Annie's Mac and Cheese is based in the Bay Area, but Annie is not.

March 26, 2021 12:55 PM

Here's her story. Withey’s face was almost plastered on the original early '90s rollout of mac and cheese boxes, but she “promptly put an end to that idea,” she says. She went with her bunny named Bernie instead. Withey has a keener eye for the business side of things than she allows herself to admit (or lets on). “There's nothing more powerful than word-of-mouth advertising,” she wrote to me. She employed “guerilla marketing” tactics and would drop off Annie’s boxes anywhere she could, really. “Physically putting boxes in the hands of people was so much fun for me,” she says.

After her daughter was born in 1997, Withey found comfort in organic farming and began selling vegetables at farmers markets in the area. It afforded her a modicum of anonymity, and let her put food directly into people’s hands again. When Solera Capital swooped in, Withey saw an exit plan. She assumed the “inspirational president” title so she could mostly get out of the way. “I made it clear that I wasn’t comfortable being the spokesperson for the company and, thankfully, there were people in place that stepped up as spokespeople,” she says.

posted by schoolgirl report (21 comments total)

wow, i learned a lot.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:02 PM on March 26, 2021

Huh! I didn't know that Annie's was a big-company brand now. I thought it was independent. I also didn't know that Smartfood was invented by non-food scientists; it seemed like something from the light-snack boom of the '90s.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:16 PM on March 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

I had my first taste of Annie's mac & cheese during a visit to my then-fiance in northern California during the mid-90s. Shortly afterwards, I moved to eastern Connecticut, where I started buying it from our town's food co-op (which I'm certain is the food co-op mentioned in the article, where Annie still buys product for her own consumption). I learned about the local connection fairly soon, especially because Bernie the Rabbit bumper stickers were pretty common in the area, and have always been amused by it.

Back a few years, there was a story on the back of the boxes about another local institution, the Willimantic Boom Box Parade. Tickled my family considerably, especially since Annie's is now so widespread.
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:25 PM on March 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

That was a lovely article!! It was sweet how excited the journalist was about connecting with Annie. I’ve eaten a lot of Annie’s Mac and Cheese but I never knew much about the woman behind it.

I was so relieved there was no aspect of Milkshake Duck in this article.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:35 PM on March 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

I have always wanted to like Annie's Mac more than I really do. Not sure what puts me off, but I'm sort of curious about whether its taste has changed over the years. I don't think I've had it since my both my toddler and I were very MEH in about...2002?

Should I give it another shot? And if so, what fixins should I load it up with?

In any case, I too am glad I didn't learn anything bad about Annie.

That pic of her from 1995 is SO 90's (looks like almost all my grad school classmates) that it's also SO 2021.
posted by Caxton1476 at 1:54 PM on March 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

The Annie’s mac and cheese origin story has been told before, but if you aren't familiar with it, then you’re in for a twist and a treat. In 1984, when Withey was 21, she and her then-husband Andrew Martin came up with the product known as Smartfood in the kitchen of their Boston home. That’s correct: Annie, the Annie’s lady, is also the cheddar popcorn lady.

*rises from couch and points a cheese powder-covered index finger in their general direction, Donald-Sutherland-in-Invasion-of-the-Bodysnatchers style*

I try to buy it rarely since I will hoover it up and entire bag in no time flat, but someone somewhere suggested using chopsticks, and it's been a while since I've left a cheese powder/saliva amalgam fingerprint on anything in the house.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:00 PM on March 26, 2021 [17 favorites]

the elusive-to-the-point-of-impossible-to-find Mexican flavor Annie's mac n cheese is sooooooo good!
posted by supermedusa at 2:14 PM on March 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

Ah! It was in 2015 that Annie's started putting cornstarch into a lot of their mac and cheese products, allegedly for a creamier texture. That aligns with the General Mills takeover.

Annie's was my favorite mac and cheese for a very long time. If she ever innovated some new cheesy product, I bet I'd be all over that too.
posted by rednikki at 2:56 PM on March 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

I had some confusion here. I live about 5 miles from Annie Christopher in North Calais VT, and I knew she started the Annie's dressings, so I guess I had always assumed she was responsible for the mac & cheese.
Turns out Annie's Naturals was started in Vermont, Annie's Homegrown was started in Connecticut, but both were bought out by the same, larger companies, so now the mac & cheese has the Annie's Naturals label.
posted by MtDewd at 2:56 PM on March 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

I went to high school in the greater Boston area in the 80s and remember seeing both Smartfood and Annies in local supermarkets before the corporate buyout, but this is kind of cool to hear the story behind all that.

Should I give it another shot? And if so, what fixins should I load it up with?

