I adore marmalade, particularly Frank Cooper's stuff with big lumps of orange peel in it and a wonderfully full-bodied tang that, unlike others, isn't sidelined for masses of sugar.
As with Corn Flakes, marmalade was introduced to me via my Father who often chose to adorn his toast with it. Admittedly, my young taste buds didn't get on too well with the tang of marmalade at first and I often opted for sweeter preserves. However, I did persist with marmalade and I always felt tremendously grown up when I joined in with my Father. Needless to say, these days I consider marmalade on toast to be one of finest eating experiences as the crunch of toast is married with the bite of orange peel, a subtle sweetness and powerful zesty notes all carried along on a creamy layer of buttery goodness.
As for the packaging of the Frank Cooper's product pictured above, it hasn't changed from how I remember it as a child. It proudly displays the Royal Seal, has a simple black and white colour scheme, uses formal block typeface and features "Frank Cooper" in a handwritten-looking font to communicate a product of maturity, quality and class. Fantastic stuff.
"The Sunshine Breakfast", what slogan could be better for a country in which its inhabitants routinely complain about the bad weather. Indeed, I wake up to a bowl of sunshine nearly everyday with Kellogg's Corn Flakes taking pride of place in my breakfast cupboard. Without hesitation, I would go as far as saying that this is one of the best cereal products out there with everything from the packaging and taste to the TV advertising on the money for me. Moreover, being a British food icon through-and-through, Corn Flakes always makes me feel at home when I see a box of the stuff on my travels. This was picked up on in Douglas Adams wonderful 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' (if you don't know what this is, please Google immediately or wait for my post on it!) where Arthur Dent (a human) is travelling through space with some new alien friends after the Earth, along with its inhabitants, gets blown to smithereens. When Arthur suddenly yearns for something he can relate to, what is imagined? A box of Corn Flakes and a good old cuppa.
Like many of the foods I now enjoy, my love for this cereal was passed on from my father who would regularly tuck in to a bowl of Corn Flakes with chopped banana and raisins scattered on top. Sweet toothed, this combination of cereal and fruit went down well and made my mother rather happy to see me eating something relatively healthy; however, these days I find the likes of banana, whilst very tasty and texturally interesting, overpower the cereal's taste. Eaten as they are with some milk, you get that texture sensation of beautifully crunchy cereal on top and a varying degree of mushiness at the bottom according to soak time. The flakes are delicate and disappear in your mouth in no time, however, they have just the right amount of sweetness and a distinct flavour of corn.
Packaging-wise, the design still proudly sports the iconic image of the rooster, named Cornelius (Corny) Rooster, in green, red and gold that keys in so well to that healthy, wholesome image of country living. At the bottom right, the box now depicts Corn Flakes exploding out from a bowl like rays of sunlight in order to reinforce the slogan. Also, at the top it reads "If it doesn't say Kellogg's on the box, it isn't Kellogg's in the box" to warn the consumer against the plethora of cheaper Corn Flakes that have entered the market - products that I have tried on the odd occasion and have always turned out to be inferior. One nice addition, shown in the images above, is the way those clever people at Kellogg's have designed the box so, with by a bit of origami, you can reseal it - bag included -without the need for any ties or clips. Overall, by using only a few prominent colours and uncluttered imagery, the impression you get is one of a very clean, grown-up design that also catches the eye as you scan through the shelves.
Before I finish, I want to spotlight the following piece of Kellogg's Corn Flakes TV advertising because I remember it so fondly. This ad led me into a full blown Corn Flakes eating obsession due to the suggestion that they were Santa's cereal of choice. From the set design and lighting that oozes a warm Christmas feeling to the adorable child actor and Santa that meet over a treasured bowl of Corn Flakes, this ad is simply entrancing.
