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Accident Spill, Or How 'You Set Out With Marmite And End Up With A Jam'

Michele Kayal
/
for NPR

Twitter already beat us to all the good puns, including the one in the headline. But, yes, it is true, you will either love or hate this news story from England: A tanker carrying 20 tons of yeast extract — the main ingredient in the loved-or-reviled Marmite — was involved in a late night accident, yesterday, spilling its contents and shutting down the M1, which connects London to the northern part of England.

The AP reports that the liquid had the same unique smell of Marmite and it was "was being transported to the Marmite factory in Burton-on-Trent in central England to be turned into the black sticky paste that generations of Britons have spread on hot buttered toast."

Luckily no one was injured and the crash has become a hit on Twitter. Among our favorite tweets:

"Marmite lorry crashes. Some people will love this news, others will hate it ..http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-15933599" --@pkfrancis

"How do you set out with marmite and end up with a jam." --@AlanBiggs1

"Was the Marmite crash on the yeast bound carriageway?" --@BBCr4today

"Don't try to EXTRACT a joke out of this, please." --@JaniceForsyth

As for you Two-Way readers, back in May, when Denmark banned Marmite, we asked if you thought it tasted great or awful.

44 percent said "awful;" 35 percent said "great."

If you're up for a taste test, back in 2010, NPR's Kitchen Window dedicated a column "in defense of marmite." It includes recipes.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.