When we were in Philly in March my sister-in-law said in passing that Philadelphia Cream Cheese doesn’t come from Philadelphia. Then at home yesterday we were discussing iconic New York foods (the theme for next Sunday’s fellowship dinner) and my mother-in-law mentioned that cream cheese comes from New York. Apparently the time is right for a quick blog post about the world’s best bagel topping.
1872 – William Lawrence, a dairyman from the small town of Chester (about an hour from New York City), invented cream cheese when he added too much cream to a batch of Neufchâtel cheese he was trying to make.
1880 – Lawrence partnered with A.L. Reynolds to distribute larger quantities of cream cheese; they named it Philadelphia because that city had a reputation for high quality dairy products.
1903 – The Phenix Cheese company bought the Philadelphia trademark.
1928 – Phenix merged with Kraft to form the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company. (Today Philadelphia Cream Cheese is owned by Kraft Heinz and Mondelez International.)
Philadelphia Cream Cheese remains the most popular cheese brand in the world, sold in more than one hundred countries.