Kraft R&D

Kraft.
We used to buy Kraft peanut butter in Australia. The red label was crunchy, while the blue label was smooth. I used to get the peanut chunks stuck in my teeth a lot.
Kraft also reminds me of Vegemite. What a staple!
Kraft singles somehow factor in too, though once we moved to HK, we ended up buying some other brand's processed cheese. So, those were my childhood Kraft memories.

I do not associate childhood with Lunchables, Crystal Light, Kool-Aid, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Jell-O, or cream cheese. So, it's interesting visiting the Kraft Beverages R&D and seeing other people possibly relish in nostalgia, while I'm sitting there thinking about Vegemite.

We first had an introduction to Kraft, and I learned that Kraft actually split into Kraft and Mondelez after Kraft bought Cadbury. I'm pretty surprised after seeing so many familiar brands belonging to Mondelez's. Perhaps I would want to work for them (hah, free samples?).
We had a tour of the pilot plant and I saw sacks of citric acid and flavourings. This made me very happy. We toured and viewed the coffee roaster, and tasted 4 different coffees (made with the Arabica bean and/or the Robusta bean). Yes, I could tell the subtle differences among the coffees, but I'm really not sure which I prefer. I like them all.

The Kraft facility apparently had a renovation to make it more modern and friendly for collaborations. From a picture, it sort of looked like a possible office space at Google. However, I noted vending machines and it appears that there are no microkitchens. I think it's kind of bizarre that food companies don't offer free food, while many tech companies have on-site chefs, free meals, and microkitchens with EVERYTHING.

 Kraft did have a giant kitchen though, and we had a group "make your own drink" activity. My group and I made the green ("Summer Twist") and toxic orange drinks. The green was peach, mango, and grapefruit(?) flavouring with citric acid, while the orange was vanilla, gingerbread and grapefruit. The activity was fun, but it seemed kind of juvenile.

I think the red drink was cherry vanilla and I don't remember what the other ones were.
We had discussions about working in the food science industry at lunch. I wanted to know whether the scientists came up with the new flavours/ideas. Unfortunately, it turns out that marketers are the ones who dictate what foods or drinks get made. Darn, I knew I should've transferred to Wharton.

At the end, we received goodie bags! It turns out that I have bought nearly no Kraft beverages in the past. We got Gevalia coffee, Kool-Aid (in both plastic bottle and powder form), Capri-Sun for adults (i.e. bigger serving size), Crystal Light, and Mio.

Kraft is Damn Crafty...

Let's put it this way.

Kraft has a new arts and crafts project in town...it's painting Cadbury's damn Easter eggs, now.
Cadbury is Ka-blam! Ca-burying what's left of its originality.
Kraft CADded more to its monopolistic inventory.
Cadbury is caddying all its creme eggs in another basket.
Cadbury is burying all its creme eggs into another CADdie.
Thus, Cadbury... gettin' buried in Kraft's caddie... left to die.

Kraft was crafty, and bought Cadbury.

Okay. I read way back, in September, that Cadbury saw Kraft's offer to buy them as an insult. I was extremely happy that Cadbury was so defiant! I emailed them, telling them to keep it up.
A few days ago, I found out that Cadbury was owned by Kraft. Since February. This reminds me of the time I found out that Snapple stopped using HFCS, and I was only a few months late, too. This is actually pretty good, considering I don't really keep up with food news [or any news, really...] so discovering it online using previously acquired information is pretty nifty. ANYWAY. I emailed them, with this:

"I am extremely completely irrevocably INFURIATED that you, Kraft, have bought Cadbury. Gee, thank you for being a monopoly."

