Mantequilla Gloria: A Century of Creamy Goodness

By Alejandro Pohlenz

A warm bolillo that you can barely hold in your hands. The butter, ready to spread on a knife. Before the bread cools, you slather it on. You watch it melt a little, although the center is still visible on the surface. You salivate. You spread the butter like a caress and with the bolillo still warm, you take a giant bite. Ready, you can now die or sigh...

History of butter in the world and in Mexico

Homo sapiens-sapiens stopped being nomadic hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago because they imagined agriculture and domesticated animals. Butter germinated by chance shortly after. It has been very long-lived: it has been the star of the kitchen, pastry and bakery for 8,000 years. The Romans said that it was "the most delicate food among the barbarians." In India, the number one producer of butter in the world, this ingredient is a symbol of purity.

In Mexico, although animal and vegetable fats were used for cooking, such as pumpkin seed oil, butter arrived with the conquistadors in the 16th century. Since then, on our continent, it has waged a brave crusade with lard, which used to be cheaper and more accessible. In the 20th century, the production and consumption of butter fluffed up like a cake. This flourishing is due, in large part, to Don Alberto Andrade, inventor, creator, forger of Gloria butter...

The origin of Gloria butter

Alberto Andrade was born in 1878 in Philadelphia. He was a combatant in the war between the United States and Spain (1895-1898), he arrived in Mexico in 1905 and they gave him his "welcome": they stole all his money. Thanks to providence, he met Alfonso Zaragoza, and partnered with him to manufacture butter in the heart of Mexico City. Alberto Andrade was the first in the country to pasteurize and package butter in the iconic waxed paper squares that have lasted for more than 100 years.

In 1922 the partnership with Zaragoza vanished and, just in 1924, Andrade patented the butter (when the whirlwind of the Revolution was just settling). There is a great enigma: no one knows why he called it Gloria. In 1948 he named the company Cremería Americana (because of the "hard and fast" American work system, he said). The hero of this story died in 1952.

The Alberto and Dolores Andrade Foundation, ADA

When Doña Dolores, Alberto's wife, died in 1976, the ADA foundation was established, whose purpose is to grant scholarships to outstanding students of all levels. The most peculiar thing about Cremería Americana, in addition to having already awarded more than 8,000 scholarships, is that all the profits it generates are sent to the foundation. It is a company that works like a Swiss watch, thanks to its 1,300 employees and its sales of 1,200 tons of Gloria butter per month. More or less 20 million bars in all its presentations.

Why is the Gloria brand so famous? It's simple: it's because of the taste. No butter tastes like Gloria. Period. Today it turns 100 years old and we all praise its flavor, its altruism and its extraordinary history.