If you’ve walked by the international food aisle of your local grocery store, you may have spotted two small brown cans with yellow lids, often set side by side. One is called Marmite, while the other is called Vegemite, and both are yeast extract spreads. Maybe you’ve even been curious enough to try one of them, only to find the taste… overwhelming. Both have an intense, salty, yeasty flavor, and both usually get a sneer of disgust from Americans who haven’t grown up with them. Given this, you might think they are basically the same product with different labels. Fans of one or the other are quick to tell you how untrue that really is.
It might surprise you to learn that yeast spreads are some of the most popular condiments in the world. Several countries have their own variation of yeast spreads, with Marmite and Vegemite both representing their own individual countries. Each uses slightly different ingredients and has a slightly different consistency that sets them apart from one another. You may even find that Marmite and Vegemite vary in taste by what country they are sold in. But where do the biggest differences actually lie?
