Marmite spent both World Wars in British army ration tins. Not as a luxury, as a piece of medicine.
Marmite Articles
Explore our collection of articles about Marmite, Britain's most divisive spread.
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Does Marmite turn white if you stir it? Almost, and the reason is pure physics
Most Marmite myths fall apart the moment you check them. This one does the opposite. Whip a blob of Marmite hard enough and it really does lighten dramatically, from near-black to a pale milky beige. Not, despite the legend, pure white, but startlingly pale. It is not a trick or a chemical reaction. It is physics, and you can do it on your own toast.
Why a teaspoon of Marmite makes everything taste better: the umami multiplier
There is a real reason a teaspoon of Marmite turns a flat stew into something with depth. It is umami synergy, discovered in 1957: glutamates and certain nucleotides multiply each other rather than add. Marmite is pure glutamate looking for a partner.
Remember when Marmite vanished from Tesco?
For about a week in October 2016, you could not buy a jar of Marmite in Tesco. There was a price tag where it should be, a gap on the shelf where it should be, and absolutely no jar. What was actually happening was a fight over a price rise.
Marmite is one of the longest-running memes on the internet
Bartle Bogle Hegarty wrote "Love it or hate it" for Marmite in 1996. Twenty-nine years later, half the internet is still using it. That is the kind of longevity ad agencies dream of and almost never achieve. The reason it travelled is that it does not actually sell Marmite.
Marmite toasties are on the autumn menu boards
According to the latest Bakery Info roundup, Caffè Nero, Costa, M&S Café, Pret and Starbucks are all running Marmite-based toasties this autumn. Not as a fringe special at one branch, but as proper autumn menu items printed on the boards.
London loves Marmite, Glasgow really does not
Consumer surveys have repeatedly shown the same pattern. In London and the south-east, roughly six in ten people say they either love Marmite or are happy to eat it. In Scotland and the north of England, that figure drops to closer to three in ten. The midlands sit somewhere between.
M&S have put Marmite in the Christmas caramel sauce
M&S have done the unthinkable and put Marmite into a Christmas dessert range.
Marmite is doing a 50-year retrospective, which is weird because the jar is 123
Marmite has published a 50-year anniversary interview this month, which is the sort of brand-PR exercise that I would normally skim and ignore, except that there is a small problem with the maths. Marmite was first sold in 1902. It is one hundred and twenty-three years old.
Tim Spector says Marmite is good for your gut, sort of
Tim Spector, the professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London who runs the Zoe nutrition app, wrote a piece in the Independent this month listing the fermented foods he thinks are worth eating regularly.
