Many of our readers of a certain age will remember the eager anticipation of dipping into their tins of Creamola Foam at break and lunch.
The better-behaved reconstituted the powder with water into a sparkling, foamy drink; the more depraved just loved taking spoonfuls of the crystals straight out of the tin for a fizzy sensation on the tongue — which would then be stuck out to great hilarity as the bright orange or pink mush fizzled away.
Creamola Foam was unleashed on the Scottish public in May 1932 at the Ideal Homes and Foods Exhibition in the Kittybrewster Olympia Hall in Aberdeen.
Sample drinks were handed out and: “Those who try it will appreciate this delicious, wholesome refreshment,” said a visiting reviewer from The Press and Journal.
The following year the manufacturers started a massive advertising campaign, with “As bubbly as champagne” and “Tickles the World’s palate” some of the claims made.
“The word Creamola has long been a household word with grown-ups as well as children, a word that stands for all that is good and nourishing in the pudding line,” began a piece in the Dundee Evening Telegraph in 1933.
“Now a new product comes from the same makers — a sparkling, cooling drink, Creamola Foam.
“The delicious thirst-quencher can be obtained from all grocers. It is made up in crystal form in tins and also in handy penny packets, in two favourite flavours, lemon and orange,” the newspaper article continued. “A spoonful of Creamola Foam crystals makes a most enjoyable drink.”
The non-alcoholic ‘champagne’ came from the Kinning Park factory of Glasgow entrepreneur William Galbraith Hetherington.
He established it in 1904 to manufacture custard powder, and achieved roaring success.
Within twenty years it had become one of the largest food manufacturing factories in Scotland, and Creamola was a household name.
Its output included flavoured ground rice, custard powder, milk jellies, caramel desserts, rice custards and steamed pudding mix, right in tune with the modern age where ‘housewives’, increasingly unable to afford help in the kitchen, wanted products that were quick and convenient above all.
And of course nourishing and wholesome, as the adverts were quick to affirm, falling short of using the word “healthy” but definitely implying it.
No mention of the rate of attrition on children’s teeth, as many will attest!
Hetherington died in 1948, but the factory continued, bought over by Rowntree in 1966 before coming under the banner of Nestle UK in 1988.
It was sold off to Premier Foods, becoming Rowlaw No 1 Ltd in 1991, before being—appropriately—’dissolved’ in 1993.
European food standards saw many companies having to change their recipes for sweet products, or ditching them completely.
Formula goes missing
With the changes of ownership, the Creamola Foam formula apparently went missing.
In 2010, a company in Dumbarton started selling Kramola Fizz, which prompted a motion of support for the return of the original favourite at the Scottish Parliament.
The relaunch failed to find favour with the public.
But a relaunch much closer to, and trademarked as the original Creamola Foam took place in 2019, by McCandlish Farmhouse Confectionery, amid hurrahs from consumers that it was still as full of E numbers as the original product.
It comes in a mass of flavours, the pack has the retro feel of the old ones, and it costs an astonishing £4.49 a tin.
Think 8½ d eight decades ago.
Meanwhile, the iconic original tins had achieved something of a cult status after they were replaced by the less inspiring plastic tubs of Kramola Fizz, and became as rare as hen’s teeth.
In 2016, Creamola connoisseur Roddy Nicoll from Fife decided to unlock his vault and launch his prized unopened tin of lemon and a tin of raspberry Creamola Foam on an unsuspecting eBay.
Last unopened tin
Roddy, 49 at the time, said he believed the 1970s citrus-flavour tin is the last known unopened pack in the world.
“The last one I heard about was found in a cupboard at a baker’s shop in Orkney, where it’s in a vault somewhere in Kirkwall — but that was an opened one,” he said. “I wouldn’t guarantee the unopened tin is drinkable, but it’s a powdered product so I don’t see why it wouldn’t last.”
A bidding war opened on eBay, finishing at £345, with Roddy donating 20% of the proceeds to the Beatson Cancer Charity.
Just how much Roddy adored Creamola Foam comes through in his ode which includes the lines:
Well you werenae just the common type
My granny told me you were out of sight.
You werenae cheap, top of the shelf and if I wanted to touch I’d behave myself
All I wanted was a shot of you
To drink you in, all of you
One tall glass and a foamy head
I’d lick you off the spoon
And take you to bed
Your raspberry, orange and citrus tones
Were made in heaven for my bones
Tickle my heart as I drink you in
Forget the cola, you’re the real thing.
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