An open letter to the Quaker Oats Company

Quaker Oats Company
P.O. Box 049003
Chicago, IL 60604-9003

Dear Quaker Oats Company:

My family and I have long been fans of your products, especially your cereal Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch. Recently when I was in the grocery store, I realized that we had not purchased Peanut Butter Crunch lately, and I bought a box to bring home to my family as a treat. My daughter was especially excited to see the familiar orange box with the blue-uniformed Captain on the front.

However, when we sat down at the dining room table to eat a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch, my daughter and I both noticed that the cereal seemed somehow different both in terms of texture and taste. After several servings each and several conversations, here are the major changes we noticed:
1. The individual pieces of cereal no longer are round. Instead, they have a cylindrical shape.
2. Previously each piece had a crispy outside with a relatively hollow interior. Now it seems that the texture is uniform throughout – in many ways it reminded us of Styrofoam, unfortunately.
3. The cereal seems less sweet and less peanut buttery. This was especially noticeable when we had eaten all the cereal and went to drink the milk (sometimes I think this is the best part…). The milk tasted only faintly of Peanut Butter Crunch, instead of strongly as in the past.

All of this information leads me to an inevitable question: are the changes we noticed the result of some sort of mistake in the manufacturing process, or are they the result of a deliberate change in ingredients or recipe? To be quite honest, if this box of cereal was the result of an accident, I am certainly willing to eat it again. However, if this experience was the result of a change away from the old recipe to a “new and improved” one, I would be very, very disappointed.

I have been a life-long fan of Peanut Butter Crunch, all the other Cap’n Crunch cereals, and Quaker Oats products in general. Perhaps I fell briefly out of touch and missed a publicity campaign about changing Peanut Butter Crunch. All I can say, however, is this– if this glorious cereal has been changed, for God’s sake change it back!

I look forward to hearing from you soon with a reply about this subject.

Sincerely,

Andrew Russell

P.S. I have enclosed the package top so that you will have the information about which box I ate and which facility it came from.

(This letter was mailed 9-23-08: We'll keep you posted if we hear anything back!)