King Arthur Flour Gets A Makeover

The King Arthur company has been milling flour since 1790. You'd think that a company that's lasted 230 years would know it's got a good thing going and not to mess with it, but everybody needs an occasional reinvention. Even the legendary King Arthur was known to take the forms of other animals every now and again (at least according to T.H. White). So this week King Arthur Flour has metamorphosed into the King Arthur Baking Company.

"In recent months, baking has become a national pastime," the company notes in a press release, "with 80 percent of infrequent bakers – those who previously baked a few times a year – now baking at least a few times a month." King Arthur has risen to the challenge by, among other things, expanding its direct sales program and offering three-pound bags of flour for people who don't know what to do with five.

The rebranding will manifest itself in a new logo that features a crown made of wheat instead of the familiar knight mounted on a horse. But otherwise, things shouldn't change much. King Arthur had already evolved into more than just a seller of flour. Its website offers a wide range of baking ingredients and supplies and also provides recipes and advice if you can't figure out how to use what you've bought. That should probably qualify it as a baking company.

Anyway, whatever it's called, I highly recommend this company's products. The company is also employee-owned and supports community projects. I want to believe in this so badly (just like I believe in its scone recipe), and I would be so disappointed if it turned out that King Arthur was harboring abusers or secretly profiting off the work of others while taking the credit or getting employees to scoop mold out of bags of flour before selling them to the public. Please, King Arthur, let me continue to believe you are as good as your namesake!