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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 8332395" data-attributes="member: 6716779">The Secret History of Marmite/Vegemite Once upon a time in the 19th century Marmite was invented. Allegedly as a byproduct of brewing in reality it was because they couldn't really tell the difference between the beer and what became Marmite in Britain.  This was at the height of the British Empire. The world was full of British people who would do anything for Queen and country. Except live there. The dominions decided to duplicate marmite.Settled by criminals the Australians decided to create a local variant of Marmite known as Vegemite. Probably something to do with the heat. And kangaroos. Not to be out done New Zealand decided to make their own version of Marmite with exclusive distribution rights in Australasia. Mostly so one could say God awful in 3 different accents. The NZ variety was also put on West Bix another knock off of another terrible product from the UK.  So the various dominions suffered under the yoke of various mite's until WW1 which lead to the the great mite shortage of 1914-18. Founded as Britain's farm NZ exported all their Marmite to support the war effort while the Aussies also sent all of their Vegemite to the UK. The British discovered it was  great motivation for the troops. You could go over the top or be force fed Marmite or Vegemite. The ANZAC troops had the choice of force feeding or land at Gallipoli.   Since the soldiers would rather get shot at than eat it as it turns out the British amassed a large surplus. They decided to use it as a secret ingredient in mustard gas shells.  Conventual history says the Tank played a big role in the defeat of Germany. It wasn't they test fired a few Marmite/Vegemite infused shells and the German army promptly collapsed. Thus ended the Great War.  The problem was all the left over shells. They were stored where it didn't really matter if they went off and close to where they were needed. In a top secret operation they were buried in the Paris catacombs.  War broke out in 1939 again and they examined the shells and as it turned out the Mites had not degraded in anyway. The stuff doesn't really go off. It was estimated that it would take around a year to ready then for action. France collapsed before they were ready and before they were captured by the Nazis the French did the world a favor and hid the shells.  Post liberation before the war ended it was considered to drop them on the Germans it Japanese. The information leaked however and the mad Austrian shot himself and the Japanese threw in the towel.Churchill wanted to use them in Operation Unthinkable but the Americans vetoed the plan on humanitarian plans. Even the Americans didn't want to do that to the Soviets.  The WW1 stock was finally destroyed in nuclear testing in the South Pacific. They loaded up the Prinz Eugen and detonated a nuclear bomb. They had to do it far away from major population centres and they couldn't get to the moon yet.And there it remains to this day infused with radiation mutating. Like a ticking time bomb should it ever leak.  Over successive generations some inhabitants of the UK, Australia and NZ have developed an immunity to the power of the various mite's. Some even think it tastes good. This is why UK food has the reputation it does.  Some say the Aussies are even working on new WMD out there in the outback involving Vegemite and kangaroos. No one knows the outback is very large.  Americans were smarter. They banned the importation of Marmite and Vegemite until 1980. Even then they only allowed it with the intention to study it incase the Vegemite Bomb is ever perfected.</blockquote>

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