In the midst of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the amazing Apollo 11 mission, I realized some of my earliest food passions orbited around the idea of going to the moon.
And no, it’s not because of the old wives’ tale about it being made of cheese. That would have been tastier. I’m talking about Tang, Space Food Sticks, and Quisp.
I was in grade school during the fervor of the space race in the mid-1960s. (I’ll wait while you do the math.) One of my best friends, Tommy, and I were total science geeks, obsessed with all things outer space, and wanted to be astronauts. One of our favorite flights of fancy was drawing rather outlandish spaceships. They were layouts more appropriate to opulent condo brochures — complete with family rooms, individual bedrooms, laboratories, and very spacious kitchens. Clearly our science education hadn’t yet covered the details of engine thrust, propulsion, and fuel expenditure necessary to leave the earth’s orbit. You know, stuff like rocket science.
While I don’t remember Tommy’s astro-centric culinary preferences, I clearly remember mine – the aforementioned instant drink, snack items, and breakfast cereal.
The sticks and cereal hold no appeal now, but I thought about revisiting Tang if I could find it. This powdered, orange-flavored drink mix was first created for mere earthlings in the late 1950s, and hit the market shelves in 1959. There it sat in relative obscurity until NASA realized it was an easy way to make astronauts’ water taste better. It was first used by John Glenn on a Mercury mission in 1962, and remained part of NASA’s manned missions through the Gemini and Apollo programs.
Tang’s then parent company, General Foods, made the most of that NASA connection, even marketing it with the tagline “Tang. For spacemen and earth families.” It can still be found on some supermarket shelves, but its wild popularity ultimately went the way of the space craze. Even Buzz Aldrin was rumored to have said “Tang sucks,” in later years. Having indeed found Tang at a local supermarket – in both regular and supersized formats, no less – I tend to agree with him. I was all set to buy some, and then looked at the ingredients!
By most modern culinary standards, Space Food Sticks would be “food” in name only. Developed by Pillsbury’s food scientists for NASA, these Tootsie-Rollish sticks were consumed by Apollo astronauts, and were arguably the precursors to today’s energy bars. Among the flavors were chocolate, malt, and peanut butter, and they all tasted like … well, like you were getting your nutrition, and that’s as nice as I can be. Nonetheless, I begged my mom to put them in my lunch box so I could continue my junior astronaut training. Allegedly, someone’s looking into bringing them back laced with pot, which might make them taste better … or at least it wouldn’t matter.
As for Quisp, it was launched by Quaker Oats in 1965, no doubt because they wanted to hitch a ride on the profits stemming from space-related products. Quisp was released along with another cereal called Quake, and both had very goofy cartoon characters to represent them. Quake was a burly lumberjack, Quisp was a dorky-looking, cross-eyed alien with a spinning top head. If this is any indication of other life in the universe, I fear the worst.
The whole premise of the Quisp and Quake marketing plan was to pit the characters against each other, usually in the same commercial, and have kids choose their favorite. You do have to admire that genius. After all, how do you know which is your favorite unless you endlessly pester your mom to buy both boxes? If you ever had doubts that sugary breakfast cereals are marketed to children, this should put those to rest.
The final year of the Quisp v. Quake competition was 1972, when Quaker Oats planned to discontinue one of the brands. Quisp came out victorious, and has remained in limited on-and-off production ever since. I don’t remember actually voting, but I remember liking Quisp because it tasted like another favorite cereal – Cap’n Crunch. Also made by Quaker Oats, also a sugar bomb, and also marketed by a cartoon. I guess I fell for the marketing.
Thankfully, I’m now light years away from these culinary preferences, and definitely far removed from wanting to be an astronaut. However, they do have better food in space nowadays, which seems only fair. After all, if we can put a man on the moon …
–– article & heading artwork by Katy Budge