MADE IN NEW ZEALAND
Stories of iconic Kiwi brands
Nicola McCoy – Random House - $19.99

This is a Father’s day book if I ever saw one, or a Christmas stocking stuffer. Great fun, I spent a very happy hour browsing through it. All the obvious food brands are here: Tip Top ice cream, Chesdale cheese, Edmonds, Griffins, L&P, Watties and so on but outside of the food area it is quite remarkable just how many brands are truly household names. While that word ICONIC is one of the most over-used words in the English language I think that in almost all cases these brands do qualify – try these:
Norsewear
Swanndri
Hallensteins
Glaxo
Vogel’s
Crown Lynn
Tui beer
Hansell’s
Speights
Smith & Caughey
Ballantynes
Kircaldie & Stains
Jaffas
Vegemite
Sunlight soap
Milo
La-Z-Boy chairs
Cadbury

And there are loads more.

There are also a few surprises – Anathoth – the Nelson jam and pickle maker, (you can always find some of their delicious products in our fridge), with the impossible to pronounce name, and Jimmy’s Pies, 20,000 pies a day they make, sold in the lower half of the South Is which is why the name didn’t ring a bell with me.



And I love the image of Smith's Cheap Drapery Warehouse (right) in 1880 which was the forerunner of Smith & Caughey who are of course still going strong today and who provided this picture.

Social history presented in an interesting and attractive package with illustrations throughout.
Picture of Anathoth Raspberry Jam courtesy of Barkers Fine Foods.