Welch Communion

Welch Foods Inc., commonly referred to as Welch's, is an American company headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. The company was founded in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1869 by the British-American physician and dentist, Thomas Bramwell Welch (1825–1903) and his son Charles Welch. The method of pasteurizing grape juice to halt fermentation has been attributed to the aforementioned dentist. Welch was an adherent to the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion which strongly opposed "manufacturing, buying, selling, or using intoxicating liquors" and advocated the use of unfermented grape juice instead of wine for administering communion during church services. As the temperance movement grew, so did the popularity of grape juice in the early years of the Twentieth century. During World War I, the company supplied "grapelade", a type of grape jam, to the military and advertised aggressively.

Since 1956 Welch's has been owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a co-op of grape growers. In the 1960s, Welch's was a major sponsor of the ABC primetime animated comedy series The Flintstones and its characters were featured on jars of Welch's grape jelly which could be used as a drinking glass after the product had been fully used.