This article is part of our Cocktail Chatter series, where we dive into the wild, weird, and wondrous corners of history to share over a cocktail and impress your friends.
What’s a bagel without a schmear? Ubiquitous on breakfast tables nationwide and a key ingredient in numerous desserts, cream cheese is one of America’s most consumed cheeses, with a market value exceeding $3.6 billion.
Of the multitude of options lining the shelves, though, none are quite as popular as Philadelphia Cream Cheese. And while the brand is often (and rightfully) associated with the City of Brotherly Love, most would probably be shocked to know that Philadelphia Cream Cheese was actually created in New York.
What we now consider cream cheese was first invented in 1872 by William Lawrence, a New York dairy farmer. Lawrence had originally purchased an operating Neufchâtel factory in Chester, N.Y., a few years prior, and got his start producing the soft, aged cheese traditionally made in Neufchâtel, France. Shortly after starting his operation, he was approached by one of his clients, a grocer in New York, and asked to make a richer, creamer, spreadable cheese to sell to customers.
So Lawrence added more cream to his traditional Neufchâtel recipe, gave the new spread the name cream cheese, and started selling it to the grocery store. In 1877, he launched his official cheese brand under the name Neufchâtel & Cream Cheese. Three years later, however, he would be approached by a broker who would take his business to new heights.
In 1880, New York cheese broker Alvah Reynolds stumbled upon Neufchâtel & Cream Cheese and saw the potential for the product to be a huge hit, but thought the brand needed a new name; he proposed the name Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
See, while Wisconsin might now be considered America’s Dairyland, it was Philadelphia that had the reputation for producing the country’s best dairy products in the 1800s. As Europeans migrated in the early 19th century, many farmers in the Philadelphia area raised cattle for beef, and their wives used milk to create highly sought-after butters and cheeses. They had a reputation for their high quality, but due to their perishability, they were only available in the immediate area and thus viewed as a luxury product.
Reynolds figured he and Lawrence would be able to capitalize on Philadelphia’s standing in the dairy industry, and thus Philadelphia Cream Cheese was born. And Reynolds was right. Following the rebrand, the cheese was so popular that multiple additional dairy factories had to be developed to fulfill demand. All the while, though, production remained in New York. In 1903, Lawrence sold the rights to Philadelphia Cream Cheese to the Phenix Cheese Co., a Cooperstown, N.Y.-based company that later merged with the Kraft Cheese Company in 1928.
Today, Kraft Heinz continues to manufacture the brand, which is now available in over 80 countries. While production has since expanded outside New York, never once in its 145-year history has Philadelphia Cream Cheese been produced in Philadelphia.
*Image retrieved from Jammy Jean via stock.adobe.com
