The Knott’s Berry Farm jam brand has been canned

Joseph Lamour
·3 min read
2

A century-old jam brand is no longer on grocery store shelves.

The J.M. Smucker Company confirmed to TODAY.com that the Knott’s Berry Farm jam brand “has been discontinued and is no longer being sold,” as the brand’s website reads.

“The decision to discontinue our Knott’s Berry Farm products is in alignment with our strategy to continuously evaluate our portfolio and ensure we are dedicating resources to the areas with the greatest growth potential,” a J.M. Smucker Company rep tells TODAY.com. “We appreciate the fans of the brand and look forward to continuing to serve them through our other offerings.”

The grocery brand is not to be confused with Knott’s Berry Farm, a theme park in Buena Park, California owned by entertainment company Cedar Fair. Though the theme park and jam brand began with the same family, the theme park no longer has any affiliation with the jam brand.

Social media users reacted to the news with sadness, taking to the comments section of an Instagram post from snack-spotting account @markie_devo and beyond to share their thoughts.

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A post shared by Markie_devo (@markie_devo)

“Today we say farewell to a deli store hero,” @markie_devo captioned his post.

“Oh hell no! Not my boysenberry jelly and syrup!!” one person commented.

“End of an era. They have (had) great jams,” wrote another.

But because he included a photo of the The Knott’s Berry Farm cookies, many were led to believe that the cookies were also being continued.

“NOOOOOOOOO! The strawberry cookies were the best in the land 😩,” commented one person.

“nooo! those strawberry cookies are good! haven’t had em in years!” wrote another.

Thankfully for these sad fans, the cookies are actually here to stay. Confusing, we know.

“The Knott’s Berry Farm brand is not discontinued from grocery stores or any other channel of business. The JM Smucker announcement was relative to jams and jellies only,” Rob Gallitto, vice president of retail and specialty at Biscomerica, tells TODAY.com. “Biscomerica (Rialto, California) is the sole licensee to bake and market Knott’s Berry Farm cookies to all classes of trade. Our 300 employees at our family run bakery work hard to bake this iconic brand daily.”

Knott’s Berry Farm has a long history, founded by Walter and Cordelia Knott in 1923 as a roadside berry stand. The Knotts expanded their fruity footprint into a restaurant and roadside attraction which included a replica ghost town.

The Knott family continued to expand their attractions until they had little space to actually grow berries, so they partially sold the Knott’s Berry Farm brand name — first to Biscomerica to sell cookies in the 1980s, then to Conagra to sell jams, preserves, salad dressings, syrups and more in 1995. Conagra later sold the jam brand to the J.M. Smucker Company in 1998.

And while these jams are no longer being sold, you can get the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park’s jams, which are now branded as Berry Market, at its online store.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify that only the Knott’s Berry Farm jam brand has been discontinued by the J.M. Smucker Company — not the cookie brand, which is owned by Biscomerica.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com