Way O.T. Instant Postum

[Niel Hoback]

If there are any Postum drinkers lurking around, the news is that they are no longer making it. It has gone for $8 a jar on the bay. I saw it today at Wal-mart for $4.17. The maker says all thats left is in the market and there ain't gonna be any more.

Can't stand the stuff myself, but maybe an investment?

[55 Fargo]

I was talking about this stuff the other day, I thought it was long gone, my grandmothers use to have this stuff, both have been dead since 1988, so I have not seen it in years..........Fred

[eric wissing]

Do they still make Geritol? Iron poor blood? Eric

[55 Fargo]

Only if you need it, but Moonshine will give you the same get up and go, heck even your Model T can drink it. Or if you have a well like mine,no shortage of iron in this water at my place.

[Plymouthy Adams]

is this board physic???? we were just dicussing what Postum was made of at supper this evening..it all came about as imentioned that my I did not recall my granddad ever drinking coffee..milk and water and maybe a cup of Postum now and them...

I tried it..long long ago..guess it never suited my taste..what is itmade of?

[55 Fargo]

The stuff these old people liked, my Grandparents drank this stuff, my one grandfather was a big coffee drinker though, I, like yourself, did not like it's flavor.

Maybe you are the Psychic Tim:confused: , picked up on this thread from the supper table, and did not know it.

[Norm's Coupe]

is this board physic???? we were just dicussing what Postum was made of at supper this evening..it all came about as imentioned that my I did not recall my granddad ever drinking coffee..milk and water and maybe a cup of Postum now and them...

I tried it..long long ago..guess it never suited my taste..what is itmade of?

Back in the 80's was being tested for stomach ulcers. While the test were being made the doctor said I should not drink coffee. When I ask what I could drink, he said Postum. Forgot the exact contents, but basically it's made of grain. It was instant and was cheaper than instant coffee. Taste wasn't all that bad once you got use to it. Did have a coffee flavor though.

[62rebelP23]

sounds like Confederate Coffee, AKA Chicory. coffee has always been expensive to import and during the Depression many coffee substitutes arose, some dating back to the Confederate era and beyond. roasted or even burnt grain brews up like coffee but lacks the caffeine and tannins. me? i'm a Dr Pepper drinker.... Diet, now, but Dr Pepper since can't remember when.

(it looks like coffee when drank from a tin cup at reenactments... i used to be with the 11th Va Volunteers...)

[JohnS48plm]

I just retired last March from Post Cereals. I worked there for 32 years and did the instrumentation and controls work for the Postum process for the last 20 years. Postum was C.W. Posts original product and was first produced around 1895.

Postum was discontinued early last year. Our parent company Kraft Foods decided that there was not enough demand for the product.

Postum was made from roasted bran and wheat that was still roasted on !916 Burns roasters. There were also mollasses, water and a few other ingrediants. After roasting and mixing the product was ran through huge perculators and evaporators making it into a thick liqour. This was dryed on large drum dryers. The dryed Postum was then sifted and put into jars.

Another use for Postum was cleaning steel. We used to package it in bulk drums and ship it to steel mills.

Sorry for the long post but I thought this might be interesting to some of you.

They still had a few cases at the company store this morning but I didn't check the price. JohnS

[PatS....]

"Another use for Postum was cleaning steel. We used to package it in bulk drums and ship it to steel mills."

John, that made me laugh out loud.

Thanks...I needed that!

[Plymouthy Adams]

when it comes to cleaning parts and preserving parts especially bolts and nuts...dipping the hardware in molasses..removes the rust and puts a faux parkerizing finish on the hardware..blackens it up nicely..it is the sulfur I think and sure other chemical compounds toghether..

it is also good on bisquits...makes a hell of a good popcorn ball..and one heck of a community event when growing up as all the folks woould gather about the press and run their cane through...it was 1979 when I last attended one of these events..

and is the punch line in the joke about the papa and momma mole looking out of the hole at the pretty spring scenery and baby mole saying all he could see was molasses.

[62rebelP23]

we used to use powdered drink mix ("kool aid" or "bug juice") to clean the cooktops in the galleys of our ship the USS Holland and i'm sure it was widespread practice... that stuff would cut grease like solvent.

[Normspeed]

Tim, have mercy!!!

JohnS, I appreciate the info.

