The Marmite A-List: famous faces and their real, sourced Marmite verdicts, from Daniel Craig and Helen Mirren to Madonna and Gary Lineker. Lovers and haters, all on the record, with the genuine quotes named and dated. Updated as new names are added.
I Love Marmite: 200+ articles about Britain's most divisive food
Marmite is the British yeast-extract spread first produced in 1902 in Burton-on-Trent. It is manufactured by Unilever, and from mid-2027 by McCormick after the March 2026 acquisition agreement closes. The thick, dark, glossy paste is famous for its strong salty flavour and the polarising reactions it produces, which gave the brand its 1996 slogan "love it or hate it". This site, I Love Marmite, was founded on ilovemarmite.com in 2000, ran there until 2016, and was restarted on ilovemarmite.co.uk in 2025 with the original archive republished. It covers 120+ years of Marmite history, the McCormick takeover, recipes, products, and the occasional bit of utter bonkers.
Daniel Craig and Marmite: the James Bond star who was once 'Mr Marmite'
Before he was James Bond, Daniel Craig handed out samples as 'Mr Marmite' at a Reading supermarket, the job that earned him his Equity card. And despite the rumours, he is a lover: asked his biggest misconception, he chose 'That I don't like Marmite?'
What is the German version of Marmite? Vitam-R, and Switzerland's Cenovis
The German equivalent of Marmite is Vitam-R, made in Hameln since the 1920s; Switzerland has its own older version, Cenovis. Both are close cousins of the same idea: concentrated yeast, dark and salty, spread thinly on bread. How they compare, and why neither is quite the national icon Marmite is in Britain.
Margaret Thatcher: the original Marmite, before Marmite meant that
People say Margaret Thatcher loved Marmite. There is no real evidence she ever ate it, her documented diet was grapefruit, eggs, lamb and whisky. The closest she came was a surprise 1992 visit to Marston's brewery in Burton-on-Trent, whose spent yeast feeds the Marmite factory next door. The genuine link, though, runs the other way: she is the figure 'a bit Marmite' was practically invented to describe.
The royal crest on a biscuit tin in Guangzhou: how fake 'By Appointment' warrants spread abroad
The British royal coat of arms is one of the most copied marks of trust in the world, and much of that copying happens far from Britain, on products that never went near a palace. Why a royal crest is worth faking abroad, the international law meant to stop it, and why enforcement is so patchy the fakes keep coming.
By Appointment: the fascinating story of what a royal warrant really is, and how Marmite won one and lost it
A royal warrant is the little coat of arms in the shop window with the words 'By Appointment'. Marmite earned its own in 2016, lost it when Queen Elizabeth II died, and was quietly dropped from King Charles's list in December 2024. What a warrant actually is, how a business wins and loses one, and why the system has spent nearly two centuries chasing fakes, told from a walk away from Sandringham.
Dirk Gently would choose Marmite, says Douglas Adams
I put Douglas Adams back in front of the Marmite Mnemonicon and asked about Dirk Gently. The holistic detective, faced with a jar of Marmite and a jar of Bovril, chooses Marmite, justifying it through the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, beer, and fermentation. Then Adams plots a Dirk Gently story in which Bovril is transmuted into Marmite and only Dirk can work out why.
The internet was arguing about Marmite in 1985
We treat 'love it or hate it' as if the 1996 advert invented it. The OED traces Marmite to a 1985 post on a Usenet cooking group explaining the jar to Americans: people fall into two groups, those who love it and those who would not stay in the same room as it. The divide, online, eleven years early.
Who owns Marmite? (and who will after the McCormick deal)
Marmite is owned by Unilever, and has been for years. In March 2026 Unilever agreed to sell its food business, Marmite included, to the American firm McCormick, a deal set to complete around mid-2027. Until it closes, Marmite remains a Unilever brand.
The first Marmite man was Rab C Nesbitt
The OED dates the adjective 'Marmite' to a single 1994 citation. Look at what it actually is and you find a Sandwell Evening Mail review calling Gregor Fisher's Rab C Nesbitt 'the Marmite man of comedy.' By the dictionary's own reckoning, the first Marmite man wore a string vest.
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