Aromat is dead

Now some sad news. Knorr have dropped Aromat seasoning from their range. This was a description of it on their website, followed by some shots I took in August of what I thought then was going to be the last canister of Aromat I would ever use, as it seemed to have vanished from all shops. (I was wrong; I did find a few more; but they have now all been used up)

This pale yellow blend of various culinary salts and spices, which you shook onto food being cooked, was launched a long time ago, in the 1970s I think*. My Mum discovered it way back then and used it often. Clearly she was was still using it when I inherited Mum and Dad's home in 2009, for I found it in a kitchen cupboard, within easy reach. I hadn't been using Aromat myself, but I now did, and I thought it added something really nice to the flavour of fish, steaks and stir-fries. 

Subsequently I made a point of always having a good stock of Aromat on hand - several of those little yellow-and-green canisters. But even before the first lockdown in March this year it was getting hard to find at Waitrose, who normally stock a wide range of goods like this. It came and went from their shelves; and then by August wasn't there at all. Nor could I find it at any other food store. I speculated that there had been lockdown supply problems, as with Italian pasta; or perhaps one of its ingredients had temporarily become scarce or impossible to get. I entertained hope that this long-time favourite, which reminded me so fondly of Mum's excellent cooking when I was much younger and still living at home, would return. 

But now I know it won't. Knorr have axed it. 

This morning it occurred to me to send Knorr a message on their website. Within hours I had a reply, from one of their 'Ambassadors' called Karen:

Hi Lucy

Thank you for contacting Knorr.

The Knorr Aromat Seasoning you are looking for has I'm sorry to say, been unavailable for some time, and does seem to be in the process of being discontinued from our range. It's always a hard decision to discontinue a product, especially when we hear we have fans like you that really loved it.

Knorr tries to sell their complete range to all retailers, but it is difficult to control which products individual supermarkets choose to stock. Some retailers might have some leftover stock for some time, which means we can't exactly be sure which specific stores still stock the product.  

Do check out your local discount outlets as they very often have our end of line products and I do hope you are able to get hold of the product.

I've looked online and can find this still available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3n2CEsz

I recommend visiting the Website or Facebook page, as your comments will be very much appreciated by the brand. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knorruk 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Knorr

Should you have any further feedback, or wish to discuss this matter further, please get back in touch and we will be happy to help

Regards,

Karen

Well, that seems final, although the reason behind discontinuing Aromat still isn't clear. Was it indeed because one or more essential ingredients had become impossible to procure? Or because one or more ingredients contravened some EU food regulation? 

Or just that it had become an unfashionable last-century item - too much associated with captive housewives tied to the kitchen; the classic era of bland packaged foodstuffs that were meant to be convenient but exotic, like Pot Noodles, Vesta curries, and Findus boil-in-the-bag cod fillets. And yet Aromat was genuinely good.

Sigh. 

An epitaph, then: shots in September of the very last Aromat canister I ever found in the shops, about to be shaken empty onto a succulent steak. One of my caravan meals while in North Devon.

Farewell! Adieu!

* Wikipedia has a very brief article on Aromat that says it first appeared in 1953. That seems a bit early to me, but some familiar kitchen foodstuffs do go back a surprising number of years, so maybe 1953 is the right date, and not sometime in the 1970s.