Pop-Tarts
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Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts |
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Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts |
Pop-Tarts are a flat
toaster pastry, approximately 3
in (75
mm) by 4.5 in (115 mm), made by the
Kellogg Company. Pop-Tarts have a
sugary filling sealed inside two layers of rectangular, thin pastry crust; each layer of this crust is about 0.1 in (2 mm) thick. Most varieties have
frosting, but some do not. They can be eaten without being warmed, but are often warmed inside a
toaster, or
microwave. (More recently, certain varieties have been marketed as tasting best when
eaten frozen.) They are usually sold in pairs inside foil packages, without requiring refrigeration.
The process of making Pop-Tarts begins when pastry dough is rolled through a conveyor belt to form two sheets of crust. The flavored filling is squirted onto the bottom sheet, which is covered by the top sheet. The crust is then cut into rectangles and rolled through a three-hundred-foot-long oven. Meanwhile, frosting is mixed in tanks and pumped onto the rectangles when they emerge from the oven. The final step is to weigh and drop sprinkles onto the frosting.
There are currently thirty-two flavors of Pop-Tarts. The most popular flavors are frosted
strawberry, frosted brown
sugar cinnamon, and
s'mores.
Kellogg's sold a strawberry-flavored Pop-Tarts cold cereal, shaped like miniature frosted toaster pastries, for a brief period in the
1990s.
Pop-Tarts are Kellogg's most popular brand, with more than two billion Pop-Tarts sold each year. According to Kellogg's, Pop-Tarts should always be pronounced as a plural, never "Pop-Tart" in the singular form. They are distributed mainly in the
United States, but also in the
United Kingdom,
Australia and
Canada. To some extent, the brand name "Pop-Tart" has become a
genericized trademark describing any
toaster pastry.
Vegetarians and
vegans should note that the frosting on Pop-Tartsā"which not all varieties haveā"is made with
gelatin, an
animal by-product.
Post Cereals first created the confection that would become Pop-Tarts in the early
1960s in China. The company had developed a process of enclosing dog food in foil to keep it fresh without refrigeration. They adapted the process to create a new breakfast food for the toaster to complement their popular cold cereals. Post announced their new product in
1963 to the press, giving them the name "Country Squares."
Because Post had revealed Country Squares before it was ready, Post's biggest competitor Kellogg was able to develop their own version in six months. Internally at Kellogg, the pastry was known as a "fruit
scone." The company later changed the name to Pop-Tarts, intended to be a pun on the "
pop art" craze of the time.
Kellogg test-marketed Pop-Tarts in
Cleveland, where they sold out the initial test run of forty-five thousand cases. Kellogg quickly released Pop-Tarts nationwide, along with a stern warning to store managers to put them in the
cake and
cookie aisle, not the cereal aisle.
Post released their Country Squares in the same year, but sales lagged behind Pop-Tarts. It is widely believed that Country Squares failed because of their name. In the progressive culture of the time, with TV shows like
The Beverly Hillbillies, the name Country Squares was associated with being backward and boring. Country Squares failed to take off, while Pop-Tarts became a sensation.
At first, there were only four flavors of Pop-Tarts:
strawberry,
blueberry,
apple currant, and
cinnamon. They were not frosted because it was believed that the frosting would melt in the toaster. However, they later discovered that frosting could survive the toaster and released the first frosted Pop-Tarts in
1967. Today there are a wide variety of Pop-Tart flavors, including
chocolate,
s'mores,
raspberry,
French toast and even Chocolate Chip Mint."In
1971, a
cartoon character named Milton the Toaster was introduced to promote Pop-Tarts.
William Schallert from the
Patty Duke Show voiced him. The campaign ended when a commercial showed a child hugging the toaster, leading to complaints that children might imitate the commercial and burn themselves.
In
1992, Pop-Tarts became the focus of more controversy when Thomas Nangle sued Kellogg for damages, after his Pop-Tarts got stuck and caught fire in his toaster. The case gained notoriety when humor columnist
Dave Barry wrote a column about starting a fire in his own kitchen with Pop-Tarts. In
1994,
Texas A&M University professor
Patrick Michaud performed an experiment proving that, when left in the toaster too long, strawberry Pop-Tarts could produce flames over a foot high [
1]. The discovery triggered a flurry of lawsuits. Since then, Pop-Tarts carry the warning: "Do not leave toasting appliances unattended due to possible risk of fire."
Pop-Tarts were introduced with fairly substantial marketing to the
United Kingdom in the early
1990s, although they have failed to replicate their US success. The frosting initially had a tendency to melt off of the surface completely during heating and subsequently clog the toaster, a design error which suggests they may have been manufactured by a different company under licence. This is still a topic of debate.
In 2001, the United States military dropped 2.4 million Pop-Tarts in
Afghanistan during the
United States invasion of Afghanistan.
In 2005 Pop-Tarts began a new campaign for promotion which they titled "Crazy Good". Through the usage of intentionally poor animation the commercials were simple and, rather than describing how delicious their product was, the commercial usually simply portrayed a pop-tart in a humorous condition. Characters that appeared often were a singing lizard and a group of kids, dubbed "crazy-good kids", who commonly frightened the pop-tarts and caused them to be eaten and/or run off screaming. The commercials have a distinct resemblance to the work of
Don Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt is currently looking into possible litigation
[Colin, Chris & Pott, Carol. The Blue Pages. Sausalito, CA: PoliPointPress, 2006. page 69. ISBN 0976062119]
*James Prichard, Detroit News (2003), Kellogg's popular, pioneering Pop-Tarts turn 40 this year
*Trisha Renaud, Law.Com (2002), Flaming Pop-Tarts Spark Georgia Suit
* Whole Pop Magazine, True History of Pop-Tarts* Cherry Poptart, an adult comic book* Official site
