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Stuff You Should Know

Pop Tarts: No Fruit Necessary

November 13, 2025 • 49m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

Josh and Chuck dive into the history of Pop-Tarts, exploring how Kellogg's beat competitor Post to market in the 1960s despite being caught off guard. They cover the product's evolution from unfrosted 'fruit scones' to a breakfast staple with 80% market share, while discussing flavors, marketing tactics, safety concerns about toaster fires, and the shocking lack of nutritional value in these iconic pastries.

Origins: The Battle Creek Breakfast Wars

The Pop-Tart story begins with the Kellogg brothers and their Battle Creek Sanitarium, where they invented cornflakes alongside patient C.W. Post, who later became a competitor. By the 1960s, Post was developing 'Country Squares,' a toaster pastry that would revolutionize convenience food. However, when news leaked to the Battle Creek Inquirer in October 1963, Kellogg's VP William Lamothe scrambled to catch up, partnering with Heckman Biscuit Company to create their own version.

  • Kellogg brothers ran Battle Creek Sanitarium where cornflakes were invented; patient C.W. Post formed competing Post Company in 1895
  • Post developed 'Country Squares' toaster pastries but wasn't ready for market when news broke in Battle Creek Inquirer in October 1963
  • Kellogg's VP caught wind and tasked Doc Joe Thompson with creating their own pastry, partnering with Heckman Biscuit Company in Grand Rapids
  • William Post's son Dan tested early versions, calling them 'cardboard' and noting they exploded in toasters
" There was this huge shift in the 60s, usually pointed to a second wave feminism where women began to essentially say, like, this this whole traditional housewife thing is basically domestic servitude and I'm not down for it anymore. I'm going to work in the workplace. And so convenience food grew up almost immediately to kind of fill that that vacuum. "

Development and Market Dominance

The original Pop-Tarts launched in September 1964 as 'fruit scones' in four flavors: strawberry, blueberry, apple currant, and brown sugar cinnamon. Cleveland's test market went wild, selling 10 million boxes in two weeks. Within months, Kellogg's produced a billion Pop-Tarts and had to apologize for shortages. The diagonal score mark and rounded corners of early versions evolved into today's design, with frosting added in 1967 once they solved the melting problem.

  • Pop-Tarts trademark filed June 20, 1964; first shipments to Cleveland test market September 14, selling 10 million boxes in two weeks
  • Name 'Pop-Tarts' was a play on 'pop art' movement popular with Andy Warhol at the time
  • Two Pop-Tarts packaged together was purely a cost-cutting measure, not about serving size
  • Frosting added in 1967 after solving melting/fire issues; sprinkles added in 1968
  • Pop-Tarts achieved 80% market share and had 32 consecutive years of sales growth through 2014

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