Years ago I worked at a division of Kraft in Buena Park CA. It was a plant that created refined kitchen oils from crude veg oils like peanut, corn, safflower that came in by RR tankers. One of the most interesting jobs i've ever worked. Sometimes wish I'd stayed in the industry.

[Niel Hoback]

OK, I bought a jar to see what its like. It doesn't look too good.

From the label; Ingredients: Wheat Bran, Wheat, Molasses, Maltodextrin (from corn).

Serving size 1 tsp.

calories 10

% daily values;

Total fat 0%

Sodium 0%

Total carb 3g 1%

Protein og

It does look like a good pot-scrubber

[PatS....]

Maybe the EPA banned it for being toxic!

[Plymouthy Adams]

rebel23....I worked DoD Navy 16 years in Charleston before it ws closed by the BRAC Commission. Of the ships..I remember about 3 tender..Hunley, Cable and Holland..one of them had a periscope mounted of the port side of the bridge..by chance was this the Hunley...am thinking this was the last tender we overhauled..memory fades..

[Don Coatney]

Postum was a powdered coffee substitute sold by the Kraft Foods company. It was a kind of roasted grain beverage. The caffeine-free beverage mix was originally created by company founder C. W. Post in 1895 and marketed as a healthy alternative to coffee. Post was a Seventh-day Adventist and a student of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg who felt caffeine was unhealthy, and thus created an alternative of mostly wheat and molasses. Postum is no longer available; it was discontinued in winter of 2007.[1][2] The ingredients in Postum are wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and corn dextrin.

[greg g]

My grandmother alway had Postum on her breakfast table. My grandparents were below poverty line before it was establsihed. Their lives consisted of making it through the depression, and then through the shortages and rationing of WWII. even when cofee was pennies a pound it was too expensive to have except for when the preacher came for his rotating Sunday dinner. Back when dinner was the noon meal and it was the custom for the preacher to minister to his flock by eating his after services meal by mooching of fthe parishinors, each in turn. Also a subtle way of nosing around in other folks domestic scene.

I remember it being not horrible but I was at an age where a bit of Boscoe was the beverage of choice.

So postum was the drink of choice at breakfast, and dinner. Right up through the 50's and early mid 60's.

For those who can't live without it I believe there is a European version made in Switzerland with a very similar ingredient list.

I think Chicory was more of a coffee extender. Relative of the radish, it rood it dried , roasted and ground for beverage use.

[Plymouthy Adams]

if you are out and about on the eastern highways and see that pretty little blue flower that blooms by the road...CHICKORY

[Don Coatney]

CHICKORY

Back in the 70's one of the major coffey houses started advertising a new and improved blend that contained chickory and sold at an elevated price. Being a young trendy grocery buyer at the time I brought some home. Next time my dad came over for coffee I brewed a pot. I will never forget his comments.

"HELLS BELLS that crap was used to extend coffee during the war. Hope it cost a lot less than regular coffee."

I never told him I paid a premium price and I also never bought it again.

[pflaming]

Most interesting chain I have read in some time. I too remember my parents talking about Postum, Geritol, Spam, early margarine (when it was white). Getting old when we start remembering what we once tried to forget.

[Norm's Coupe]

Most interesting chain I have read in some time. I too remember my parents talking about Postum, Geritol, Spam, early margarine (when it was white). Getting old when we start remembering what we once tried to forget.

HEY!!!, who said we forgot about Spam? I still buy that once in awhile. It's great fried for breakfast with eggs. It's also great fried for a sandwich for lunch. Love the stuff.

[greg g]

For those in the vicinity of Austin Minnesota, a trip to the Spam Museum is a recommended activity. Swear it is!!!! Stopped there 2 summers ago while returning from Yellowstone.

http://www.spam.com/museum/spam_museum.aspx

[Plymouthy Adams]

Every once in awhile I buy Spam..still my favorite ..(Treat sucks)..anway fry this stuff up..sliced tomato..bit of mustard..man ..is it lunch yet? I think there is a can in the cupboard now...

[JerseyHarold]

About 20 years ago my wife and I hosted a party, and one of the things she prepared was Spam hors d'ouvres (she found the recipe in a magazine and wanted to try it). People avoided it like the plague! I had them for lunch for the next week. We still joke about that episode....