When were cereal bars invented?

Crumbles for the masses

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In , several hundred thousand people found themselves in an exhausted haze of dancing, acid trips, and acute hunger. They&#;d been holding down spots in front of the stage at Woodstock for more than 24 hours, and hadn&#;t eaten a bite of food, partly on their own volition, and partly because the event was experiencing food shortages. Then, paper cups appeared, and they were filled with granola.

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The seminal music and counterculture event cemented the stereotype that hippies eat granola. But the granola that hippies ate at Woodstock was probably closer to the traditional kind&#;baked rolled oats and graham flour&#;and comparatively much healthier than the sugary bars of chocolate-coated grains mixed with dried fruit and nuts on shelves today.

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How did granola go from a powerful, hippie-sobering snack to perfectly packaged confectionary rectangles with lucrative, mostly deceptive, marketing?

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Let&#;s crunch some ideas.

By the digits

$377.3 million: US granola bar sales in

$722.2 million: US sales of just the top granola bar vendor (Clif Bar & Co.) in

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0.45: Parts per million of glyphosate, an herbicide, found in a Nature Valley granola bar, complicating its &#;all-natural&#; marketing

100%: How &#;natural&#; Nature Valley claimed its oats were before dropping the description from its marketing in after a lawsuit over glyphosate

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230: Calories in a peanut butter Nature Valley bar

230: Calories in a Kit Kat bar

Origin story

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From GOAT to just oat

Granola as a concept has been around for more than 150 years. Back in , Dr. James Caleb Jackson created the first granola, called granula, by smushing up graham flour and baking it. It wasn&#;t until the s that the stuff became a portable, bar-shaped snack, an evolution that&#;s often credited to serial inventor Stanley Mason.

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But while around 70% of Americans think granola bars are healthy, only a third of nutritionists agree. Where did this discrepancy come from?

The initial intention was good. The physicians who came up with granola were trying to pack a nutritional punch of fibrous oats and protein-rich nuts into bite-sized morsels for their patients.

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Things got flaky when food companies started to get greedy about market share and wanted to expand the appeal of eating dried oats to the masses. Refined sugar, chocolate, and peanut butter made &#;healthy&#; taste really, really good. Of course, it didn&#;t take long for scientists to read food labels, and a recent Tufts University study ranked granola bars less healthy than ice cream.

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The five granola identities

A study in the National Library of Medicine looked at which different customer segments eat granola bars and why. The five granola bar consumer identities are:

&#; Involved
&#; Health-oriented
&#;&#; Frugal
&#; Visual
&#; Information seekers

The involved and health-oriented personalities were more likely to eat bars and see them as nutritious; the frugal and visual folks didn&#;t eat as many but liked the idea of them; and information seekers got a serotonin boost from the sweetness and crunch.

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Fun fact!

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg is likely why we spell granola the way we do. His recipe looked a lot like Dr. James Caleb Jackson&#;s granula, but he called it granola to avoid a lawsuit. And while you may think John Harvey Kellogg is the name behind Kellogg&#;s food company, that&#;s actually his brother, W.K. Kellogg. They both were super into cereal and made a health food company together, but a feud over corn flakes led W.K. Kellogg to branch out on his own.

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Pop quiz

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Which country is the world&#;s largest oat producer?

A. China

B. US

C. Russia

D. Canada

The answer at the bottom of this , in a pile of oaty, coconuty dust.

Explain it like I&#;m 5

Snack nation

Americans started becoming big snackers in the s. A couple factors were at play: Farms in the US were becoming more centralized, and food manufacturing more industrialized.

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Quickly, food manufacturers found out they could crank out tins of potato chips, slap some misleading branding on them&#;cans of New Era potato chips labeled them a &#;healthy food&#;&#;and meet a demand for snacks that satisfied cravings from coast to coast.

America has come a long way in nutritional food labeling since the s, but branding remains as important as ever. The granola bar has taken on many personalities since its creation (power bar, energy bar, protein bar), all in marketers&#; quest to part ways with its junk food stereotype and align it firmly with an active, health-conscious consumer. And for the most part, it has worked.

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Quotable

&#;Breakfast in bed for 400,000.&#;

&#;Wavy Gravy, a West Coast commune founder whose real name is Hugh Romney, announcing the arrival of granola at Woodstock

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Take me down this &#; hole!

The snack instinct

The urge to compress food into on-the-go snacks is prehistoric. Pemmican, a Native American superfood that is more than 5,000 years old, is a bar made of dried meat, fat, and berries. Packing a punch of more than 3,500 calories per pound, it is the ultimate traveler&#;s food, as it requires no cooking and can be preserved for long periods of time. For comparison, a pound of almonds has 2,560 calories.

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In a way, granola bars are valued for similar reasons&#;quick calories that require no cooking&#;but the pandemic threw a wrench into that when people stopped moving around as much. A lack of need for on-the-go snacks sent granola bar sales in a tailspin during the pandemic, and they&#;re only just starting to recover.

