to warm it up.
ADULTS ONLY!
Pop-Tarts have certainly gone through there share or flavors (both odd and really good) but a few sophisticated type ideas for flavors came to mind that they might want to consider for the adult community: Espresso flavored filling with a froth flavored frosting and a Cappuccino flavored filling with a biscotti flavored pastry and a whip cream flavored frosting. How about “Black forest Cake” pop-tart with a cherry and chocolate filling with a vanilla frosting and chocolate pastry? Anyone order the New York Cheesecake? A cheesecake filling with a graham cracker pastry with a dark chocolate frosting. You could also go the other way and make a sugar-free line of all the flavors for that person watching their calories. Even low or no-carb Pop-Tarts would be popular maybe even join with Atkins for their input and support? Anyway you make pop-tarts they are the pastry that is truly for any age and instantly bring you back to being a kid biting into your first pastry! Mmmmmm. If Kellogs is reading, take note of my suggestions, I will be watching and eating!
