IT'S BEEN 85 YEARS SINCE ANIMALS WENT CRACKERS

_Elsa_

‘If it seems animal crackers have been around forever, it's because they almost have.

Teddy Roosevelt was president, the Wright brothers were still a year away from their historic flight and Kisses were just a gleam in Milton Hershey's eyes when animal crackers first hit the market in 1902.

They're still a hit 85 years later. Consider that if all 35 billion of them were lined up nose to rump, the inch-long critters would circle the Earth 38 times.

Countless kids in 17 countries have learned about lions, not from peering through the bars of a city zoo, but from picking through the waxy yellow paper of the animal crackers box. Twelve generations of American youth might have caught their first glimpse of a giraffe, an elephant, a monkey, or a zebra just moments before they gnawed its head off.

Through the years Animals Crackers have changed very little. They still taste essentially as they did 85 years ago. The recipe has been modified slightly to include inexpensive baking ingredients that weren't around when the product was invented, such as partially hydrogenated soybean oil, palm oil and corn sweetener.

Each cookie is a surprisingly clear illustration of an animal. There is no mistaking the cougar as it stalks its prey, or the monkey eating its banana, or the hippo that is yawning so wide, its square, stubby teeth show.’ (Source)

‘Animal cracker facts:

• The current crackers are tiger, cougar, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo, hippopotamus, bison, lion, hyena, zebra, elephant, sheep, bear, gorilla, monkey, seal and giraffe.

• Even though they are commonly just called ‘animal crackers’, their actual name is really ‘Barnum’s Animals Crackers’.

• April 18th is National Animal Cracker Day.

• The original purpose of the string on the Animal Crackers box was so that it could be hung as a Christmas ornament on the tree.

• A box of Animal Crackers sold for 5 cents in 1902.

• Around six thousand miles of string is used annually on Animal Cracker boxes.

• The only animals to make it through the entire lifetime of Barnum’s Animals Crackers are bears, elephants, lions and tigers.

• Animal Crackers originated in England where they were known as animal biscuits.

• For the cracker’s 100th anniversary, a survey was asked as to which animal shape the public would like to see added into the mix. The choices were: koala bear, penguin, walrus or cobra. The koala bear won with the cobra coming in last place.

• Shirley Temple’s 1935 song “Animal Crackers in My Soup” was used by different companies advertising their brands of animal crackers.’ (Source)

Let’s continue - Tiffi looks for an animal cracker recipe

Start at the beginning – What are animal crackers?