Watch this!

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How to eat a Nature Valley granola bar

Nature Valley granola bars are notorious for bursting into a mess of dry crumbs immediately upon removal from their packaging. The kicker is that General Mills, the maker of Nature Valley, actually likes it that way (video) and definitely wants you to keep up posting the free ads, er, memes.

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Poll

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Which granola bar identity are you?

• I&#;m so health-oriented I make my own granola bars
• I&#;m visual and live vicariously through the Clif Bar rock climber
• I seek information from my friends by threatening them with Nature Valley dust

Don&#;t give us just a graham, we want to hear it all!

&#;Let&#;s talk!

In last week&#;s poll about Havana syndrome, 68% of you said you enjoy microwaves in the responsible way (that is, to heat up food).

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&#; Tweet this!

&#; What did you think of today&#;s ?

&#; What should we obsess over next?

Today&#;s was written by Morgan Haefner (prefers muesli), and edited and produced by Annaliese Griffin (would rather have an ice cream cone).

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The correct answer to the pop quiz is C., Russia. It&#;s a big reason why Russia&#;s invasion of Ukraine shocked the oat and wheat markets.

Cereal bars, the convenient, chewy and yummy snack that has become the go to pick me up for people on the go! All those times when your late for work, late picking up the kids, late for that meeting, and your stomach is growling louder than an car engine. That's where cereal bars are a live saver.

But have you ever wondered where these convenient snacks come from? Well it's time to dive into the history of cereal bars!

The Birth of a Brilliant Idea

You would think that this story would have started with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, as we all know the name of Kellogg.

But the first pioneer in the world of cereal was James Caleb Jackson, who made the first cereal called "Granula". James, in the 's, ran a sanitorium which was later called the Jackson Health Resort. He created a breakfast cereal from graham flour dough that was dried and broken into  shapes so hard they needed to be soaked in milk overnight.

Now, why on Earth would someone go through all the trouble of baking oats and slicing them into squares? James believed in the power of a balanced diet, and he envisioned "Granula" as a nutritious, easy-to-eat breakfast option for his patients at his Sanitarium.

It was in that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his family created the Kellogg's cornflakes we all know and love.

Quaker Oats and the Early Days

Fast forward to the early 20th century, and we see the cereal bar concept evolving. In , Quaker Oats, a company known for its oat products, introduced the "Quaker Oats Cereal Bars." These bars were essentially oats and corn syrup pressed together. The marketing pitch? They were a nutritious and convenient breakfast option.

War, Rations, and Popularity Surge

The popularity of  what could be called today "cereal bars" skyrocketed during World War II when they became part of soldiers' rations. These bars were designed to be lightweight, energy-dense, and easy to carry, making them perfect for the battlefield. When the war ended, veterans and civilians alike had developed a taste for these compact snacks, and they continued to enjoy them back home.

"Late one package of small biscuits in the Breakfast unit was replaced by a block of compressed cereals. This cereal was to be pre-mixed, with milk and sugar, and compressed into a one and one-halve ounce block of 3 3/16 by 1 3/16 by 3/4 inch. The compressed cereal was cellophane wrapped with the directions printed on the cellophane in black, blue, green or red ink" World War II Ration Blog

Rice Krispies Treats: A Game Changer

The s brought about a cereal bar revolution thanks to Kellogg's. They introduced the legendary "Rice Krispies Treats." These gooey, marshmallow-filled bars made from rice cereal quickly became a sensation. Kids loved them, parents couldn't resist stealing bites, and Rice Krispies Treats became an iconic symbol of American snacking culture.

Ingredients Get Creative

As the years rolled on, cereal bars didn't just stick to oats and rice. They got creative! Today, you can find bars made from various grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and even chocolate chips. The diversity in ingredients caters to every taste and dietary preference under the sun.

One of the coolest things about cereal bars is that they're loved by both kids and adults. Parents adore them as a convenient and somewhat healthy snack for their little ones, while professionals find them to be a lifesaver during busy workdays.

Cereal Bars Around the Globe

Cereal bars aren't confined to a single corner of the world. Different countries have put their unique twists on these portable snacks. In Europe, muesli bars with oats, nuts, and dried fruits rule the snack scene. Asia has rice-based bars, often flavoured with exotic ingredients like matcha or sesame.

While cereal bars enjoy global popularity, consumption varies by region. In the United States, they're a staple in lunchboxes and office drawers. Europeans savor a wide range of cereal bars as a healthier snack option. Meanwhile, Japan boasts a variety of rice-based bars for those constantly on the move.

Cereal bars have certainly come a long way from Dr. Kellogg's Granola experiment. They've evolved into a versatile, beloved, and ever-so-handy snack for people of all ages, backgrounds, and busy schedules. So, next time you grab a cereal bar to quell your hunger pangs or satisfy your sweet tooth, take a moment to appreciate the fascinating history that's baked into every bite. Crunch on!

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