Horlicks In A Mug, A Journey

Nuzhath · May 26, 2020

Horlicks, anyone? Take that with steaming milk, foamy side curling against the rim of the cup. Yum, it is.

For as long as I can remember, I have had horlicks - one cup a day. Pretty much kept the blues away, especially when you are hungry, cooking breakfast and are running late. Horlicks has saved the day many a time. Add a pinch of saffron to up the game and you are satisfied you have given your kid a super energy drink.

There was a time though, for about a decade when many folks would have had to sadly let go of this favourite malt. All of us became sugar-aware. The horror of diabetes. During this time sugar-free products had not yet hit the market. Companies were generally not looking into the miniscule dip in sales and the marketing VPs were not looking into tapping this emerging consumer base of sugar-free, or organic products. Gradually, Horlicks disappeared from the kitchen shelves, atleast mine. One doesn't want to feed kids unnecessary sugar. And If I have to ingest a few grams of sugar through horlicks daily, one can calculate that it will add upto atleast 100g of sugar in the body per month. I can as well have a more yummy gulab jamun once a month.

As time passed, the market did get flooded with tons of varieties of Horlicks. But the mood is gone. At one point, I did try out biscuits from this same company. But it didnt go down well. How finicky we are, the companies out there must be bursting a vein trying to figure out what consumers want and what sells. On the brighter side, I am sure many industries are booming just because of this finicky consumer. kitchen scissors can be one example.

Interestingly, there was a collateral damage associated with stopping the cup of a malt drink. By now, entire families had their favorite brands. The cup or the glass was replaced by mugs. Large mugs, square, round, twisted - all shapes and colors. It had become a personal signature at home. Sacrilege, if you served them the malt in someone else's mug. The taste would differ? Maybe the taste buds could figure out the ceramic compunds in the mug? Just kidding! Of course, it is baseless. But I would prefer my own mug, thank you.

And so, during the yearly cleanup, you would find about a dozen mugs with chipped edges, broken handles or just plain good ones. Some became pen stands, or a tooth brush holder. The good ones would be given away with a twinge of sadness. The yellow color was so rich or the newspaper print on one mug was too good. But, the time has come to let go. After all, there are those new ones at a whopping discount at that store. The sale ends this week.

Since we are talking of memories here, my best time would be the time when I am recovering from fever or a tired day. All of us will have our version of a health drink that works for us.

Now, just go make that malt in your favourite cup, and enjoy! Immunity booster, it sure is.

The need of the hour.

gorgeous23 · Jun 19, 2020

nice write up.
i too grew up with horlicks, but in our house it was bournvita, no matter what brand was brought, it was always referred to as bournvita
we grew up drinking in steel glasses, no fancy mugs then.
but now i love buying those fancy mugs for my kids, of course i buy two numbers of the same mugs (apparently they look same and cost same), but somehow both my girls are able to make out the difference -- there is a tiny yellow detail missing in one cup and hence that cup is not mine.
anyway i recently had to retire a cracked but much loved mug. i have planted a small plant, hope it survives.

Viswamitra · Jun 19, 2020

@Nuzhath

There was a time when all the children were not allowed to drink coffee and hence they relied on malt drinks when they wake up and when they go to bed. Bournvita and Horlicks were considered as leading brands at that time. For elderly people, it is given when they are sick, and therefore, depending on the age of the person, Horlicks is considered as a malt that would be taken if one is sick. Even some people used to carry a Horlicks bottle instead of Oranges to see a patient in the hospital.

Your using the old mug as a pen stand brought excellent memories of my father saving every used item for another use. He used to keep the red paste head in his drawer and when I was wondering why he was saving it, later I realized he used it as a tuner for radios and transistors either for volume or changing the station. He also used smaller caps for covering up the cycle tube heads where we used to fill the air. Smaller used cups and vessels for growing plants and so on.

Nuzhath · Jun 23, 2020

Viswamitra said: ↑

@Nuzhath

There was a time when all the children were not allowed to drink coffee and hence they relied on malt drinks when they wake up and when they go to bed. Bournvita and Horlicks were considered as leading brands at that time. For elderly people, it is given when they are sick, and therefore, depending on the age of the person, Horlicks is considered as a malt that would be taken if one is sick. Even some people used to carry a Horlicks bottle instead of Oranges to see a patient in the hospital.

Your using the old mug as a pen stand brought excellent memories of my father saving every used item for another use. He used to keep the red paste head in his drawer and when I was wondering why he was saving it, later I realized he used it as a tuner for radios and transistors either for volume or changing the station. He also used smaller caps for covering up the cycle tube heads where we used to fill the air. Smaller used cups and vessels for growing plants and so on.
Click to expand...

Oh. Wow. That is one great mechanical mind at work. Reuse of caps. I have a bagful of wires and chargers I dont have the heart to throw away...