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10 sugar-filled cereals from the 1950s you will never eat again
Sugar Jets, Sugar Smiles, Sugar Krinkles…
As the Happy Days theme song sang about life in the Fifties, "The weekend comes, my cycle hums." Well, that was not the only think humming on Saturdays back then. Kids were buzzing from the shamelessly sugary cereals hitting grocery shelves.
Sugar Pops, Sugar Smacks and Sugar Frosted Flakes were all introduced in the 1950s. Those still survive in some form today.
Let's look at some sweet bowlfuls that we'll probably never eat again.
1. Sugar Krinkles
Krinkles the Clown pushed this rice cereal that hit shelves in 1950. It boldly declared itself the "candy-kissed" cereal, setting the tone for the sugar-rich breakfasts to follow.
Image: Post
2. Corn-fetti
It may not have had "Sugar" in the name, but Corn-fetti touted its "Magic Sugar Coat." It also featured a sailor mascot named Captain Jolly, who in his blue coat looked like a forerunner to Cap'n Crunch.
Image: Post
3. Sugar Smiles
"Sugar Smiles" sounds like an orthodontic condition brought about by eating too much cereal in the 1950s. This General Mills box brought together two common themes of the time — sugar and clowns.
Image: General Mills
4. Sugar Jets
The clowns eventually gave way to pilots and astronauts as America entered the Space Age. "Major Jet" was the man of action promoting Sugar Jets. The box depicted two children zooming around in a sugar rush.
Image: General Mills
5. Rice Honeys
It was made with honey, but just to reassure children, the description on the box read "Sugar Sweet." Rice Honeys and its sister cereal Wheat Honeys would later put Mary Poppins and the Beatles on the box before evolving into Winnie-The-Pooh Great Honey Crunchers and later yet Klondike Pete's Crunchy Nuggets.
Image: Nabisco
6. Cubs
Here's one that likely sold well in Chicago. It might have been merely shredded wheat, but kids were lured in by giveaways like "Battling Knights" toys. Collect all six!
Image: Nabisco
7. Surprize
This was the final cereal introduced by Eugene McKay, the man who created Rice Krispies. He purchased the "Battle Creek Food Company," a health-food brand originally founded by sanitarium director Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Though, let's not get carried away. The nutrition info explained that Surprize was "84.9% Carbs." Not to mention, it was "3.3% Moisture" and "2.76% Ash." Ash?! No wonder they had to put a special toy inside.
Image: Battle Creek Food Company
8. Juniors
Juniors and Cubs were quite similar. This 1958 introduction leaned a little harder into cartoon mascots, "The Spoonmen" — Munchy, Crunchy and Spoon-Size. Check out the free Tobor robot prize inside!
Image: Nabisco
9. Orbits
Now you are really starting to see the space theme in the late-'50s. Orbits were akin to Chex. Largely available in Canada, Orbits declared itself, "Spoon-sized cereal that's out of this world! K-K-Krunchy waffles that stay K-K-Krisp to the last bite!"
Image: Nabisco
10. Frosty O's
New for 1959, Frosty O's came branded as "goodness in a sugar-charged oat cereal." Early boxes labeled it as "The Sugar-Charged Cheerios." Later, the cereal compared itself to "little frosted donuts." That reminds us, we should go brush our teeth…
Image: General Mills
66 Comments
What I want to know is if anyone is selling a sealed box of any of these cereals on eBay, and whether it might not be worth a try!
Rice Krinkles eventually ditched Kinkles the clown and went with a slightly less racially sensitive animated Asian boy. One of their giveaways was a little rickshaw...
ners because the corn was a main product of the USA. This falsehood destroyed breakfast cereals and many other businesses that used sugar. Kellogg Cereal nearly went bankrupt until TV allowed them to become major sponsors of TV shows like the Beverly Hillbillies. All of this was done at the courtesy of the FCC changing the rules. What our great government including President Kennedy did not know is that we do not digest corn syrup well and even causes cancer in some people today. Next we tried Sucrose and today we have a few companies going back to pure natural sugar, but the cereal industry is committed to using cheap products because unknowing parents still talk about a fake "sugar high". Sad for us as consumers of ignorance.
As much as it was funny, it seemed to hit the nail on the head regarding Tarakian10's comment about the cereal industry using cheap products. Also, it shows two young kids pleading with their mother to buy the cereal after listening to some ridiculous claims made in a TV commercial for "Sooper Goop," to which she replies, "When will you ever learn?"
This is America, where anybody can be sold ANYTHING.
#BringBackTheMonkees
P.S The Surprize box looks like a box of laundry detergent.