Where To Buy Vegemite In The United States

I'm British and I currently live in Britain, but for two years I lived in America and whilst I absolutely loved living in America, I often missed home. What I actually missed were friends at home and a few home comforts, one of those home comforts was a weird tasting paste made from brewers yeast called Marmite. If you have found this article then there is a very good chance that you are missing a similar strange brown paste called 'vegemite', well that's pretty much the same as the thing that we call Marmite in the United Kingdom.

We say that you either love or hate Marmite, and I would assume that the exact same applies in Australia, although it is said that Marmite is much stronger in taste than Vegemite. During my first year in America I found it extremely difficult to source Marmite and the one place that I could buy it from was ludicrously expensive, I would frequently ask friends and relatives to post me small jars of the good stuff. Towards the end of my stay in America it suddenly became much easier to source, something which I attributed to fast growing expat communities organizing themselves and importing the stuff. The exact same thing has actually happened to Vegemite, the growing numbers of Australians in the country has resulted in more people importing it, and for that reason prices are falling and you can actually buy Vegemite from places like Amazon and eBay at pretty reasonable prices.

Amazon stock Vegemite in 150g, 220g, 400g, and 600g jars, but due to shipping costs by far the cheapest way of buying is to purchase a big case of 12 x 220g jars. If you are intending to remain in America for a while, or indeed are living and working in America, then investing in a case will probably suit you. It certainly works out a hell of a lot cheaper to buy the case. Links to buy each of the single jar sizes and the case are provided immediately below.

That's something that an Australian will need to tell me in the comments. It is inevitable that Vegemite will be more expensive in the US than it is in Australia, because it has to be shipped thousands of miles, import taxes have to be paid, and then it has to be shipped to your door rather than collected from your local supermarket. I do know however that whilst Marmite is certainly more expensive to purchase in the US than it is in Australia, it still works out pretty reasonable all things considered.

You will also find people selling Vegemite on eBay.com, prices vary depending on seller and availability at any one time, but at the time of writing prices look pretty similar between Amazon and eBay. The links below are to Vegemite listings on eBay

> A New Zealand company began shipping Marmite to Australia in 1919.

> Kiwi Marmite is NOT the same taste as British Marmite.

> Vegemite was introduced in 1921 and now competes with Kiwi Marmite for market share.

> The name 'vegemite' was pulled out of a hat following a competition to name the new brand, the winner got $50 (about $3000 in todays money)

> A 115g jar of Vegemite was the first item to ever be electronically scanned at a checkout in 1984

As a Marmite addict I have a ridiculously high bias towards Marmite, but if you haven't tried it before then you should. If you are an Aussie or a Kiwi then you will probably only have tried Kiwi Marmite, which tastes significantly different. British Marmite is the original yeast paste, it has been sold since 1902, seventeen years before a Kiwi stole the name. You can buy it from Amazon below: