Marmite vs Vegemite – Part 2

I was so excited!  Today my order of Vegemite finally arrived in the mail!

Back in January, I wrote about my quest to try Vegemite for the first time … a yeast extract very popular in Australia.  All I could find in the local stores was Marmite … a British version of yeast extract.

The resulting post triggered debate on which was the better product with both camps insisting that they were quite different.  I just knew that with that kind of feedback, I had to continue my search for Vegemite.

Heather at Master of Something I’m Yet to Discover, kindly offered to send me some from Australia, but I chose to continue my exhaustive search in Toronto and finally resorted to the internet.  Today – seven weeks after I placed my order – the Vegemite finally arrived … from Leicestershire, UK.

I immediately dropped everything I was doing, ripped open the packaging – that little jar was blanketed in enough bubblewrap to have saved the Titanic from the iceberg – and started my non-scientific and highly subjective taste test.

The first thing I noticed was that the colour was very different.  The Marmite resembles milk chocolate while the Vegemite has the colour of dark chocolate.  In addition, the Vegemite is denser and more paste-like compared to the Marmite.

So far, so good – the score is even.

I had tried the Marmite back in January, but I insisted on a re-test.  I still found it to be quite salty with a rather sharp – almost bitter – edge to the flavour.

The Vegemite in comparison was considerably less salty than its British cousin with a rich, smooth taste.

My verdict is in …. I preferred the Vegemite by a wide margin.  It is really quite tasty and I can see why it has many faithful fans.

So my Aussie friends …. are you surprised?  I suspect not.