Saturday, April 18, 2009

Nectar in a tin

I'm indebted to Neil for reminding me of the drink that was the mainstay of my childhood. Creamola Foam must have been a cheap alternative to the red cola and fizzy orange that appeared at parties and on holiday visits to cafés, but my main memory of drinking it is very clear - so clear that I can taste it now - and strongly linked to one place. That place is on Arran, at a point in North Glen Sannox (not to be confused with Glen Sannox, but a less-well-known glen slightly to the north) where huge slabs of pale grey granite jut out into the very middle of the North Sannox burn. This is still one of my favourite places on earth, and will forever be associated with what would be a typical 1950s picnic: Macvitas, triangles of Dairylea cheese, floury muffins with strawberry jam, slightly flattened from their sojurn in a rucksack - and Creamola Foam, preferably orange flavour, made in a plastic tumbler with water scooped precariously from the burn.

This was Creamola Foam at its best, and it's easy to see why it was a winner for whoever was carrying the drinks: a small tin and a spoon make for much less of a load than a bottle of diluted squash. Perhaps the location explains why I recall it with such fondness, for I am now convinced that in my childhood we never drank anything like enough water and at the end of a muddy walk we'd be parched with a thirst that made this chemical concoction into nectar.

To the best of my recollection, we never bought this stuff for my own kids - though I'm open to correction if they ever read this - because I have a feeling I tasted it in later life and realised my tastes had moved on. Just as well, really - it doesn't seem to exist these days.

Update: Neil assures me I did indeed buy it for him - he wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise.

5 comments:

  1. Ah! The memories! Yes, I can still taste it!

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  2. Hmm....never heard of this. Let's see....here in the US, kids used to drink a lot of orange-flavored Tang. Oh and Kool-Aid. My mom urged us to drink water and milk, with Pepsi or root beer floats as a special Saturday night treat!

    Funny, I was thinking yesterday about how I long to see my great aunt's camp in the woods of central Pennsylvania. We spent endless happy hours there, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows around a fire at night. I loved that place. My mom hated it....my dad became a "hero" upon crushing a rattlesnake under the tires of my aunt's old Jeep. Mom HATES snakes to this day!!!! hehehehe

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  3. The stuff is disgusting! My mother once gave it to me and I remember wanting to shave my tongue to get rid of the awful after-taste. I can actually taste it now... yuk!

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  4. Morag8:17 AM

    I remember it too, but my mum wouldn't buy it for us. I had to rely on getting my supply of the stuff from my pal 4 doors down.

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