In an interesting moment of historicity, the session's host told us that Nutella originated as a Napoleonic war product. (Instead of the WWII product that it is.)
There's something curious going on here. The Nutella brand dates back to 1964, though Ferrero had sold a similar spread under the name "Supercrema" since 1951. The Ferrero company says that Supercrema was invented as a spreadable version of their "pasta gianduja", a low-budget gianduia that they produced in the 1940s as a way of using hazelnuts to eke out the rationed chocolate supply. However, this is suspiciously similar to a commonly-repeated story about the origin of gianduia itself: that it was invented during the Napoleonic Wars because naval blockades had made chocolate scarce and expensive. I would be really interested to know if the "adding hazelnuts to make chocolate go further" meme has ever turned up in a pre-WW2 source.
There's a very long tradition of people assuming/arguing things are older than they actually are.
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There's something curious going on here. The Nutella brand dates back to 1964, though Ferrero had sold a similar spread under the name "Supercrema" since 1951. The Ferrero company says that Supercrema was invented as a spreadable version of their "pasta gianduja", a low-budget gianduia that they produced in the 1940s as a way of using hazelnuts to eke out the rationed chocolate supply. However, this is suspiciously similar to a commonly-repeated story about the origin of gianduia itself: that it was invented during the Napoleonic Wars because naval blockades had made chocolate scarce and expensive. I would be really interested to know if the "adding hazelnuts to make chocolate go further" meme has ever turned up in a pre-WW2 source.
There's a very long tradition of people assuming/arguing things are older than they actually are.
Hang on, are you sure it's a very long ( ... )
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