10 brands you thought were Malaysian but aren’t

Perhaps the brand I was most shocked to discover as not Malaysian, the makers of ice cream soda are Singaporean. Dating back to 1883, F&N was once known as Singapore and Straits Aerated Water Company before teaming up with Heineken to create Malayan Breweries Limited—the creators of Tiger Beer. Alongside producing its own beverages, F&N then acquired the rights to distribute Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Schweppes in Singapore, Malaya, and Brunei.

Its selection of fizzy drinks is some of the most familiar in Malaysia, with most soda fountains housing at least one of its flavours. Ice cream soda and F&N orange, in particular, are still the most refreshing beverages you can have on a hot day. Who knew ice cream soda predates Tiger Beer?

The little green-lidded jars your mothers and aunties probably stockpiled are shockingly not Malaysian products. They aren’t even Asian products. Brand’s chicken essence has a 180-year-long history and was created by the royal chef of Buckingham Palace in London.

A fat-free chicken consommé was initially crafted to better the health of King George IV, before it made its way into stores and eventually across the globe. By the 1970s, it became so popular in Asia that a manufacturing facility was established in Malaysia, which is probably why most of us thought of Brand’s as homegrown. 

Considering this brand’s namesake is the Malay word for chicken, it is no wonder that many of us still consider Ayam Brand, a Malaysian company. Founded in 1892 in Singapore, then part of colonial Malaya, Ayam Brand was created to increase the accessibility and availability of canned goods. The founder of the now prolific cannery, Alfred Clouet, made a Gallic rooster the brand’s logo as a nod to his French heritage. Local consumers soon began coining these cans ‘ayam brand’, and so Clouet made this the company name. 

See also: Fish-tok: The tinned fish trend explored

If the consumption of Milo per capita was a competition, Malaysia would win. It’s the beverage of breakfasts, trips to mamaks, and sleepless nights. Milo is so inseparable from Malaysian food culture that it was pretty heartbreaking to find out that the chocolate malt drink actually comes from Australia.

The drink was invented by chemist and Nestlé employee, Thomas Mayne, as a balanced liquid food that contained every essential protein and mineral. Milo existed as the 1930s’ version of Soylent. The recipe of milk powder, malted barley, cocoa, and sugar has remained almost the same throughout its 89-year history and continues to be marketed as a type of energy drink.

A staple of Malaysian diets and the most common local supper, Maggi has extremely controversial roots. Despite Switzerland being a famously neutral territory, one of its most widely consumed food products has links to Nazi Germany. Links may be an understatement as the globally recognised brand of instant noodles and seasonings cooperated with Germany during World War Two and went so far as to consider itself an Aryan company at one point (it no longer does).

During the war, two thirds of Maggi’s production went straight to the Wehrmacht—Nazi Germany’s armed forces. The brand has since distanced itself from this history and was acquired by Nestlé in 1947, but this fact proves the eeriest I’ve learned while researching this story. 

Life imitates art—and the creation of Kickapoo did just this, with its origins stemming from a fictional comic strip. The American comic Li’l Abner popularised the drink as an “elixir of such power that the fumes alone have been known to melt rivets off battleships.” This statement isn’t surprising, considering the soft drink has a whopping 40 milligrams of caffeine.

According to the comic’s cartoonist, Kickapoo was a sort of moonshine, made with everything and anything from live grizzly bears to kerosene. The fictional beverage became so sought after that its real-life, non-alcoholic counterpart was introduced in 1965 by the Monarch Beverage Company. The product is now predominantly distributed in Asian regions, with cans still featuring a Li’l Abner illustration. 

Jacob’s biscuits and crackers can be found in almost any Malaysian pantry. It is commonplace to rely on these bakes when other snacks are out of reach. A personal favourite is its Weetameal. Despite being so readily available in households across the country, Jacob’s is an Irish brand. Unlike a majority of entries on this list, Jacob’s stands out as having a typical backstory. Two Irish brothers began a small biscuit bakery in 1851 and soon industrialised the production process, becoming one of the most recognised producers of cream crackers. 

A product of surplus cocoa supplies, Choki Choki is one of the happiest accidents the snack world has ever seen. Unfortunately for Malaysians who grew up nibbling on these chocolate-filled plastic tubes, Choki Choki was created in Indonesia. A family of Chinese migrants relocated to Indonesia in 1948 and started selling Marie biscuits out of their home.

The family’s biscuit venture soon became Mayora Indah, the company that owns Roma, Kopiko, and Choki Choki. Some Roma biscuits feature chocolate fillings and coatings, which inspired the brand to turn excess cocoa into Choki Choki. Mayora Indah filled minuscule cylinders with chocolate designed to melt in tropical heat and inadvertently created an icon of Malaysian childhoods. 

The cod liver oil most of us were force-fed as children isn’t actually a Malaysian cure-all. We’re all united by the shared pain of having to down spoonfuls of this elixir, but what’s even more haunting is that Scott’s Emulsion was once more pungent than its present-day iterations. Scott’s Emulsion was created in New York, taking inspiration from the medicinal traditions of Northern European fishermen.

Alfred B. Scott, the founder of the brand, sourced cod liver oil from the islands that lie just above the Arctic Circle. Even the most devout researchers of cod liver oil deemed it too off-putting to sell, but through trial and error, some clever marketing, and the eventual addition of orange flavouring, Scott’s Emulsion became one of the world’s most commonly consumed supplements. 

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