Ritz crackers are a tried and true snack cracker that have stood the test of time. Ritz crackers
are perfect as a compliment to meat or cheese or just a tasty snack all on its own. From
its early beginnings to unique marketing, this is the story of Ritz.
The American cracker that we all know and love today originated in the late 18th century
as a New England variation on hardtack. An essay in the New England Historical Society
explains that hardtack, a kind of bread baked until it has no water content left, has been
a staple of soldiers' and sailors' rations for hundreds of years. Hardtack was prized
for its shelf life, surviving decades if stored properly. However, it was hard as a rock and
not very tasty. Bakers in New England solved this problem by adding leavening, producing
a tasty cracker more like what we enjoy today.
Former seaman Josiah Bent started producing leavened crackers in 1801, further refining
the so-called "common cracker" by manufacturing smaller water crackers. Bent's bakery was
one of several operations in the Northeast that consolidated into the New York Biscuit
Company, which merged with another bakery to form the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco,
in 1898. Nabisco went on to dominate the cracker industry, developing Ritz crackers in 1934.
When Ritz crackers were released at the height of the Great Depression, the name was associated
with the epitome of luxury. Hotelier Cesar Ritz became famous in the first part of the
20th century for his fancy hotels, and anything calling itself Ritz in the 1930s was advertising
itself as high-class. The humble crackers really were perceived as fancy at the time,
showing up on the menu at New York's swanky Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
"Come on, say caviar. Cah-vee-ar. What? Come on, man, say it.”
“Ritz."
Americans with tight wallets during the Great Depression viewed Ritz as an affordable way
to get a little taste of a wealthy lifestyle. A mere 19 cents could procure a box of the
same cracker that was being served to robber barons eating at expensive hotels. Ritz's
advertising allowed consumers to fantasize about better times in the middle of great
difficulties.
Although Ritz's version ended up being the most popular butter cracker in the world,
it was not the first. News-Graphic reports that Nabisco developed the recipe to compete
with its rival Sunshine Biscuit. Sunshine's Hi Ho butter crackers ultimately couldn't
survive the competition from Ritz, and they were discontinued after the company merged
with Keebler.
Ritz wasn't the only time Nabisco ripped off Sunshine. Atlas Obscura reveals that Nabisco's
Oreos are a shameless copy of Sunshine's earlier Hydrox cookies. As with Hi Hos, Hydrox were
eventually driven to extinction by Nabisco's superior marketing and distribution. Unlike
the butter crackers, however, Hydrox got a new lease on life when Leaf purchased the
name and started making their own version. Despite their competitor's corporate skulduggery,
Sunshine got the last laugh. They still make America's most profitable cracker, Cheez-Its,
which according to Statista outsell Ritz by about $200 million a year.
Ritz taste buttery, toasty, and salty. Apples taste sweet, sour, and juicy. You wouldn't
think that you could make a convincing fake apple pie filling with Ritz crackers, but
it actually works. The secret, according to iO9, is cream of tartar, a powdered acid that's
produced as part of the winemaking process. Since cream of tartar comes from grapes, it
has a fruity flavor that infuses the crackers and makes them taste vaguely like apples.
Many people think that Nabisco invented mock apple pie to help sell more crackers during
the Great Depression, but Culinary Lore debunks this myth. Although Nabisco popularized the
recipe when they started printing it on cracker boxes during World War II, mock apple pie
recipes have been found as far back as the 19th century, when they were usually made
with saltines or water crackers. Although mock apple pie was created during a time when
fresh fruit could be expensive and hard to come by, it's no longer a bargain compared
to the real thing. These days, fresh apples are cheaper than Ritz.
"How do you like them apples?"
By the time Nabisco introduced Ritz, they already dominated the cracker industry. The
Gilded Age was a time of consolidation and monopolies. American Business History says
that Nabisco's chairman A.W. Green used a combination of perfectionism, bullying, and
Machiavellian scheming to take over the majority of America's cracker and biscuit production
by the late 19th century. Some bakers resisted, splitting from the trust to form Sunshine,
but they couldn't compete with Nabisco's muscle.
It's no wonder that within a year of their release, Ritz crackers swamped all of their
competitors. By 1935, less than 24 months after their debut, Ritz had already sold 5
billion crackers. At the time, that meant that on average, every person in America ate
40 Ritz a year. Ritz eclipsed every other cracker in stores, swiftly becoming the most
popular cracker in the global market.
"Everything tastes great when it sits on a ritz."
You wouldn't think of cigarette companies as being suited to selling food, but according
to American Business History, that didn't stop two different tobacco conglomerates from
trying to find success by buying Nabisco. First, Camel manufacturer R.J. Reynolds bought
Nabisco in 1985 as part of an effort to move away from tobacco. R.J. Reynolds brought a
more ostentatious swagger to the company's C-suite, but then RJR Nabisco fell victim
to a leveraged buyout by venture capital firm KKR. The new owners drove the company into
debt and then re-listed it on the stock market at a deflated value.
Philip Morris, the company behind Marlboro cigarettes, swooped in and bought the struggling
company in 2000 for almost $15 billion. Like R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris proved ill-suited
to running a food empire, and the company divested all its food brands six years after
acquiring Nabisco. Snack food and cigarettes may both be addictive, but it turns out that
Americans don't like buying their food and their poison from the same people.
Ritz might not be America's best-selling cracker anymore, but sales figures aren't the only
way to measure popularity. Insider reports that a YouGov poll of American consumers rated
Ritz as not just America's favorite cracker, but its favorite overall snack brand. Rather
than measuring purchases, YouGov conducted this study by asking people how they felt
about brands on a scale of -100 to 100. It was close, but Ritz edged out Lays with an
average score of 54 to 52.5. These brands were the only two to score over 50 in the
survey.
Digital Media Solutions argues that nostalgia is one of the most important factors that
encourage consumers to develop brand loyalty. Nostalgia incites a heightened sense of emotion
that brands can take advantage of to create positive associations. Nabisco and Ritz have
been around for as long as most of us can remember, and many of us have fond childhood
memories that involve Nabisco brands.
"When I want a cracker, I want a Ritz."
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