Carnation Evaporated Milk (Tin)

Description:

We all remember tins of Evaporated milk being used in puddings of our childhood.  Particularly in rice puddings, making it nice and creamy.

Carnation advertised the Evaporated Milk with pictures of cows grazing in grass below a mountain area and with the phrase “From contented cows. Green grass the whole year round on the North Pacific Coast”.  Being stored in a tin the milk remained fresh until the tin was opened and then lasted for a few more days.  One of the first convenience foods.

The Carnation name itself was inspired by a cigar brand which caught the eye of a food retailer E.A.Stuart as he walked down a Seattle street. Using it in tandem with a flower logo and bold red and white colours. Stuart also understood that the quality of the final product relied upon the highest possible hygiene and farming practices. The Pacific Coast Co started marketing their product as milk from ‘contented cows’.

In the 1880s a man called Johann Baptist Meyenberg worked for the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Switzerland. He came up with an idea for a new process for sterilising and manufacturing unsweetened condensed milk (what we now call Evaporated Milk). Unfortunately, Johann’s boss was less than enthusiastic about pursuing the project further. So instead of accepting this lack-lustre reaction, Johann struck out on his own. He moved to the States where, in 1899, he teamed-up with food retailers E. A. Stuart and Tom Yerxa to create the Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company. They launched Carnation canned Evaporated Milk that year.