Product 19

My grandmother loved Raisin Bran. That was the cereal she preferred, and if you were in her kitchen, that was the cereal she was going to offer you. But I knew there was a box of Product 19 somewhere in that kitchen, because I had seen it. I thought it tasted better than Raisin Bran and that meant breakfast usually turned into a small negotiation. How long could I hold out before she gave up on pushing the Raisin Bran and reached for the other box. Most mornings when I was with her, I won.Why would I fight for it? Product 19 was not a fun cereal, exactly. But I liked the taste and to me it was a lot better than what I was being offered. Yes, the box looked serious, and the name made it sound more like something from a lab than something you ate for breakfast. But that may have been part of the appeal. Support the Retroist on PatreonKellogg’s began rolling out Product 19 in the spring of 1966, starting along the Pacific Coast. A small press item in the Tacoma News Tribune that April…