Pamela Low, 79, Developed Sugar Coat for Cap’n Crunch
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Pamela Low, who was credited with developing the flavored coating for Cap’n Crunch cereal, died in New London, Conn., on Friday. She was 79.
Low was working for the Arthur D. Little consulting firm in the Boston area when she was asked to help find a flavor for the corn-and-oat cereal. She had studied microbiology at the University of New Hampshire, but drew upon a recipe that her grandmother, Luella Low, used to serve at home in Derry, N.H.
“She used to serve rice with a butter-and-brown sugar sauce that she made. She’d serve it over the rice on Sundays,” William Low, an Ohio resident and one of Pamela Low’s younger brothers, recalled in an interview with the Lebanon Valley News.
Cap’n Crunch was introduced in 1963.
Low, who never married, worked as a flavorist for Arthur D. Little for more than 30 years, and also tinkered with flavors for snacks such as Almond Joy and Mounds.
In a 2002 alumni profile in UNH Magazine, Low said she found her Cap’n Crunch legacy to be fun, but said she didn’t eat the cereal herself.
But she also defended the notion of pre-sweetened cereal. “Give the kids plain cereal and see how much sugar they put on it,” she said.
