Sultan Murad IV decreed death to coffee drinkers in the Ottoman Empire. King Charles II dispatched spies to infiltrate London’s coffeehouses, which he saw as the original source of “false news.” During the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Rousseau and Isaac Newton could all be found ...read more
As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, Americans woke up to a new kind of breakfast. Poured from a box into a bowl and doused with milk, cold cereals like Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes, Grape-Nuts and Shredded Wheat were not only lighter and easier to digest than more ...read more
Battle Creek Sanitarium, America’s most popular medical spa of the early 20th century, may be best known as the birthplace of the corn flake. But some might say that the biggest flake to come out of Battle Creek was the man in charge: John Harvey Kellogg, the dapper doctor who ...read more
The great Cola Wars of the 1980s were a battle between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo for dominance. The disastrous introduction of “New Coke” in 1985 appeared to set Coca-Cola back. Yet by the end of the year, it was clear the “mistake” had actually helped Coca-Cola’s sales, allowing ...read more
A bar of Hershey’s chocolate is a simple pleasure—milky flavor, iconic brown-and-silver wrapper, traditional American roots. But though Hershey’s is among the most beloved and recognized brands in the U.S., the company’s history isn’t as simple as its flavors—like the time when ...read more
From packages of waffles to bags of peas, the myriad items found in the frozen-food section of grocery stores today owe their existence, in part, to Clarence Birdseye, who in the 1920s developed a quick-freezing process that launched the modern frozen-food industry. Between 1912 ...read more
Before it became the world's second largest fast food chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the brainchild of a man named Harland Sanders, who cooked up simple country dishes at a roadside gas station. Even after his death in 1980, Sanders is still the instantly recognizable face of ...read more
Cleopatra swore by them. So did Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. Pickles got their start more than 4,000 years ago, when ancient Mesopotamians began soaking cucumbers in acidic brine, as a way to preserve them. Since then, they have been a staple in cultures around the ...read more
New Hampshire brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the very first McDonald's on May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, California. Their tiny drive-in bore little resemblance to today’s ubiquitous “golden arches,” but it would eventually come to epitomize the fast-food ...read more
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The time-tested adage appears to be the lesson from Coca-Cola’s disastrous introduction of “New Coke." Except in 1985, Coca-Cola indeed thought its signature brand was broken. Although Coca-Cola remained the world’s best-selling soft drink, rival ...read more
It's one of the most celebrated feats of World War II: On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 troops stormed the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion. Less known is that an unlikely snack helped power the Allies before, during and after the historic mission—Hershey’s ...read more
M&Ms were first released in 1941, and since then have had an oversized impact on American popular culture. From their beginnings as snacks for World War II soldiers, to their time aboard both the first and last NASA space missions, here are some of the highlights in their long ...read more
Ketchup is found in 97 percent of U.S. homes and probably 100 percent of barbecues. But there’s more to this sauce than hamburgers, hot dogs and Heinz. In fact, ketchup has a storied past that dates back to imperial China, where it was made with fish entrails, meat byproducts and ...read more
