"Aunt Jemima" is now "Pearl Milling Company" (ummm, what?)

[hlthe2b]

It's an historic day for all Americans ... who love pancakes -- "Aunt Jemima" is officially out, and Pearl Milling Company is in.

PepsiCo -- the parent company of the syrup giant -- announced Tuesday it is "starting a new day with Pearl Milling Company ... rooted in the brand's historic beginnings and its mission to create moments that matter at the breakfast table."

That's a lot of corporate-speak for ... we scrapped "Aunt Jemima" and created a new logo that's still tied to history, but without the stereotyped image of a Black woman with a headscarf in the kitchen.

PepsiCo filed to trademark the new logo on February 1. You'll recall, last summer the company said Jemima had to go after it took a look at all its brands to "ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations."

https://www.tmz.com/2021/02/09/aunt-jemima-replaced-pearl-milling-company-name-logo/

Well, alrighty, then....?

[a kennedy]

1. Oh yah, that's gonna roll of the tongue for remembering

We only use locally made maple syrup.

[Politicub]

3. I scrolled down to read the replies, and have already forgotten the

new name. Pearl something?

[SunSeeker]

5. Yes, marketing fail. Sounds industrial. Does not invoke pancakes. nt

[Chainfire]

11. That was my initial thought as well.

[hlthe2b]

14. Yes, I kept reading it as Pearl MINING Company at first.

[Hortensis]

35. Well, I already do. I like old historical names in general, and this one

honors the originating company, which is usefully defunct. The succeeding ones, Quaker Oats and Pepsi-Cola (now PepsiCo), are both old also but would be confusing.

[SunSeeker]

2. It's a nod to the 19th-century company that created the original pancake mix. nt

[Blue_true]

19. According to some historical accounts, the company didn't create the

pancake mix, a Black woman did. The company milled and distributed the pancake mix.

The issue that one family had was that their relative was not compensated for her roll in bringing about the famous pancake mix. Maybe as part of the name change, PepsiCo reached a financial resolution with the woman’s family.

[SunSeeker]

23. Not a very tasty sounding name regardless.

"Log Cabin" makes me think of maple syrup.

"Pearl Milling Company" makes me think of those little white plastic nibs that are choking our oceans.

[Blue_true]

25. Yes, not the most inspired name.

But given the history involved with the mix and syrup, it was likely the safest choice.

The situation shows how thoughtless and, often brutal, past conventions were. It was ok to exploit people that didn’t have great job opportunities. It would have been better if those people had been paid respectfully for their contributions to consumer brands and to larger efforts in medicine, science and engineering, I really believe we would be looking at a drastically better world today.

[hlthe2b]

34. No doubt the name change was in order. I'm just wondering if this "forgetabble" name won't be

a marketing disaster. But, they haven't been advertising, afaik, so who knows?

[Dem2theMax]

4. It's nice that they changed the label, but the horrid stuff inside the bottle is the same.

I'll stick with real maple syrup. Yum!

[Dagstead Bumwood]

6. Wow, they even changed the pancake/syrup/pat of butter.

No expense was spared.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I'm OK With It!

It's the name of the company that first packaged self rising cake mixes in the 1880s, although 2 years later they sold out to a bigger company.
Quaker Oats bought that company & its brands in the 1920s.
So, it's just a throwback to its origins.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Good.

It'll probably eventually be called "Pearl's" pancakes/syrup for short. The Aunt Jemima HAD to go.

King Arthur Flour recently revised their name and logo last year to "King Arthur Baking Company" (since they obviously sell more than flour).

[Mariana]

9. The new emblem is fugly. nt.

[tishaLA]

30. I still call it KAF. I resent that they now have

some plastic packaging for carious fours, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. I just call it "King Arthur"

I have a bin of their flours for baking and actually have a box of their brownie mix sitting next to me (checking how many eggs needed, etc) so I can make some in a few days...

