Crunchy Nut Cornflakes Arrive in America!

It is a well known fact in England that the best cereal of all is Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.  They have been around for decades and it is hard to imagine a world without them.  Somewhat surprisingly, when we came to America in 2005, we couldn't see any sign of them anywhere.

Yes, Kellogg's  cereals appeared to be a big deal.  Yes, there were Corn Flakes and Frosties and all manner of other staples.  The look of them might be a bit different, and the names might be a touch different too;  Frosties were "Frosted Flakes" but who cared?  Seeing many of the same things gave one a happy home-from-home experience.

But where were the Crunchy Nut Cornflakes?  Surely they could not have by-passed the USA?  Apparently so.  Amazingly, for some reason, Kellogg's had never got their act together to introduce the Brits' favourite cereal over here.  Until last week, that is.  We had popped into our local Food Lion and there they were, innocently sitting there on a special "Two for $5" deal.  Of course we bought two and the first had already been eaten within the first few hours of purchase.

It turns out that Crunchy Nut Cornflakes do indeed originate in the UK and that America has dragged its feet in introducing them.   The Manchester Evening News last week carried a feature on the topic:

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes makes Atlantic jump

The article explains that they were invented in Manchester back in 1980, in Kellogg's Trafford Park factory.  The brand is now worth £94m and finally it gets its first US outing.

As I have often said before, it becomes easier to be a resident alien in the USA all the time. Now we have the reassuringly delicious home-from-home taste of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. What's next? Walker's Crisps? Now, that would be something.

Yorkshire Tea arrives at our local Kroger

I don't care what anyone else says but Yorkshire Tea is the best tea there is. And for the last five years and more, we have had two options: (1) Bring back a big box of Yorkshire Tea whenever we visit England; (2) Make do with Twinings Breakfast Tea or similar. Well, this week all that changed with the arrival of Yorkshire Tea in our local Kroger. It's a bit steep at $4.99 for a small box, but these are the small pleasures that make the life of the British expat just that little bit more cheery.

Pepsi Max comes to America

When we lived in the UK, we were fans of Pepsi Max. Since Viola and I were often on diets, it was a good idea to find a soft drink that we really liked. And we really liked Pepsi Max. It was marketed in the UK, where it appeared in the early 90s, especially at men. It avoided the "diet" tag, which apparently put off men, and went with the slogan "maximum taste, no sugar". When we arrived in the USA, we were surprised to see absolutely no sign of it. Every other coca cola under the sun, but no Pepsi Max. And then recently, when we were in Seattle, we saw a product called "Diet Pepsi Max" on the shelves. We concluded that it must be a North Carolinian oddity to be a Pepsi Max free area. But then two or three weeks ago, it appeared in our local Kroger, and at only $1 (50p!) a two litre bottle. We stocked up, and it's been great to be drinking it again.

My curiosity was piqued. America, the home of cola, took fourteen years to catch up with the UK here. How could this be? Well, according to Wikipedia's article on the topic (and who is to say that that is not right?), there is a reasonable explanation:

The product remained unavailable in the United States until only recently (The U.S is PepsiCo's native market, and the largest consumer of carbonated soft drinks), where one of its principal ingredients had not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The ingredient in question—acesulfame potassium—is combined with aspartame to provide the beverage's sweetness. Some people claim that this results in a better taste than that of other diet colas (most of which are sweetened with aspartame alone).

Unfortunately, there is a downside. I had never realized that Pepsi Max is much heavier on caffeine than are traditional cokes. Energy Fiend has the breakdown and notes that "a 12 ounce can of Diet Pepsi Max contains 69 milligrams of caffeine" in comparison with regular Diet Pepsi, which has 36mg per 12oz can.

So we are enjoying our Pepsi Max again, after two years without it, but avoiding the caffeine overdose by drinking plenty of other new favourites like American diet lemonade (a kind of lemon squash) and diet root beer (not drunk at all by Brits, an acquired taste, but very pleasant once you are used to it). And lots of green tea.

Search for Good American Fair Trade Coffee

When we were living in the UK, I liked to buy Fair Trade whenever possible. Here in North Carolina, at least in our corner of it, Fair Trade has made little impact in the shops. But I was delighted recently to discover Yuban Dark Roast. It announces itself as "the world's largest supporter of Rainforest Alliance Certified™ coffee beans" and it tastes fantastic. At $4.65 a tin, it is a bit more expensive than the cheapo varieties in our local Kroger, but much cheaper than the supposed "gourmet" varieties. I am drinking a cup of the dark roast as I write.

Toasted Sandwiches

In our family we have always been big fans of a great British delicacy called "toasted sandwiches", also known as "toasties" or, if you are from certain regions in the North of England, "Brevilles", named after the maker of the machine that does the toasting. I've been eating them for over twenty years. When I was a student, toasted sandwiches were pretty much my staple diet. They were cheap (e.g. one can of beans @ 3p, one loaf of wholemeal bread @39p plus butter), reasonably healthy and very easy to cook in my student room at Exeter College, Oxford. In fact, I often used to play host to friends for a feast of toasted sandwiches and my home-made bitter, brewed on the premises to the horror of my scout, Sheena.

When we left Birmingham, we chucked our toasted sandwich maker, which had become pretty gnarled and horrible and probably dangerous too. And then, here in the US, we soon realized that toasted sandwiches are not at all an American staple. In so far as people have heard about toasted sandwiches, it is not what Brits mean by them. For the first year or two of being here, we kept looking out for toasted sandwich makers, but among all the myriad waffle makers, smoothie makers and panini grills, we couldn't find a nice British style toasted sandwich maker. And then, one happy day a few weeks ago, Viola and the kids were shopping in Target and they spotted a toasted sandwich maker for only $10. They brought it home with them in triumph and we instituted Monday night in our house as toasted sandwich night.

We are now steadily introducing toasties to our the kids' American friends, so far with one hundred percent success. I should explain to American readers that the toasted sandwich maker seals the sandwich, which means that you can put in there all manner of things you could not think of putting in a normal sandwich, like baked beans, chilli, or spaghetti-0s (= spaghetti hoops). Equally, traditional sandwiches like ham and cheese work really well in a toastie too. Or try pasta shells and sweetcorn, a particular favourite of mine. And with a little mayonnaise and chilli pickle on the side, you have a lovely meal.