Are you ‘today years old’ when you found out that a SPAM museum exists? Well, this may come as a surprise to you too, but yes it does exist. The SPAM museum opened in 2016 in Austin, Minnesota, United States.Â
This museum is an admission-free space (yes, no ticket or passes needed!) that’s dedicated to Hormel Foods Corporation’s iconic SPAM where they share the history of the company and how SPAM became the icon that it is.Â
The museum has an entire room dedicated to how SPAM is marketed in different countries, what variants are available in that specific country, how it can be incorporated in their traditional cooking, plus there’s interactive games, too. The countries they chose to highlight are China, South Korea, Japan, England, United Kingdom, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
According to this video by Your Magandang Probinsyana, the Philippine booth highlights how SPAM is always a part of any OFW’s balikbayan box, while the interactive game they have lets you design your own SPAM jeepney—the unofficial mode of transportation of the Philippines.
In a much bigger area of the museum, you have a mix of interactive activities like making SPAM and all the things you’ll need to know about SPAM. They have information on how SPAM started, how the branding (or packaging) changed through the years, what SPAM is made of, and all the different variants.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJBTzUXMD7g/This room has a large functioning conveyer belt above, which has different cans of SPAM placed on it. The conveyer belt continues to the souvenir shop where you can buy the different flavors of SPAM (one that’s not always available in the supermarket), apparel, and knick-knacks, like pencils, slippers, toothbrush, and more.
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With the ongoing pandemic, the museum has decided to offer a virtual tour of the museum that will be headed by their SPAMbassadors. According to their website, they are offering the virtual tour (for free!) from Mondays to Thursdays, 2:00 p.m., starting January 11. You can check the Zoom access code on the website.
If you want to set an appointment because you want to do it on a specific day and time, you can do so by emailing [email protected]
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