On LADbible's Snack Wars, The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis tried Marmite and reacted with the flat deadpan horror that made him famous. One more name for the hate column, and proof the spread travels badly across the Atlantic.
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.
Is Bovril good for you? Two professionals answer, and the salt decides it
A teaspoon of Bovril carries about 1.4g of salt, which is 23 per cent of the daily maximum for UK adults. Asked to talk up its health perks, nutritionist Rob Hobson said it is "too high in salt to be considered a health food" and dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine warned about blood pressure. The B vitamins come from the yeast extract, not the beef, and on her reckoning Marmite has the edge, though not by much.
What is Bovril, and what is actually in it?
Bovril is a beef and yeast extract paste: 50 per cent beef broth, 27 per cent yeast extract, which makes it a quarter of the way to being Marmite. It was invented in the 1870s by a Scottish butcher in Canada to fill Napoleon III's order for a million cans of beef, was originally called Johnston's Fluid Beef, and takes its name from the Latin for ox plus a fictional energy source from an 1871 science-fiction novel.
Is Bovril vegetarian? No, but for two years it was
No. UK Bovril is 50 per cent beef broth, plus 1 per cent beef powder. But from July 2004 to 2006 Unilever made it without any beef at all, using a yeast mix running at 45 per cent yeast extract. The reason was not vegetarians: it was BSE, an export ban on British beef, and collapsing sales in Malaysia, China and Singapore. The beef came back in 2006 because the bans lifted and sales recovered, not because the vegetarian version failed.
Stephen Mangan and Marmite: the actor who calls one topping combination a hate crime
Stephen Mangan is happily a Marmite-on-toast man, with one firm rule: marmalade and Marmite together on the same toast is, in his words, 'a hate crime'. A lover, then, who keeps his breakfast spreads in their proper lanes.
Marmite Red Leicester is on the shelf, and I would not count on it staying there
A 150g wedge of Aged Red Leicester and Marmite turned up in my local supermarket: £3, exclusive to Tesco, made under licence by the Ilchester Cheese Co in Somerset. The pack says fourteen months aged and a strength rating of five, which is a braver choice of base than the mild Red Leicester I had assumed, and a more interesting one than the cheddar versions that came before it. The Tesco reviews average 4.5 stars with nothing between five and one, and they agree on one flaw that is not the flavour. Buy it now, work out whether you like it later.
Elton John and Marmite: the rock legend the brand crowned a 'true lover'
Elton John gave himself away: fans spotted a shelf stacked with Marmite jars behind him in a birthday photo. The brand crowned him a 'true lover' and turned it into a four-year, one-million-dollar partnership for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Ricky Gervais and Marmite: the Reading comedian who does the maths on a jar
When the 2016 Marmite shortage hit, Ricky Gervais did the maths: 'How can there be a Marmite shortage when one jar lasts most families two years?' He claims no strong feelings either way, which makes him the man holding up the middle of the love-hate graph.
Anthony Albanese and Marmite: the Australian PM who called it 'rubbish'
Asked about a Vegemite row in Canada, Australian PM Anthony Albanese backed his country's spread and dismissed the British one in a single word: 'Marmite, which is rubbish, frankly.' A clear hater, delivered with more authority than most.
Marmageddon: the year New Zealand ran out of Marmite
In March 2012 Sanitarium closed its earthquake-damaged Papanui factory in Christchurch, and New Zealand, which gets through 640 tonnes of Marmite a year, simply ran out. The press called it Marmageddon. Jars went for up to $60 on TradeMe, the shortage was supposed to last until July, and the spread did not actually return to shelves until 20 March 2013. It is the benchmark against which every other Marmite shortage gets measured.
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