history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

children could not see the gaping public that was watching
them through a scrim (one-way window). By 1938 the thenastonishing
sum of $600,000 was placed in a trust fund for
the Quints; nearly all of it was derived from commercial
endorsements. The amount collected would eventually
amount to $11.5 million in today’s dollars. None of it went to
their parents.
The fi rst Quint to die was Emilie, in 1954, of epilepsy.
Annette was the fi rst to marry in 1957. Others married later
but none of their marriages lasted. Marie died in 1970.
Contains many photos of all quints at various ages–1934,
1936, 1943, 1951. Address: Contributing editor.
1155. Product Name: WholeSoy Creamy Cultured Soy
(Soy Yogurt) [Mixed Berry, Apricot Mango, Strawberry
Banana]. Renamed WholeSoy Soy Yogurt in about 2001.
Manufacturer’s Name: WholeSoy Co.
Manufacturer’s Address: San Francisco, California.
Phone: 415-495-2870.
Date of Introduction: 1998. June.
How Stored: Refrigerated.
New Product–Documentation: Galeaz, Kim. 2000. “Great
tasting soy yogurt, great tasting recipes.” News (Okeechobee,
Florida). Jan. 26. The “many new, different and great tasting
soy yogurts on the market” include “WholeSoy Creamy
Cultured Soy, White Wave Silk Dairyless Soy, and Galaxy
Foods Veggie Yogurt.” These are sold in 6-ounce plastic
cups.
Talk with Ted Nordquist. 2000. Aug. 18. Sales of
Ted’s WholeSoy soy yogurt “are going through the roof”
= increasing dramatically. Ted is moving production from
Fullerton (in a plant owned by Morningstar). to SSI (Super
Store Industries) in Turlock, California–just south of
Modesto.
Leafl et sent by Patricia Smith from Natural Products
Expo in Anaheim, California. 2002. March. “New!” Shows
large color photos of packages of the three new fl avors of
spoonable soy yogurt in cups. “Sales info: Oasis Sales and
Marketing, 144 Weeks Way, Sebastopol, CA 95472.”
Leafl et. 2004. Sept. 28 (dated). “Taste Matters! Eleven
delicious fl avors from the best selling soy yogurt in natural
foods. Best selling because it’s the best tasting. Enjoy!” The
company name is now WholeSoy & Co. The eleven fl avors
are lemon, raspberry, plain, strawberry, vanilla, mixed berry,
cherry, apricot mango, strawberry banana, blueberry, and
peach.
Letter (e-mail) from Ted Nordquist, founder and owner
of WholeSoy & Co. 2012. Sept. 18. Shurtleff’s questions
and Ted’s answers. Q: What was the name of your fi rst,
pioneering cultured soy product in the USA? Ans: Soy
Yogurt. In 1998, at a plant in Fullerton, California (owned
by Morningstar) “Soy Yogurt” was already printed on our
cups. But a California inspector saw the cups before we
fi lled the fi rst round and insisted we change the name from
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 441
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
“Soy Yogurt” to something else. So we changed the name to
“Creamy Cultured Soy.” Later, around 2001, we moved to
Super Store Industries in Turlock, California, for production
and changed the name back to WholeSoy “Soy Yogurt.”
Q: What year and month was this product fi rst sold
commercially? Ans: Launched at Natural Products Expo
East (in Baltimore) in Sept. 1998. Steve Ford of Brown
Cow allowed me to demo It was so kind of the Ford family;
I wasn’t even on the program at the Expo. the father and
mother, Barry and his wife, Steve Ford and his wife were
all there. the soy yogurts in a corner of his Brown Cow
Booth. Brown Cow was the master warehouse and general
distributor. So Steve and Barry Ford were taking the orders.
In Feb. 2003 Stonyfi eld Farm bought Brown Cow (Antioch,
California). We were forced to stay with Stonyfi eld / Brown
Cow until around 2009. They sued us for $850,000 when
we did leave, but Henry Glasser (Ted’s business partner)
won the lawsuit over their lawyers from France representing
Danone. We now handle all of our own warehousing and
logistics.
Q: Do you still have any graphics / sell sheets that
show this fi rst product? Ans: Yes, but you will have to pay
Sugarman Designs for their time to go through their archives.
Note: Unfortunately Ted is unable to produce any evidence
of this 1998 date.
Q: What fl avors were available when it was fi rst sold
commercially? Ans: It was sold under the Trader Joe’s label
and the WholeSoy label in 6 oz. cups. The fl avors were plain,
strawberry, peach, and raspberry.
Talk with Ted Nordquist. 2012. Sept. 22. When making
cups of Creamy Cultured Soy at the Morningstar plant in
Fullerton–we were too small for them. The plant manager,
who was very nice, told Ted that Ted’s volume was so small
that it was going to be very diffi cult in that plant to give
Ted a consistent product. The very fi rst product Ted made at
the Fullerton plant was for Trader Joe’s–in all four fl avors.
“The minimum we could make was 2 pallets (300 cases)
for each fl avor–plain, peach, strawberry, and raspberry. So,
for example, we did 150 cases of Trader Joe’s Plain and
150 cases of WholeSoy Plain. This was in about May or
June 1998, before the Natural Products Expo East.” “We
had already signed on UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.)
warehouses; that whole distribution network was already in
place when I went to the Natural Products Expo East.” “We
were making it in Fullerton in May, 1998. We shipped it out
3 days after it was made. We were paid 10 days after we
shipped it to the distributor.” To the best of Ted’s memory,
the fi rst Creamy Cultured Soy was fi rst sold commercially,
at a retail store (Trader Joe’s), in late May or early June
of 1998. Soon after that the WholeSoy brand of Creamy
Cultured Soy started to be sold. Greg Hartman, of Oasis
Sales and Marketing, was Ted’s sales organization. So it
was Greg Hartman and the Fords who really put together
the distribution and sales of Creamy Cultured Soy. Ted is