Cream of Wheat is an American brand of farina, a type of breakfast porridge mix made from wheat middlings. It looks similar to grits, but is smoother in texture since it is made with ground wheat kernels instead of ground maize. It was first manufactured in the United States in 1893 by wheat millers in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and debuted at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
The rice-based Cream of Rice also forms part of the product line, and is often a recommended early food for infants and toddlers and for people who cannot tolerate wheat or gluten.
Cream of Wheat was owned by Nabisco from 1961 to 2000 when Nabisco was bought by Kraft Foods Inc. B&G Foods acquired the Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice brands from Kraft in January 2007.
History
thumb|Packaging and powder in a bowl
After the Panic of 1893, the Diamond Milling Company in Grand Forks was faced with low prices and reduced demand for flour. Diamond's Scottish-born chief miller, Tom Amidon, proposed that the company package a breakfast porridge that his wife would make from the portion of the wheat not used in making flour. This was made from the "middlings" of the wheat, a protein rich part of the wheat berry.
After initially being uninterested, Diamond's owners—Emery Mapes, George Bull, and George Clifford—eventually agreed to test the product. They sent 10 cases, in strawboard boxes handmade by Amidon, to their brokers in New York along with a regular shipment of flour. Another employee suggested the name "Cream of Wheat" which was hand-lettered on the boxes along with a stock illustration of a Black chef holding a saucepan which Mapes, a former printer, had on hand. Just hours after the brokers, Lamont, Corliss & Co., distributed the product to grocers they wired Diamond ordering another 50 cases.
thumb|Completed in 1928, the Cream of Wheat building in the [[Mid-City Industrial, Minneapolis|Mid-City neighborhood of Minneapolis]]
Diamond directed its factory to begin manufacturing only Cream of Wheat. As demand increased, the company moved to a new factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1897, and changed its name to The Cream of Wheat Company. Six years later, the company outgrew its first Minneapolis plant and moved to a new location in the city. This was replaced by a third facility in 1927 where production remained for decades. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1929. In 2007, Cream of Wheat was acquired from Kraft by B&G Foods for approximately .
Cream of Rice
Despite the many similarities between the products, Cream of Rice had an entirely separate origin and history to Cream of Wheat prior to 1983 when they were united under Nabisco.
The Cream of Rice Company, a Delaware corporation based in Chicago, was incorporated by T. C. Fredrich, O. C. Wilson, and Howard D. Stewart in October 1915. Frank O. Balch, the company's secretary and treasurer, filed a trademark application for the "Cream of Rice" logo in December 1915. The trademark was registered in 1917. The company reported strong sales initially and market penetration of over half of retail stores in Chicago by February 1916. However, the company was liquidated by court order in 1921. A new company, the American Rice Products Company, was founded in 1921 in New Orleans by a group of investors from Chicago to take over the assets and "Cream of Rice" brand from the failed business.
The brand was acquired in 1937 by Grocery Store Products Company and initially produced in New Orleans. In 1949, production moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania. An attempt by Kraft to acquire Grocery Store Products in 1970 was called off due to objections by the Federal Trade Commission. In 1971 when Grocery Store Products was acquired by Clorox, Cream of Rice went with it but kept its West Chester plant. In 1983, Clorox sold the poorly performing Cream of Rice to Nabisco which already owned Cream of Wheat. Production of both brands was consolidated to the Cream of Wheat manufacturing facilities in Minneapolis after they were acquired along with Nabisco by Kraft. In the Canadian market, there are two unflavored mixes available (8-minute and 3-minute).
Cream of Wheat is also sold in an instant format which includes the use of single-serving packets. These are prepared by simply mixing their contents with hot water and allowing the result to set in a bowl for approximately two minutes.
It is common to customize the hot cereal with the addition of sugar, fruit, or nuts. As a result, several flavors are sold of the instant variety: Original, Apples 'N' Cinnamon, Maple Brown Sugar, Strawberries 'N' Cream, and Cinnamon Swirl. In October 2012, Cream of Wheat added a new chocolate flavor to their instant line and later introduced a Bananas & Cream flavor.
Package design and controversy
thumb|right|upright| Cream of Wheat box, 1919
The original boxes of Cream of Wheat were hand-made and -lettered and were emblazoned with the image of an African American chef (produced by Emery Mapes, one of Diamond Milling Company's owners). The character was named Rastus and was developed by artist Edward V. Brewer. Rastus was included on all boxes and advertisements. It has long been thought that a chef named Frank L. White was the model for the chef shown on the Cream of Wheat box, a claim White himself made. White's headstone contains his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.
Leading up to 2020, there had been public pressure aimed at various companies to change branding with perceived racist origins, such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's. The character of Rastus had once been depicted as a cook who was barely literate and did not know about vitamins. Rastus is also a derogatory term traditionally associated with African Americans in the United States. Subsequently, on September 25, 2020, the company announced that it was removing the chef's image from all Cream of Wheat packaging.
Marketing
Famous illustrators such as N. C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, and Henry Hutt all created ads for the Cream of Wheat brand.
Gallery
<gallery>
File:Cream of Wheat 1895.jpg|A Cream of Wheat advertisement from 1918
File:Cream-of-wheat-n-c-wyeth-1908.png|Oil on canvas by N.C. Wyeth 1908 "Where the mail goes Cream of Wheat goes"
File:Cream-of-wheat-henry-hutt-1908.png|Artist: Henry Hutt – 1908 watercolor
File:John-howitt-1909-cream-of-wheat-ad.jpg|Artist: John Howitt – 1909
File:Denman-fink-1911-cream-of-wheat-ad.jpg|Artist: Denman Fink – 1911
File:Cream of Wheat Ad.JPG|A Cream of Wheat advertisement from 1917
File:Cream of Wheat advertisement.jpg|A Cream of Wheat advertisement from between 1901 and 1925
</gallery>
See also
- Frumenty
- Grits
- List of porridges
- Malt-o-Meal
- Maypo
- Semolina