Postum
A through line from 19th century health fanatics to Donald Trump
What do Mar-a-Lago, the clearance aisle at my neighborhood grocery store, and my grandfather have in common? A drink called Postum.
Postum is a relic of an earlier era of wellness influencers who promoted cereal as a breakfast food. These health fanatics also eschewed coffee but still wanted something hot to start their day. The first batch of the roasted wheat bran and molasses concoction was made in 1895 by C.W. Post in a small white barn in Battle Creek, Michigan. Sounds yummy doesn't it? To be fair, I’ve never tried it even though when I was a kid, we always stocked up when my grandfather came to visit. My mother also made a big batch of stewed prunes for him but presumably that’s another story.
Mr. Post struck it rich in the cereal business with Postum, Post Toasties, and Grape Nuts, only to take his life after experiencing an inoperable case of some stomach ailment in 1914. He left his fortune to his daughter Marjorie Meriweather Post who spent it freely on a lavish lifestyle that included a mansion in New York City, a summer “camp” in the Adirondacks, a luxury yacht named the Sea Cloud, Hillwood (her home in Washington, DC), and Mar-a-Lago.
At her death, Hillwood became a museum (more on that in a future post) and Mar-a-Lago was donated to the U.S. government to be used as a winter White House. Did she foresee something that the rest of us did not? Less than 10 years later, the government returned Mar-a-Lago to the Post Foundation, citing its high annual maintenance cost of $1 million. And then a couple of years after that, Donald Trump bought the property for the relative bargain price of $5 million, and paid an additional $3 million for Post's antiques and furniture.
But back to Postum. The Post Cereal Company was eventually acquired by General Foods. Kraft subsequently acquired Postum but discontinued it in 2007. These days, the Postum brand is owned by Eliza’s Quest Foods and is still being peddled as a coffee substitute with the additional features of being kosher, vegan, and GMO free.
While Post was famous for including products from her family’s business as part of her fine dining menus, I’m betting that it’s no longer on offer at Mar-a-Lago and with Trump famously getting a steady stream of caffeine in the form of Diet Coke. As for me, I’ll stick with my morning coffee.
Wait, I know you can't cover everything in one column but I gotta say: you didn't mention the dog cemetery at Hillwood. Or the fantastic gift shop. The dog cemetery is worth noting. It's a cemetery for dogs. With headstones. Worth a looksey. And I have gotten more than my share of gifts for friends and relatives from Hillwood's fantastic gift shop. Also, did you know they have free concerts -- focusing on dance but music too -- in the summer?
We drank this in my household when I was a kid. It was considered a treat and made us feel grown up while the adults drank coffee. Thanks for this story, Anne.