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Cream-Nut name declared “weird;” peanut butter declared “best.”24 Nov

The blog “The Gastronomical Jess” has a post titled “The best peanut butter has the worst name.”  The blogger, Jess, writes about Cream-Nut:

I cannot decide if the weird name is just sheer hippie oblivion or a genius marketing strategy because I will admit, the reason I picked this up to begin with was because of the weird name.

Although we’ve owned the Cream-Nut brand since the 1920’s (here is a picture from the ‘teens), I don’t know where the name came from.  One clue that I’ve found is this post card, dated 1922:

Cream Nut Bread

On the left side of the postcard is a sign for “Cream-Nut Bread.”  I’ve also seen ads from that era, including one from an old Grand Rapids paper, advertising Cream-Nut Bread made locally.  I wonder if the name was licensed (or “borrowed”) from a bread brand?

As long as we taste the best, I’m OK with having the worst name.

6 Responses to “Cream-Nut name declared “weird;” peanut butter declared “best.””

  1. Zach

    I think you should make it a mission to hunt down the origins of the Cream-Nut name! It could be a fun little mystery and it looks like you already started with the post card above. Maybe I can provide the next hint. It appears that the Cream-Nut Bread sign is at One Penn Square in Lancaster, PA. Further google maps (street view) still shows One Penn Square as an only brick building similar to the picture. It is now Fulton Bank. It may be as simple as tracing back some lease records!

  2. admin

    I’m pretty sure that is an ad, not the sign for a tenant in the building. I reach that conclusion because there are other businesses in that building when I look at the postcard, and because other Cream-Nut bread advertising items appear on e-bay. I also have a copy of an ad that ran locally here early in the century which advertised Cream-Nut bread but made by a local bakery. So my theory is that it was some sort of a franchise in which the bread was marketed nationally, but baked locally.

  3. Zach

    This is getting really interesting. The Gunzenhauser bakery was at Prince St in Lancaster:
    http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-9204401.html

    So you are correct the sign in the square is just an ad.

    This other article identifies that Gunzenhauser still marketed their bread as Cream Nut as late as 1935 and it explains where the name came from which is quite exciting I think:
    http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/summary/105/22/1772

  4. admin

    You are making better progress than I ever made on this mystery. Thanks! I think there is little chance of any connection between the Gunzenhauser bakery in Lancaster and Bel-Car-Mo. I suspect some misuse of somebody’s intellectual property.

  5. Zach

    Yes it could be a simple coincidence as Cream Nut is a name that one might think of naturally when naming a peanut butter (although not a bread that is just weird). There was an industry journal called the Peanut Promoter that used to advertise Bel-Car-Mo peanut butter more broadly than Grand Rapids but I can’t imagine how else the Gunzenhauser’s of Lancaster would have connected with Bel-Car-Mo folks. Anyway all that matters in the bio of Koeze Cream-Nut Peanut Butter is this…. it is the world’s best peanut butter!

  6. Ryan

    It’s good! And a big plus is that it is packaged in glass – none of that plastic junk. AND the glass is from Owens-Illinois … made by Americans, in America, with the proceeds staying in America. (You might not think we notice those things, but we do!) Nice to support a domestic brand … plus it tastes great!

    Thanks for carrying on the tradition.

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Our History

Koeze Company was founded in 1910 by my great-grandfather, Sibbele Koeze, as a wholesale grocer selling produce, butter, and eggs to small stores around Grand Rapids, Michigan.  His son, Albertus Koeze, took over the business about 1918.  In 1925 Albertus purchased a local peanut butter company, and from then until today peanut butter and roasted nuts have been part of Koeze’s.  My father and mother, A. Scott and Ruth Koeze, began making confections in the 1980’s. My mother retired in the early ’90’s, my father in the late ’90’s, and since then I (Jeff Koeze) have worked to continue our traditions of great products and great service.

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