So. This is what I got back:

"

Thank You for Contacting Us! Dear Charlotte, Thank you for visiting http://www.kraft.com/ . I appreciate you taking the time to e-mail us and let us know about this situation. We always like to acknowledge when our consumers provide us with information that can help us serve you better. I'll make sure to forward your information onto the appropriate staff. Again, thanks for contacting us, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy our products. Kim McMiller Associate Director, Consumer Relations ~~TLXEA_20700759~~N ------------------------------------------------------------------"

She obviously didn't read my message. "I hope you'll continue to enjoy our products" contradicts exactly what I had commented. If it wasn't for Vegemite... I'd say "bye bye, Kraft." I don't really know why I dislike Kraft. The food isn't bad. I lived on Kraft peanut butter in Australia. I think it's just that they buy out smaller companies, and streamline everything so that there is no more diversity.

But a lot of companies do that, so why am I bashing Kraft? I really don't know. Call me biased. Off my Kraftckers.

VEGEMITE.

I would like to introduce to you... the one and only...

VEGEMITE.

I haven't had this in ages. In a decade. In over a decade. The last time I had tried this nonchalantly was in 2000, in Kingswood, NSW, Australia, where my family and I used to live. Back then, Vegemite was no big deal... I didn't really like the taste, actually. In Hong Kong, I promptly forgot all about Vegemite and Maggi noodles and Chiko rolls and meat pies...

However, in the blatantly stark life in the U.S., I've gotten used to reminiscing about everything I used to have. In AUS. In HK. I miss eggettes, HK waffles, egg tarts, vegemite, fairy cake, weird wine gums [at least, I think that's what they were? I honestly have no idea], etc. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I miss Australian meat pies, and HK fish balls next to the taxis and double decker buses...

So anyway, last Saturday I went to NYC, and hung out with KC and DS. It was extremely eventful in the aspect of food. Why? Well, we went to Chinatown, and I tried the first taro flavoured bubble tea of my life. It was really creamy, and I think there was this hint of vanilla... It was utterly awesome and the tapioca balls were a bit overcooked but they were still really chewy, so that was fantastic. Then, on the way out of Chinatown, I found this street cart selling eggettes. In my head, I was thinking, Wh-Wh-WH-WHAT?! True, in HK, eggettes are still intact and are rolled up into half a hollow cylinder [basically, it looks like you placed a waffle on a cylinder; here is a picture that doesn't belong to me], but these were better than nothing... after 4 years. Actually, I think that the vendors cheated me out of some because they were supposed to give me 15, and I don't think that there was 15. Yes, silly reason, but I have intuition. But, do YOU see 15 eggettes, in the picture?

The worst part was locating the Tuck Shop, which is this Australian restaurant, at which Vegemite is sold. I. Want. Vegemite. So... we spent two hours walking around, looking for 115, St Mark's Place. We actually ended up literally 2 streets away from it when KC's friend told us we were going in the wrong direction. So... we ended up walking to a place called the Top Shop, which sells clothes, and this would've been hilarious had it not been for the fact that, dude, we had walked for a zillion hours. Luckily, though, the weather was really nice. There was a gentle breeze... the sun didn't want to melt us...

So, after having realised our mistake, we retraced our steps [well, more like they followed me... because I find NYC easier to navigate than they do] and we ended up two streets to the right of where we had started off. And... there was this:

And this:

DO YOU SEE THAT KANGAROO?! Australia it IS! This is the Tuck Shop.... and I got some Vegemite [$7 for 150g. Which truly sucks. But what other food would I want in the world, anyway?] and two pies for my brother. KC tried some Vegemite and he literally spat it out and said, "THAT'S dis-GUST-ing!!" Maybe it's just me, but I found it really rude. Especially as we were right outside the store, and the store-owner heard us. But since I rarely see KC anyway, I decided not to hold a grudge against him.

We then went to Starbucks and got some Frappucinos, and then we went to Outback Steakhouse [which is absolutely NOT Australian.] and I tried the blooming onion, which was... eh. The mustard sauce thing was cool. The onion itself... I feel as though nature was manipulated. Drastically. However, the bread was nice.

And here is the Vegemite and toast, the next day:

Yes I resent the fact that it is made by Kraft.