Friday 7 April 2017

Guard Against Night Starvation!

I always thought this was a particularly odd advertising slogan
It was first used during the War Years - the theory being that you don't sleep if you are hungry [because you have been living on rations] and the nutrients in this drink aid restful sleep.
Horlicks has been around for nearly 150 years. First as a powder to add to water or milk, then in tablet form [easier for soldiers to carry] and in recent years as biscuits. 
One ad campaign even made it clear that it was popular in Norfolk among the boatmen! I'm not so sure about adding rum though.
The earlier ads did mention you could drink it any time of day, and that it was a great nutritious liquid food for all ages. Easily digestible, for the young, the elderly, the sick, and for tired young marrieds. You will have to research those ads for yourself, I cannot bring myself to post them here!
I am sure that if I asked most people round here what they think of when 'Horlicks' is mentioned, they would say 'a night time drink' [and possibly mention that Granny likes it]
But Horlicks is a best selling product in India, where it is marketed as a breakfast drink for your children - to make them taller, stronger, sharper...
Research has shown that drinking this as a nourishing breakfast really benefits growing young people.

At the bottom of this post is the brief video produced a couple of years back, which includes a mention of how the product first became popular in the sub-continent. Clever marketing by GlaxoSmithKline has meant that hundreds of young Asians now sip this before school.

I wonder if this idea would take off in the UK - in recent months I have become more aware of the Indian fondness for hot milky drinks - and I've developed a taste for chai myself. 
My latest foray into these beverages has included Golden Milk. The golden colour comes from turmeric - so it may help my knee pains. Doesn't it look gorgeous, in my pretty blue and white mug.
I shall post my chai and golden milk recipes tomorrow.
But for now, a quick salute to the invention of two Victorian chaps from Gloucestershire...


4 comments:

  1. As a child we had Bournvita in special cream coloured Bournvita mugs. For some reason later it was Ovaltine, we never gave these drinks to our children, they were so deprived but today DH and I often have a drink of milk at bedtime, warmed in the coldest weather.
    We have gone back to having our milk delivered in glass bottles, although the cost per pint is more than the supermarket it cuts down our need to shop so much, we'd go for milk, come out with unnecessary items, so adding these to petrol and parking costs we gain. Also I think milk tastes better in glass than plastic.

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  2. As a child I had friends who had Ovaltine mugs, and dreamed of owning my own. I do have a Horlicks spoon which is a teaspoon with a very long handle.

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  3. Horlicks was very popular when I was growing up. I must admit I didn't much care for the taste! I don't think it is available in the regular grocery stores here (at least, I haven't seen it, but I haven't looked for it, either!); but we used to buy it from the Sri Lankan store to give to one of the elderly monks at the temple, who liked it.

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  4. I've never really drunk it. Somehow, something my parents didn't have so thus I don't...x

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