The sun has come up. The birds are chirping. You are wiping the sleepies out of your eyes. You stretch. You yawn. Your tummy rumbles. Well, you know what that means! Time for a well-balanced, nutritious, and delicious breakfast! Or if you are like most people, you can just grab some Pop-Tarts and be on your way.
Which Pop-Tarts are we trying today?
Frosted Blueberry
Brown Sugar Cinnamon
Frosted Cherry
Confetti Cupcake
Lemon Cream Pie
Red Velvet Cupcake
S’mores
Frosted Strawberry
Who is on this pastry quest?
Hannah, the good guesser
Kris, an equal opportunity destroyer
Matt, knower of all the answers
Amy, the narrator of this story
And of course, our subscribers! Thanks to our small, yet coveted group. We appreciate the support. You too can join us on this food journey. All you need to do is… SUBSCRIBE!
The History of Pop-Tarts
In 1963, Post Cereals adapted a process for enclosing food in foil to keep it fresh without spoiling. And with this process, they made a new toaster-prepared breakfast food. These fruit-filled pastries could be shipped and stored without having to be refrigerated. In 1964, Post unveiled this product, calling them Country Squares. But unfortunately, Post was slow to release the product to stores and six months later, in September of 1964, Kelloggs came up with a new product called Fruit Scones. The test market was Cleveland Ohio, and the 45,000 cases they made for this test, flew off the shelves.
The first toaster pastries that were produced were all unfrosted. They came in four flavors. Apple Currant Jelly, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Brown Sugar-Cinnamon. In 1967 the first frosted Pop-Tarts hit the shelves with four flavors as well. Dutch Apple, Concord Grape, Raspberry, and Brown Sugar Cinnamon.
And a little fun fact: Pop-Tarts actually ended up with the name Pop-Tarts because of the popularity of Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement in the 60s.
Here are the flavors that are currently being sold.
Peach Cobbler
Tropical Mango
Banana Creme Pie
Red White and Blueberry
Lemon Creme Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Dia de Muertos (which is a chocolatey churro flavor)
Blueberry
Brown Sugar Cinnamon
Cherry
Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Chocolate Fudge
Frosted Cinnamon Roll
Cookies and Creme
Hot Fudge Sundae
Raspberry
S’Mores
Strawberry
Strawberry Milkshake
Wild Berry
Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel
Froot Loops
Crisp Apple
Salted Caramel Pretzel
Red Velvet Cupcake
Frosted Confetti Cupcake
Mister E Flavor (Website reads: Shhh… It’s a secret! A masked culprit popped into the Pop-Tarts factory and created a mysterious, delicious new flavor. Could be sweet, could be savory… the fun is guessing what the flavor is! Case Solved: The Pop-Tarts Mister E Flavor is Everything Bagel. And from the reviews, it sounds like it tasted like garlic onion.)
The best selling Pop-Tart? Strawberry, followed by Brown Sugar Cinnamon and S’Mores.
And according to the Chicago Tribune, about 2 billion Pop-Tarts are sold each year in the United States.
The Results
**SPOILER ALERT!**
Listen to the episode first if you do not want the results revealed to you yet!
8th Place: Red Velvet Cupcake
Amy: 1
Hannah: 1
Kris: 2
Matt: 3
7th Place: Confetti Cupcake
Amy: 4
Hannah: 2
Kris: 2
Matt: 3
6th Place: S’mores
Amy: 2
Hannah: 5
Kris: 4
Matt: 3
5th Place: Blueberry
Amy: 3
Hannah: 4
Kris: 4
Matt: 4
4th Place: Strawberry
Amy: 5
Hannah: 4
Kris: 4
Matt: 5
3rd Place: Lemon Cream Pie
Amy: 6
Hannah: 5
Kris: 4
Matt: 6
2nd Place: Frosted Cherry
Amy: 7
Hannah: 5
Kris: 6
Matt: 6
1st Place: Brown Sugar Cinnamon
Amy: 8
Hannah: 6
Kris: 6
Matt: 6
There you have it. Brown Sugar Cinnamon receives the Quest for the Best seal of approval. Check out their website to try them out for yourself.
https://www.poptarts.com/en_US/home.html
Thank you all for joining us on this episode of Quest for the Best. Let us know what you thought. Have you tried all these Pop-Tarts? We would love to hear your rating as well.
Also, do you have any foods you would love to get the coveted seal of approval? Let us know in the comments what you want to hear next.
And of course, remember to subscribe to hear the latest episodes. Additionally, paid subscribers will have access to monthly content where we put two restaurants head to head in a Quest for the Best battle. You definitely do not want to miss out.
SHOW NOTES:
https://medium.com/@tonylow/the-pop-tart-story-6a5269062bb9
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-selling-poptarts-flavors_n_5836520
https://www.mashed.com/117295/untold-truth-pop-tarts/
Country Squares? Fruit Scones? Nope. Pop-Tarts!