Marmite - Burton-upon-Trent
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A brand of savoury spread made from a by-product of the beer brewing process, the yeast extract Marmite is a popular UK sandwich and toast spread similar to Australia's Vegemite and Switzerland's Cenovis.

The Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England, in 1902.

Marmite is a rich source of the vitamin B complex; vitamin B12 is not naturally found in yeast extract, but is added to Marmite during manufacture.

Advertised variously as "The Growing Up Spread" and "My Mate, Marmite", Marmite tends to be an acquired taste, with no middle ground. It is the food item most commonly missed and imported by British expatriates in other countries. People tend to love it or hate it, and this was used as a major advertising campaign for the company. Two websites have been set up where either camp are invited to leave their comments:

I love Marmite (http://www.ilovemarmite.com/) and
I hate Marmite (http://www.ihatemarmite.com/).

The snack food Twiglets is flavoured with a substance resembling Marmite.

The spread is packaged in a distinctive bulbous brown glass jar. The shape is meant to resemble a cooking pot, for which the French word is la marmite; the label has a picture of the cooking pot. An occasional surreal sight on British roads is a large tanker lorry (presumably taking yeast to the factory) with the round end of the tank painted to resemble the Marmite jar and label.

A common mistake made by those new to Marmite (almost invariably non-Britons) is to spread it thickly, like the chocolate spread it resembles. In fact it should be thinnly spread as it has a very concentrated taste.

Some British supermarket chains now sell their own brands of yeast extract.

In advertising Marmite, the 'love it or hate it' element of it's popularity has often been accentuated and even encouraged. In one infamous 2004-2005 UK TV advert which plagarises the Steve McQueen film 'The Blob', people run screaming from a huge brown/black slime monster until some realise that it is actually Marmite and then jump headlong into the sticky mess with glee. Of course the subtext of the advert being a 'don't knock it until you've tried it' message. The advertisment was dropped after being screened on childrens television, concerned parents reported the advert after it traumatised children into having nightmares and vowing never to watch TV again.

Website: http://www.marmite.com/