There's a short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle in which the main character is presented with all the things he has eaten and drank over his lifetime in one huge pile: barrels of beer, whole pigs, etc.

If that were me, the amount of Annies I ate over the years might fill a Subaru Brat or a Ford Pinto, I dunno. It was my son's absolute go-to meal growing up and that added to my personal quota.

So here is my go-to recipe, perfected over the years:

• Boil much water and salt generously until it tastes like the sea.
• Throw in pasta and cook until al dente.
• Drain, but reserve 1/4 cup of water or so.
• In a separate pot, melt butter, then add milk and whisk until the mixture is combined. Add cheese and continue to whisk until everything is thickened. Add the reserved pasta water if you need to.
• At this point, if I'm making it for myself, I add a few cloves of fresh chopped garlic and turn up the heat a bit and whisk for another minute.
• Pour pasta back in and switch to wooden spoon and keep stirring. Grind some fresh pepper into the pot at this point and keep stirring. When done, be sure to stick spoon in your mouth and eat the caked cheese that has likely accumulated on it.
• If you want to keep going, add some of Matouk's Hot Pepper sauce and Bob's your uncle.

posted by jeremias at 3:07 PM on March 26, 2021 [8 favorites]

Fascinating story. I like the Annie's Mac n' Cheese but I will always be a President's Choice White Cheddar Canadian myself.

Maybe there's just something special about the first one you discover after KD...
posted by rpfields at 4:30 PM on March 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

Annie’s Mac is best when made with Mexican Crema in lieu of milk/butter/yogurt, but sour cream is a good substitute.
posted by A Blue Moon at 4:54 PM on March 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

rpfields, maybe that’s it—my first non Kraft Dinner* mac and cheese was Annie’s. I’ve had the President’s Choice and it’s also very decent!

*when I discovered Americans don’t call it Kraft Dinner or KD I was floored
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:55 PM on March 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wait. What the hell do Americans call KD?

(also +1 for President's Choice White Cheddar)
posted by chrominance at 9:08 PM on March 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Good story, but deserves a "Annie also created Smartfood brand first" detail above the fold. Think about that: Anne Withey had to get a SECOND standout brand to earn first-name status.

This article is the real story for me.

Read that: thirty+ years ago, a 21-yr old woman develops a superior product that consumers (and myself circa 1990) can't get enough of. Annie's product only then comes to market through the sloppy "streetfight" of older males deep in the marketing/distributor game.

I'm aware enough to know that a lot of that "streetfight" was people trying to pull Annie up. Good on them. But... I can't help but wonder: why couldn't that first signature product -- Smartfood -- carry Annie's name?

My comparison is "Ben & Jerry's". Circa 1970/80s, New England niche brand & superior product. One is a cultural touchstone ("Cherry Garcia" "Phish Food" etc). Annie is -- after her SECOND standout product -- next to the Kraft mac n cheese.

Ben & Jerry's is now owned by Unilever, Annie's by General Mills. The start & outcome are (roughly) the same. The difference? The dudes market their granola lifestyle plainly through their product; Annie politely shows sidebar "we support" wokeness only after her first multi-million dollar success.

Presently, I stand with two white-cheddar stained middle fingers pointed at the patriarchy.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 10:56 PM on March 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

When did “mac and cheese” stop being an abbreviation you used in casual conversation and start being a term you used in paid long form news features?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:28 PM on March 26, 2021

Wait. What the hell do Americans call KD?

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Which I guess makes a lot of sense. But still!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:55 AM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Annie's is a staple in our house (and was also a staple of my bachelorette years). A few years ago we were on a road trip and came across a 12 pack-for-$10 sale at a co-op in a different state. We bought four 12-packs and filled the trunk and brought them home. We still make Mac & Peas (add a cup of peas to the shell mac, they fit perfectly) about once a week.
posted by Gray Duck at 7:38 AM on March 27, 2021

This what everyone really aspires to, eh? Make it big almost by accident doing something everyone appreciates, sell out and retire to relative obscurity on a hobby farm.
posted by klanawa at 11:21 AM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

She’s selling veg, is apparently good at business, and won’t have started in debt - it might not even be a hobby farm, definitionally speaking!

Some say the most beautiful thing is the black earth plowed in spring.
posted by clew at 12:22 PM on March 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Makes me wonder whatever became of the Dagoba chocolate guy, Fredrick Schilling, after he cashed out. I seem to recall he was going to use all the money he got from Hershey's, who still owns the brand (*), to help improve cacao production from western Africa.

(*) - haven't seen this product on the shelf in my part of the world, Oakland/Berkley CA, in a while.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:11 PM on March 27, 2021