"Military contracts stipulated, though, that his family’s company, Sanna Dairy Engineers, would be penalized if the orders were underfilled. So, to be safe, the company produced extra packets. But that meant that it was routinely stuck with excess supply, since the Army had also insisted that none of the overstock be used to fill future orders. The surplus powder was savory, potentially valuable and perishable. With necessity being the mother’s milk of invention, Mr. Sanna had another idea. 'I believed that it would make an excellent ingredient for a hot cup of cocoa,' he recalled. He experimented over the stove in the family kitchen in Menomonie, Wis.... 'I consulted the family cookbook and determined the best proportions of creamer, sugar, cocoa and vanilla,' Mr. Sanna said... Which was how, in the late 1950s, the future Swiss Miss brand — and the whole instant hot cocoa mix market — were born."
From the NYT obituary for Charles Sanna, who died here in Madison, Wisconsin last month at the age of 101. The company was founded in Madison. The brand, Swiss Miss, was sold to Beatrice Foods half a century ago.
३० टिप्पण्या:
He deserves a NYT obit just for naming the company Sanna Dairy Engineers
Army had also insisted that none of the overstock be used to fill future orders.
"There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way."
"'I consulted the family cookbook and determined the best proportions of creamer, sugar, cocoa and vanilla,' Mr. Sanna said... Which was how, in the late 1950s, the future Swiss Miss brand — and the whole instant hot cocoa mix market — were born."
Nah, he didn't brew that.
Lovely story
We used to mix packs of cocoa powder with packs of creamer and the shelf-stable milk that came with our MRE's, circa 1992. If mixed properly, it made a great little pudding cup.
1961-65 C Rations, used a large can from the ham and limas to mix one pack of coca w/two of coffee, one sugar heat to boiling, enjoy the rush...go green machine
The association of chocolate and Switzerland is... how to put it? Unexpected. So what things are especially Swiss?
a) Watches — Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet.
b) Knives — Victorinox, Wenger.
c) Guns — SIG-Sauer, Grunig Elmiger, GWM.
d) Mountains.
e) Descending aforesaid mountains at breakneck speed with boards tied to the feet.
f) Cows and bovine outputs.
g) Banks
Chocolate just does not fit on the list. Theobroma cacao does grow in alpine regions. Theobroma cacao does not grow in Belgium, either, but Leopold II solved that problem. So who solved it for the Swiss?
(Have you ever left the absolutely indispensable word from a sentence? I do that sometimes.)
I first heard of it and had some on a camping trip in So Cal in 1969 and thought it was cool--and hot. I've vaguely associated it with the military, or did I have mixed it up with Tang? (gross)
Having worked at the Beatrice Foods corporate office in Chicago, I was the beneficiary of all the Swiss Miss (and Tropicana OJ) I could drink. It didn't make up for the massive PITA caused by the KKR and Drexel LBO that came along busting up the company. Some people did get rich, though.
The military is very particular about dating all its supplies--before keeping things around for decades.
Swiss Miss
Nowadays, Mr. Sanna would be publicly denounced & forced into a struggle session for the sin of cultural appropriation.
We kids called it Swiss Piss back in the day
The brand, Swiss Miss, was sold to Beatrice Foods half a century ago.
After all, mega corps have gained at the cost of working people for so long, many can’t think of any other way.
Just sayin'.
Sanna, a man who should be celebrated. He made lives better. Yet parasitic politicians are praised when they pass. Yuck.
Is his name where Sanka came from?
Now we need to know the ingenious creator of the tiny dehydrated marshmallows.
Because a cup of hot chocolate is nothing, compared to one with marshmallows.
Swiss Miss was the gold standard for keeping warm around a Boy Scout campfire in the rain!!
Since you got a pack in every MRE there tended to be a lot of it around after a few days in the field. We used to mix three instant coffee packs, 2 creamers, a sugar and a pack of instant cocoa in a half canteen cup of water and boil it in the exhaust of our tanks. We called it tanker's choice.
The name is false advertising, since Sanna was neither Swiss nor a miss.
I wonder if he was behind a dreadful 1960s
product called “Sannalac”? It was dehydrated whole milk which tasted horrible. It should have been against the law to feed that to kids — that and trans fat margarine — especially in “America’s Dairyland.”
@Quaestor: You are overlookly Spruengli and the whole Bahnhofstrasse tradition in Zuerich.
Harold, we used to cook our Entree pouches in the exhaust of our idling HEMTTs and then pound the gas to fly up and out. On more than one occasion, some poor sap had to spend hours trying to dig one out that slipped into a sideways position and the exhaust just flowed around it. I was extra-cautious, and made mine was secure before heading for the cab.
Stupid typos. How does one delete one's own post to try again?
How does one delete one's own post to try again?
Click on the little trash can next to the date and time.
I used to eat it by the spoonful with my brothers straight out of the can.
I have often wondered what type of people invented the lousy pre-fab food and drinks I was forced to say thank you for when I was a kid.
I wonder if he ever stopped to think how much harm he had done. How many people rarely tasted real food in their childhood because their foolish parents and foolish caretakers got excited by the advertisements for the lousy food and drinks that made him and his ilk rich.
Nah, of course he didn't.
May God have mercy on his soul. A man who made the world a worse place by far, as far as I can tell - I hope I am wrong.
Thanks for the memories!
I used to work for Sanna Dairies in the late '70s after it became a part of Beatrice Foods. Leon Sanna, ran the company with an iron fist and Charles showed up every now and again but the only thing I can recall that he did that was useful was oversee the design and supervise construction of a new headquarters out near West Town Mall. Brothers Bartel and Leon joined their father Anthony in forming Sanna Dairies in 1935. Brothers Charles and Tony came on board later on. Bart and Tony left when Beatrice Foods bought Sanna for its national Swiss Miss brand. If you worked for Sanna, you were expected to know its history.
@chickelit said...
I wonder if he was behind a dreadful 1960s product called “Sannalac”? It was dehydrated whole milk which tasted horrible. It should have been against the law to feed that to kids — that and trans fat margarine — especially in “America’s Dairyland.”
Actually dried milk and add-color margarine got us through food shortages in WWII. Sanalac was (is) a nonfat dried milk product since milk butterfat largely went into butter making. Sanna did not make margarine. The Wisconsin Dairy industry despised margarine as their state laws reflected.
There's a back-story to a common ingredient in most creamers -- sodium aluminosilicate. In reality, it is the fairly common mineral Albite Feldspar, often found in granite and similar rocks. Back about 50 years ago, when I was a young doctoral student in geo-chemistry, in our lab we alway kept a supply of micro-ground albite right by the fridge for those times we ran out of the 10% cream we used in our tea.
Tea, not coffee, because it was Canada. In any case, you could stir about 1/4 teaspoon of the albite into the tea, and it made for a rather passable substitute, both in terms of appearance and mouth-feel.
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