[PSPS]

10. Why not "Lillian Richard's?"

Family Of Woman Who Portrayed Aunt Jemima Speaks Out About Quaker Oats's Rebranding Decision
June 29, 2020

Quaker Oats announced earlier this month it's rebranding Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup because of its racist history. But descendants of Lillian Richard, who portrayed Aunt Jemima for years, say the company decided to rename the brand without consulting the families of the women who brought the character to life.

While Vera Harris, Richard’s niece, supports the decision and the Black Lives Matter movement, Aunt Jemima represents a part of history for her family and the town of Hawkins, Texas. “Erasing my Aunt Lillian Richard would erase a part of history,” says Harris, who serves as family historian for the Richard family of Hawkins. “All of the people in my family are happy and proud of Aunt Lillian and what she accomplished.”

Aunt Jemima portrays the white, romanticized notion of an Antebellum “mammy,” detached from the cruel reality of enslavement during the late 19th century. The inspiration for the character came from the song “Old Aunt Jemima.” Starting at the World's Fair in 1893, a formerly enslaved woman named Nancy Green was the first to travel around the country wearing an apron and bandana as Aunt Jemima.

Richard served as one of 12 brand ambassadors starting in 1925. In Hawkins, a historical marker dedicated to her commemorates how she made a career during the time when Black women had very few opportunities.

More at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/29/aunt-jemima-quaker-oats-rebrand

[Jirel]

15. Gee, that might actually right a wrong or two.

We couldn’t have that. We’re just supposed to put a thin coat of whitewash on it, and tell everyone to move on.

On the other hand, would that swill in a bottle really honor her?

[xmas74]

17. Because she wasn't the only one

Or even the first to rep the brand. In this case how can you pick just one woman?

[BumRushDaShow]

32. No.

C.B. Stubblefield, nick-nammed "Stubbs", whipped up batches of BBQ sauce in Texas years ago and was pursuaded to bottle it and sell it. I buy it and it has his image on the label. It was HIS product.



NONE of the "Aunt Jemimas" created nor owned those products and were there because of a sick fascination that the owner of Pearl Milling Company had with "minstrel shows" (and was maintained by the subsequent owners of the brand).

I get that the family of one of the old promotion "employees" want to honor their relative for historical purposes, which at the time, was considered a "step up" from the usual mistreatment, but the damage that was done by being "used" in an oppressive and purposeful stereotypical sense, needs to be rectified.

A similar issue has occurred with Hattie McDaniel, ironically being the "first black" to win an Academy Award. But for what role? A character literally called "Mammy".

[Chainfire]

12. I like cane syrup.

preferably ground by mule power, and cooked in troughs in front of you. Syrup making was a big thing around here when I was a kid. Like many traditions it is slipping away with the generation. I don't really care for Maple syrup, it is too thin and it just doesn't taste right.

[csziggy]

18. We've got a cane grinder and syrup vat here on the farm

I never raised sugar cane but obviously someone did at some point. By the time I bought this place, they were raising pigs and selling them to the local country store for their world famous sausage. They used the syrup vat to scald the hogs after they were killed to make it easier to get the skin off.

I still go the the country store to buy their cane syrup and smoked meats.

[Blue_true]

24. When I was a really young child, my dad would go to a syrup shack.

The shack wasn’t much, just a tin roof held up by some small tree members that had been cut at the same length. Even though the Civil Rights act had been passed, the only grocery store that would (and had been before the Act was passed) serve Black people was the A&P. My parents often got things like fresh vegetables and cured meat from the Black farmers that produced the items, that was cheaper for a poor Black family and it supported Black farmers that made the stuff.

The inside of the syrup shack wasn’t much, a cauldron that was fired directly by oak wood, a grinder that grinder the juice out of the sugar cane, a funneled piece of that looked like tin or zinc that funneled the juice into a trough that dumped in the cauldron. A mule walked around in circles, powering the cane grinder. The ancient old man that owned the syrup shack would pat the mule when it was time to grind more cane and stop it once enough juice had gone into the cauldron, the mule then rested, ate and drank water. There was a large stack of fresh sugarcane on the old man’s truck, which was always parked at the back of the sugar shack. The syrup was excellent, the shack was right off the biggest highway in town, so lots of people would stop by and buy a gallon of the inexpensive but good syrup, Blacks and Whites (one of the only places where I actually met White kids my age whenever my dad stopped there).

