C.W. Post launched what is today one of the largest cereal companies in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 1895, in a small barn in Battle Creek.
His first product was Postum, a coffee substitute. Post was determined to create “a healthful coffee to be made of nourishing grains, that would have a good snappy flavor and, satisfying the user’s palate, would feed and rebuild the nerve centres broken down by coffee or other stimulants and narcotics,” according to a company booklet published in 1906.
After hundreds of tries, the final recipe included wheat, pure New Orleans molasses, potash, lime, iron and diatase.
Sources :
Historical Society of Michigan
Zlati Meyer, “C.W. Post founded what would become namesake cereal co.”, Detroit Free Press, December 28, 2014.
For more information about Postum, see Wikipedia entry
Also check out Post Heritage