Marchants or Tarax?

[Revolio]

(directed to the Victorians out there of senior vintage) - Armstrong steps on the moon - which lemonade were you drinking at the time? Was it Marchants jingle " spark-a-lark-a-lark-a-lark-a-ling, just say Marchants, please!" or was it Tarax's "hi-bubble, hi-bubble, hi-bubble, hi-bubble lemonade, get a lift with Tarax, hi-bubble lemonade!" ????? (both of which preceded 3AK's radio station's "where no wrinklies fly" gem).

Might seem like trivial nostalgia, but the choice made may well reveal personality trait development in later life.



(on the side, got talking to Dippa in the Vic Markets a few months back whilst waiting for a coffee. Talked about his involvement with the celebrity poker at Crown Casino {all dried up now just about}. Forgot to ask him about the "Four and Twenty Pie" ad that he was in during the 70's - the one with the elite VFL players as well as Lou Richards and his sidekick zooming around the countryside on a bus singing the pie jingle. My point being you don't see ads around these days that stick in memory - although I did like the Virgin ad of about 3 years ago!).


So were you Tarax or Marchants?

 

[Ikara]

I lived in Melbourne in my very early years (not something that I readily admit publicly ) and have vivid memories of Tarax being delivered by the Greengrocer man on his regular weekly rounds down our street in Blackburn. So Tarax for me.

JB

 

[Cruiser Elite]

So were you Tarax or Marchants?

Unquestionably Marchants solely because of that screw top they used.

 

[Revolio]

Unquestionably Marchants solely because of that screw top they used.

View attachment 44434 View attachment 44435

Wow CE, I'd forgotten about those screw tops - wonder if they'd ever return, lol.

I'm with you Ikara re Tarax (not influenced by Joffa Boy or those Peters spider scoundrels Zig & Zag either). Mainly because they had one of those 'prize under the bottle cap promotions' in the mid 60's and I scratched either a dollar or a dollar lottery ticket (didn't win though). That just swayed me to Tarax; although those Marchants screw tops were pretty impressive. {this might trigger those Dollar Bill memories of the decimalisation changeover; what was the date again? (lol)}

 

[turtlemichael]

Wow CE, I'd forgotten about those screw tops - wonder if they'd ever return, lol.

{this might trigger those Dollar Bill memories of the decimalisation changeover; what was the date again? (lol)}

"On the fourteenth of February Nineteen Sixty-Six!"

 

[RooFlyer]

Wasn't there Passiona available?

 

[Revolio]

Wasn't Passiona in the Coke/Fanta camp or was it a Cottee's product RF? Could be wrong, but didn't it appear in the 70's? (pretty sure dentists would have *loved* all products mentioned so far)

 

[RooFlyer]

From the Schweppes web site:

Passiona has been an Aussie soft drink icon since the 1920s.

The story started with Spencer Cottee, who came up with the idea to make passionfruit cordial from his overabundant supply of passion pulp. He then sold his cordial to Lismore family company, William Bryant & Sons. They carbonated the mixture to create the taste sensation known as ‘Passiona’

But you are right, it got a big push along in the groovy '70s .

 

[Warks]

Country towns had their own soft drinks as I recall. They were still around into the 80s and early 90s. Not sure how many left though. Used to still get a wooden crate full of 750mL bottles of assorted flavours (including creaming soda) and you'd return them for refills when finished.

I remember seeing Tarax in Sydney in the 70s but never Marchants. We had all sorts of brands around. Shelleys would have been the biggest.

What about Crystal Drinks? I remember on Hey Hey It's Saturday they had a segment "Crystal Drinks Questions".

 

[Revolio]

Did Icks come by the crate, Mr Warks? Rings a bell as being one of them.

 

[Warks]

Did Icks come by the crate, Mr Warks? Rings a bell as being one of them.

Ecks was the brand, unless you're a Kiwi...

 

[drron]

In Maitland in the 70s it was Heads as the local soft drink.
The chairman was Richard Heads.He was also chairman of the local hospital board.Much more laid back times as he always introduced himself as Dick.

 

[Kangarucci]

Tarax due to bottle cap competition and tv shows. Our local lemonade was Joe's from South Gippsland.

 

[JohnK]

From the Schweppes web site:

Passiona has been an Aussie soft drink icon since the 1920s.

Love Passiona and Creaming Soda.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Kangarucci I grew up in Foster - our local lolly water factory was literally 50mtrs across the paddock from our kitchen window - family owned business Collis and Sons.

Every day every holidays we would ride out ponies around to the factory and the the dad owner who we all knew like an uncle would come out and give us 'FREE speck bottles' of whatever they had - speck botts were those that had visible marks / defects inside - usually only visible after filling.

We thought it the ants pants!

And of course when I went off to cattle sales with dad to 'big towns' like Leongatha and Korumburra we could enjoy Joes Orange or even better Joes Splashe Cola!

What a wonderful time to be a kid - so simplistic and so innocent!

 

[Kangarucci]

Korumburra Joe's Cola was the best! We used to return the bottes for 5c and buy firecrackers! Those certainly were the days!