Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Coffee Hour at Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’ve been working on, and our opinions on current events. Today’s discussion is sponsored by that common kitchen appliance known as the blender.
Our story begins in Racine, Wisconsin in 1922. One of the heroes of this story is Stephen J. Poplawski (as you may have deduced from the name, he is a Polish-American). Poplawski’s favorite drink was the malted milk shake. From childhood, he had had an obsession with designing gadgets that helped to mix beverages. After seven years of experimentation, Poplawski invented and patented the blender: the first mixer to have an agitating mechanism at the bottom. As an aside, he originally called it a “vibrator.” He envisioned his new machine behind the counter of every soda fountain in America. He never envisioned it being used for the maceration of fruits and vegetables. His company was eventually purchased by Oster Manufacturing.
But Wait! There’s More! There’s competition! Fred Waring, a famous band leader, also had a favorite drink: the daiquiri. He wanted to make it easier for bartenders to make perfect daiquiris every time and so in 1936 his Waring Mixer Corporation launched the Waring Blendor. The new machine was spelled with an “o” to distinguish it from the competition. Waring aggressively marketed the Blendor to bartenders, but the advertising campaign acquainted the American public with the new machine.
Unlike Poplawski, Waring was not an inventor. In 1936, Waring’s band, the Pennsyvanians, had concluded a Ford radio broadcast in Manhattan’s Vanderbilt Theater, when a friend demonstrated one of Poplawski’s blenders. The friend saw a great potential for the blender in bars and sought Waring’s advice and financial backing. As a result, the mixer was redesigned, renamed, and introduced in the 1936 National Restaurant Show.
The blender became more popular when the Ron Rico Rum Company launched a major campaign to teach bartenders and others how to use a blender in making exotic rum drinks. By the 1950s, blenders were common in bars, restaurants, and kitchens.
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee (malted milk shake or daiquiri) hour, an open thread where we can share blender recipes (which state of confusion insists must include smoothies), or just talk about politics, religion, cats, or whatever else is on your mind.