Your post brought back a fond childhood memory. It is amazing how people made stuff then. It was simple, but for some reason, nothing needed preservatives, mostly because it was local and locals used it up right away.

[csziggy]

26. Yes, I remember going to Alabama in the early 1960s

And seeing the syrup shacks along the way. Mom would want to stop, but Dad - who had not grown up in that culture - never would. Mom had grown up in a poor white family in Central Alabama and she spent time with blacks in the area. Dad's northern parents were not at all liberal and always treated blacks badly. Dad wouldn't eat cane syrup since he'd been brought up to think it was inferior to "real" syrup.

The black family we bought this farm from were old fashioned. I never met the parents, but when we made our offer the land had been in probate for six and a half years (you have seven to finish probate) and thirteen heirs. The house never had indoor plumbing and they got the water for themselves and the pigs out of a hand dug well out in the woods. We gave them a good cash offer and they jumped on it. We've run into some of the heirs over the years. That cash payment allowed most of them to buy or build houses and they are wonderful people. One even brought his grandchildren to see where he grew up.

It's that kind of heritage that the old country store down the road preserves, which is one reason we try to buy there when we can.

[Blue_true]

28. You are lucky to have direct access to that old country store.

The few that were around when I was growing up disappeared long ago.

[csziggy]

33. This one is a National Register of Historic Places site

Plus they make the best smoked sausage in the world - people order it from all over. One story is an actor liked it so much he had his private jet stop over in Tallahassee so he could pick up an order.

If you're ever near Tallahassee, stop on by at Bradley's Country Store: http://www.bradleyscountrystore.com/index.php?route=common/home

[GulfCoast66]

37. Their spicy head cheese is great. Even better than their sausage.

My grandfather had a mule powered mill, however he did not make cane syrup, but sorghum syrup which I prefer to this day. Love that strong taste.

Have a nice day.

[Chainfire]

40. I am very familiar with Bradley's

I lived in Tallahassee for years and live near there still. The do make some good sausage.

[Retrograde]

29. You can have all of mine, then

it's too thick and doesn't taste right

I always think of maple syrup as a northern thing, since that's where sugar maples grow. For reasons I can't comprehend, my sister used to give me small bottles of actual maple syrup she acquired on her trips, but always used colored corn syrup at her house. Corn and sorghum syrup I think of as southern things, along with such concoctions as Alaga syrup, which reminded me of an off-brand molasses.

[Raine]

13. Since they were changing the name seems like they could've found a better one

then that!

[ecstatic]

16. Thanks for the heads up

The other day I couldn't find my favorite pancake mix. I wonder if it was there under the new design and I missed it.

[JDC]

20. So is Pearl Milling a person or is it the Pearl MILLING Company?

If the latter, Pearl Mills would have been a better choice IMO.

[hlthe2b]

21. Per their press statement:

“Though new to store shelves, Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima,” the statement reads.

[JDC]

22. Thanks. I shoulda clicked into it. Appreciate this

[FSogol]

39. Minnie Pearl Pancake Mix. Got it.

[JanMichael]

27. Still the same sugar syrup. Go type 2! nt

[Vinca]

36. If you're going to consume all that sugar, just go for the real thing: pure maple syrup.

Which reminds me it's February and "sugaring" season will start very soon up here in Vermont and New Hampshire.

[Klaralven]

38. I never put syrup on pancakes, just a little butter

That way you can actually taste the grain.

Cane sugar is a double sugar. Each molecule consists of a glucose and a fructose molecule bound together, so it is 50% fructose by the time it enters your blood stream after the molecule is split in your gut.