Ready Brek
| Ready Brek | |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | |
| Place of origin: | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Creator(s): | |
| J. Lyons and Co. | |
| Main ingredient(s): | |
| Oats | |
| Food energy (per serving): | |
| 142 kcal (595 kJ) | |
| Recipes at Wikibooks: | |
 Ready Brek | |
| Media at Wikimedia Commons: | |
 Ready Brek |
Ready Brek (sometimes written Ready brek) is an oat-based breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited. It is intended to be served hot, and comes in four varieties — 'original', 'chocolate', 'honey' and 'Seriously Oaty'. A butterscotch flavour was marketed during the 1970s. In the early 1970s Butter Flavour Ready Brek (not the later Butterscotch flavour) was also available.
History
Ready Brek was originally produced by J. Lyons and Co., created from experimentation by Walter Pitts, the Greenford factory manager from the Tea Division of Lyons.
It was launched in 1957 as an instant porridge, then in 1969 as an instant hot cereal. The product is now called a smooth porridge, as porridge is now once again popular. The brand was purchased by Weetabix in June 1990, and it is understandably more popular in autumn and winter. Ready Brek had the slogan Central heating for kids and Get up and Glow, and TV adverts during the 1970s and 1980s showed children walking to school with a dramatic radiant glow. In a survey entitled 'Cereal offenders' by Which?, Ready Brek was found to have the lowest added salt and sugar of all breakfast cereals tested.[citation needed]
Flavours
In production
- Original
- Chocolate
- Honey
- Seriously Oaty
Discontinued
- Banana
- Butterscotch
- Strawberry
- Butter
- Syrup
Ready Brek Dragon
During the 80s and 90s, Ready Brek did have its own mascot, a Welsh Dragon called Ready Eddy to symbolise the warmth of Ready Brek. In the 2000s, he was replaced with a road crossing symbol of a parent and child. In 2011 the Ready Brek dragon returned for a limited period only lasting until autumn 2012.