I recently saw this latest Nestle TV commercial and it brought back loads of memories.
This year Nestle celebrates its 100 years as a company. While I don’t necessarily feel an emotional bond when a company hit 100 years, I did with Nestle. When I look back at my 27 years of my life, Nestle has been there all the way, creating fond memories of my childhood that I will forever cherish. Look at the full list of brands that are under Nestle and see if it evokes a kind of nostalgia in you.
Here are some of my childhood memories growing up with Nestle.
1) Maggi Mee
I never really enjoyed my primary school days. I went to a private school in Penang called Sri Inai that started at 8AM and ended at 2.50PM every day. That means we would even have lunch in school. I didn’t like what I studied and the only fun I had was playing around at recess or something even during class. I did look forward to one thing every day after school though. I would get home about 3.30PM or 4PM. While still dressed in my school uniform I would then make myself a nice bowl of Maggi Mee. My parents were cautious about letting me go near fire so I always made it with my microwave and I loved it.
As the months went by though I started taking pride in my Maggi Mee and got creative. I added eggs and even cheese in there (looking back now it seemed to simple but to me then it was like an achievement). I would then lay the hot bowl of Maggi Mee on my dining table and properly arrange the cutlery, pepper and soya sauce around it. Then one last thing I would do before I slurped the noodles up… was turn Cartoon Network on what used to be a service called Mega TV. Anyone remember that?
That 1 hour of Maggi Mee wasn’t just a meal for me. It was like my little reward to myself for having gone through a tough day at school (even though looking back… again it wasn’t really that tough). But it was good. Today I still have my little Maggi Mee treats with the egg in it, but I do without the cheese. Rather than having them in the afternoons now, I now have them for late night suppers whenever I’m hungry.
2) Milo
We all grew up with Milo and today I drink Milo much more than I drink Coke or any other drink. I had two fond memories with Milo
i) The first one was outside the HSBC in Beach Street Penang. When I was still in primary school, I would sometimes have to follow my mum to the bank on Beach Street. That was something I hated doing. Because I would just have to go there, sit there and wait for her while doing nothing. There was no iPhone or iPad to play with then… and I couldn’t exactly bring my Cartoon Network to the bank.
The one thing that cheered me up though was on days where there would be a Milo truck parked right outside the HSBC on Beach Street. I can’t even remember if we had to pay for it or not but I remember tasting the refreshing ice cold Milo that came out of it. It was awesome. At home I would often try to make a cold Milo as well as that but never succeeded. Still.. I made my very own ice-cold Milo as part of my Maggi Mee tea time meal.
ii) What I also LOVED about Milo was how it tastes. My baby sitter banned me from that though. She said it was too “heaty” to eat Milo in its powder form but I didn’t care. When she was doing the laundry or hanging clothes up I would sneak into the kitchen. Armed with a table spoon in my hand I would flip open the lid of the Milo Tin and put one full table spoon of Milo powder into my mouth. As the milo powder diluted in my saliva, I closed my eyes and I remember thinking that it was how the food in Heaven must’ve been like.
My nanny would often know of my crime though and give me a big scolding. The sprinkles of Milo powder on my shirt often gives me away.
3) Koko Krunch
I don’t know of any kid that didn’t love Koko Krunch growing up. I had it almost every day for breakfast before I left for school. The sun will barely be up when I came down from my room dressed in my school uniform. Set on the breakfast table will be an empty bowl with a spoon in it. Right next to it, a carton of milk and a box of Koko Krunch. I would then mix them both together myself in the bowl and gobble away
20 years later I do the same thing before going to work. In fact this morning I had Koko Krunch for breakfast right after I had finished a business conference call with people in the USA. Funny enough the only other cereal that I have been consistently in love with ever since is… the Milo cereal which is coincidentally under Nestle too.
4) Nestum
I didn’t just try to get creative with Maggi Mee. I tried it with Milo too. One day I discovered that there was such a thing called Nestum that you could add into your Milo. I got addicted to it.
5) Nescafe
My family kept the Milo tin in a cupboard right next to the Nescafe Bottle. Remember the long one? Now I wasn’t allowed to drink a lot of coffee as a kid but one thing I had to try was Nescafe in its powder form. It was BITTER!. I choked and I never did it again. This time my nanny laughed and hoped that it would teach me a lesson not to eat things the way it’s not supposed to be eaten. It didn’t work though. I continued eating my milo.
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The thing about Nestle is that its role in my life continued on till even after I grew up. When I first started Nuffnang, one of the first advertisers to run a campaign with us was Nestle. It was one of the first companies I had gone out to pitch to and I met some people who today are friends of mine. Vanda and Mr Khoo (I call them). So Nestle has played a bit part in my life and supported me too at times when I needed help the most.
So Happy 100th Anniversary Nestle. May you touch the lives of many more.
What’s your Nestle story? Share it in the comments.
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Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space