Mmmmarmite!

Part 2 of 2

The health benefits of Marmite were used extensively to promote it as a product suitable for children, the elderly and the infirm in the manner of beef tea.

More recently, a number of snacks flavoured with the nations most loved (and hated!) spread have begun to appear in supermarkets, such as rice cakes, bread-sticks, crisps, cashew nuts and a number of cheese products!

Until 1944 it was exported to New Zealand and Australia.

Nowadays it is made, under license in Singapore while in New Zealand and Australia, it is made under licence by the Sanitarium Health Food Company in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Initially, Marmite made by the Sanitarium Health Food Company was sold in plastic jars with white lids, while now it is sold in plastic jars with an orange lid and orange label.

Not only is the packaging different from the British norm, the recipe is also somewhat different too. If anything it has a milder taste.

But be that as it may! In New Zealand, there is a clone of Marmite called ‘Our Mate’

Except for the missing marmite pot on the label it looks like the genuine article.

But maybe that’s because it is! ‘Our Mate’ is the real McCoy, imported from England.

When The Marmite Company licensed their name and brand to the Sanitarium Health Food Company they had no choice than to ‘alter’ their own product name to ‘Our Mate’ to get around their own licensing conditions! The phrase ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen’ springs to mind!

The authentic English Marmite, when it appears, sells out rapidly! We Brits do like to spread (not funny) ourselves around the world but we soon find that we desperately need our home comforts!

Tea is the classic example! (Please don’t get me started on the Brits and their tea! I’ll never hear the end of it! Life is really too short!)

Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun,

The toughest Burmese bandit can never understand it,

In Rangoon the heat of noon is just what the natives shun,

They put their scotch or rye down, and lie down,

In the jungle town where the sun beats down, to the rage of man or beast,

The English garb of the English sahib merely gets a bit more creased,

In Bangkok, at twelve o’clock, they foam at the mouth and run,

But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun!

Mad Dogs and Englishmen, go out in the mid-day sun,

The smallest Malay rabbit deplores this stupid habit,

In Hong Kong, they strike a gong, and fire off a noon-day gun,

To reprimand each inmate, who’s in late,

In the mangrove swamps where the python romps there is peace from twelve till two,

Even caribous lie down and snooze, for there’s nothing else to do,

In Bengal, to move at all, is seldom if ever done,

But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun!

Noel Coward, (1899 – 1973)