An Interesting Find

All the bottles

Greeting loyal readers and fellow maremmas.  Now as you all know, We live in a very old house (by New Zealand standards).  87 years ago, Two summers ago, mummy was out in the garden digging under the Robinia tree when she discovered these bottles. She put them in a bucket, thinking “I must clean them later” and promptly forgot them.  (Her memory ain’t what it used to be).

Well, today she found them out in the back of her old potting shed, when looking for something else.   Well, she cleaned them up and brought the bottles inside to consult with our friend “Dr Google” to see if she could find anything out about them.

Symington’s Coffee Essence

• Coffee and chicory  essence was a thick syrup, used as a form of instant coffee during the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.). The chicory, a plant root, was used to augment the bitter ‘coffee’ taste of the syrup, and the concoction appears to have been relatively popular. It was often drunk with sweetened condensed milk.
• Thomas Symington & Co. was established in Edinburgh by Thomas Symington in the second half of the 19th century. He developed a very early ‘instant coffee.’ Symington’s displayed goods at the New Zealand Exhibition in 1882, and  advertisements for Thomas Symington’s essences of pure coffee, coffee and chicory, and dandelion coffee appear in the 1880’s in New Zealand.
• From 1852 onwards Mr Symington developed a range of dried foods, starting with Pea Flour. This allowed soup to be made by just adding boiling water. It was used by British troops in the Crimean War, and later by Scott of the Antarctic.

Mummy thinks the bottle she found is from the 20th century but is not too sure when.  There are other bottles waiting for her to research their history, one of which is from New York so watch this space for more about the bottle she found.

Now, what are Me and Nellie and Itai doing while mummy is busy researching on the internet.  Why We were busy having our late afternoon snooze, just before our pre-dinner nap.

Love the Three bestest maremmas in all the land.