This week I got a huge package of goodies from a “swap buddy” in New Zealand. We were partners in a swap-bot swap sometime ago when I sent her a yarn ball wrapped in a rose patterned tea towel. She loved the tea towel so much she asked if I could get more items in the same pattern and we organised a little private swap. I sent her some more rose patterned goodies, some English delicacies (Jaffa Cakes and Batchelors Cup-A-Soup) and some other goodies and in return she sent me all of this -

A tea-towel with New Zealand flowers on it, a squeezy tomato ketchup bottle, “Tiki” salad servers, a copy of “The Listener” a NZ magazine, 2 balls of The Wool Company Utiku Merino Possum Yarn (yes yarn made from possums!), a bath tea-bag, a NZ fridge magnet, button badge, NZ magnetic poetry (lots of NZ expressions I had to have explained), the cutest little brooch with two tiny needles and a piece of knitting, “Twisters” (NZ cheesy corn snack - bit like Wotsits), 2 bars of dark NZ chocolate and a jar of NZ marmite.

Phew! a real slice of New Zealand here in my own back garden in England. The magnetic poetry had to have some translation so here are some New Zealand phrases -

“jandals” = flip-flops in UK, thongs in US/Australia and most of world
“pack a sad” = to react negatively rather than get on with things. You might say “don’t pack a sad” meaning lighten up.
“smoko” = morning or afternoon tea (even if you don’t smoke). Someone will say “lets have a smoko” meaning lets take a break
“piker” = a kill-joy or someone who won’t join in
“rattle your dags” = hurry up
“puckeroo” = refers to something that has broken

I was interested to receive the marmite as I had assumed marmite was peculiar to England, although I was aware that in Australia they have vegemite (a poor imitation). To those of you in the US who have no idea what marmite is, it is a yeast extract which you spread on toast or sandwiches, it’s very salty and has a taste which you either love or hate. This love/hate is used as the advertising for marmite in the UK. Marmite is also used to flavour Twiglets which are baked corn snacks which look remarkably like twigs (hence the name)

Whilst I was putting the NZ Marmite away in the cupboard I realised that I had 4 different jars of yeast extract in my kitchen cupboards. I immediately wondered whether they all tasted the same or if each different variety had its own distinct taste….an experiment followed.

I gathered the 4 jars of yeast extract as follows -

From l-r, Vegemite from Australia, original Marmite from England in the new squeezy bottle, Marmite from New Zealand and limited edition Guinness Marmite (made with Guinness yeast extract apparantly)

Next I got two volunteer tasters (me and J) and armed them with pitta bread with which to tast the yeast extract.

We began with the Vegemite, the texture was much more solid than the other three spreads and the colour is the lightest brown of the four. The taste was quite subtle and not as salty as British marmite

Next was the Guinnes Marmite, I was interested to know if this tasted any different to normal marmite or whether this was a marketing ploy. The texture of the Guinness Marmite was the “runniest” of the four and the colour very dark brown. The taste was different to ordinary marmite but still very strong and salty. I love it!

Third was original Marmite, still the best in my opinion. The new squeezy bottle is an inspired innovation IMHO, I use marmite quite a lot in cooking. I’m vegetarian and when I make bolognaise sauce or chilli with soya mince I often add a spoon of marmite for colour and taste - squeezing it in from the plastic bottle is much easier than scraping marmite from a spoon into the saucepan. Still, I digress - original marmite slighty firmer texture than Guinnes Marmite but still runnier than the vegemite, colour very dark brown. Taste, very strong salty taste - delicious.

Finally, the New Zealand Marmite - of the four this was the darkest in colour being almost black and was only slightly less solid than the Vegemite. The taste was very different to the other three - whilst they were all clearly salty with the Vegemite being just more subtle, the New Zealand Marmite tasted completely different and was almost sweet. I like it but not as much as British Marmite. I will have to try it on hot toast which is always the best way to eat marmite.

So the results are that they all taste, and indeed look, very different.

Earlier in the day we attended the wedding of our friends Ceri & Mick at All Saints Church, Marlow. This is Ceri in her beautiful dress

I wore MS3 for the first time to the wedding and here I am in my outfit including the Mystery Stole 3 (btw that’s a feathered head-dress on top of my head, my hair is not quite that wild or bright pink)

I’m really pleased with the way MS3 turned out and it went perfectly with my wedding outfit. The yarn was Patons Fairytale 2ply and I knit on 4mm circulars. Here are some more photos of it taken in the garden when we got home from the wedding this evening.

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Tags: marmite, vegemite, yeast extract, wedding, ms3

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 12:58 am and is filed under MS3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.