08-21-2008, 10:26 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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The Reforms
Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition
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The Early Years
Quote:
1908 – America is introduced to the first crème-filled chocolate sandwich cookie.
Hydrox cookies were developed as a result of a study visit by a group of baking experts from Loose-
Wiles Biscuit Company, later known as Sunshine Biscuit Company, to the famed biscuit bakeries of
England. Upon returning to America, the bakers combined their new knowledge with their own skill and
Hydrox cookies were born.
Now all they needed was a name for their new cookie that went well with sunshine. They thought of
water, because water and sunshine are elements of purity and cleanliness, and thus combined water’s
elements, hydrogen and oxygen, for the Hydrox cookie’s unique (and much debated) name.
When they were introduced, Hydrox cookies were described as the “king of biscuits” and were sold to
the public in 30-cent tins or by the pound.
1910 – The first word-of-mouth campaign for Hydrox cookies is used to drive sales and distribution.
The executives at Sunshine Biscuit Company were way ahead of their time when they enlisted consumers
to spread the word about Hydrox cookies, with an offer for a free package – just for the asking.
1912 – A strikingly similar chocolate sandwich cookie debuts.
1925 – Hydrox cookies are offered to retailers for the unprecedented deal of $1 for a dozen packages.
The cookies were described in a 1925 advertisement as “…not merely a biscuit, but the maximum of
goodness that human ingenuity can devise in a single biscuit.”
Hydrox cookie salesmen were encouraged to go after “new and profitable avenues of distribution of
drug stores, soda fountains and road stands.”
1926 – A modern marvel.
Special imported machinery was used to stamp out the signature pattern of Hydrox cookies, averaging
1,716 cookies per minute, with “Hydrox” on one side and “Sunshine” on the other.
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I still am debating the name, a whole 10 minutes after learning of their existence. Hydrox?? Besides that point of contention, I'll try to celebrate the centennial by finding myself a package to consume. Huzzah.
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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi
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