Ambrosia is a brand of food products in the United Kingdom. Its original product was a dried milk powder for infants, but it is now mostly known for its

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

and

rice pudding Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and commonly other ingredients such as sweeteners, spices, flavourings and sometimes eggs. Variants are used for either desserts or dinners. When used as a dessert, it is commonly c ...

. The brand plays on the fact that it is made in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England, (at a factory in Lifton), with their punning

strapline Advertising slogans are short phrases used in advertising campaigns to generate publicity and unify a company's marketing strategy. The phrases may be used to attract attention to a distinctive product feature or reinforce a company's brand. Etymo ...

''"Devon knows how they make it so creamy"''.

History

The Ambrosia Creamery was founded in 1917 by Alfred Morris, in his home village Lifton in Devon, to make rich food for infants. He took milk from local farms, where most of the cows were the Red Ruby breed, and dried it with roller dryers. The product soon came to the attention of the British armed forces, who took significant quantities for its soldiers, still fighting in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Just prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Ambrosia creamery was the first company to start making creamed

ready in a tin. Following the outbreak of war, the vast majority of production was placed in

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

food parcels. After the end of hostilities, Ambrosia relaunched the product, along with a creamed

macaroni Macaroni (), known in Italian as ''maccheroni'', is a pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as "elbow macaroni". Some ...

pudding. In 1957, following increasing demand, the creamery opened a new factory near to the original production facility. In 1990 the entire company was acquired by

Colman's Colman's is an English manufacturer of mustard and other sauces, formerly based and produced for 160 years at Carrow, in Norwich, Norfolk. Owned by Unilever since 1995, Colman's is one of the oldest existing food brands, famous for a limited ra ...

Ltd., producer of a famous brand of

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, small, round seeds of ...

. This, in turn, was bought out by

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

in 2001. Unilever sold the brand on in 2004, to

Premier Foods Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia (food), Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, J. Lyons ...

, where it is still a core brand, alongside others such as

Bisto Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods. History The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder which rapidly became a bes ...

, Oxo and Sharwood's. In November 2018, Premier Foods announced that they were exploring the possible sale of the Ambrosia factory and brand in a move to focus on its growing brands, such as

Batchelors Batchelors is a popular brand of predominantly dried food products. The Batchelors company was founded in 1895 in Sheffield, England by William Batchelor, initially specialising in canned vegetables. It released its first dried soup in 1949, ...

and

Mr Kipling Mr Kipling is a brand of cakes, pies and baked goods made in Carlton, South Yorkshire and Stoke-on-Trent, and marketed in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and North America. It was introduced in May 1967 (at a time when cakes were more o ...

, and to accelerate the rate at which it pays down its £510m debt. This sale offer was later withdrawn.

Variations

This is a List of Ambrosia Products

Custards

*Ambrosia Custard *Ambrosia My Mini Custard *Ambrosia Banana *Ambrosia Chocolate *Ambrosia Strawberry *Ambrosia Light Custard *Ambrosia Deluxe Custard *Ambrosia Plant Based Custard

Rice Puddings

*Ambrosia Rice Pudding *Ambrosia Deluxe Rice *Ambrosia My Mini Rice *Ambrosia Light Rice Pudding *Ambrosia Sticky Toffee Rice Pudding *Ambrosia Chocolate Rice Pudding *Ambrosia Salted Caramel Deluxe Rice

Related products

*Ambrosia Ready to Eat Porridge *Ambrosia Ice Cream *Ambrosia Macaroni *Ambrosia Semolina *Ambrosia Tapioca

Discontinued

*Ambrosia Splat! *Ambrosia Devon Dream

Marketing

In the late 1990s, there were commercials on the Ambrosia flavoured custards which featured custard splatting into the face of a man who licks it off and replies "Mmmm; strawberry/banana/chocolate flavour" and finally, the end of the theme from

Roobarb ''Roobarb'' (also known as ''Roobarb and Custard'') is an animated children's television series, created by Grange Calveley and originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon of the original series, written by Calveley and d ...

can be heard. In 1999, Ambrosia launched Ambrosia Splat! Custard, aimed at young children. As part of their marketing, they sponsored a popular Saturday-morning kids' TV show

SMTV Live ''SMTV Live'' (an abbreviation of ''Saturday Morning Television Live'', and also stylised as ''SM: LIVE'') was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, produced by Blaze Television for ITV. Operating on a similar format to ...

(coincidentally its presenters

Ant and Dec Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo consisting of Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly from Newcastle upon Tyne. After meeting as child actors on CBBC's drama ''Byker Grove'', they performed together as pop musicians PJ & Duncan, ...

were the narrators of the sponsorship idents), in 2002, Panto.ie's annual pantomime in Dublin and from 2008 to 2011, the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

block on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. Also, in 2000 to 2001, Ambrosia Splat! was advertised by a group of animated characters collectively known as "The Yummies" (Chucky Chocolate, Tammy Toffee, Vinnie Vanilla, Billy Banana, & Suzie Strawberry) who get splat in all sorts of different ways, depending on the situation. The campaign was narrated by

Dexter Fletcher Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by th ...

. When the Ambrosia Rice pots were released in 2012, a variation of the strapline was used, saying "''Devon knows it's unbelievably good''". In 2020, Ambrosia launched a campaign featuring a mole named Moley, in the advert, After a life spent underground, he emerges from his mole hole and grasps a yellow balloon that happens to be passing. It takes him on a journey over the Devonshire countryside. As he takes to the skies, we see him make new friends, pick a raspberry and even fly-by a picnic where some friends are enjoying the Ambrosia custard sharing pot. It’s here that he gets his very first taste of Ambrosia, before landing to enjoy the deliciously creamy delight nearby.https://lbbonline.com/news/ambrosias-new-tvc-introduces-moley-and-his-shared-love-for-this-deliciously-creamy-dessert

References

{{Reflist

External links

Brand websitePremier Foods website
Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom

Ambrosia In the ancient Greek mythology, Greek myths, ambrosia (, ) is the food or drink of the Greek gods, and is often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Mount Olympus, Olympus by do ...

Former Unilever brands Companies based in Devon British brands