Crescent Foods building on Maynard Ave in Seattle in 1983

Crescent Foods, Inc. was a

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

and

flavoring A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gusta ...

s company founded in 1883 that was bought by

McCormick & Company McCormick & Company, Incorporated is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavoring products to retail outlets, food manufacturers, and foodservice businesses. Thei ...

in 1989.

Earliest history

Seattle - Crescent Manufacturing Company - 1900

Crescent's earliest incarnation was a spice business operated in a Seattle store. Six years after its creation came the

Great Seattle fire The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington on June 6, 1889. The conflagration lasted for less than a day, burning through the afternoon and into the night, and during the same sum ...

, and then the economic depression of 1893 which the company struggled through. Business recovered in 1897 with the discovery of gold in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

. Seattle became the jumping off point for the Klondike Gold Rush as the last city between the continental U.S. and the gold fields of the north.

Mapleine

Crescent's best known product was Mapleine, an imitation maple flavoring that became popular during the Great Depression to create a table syrup that substitutes

maple syrup Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple t ...

. Crescent had introduced Mapleine at the

Puyallup Fair The Washington State Fair, formerly the Puyallup Fair, is the largest single attraction held annually in the U.S. state of Washington. It continually ranks in the top ten largest fairs in the United States and includes agricultural and pastor ...

in 1908, and exhibited it prominently at the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific (AYP) Exposition. A ''Coast'' magazine issue promoting Seattle for the AYP included an article by and about Crescent boasting that it had "spread the fame of Seattle throughout the Western hemisphere" and "made Seattle famous—and blessed among millions of lovers of maple sweets." An early enforcement action of the United States Pure Food and Drug Act in 1909 concerned a shipment of Mapleine confiscated in Chicago. The case was ''United States of America v. Three Hundred Cases of Crescent Mapleine'' in which it was found that the product was misleadingly labeled to represent actual maple extract. The case was cited as a precedent for the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

1916 decision in ''

United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola ''United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola'', 241 U.S. 265 (1916), was a federal suit under which the government unsuccessfully attempted to force The Coca-Cola Company to remove caffeine from its product. Context In 1906, Har ...

''.

Centennial, 1983

When the company's

centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

was near, the owners hired

Archie Satterfield Archie Satterfield (June 18, 1933 – November 21, 2011) was a Seattle-based author and journalist. Satterfield was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks. He joined the American Navy in 1952 and later graduated with an English degree from the ...

to produce a book based on interviews with the owners and longtime employees. "Archie produced exactly what we wanted: A conservative chronicle that we used for gifts and public relations," said Dick Weaver, Vice President.

Sale

In 1989, the retail spice business of Crescent Foods was purchased by

. Mapleine flavoring is still manufactured by McCormick, under the Crescent brand name.

References

External links