The zing thing ! Coca-Cola Cake

Once a upon a time before the food revolution, there existed a time when we drank cola without knowing about its formula and the sugar quotient. This my post is dedicated to those days when life was ignorant but yet fun…..

While working in Bombay I used to travel on the central line. That could be a challenge by itself as it was the most crowded travel line to follow. Stuffed with office goers, bhajji-wallis (vegetable vendors),college punks and school girls. In that I managed to push myself into the door which to this day is yet to see a vacant doorstep. I squeezed myself through the door and making yourself reach your favourite spot is an art. Along with all the mannerism of the convent education which had been drilled into my skull.I would politely ask and sometimes nudge through crevices and finally make way to the spot just beside the door.One two three and I could feel the breeze hitting my face and still not be precariously hanging on the door. When your nostrils are tingled with the smell of baked sweet flour you knew Vile Parle had come. The Indian Swadeshi Company ‘Parle‘ which had been the birthplace of Parle-G, Mango Bite, Melody and most importantly Thumbs up, Gold spot and Limca.

If you are a child of the 80s then you will never miss Coca-cola but rather Gold spot. The story of Gold spot is a story of entrepreneurs and consumerism at its zenith in India. When in 1977, George Fernandes’s swadeshi movement had driven the Market grosser Coca-cola from India. Then Parle under the chairmanship of Ramesh Chauhan had launched the Indian carbonated drinks like Gold Spot and Limca. But the void left by Cola had been gnawing the market. That is when Ramesh Chauhan alchemized the first Unique recipe of a carbonated drink celebrating the Indian essence. A drink not derived from the Kola-nut but rather a tea extract and indian spices. That is why if you understand cola then you can completely understand the difference between the Western Coca-Cola and the Indian bred Thumbs-up. It’s much stronger and though it was introduced into the market when the people’s palate lusted for the sweet Cola. This Thumbs-up did its trick and made way into the Indian household.

When Coca-cola was growing in India as a youth drink, gold spot with its zingy and tingling sensation with a prominent orange taste lured the young children. I was one such child. While growing up I never got to taste Coca-Cola but rather gold spot. My parents were the most responsible and strict kind of parents. NO pocket-money, NO ice cream from the cart, NO street snacks and NO carbonated drinks or juices. It wasn’t all that bad essentially to start with, we cribbed about homemade food on and off and raved about weekend elaborate dinners. Occasional tantrums for things yielded some win-win situations. We tasted everything but it was filtered as judiciously as possible.

During this season, we had club football being played in our colonies. The organisers would arrange refreshments for the teams and chief guests. Our backdoor opened into the mayhem and the whole field was converted into a football stadium. Spectators on walls, some on the roofs and some just leaning on the doors. All to watch the Euro-Cup equivalent of football in our tiny locality. My dad was always in good terms with the club organisers. Their gang helped watch over our house when we were on vacation. In return we provided small favours. On such football tournament days our refrigerator would become their warehouse for cold drinks and snacks. 🙂 It was like someone just moved Swiss bank vault into our backyard. My god the sight of boring vegetables and fruits replaced by colourful orange,white,green and black bottles of carbonated drinks.My sister and I would desperately wait for these days. Each time a member paid a visit to take a few bottles outside, my sister and I stood there like innocent urchins, sparkling our dentifrice smile. They would look at us with such affection and as a favour we would get one drink. We would sneak into a hidden corner of a house and drink to our satisfaction. But the greed made way for repeated shows of grin-to-favour until our tummy started hurting. If I sit back and think about those days then I can’t help stop giggling, such carefree childhood with a mix of right upbringing. xoxo to those days !!

To conclude the Gold spot story, for many years I was a gold spot girl. When Parle launched Thumbs-up to rival the cola taste it started eating away the market of Gold spot. So, that was when Parle came up with niche marketing. Parle launched 30 second advertisements with Kitu Gidwani and Javed Jaffery (Indian Actors) singing British style english jingles and jazzing it up as ‘Gold spot-the zing thing‘. 🙂 They posed as lovers and party goers raving about the things that click with them as its the zing thing. If you critic about sexism in advertisements and the way Katrina Kaif rubs the Mango Slice to her smooth cheeks and lusting for the last drop of the drink. Then you haven’t seen the lady who revolutionised the drink sexism.If that wasn’t enough then it was the southern queen Rekha who endorsed the ad campaign and massive billboards showed her image sipping the divine drink.This was before she morphed into a saree-clad goddess in Indian Cinema. The market made way for all the drinks by Parle in their own segments like one big happy family. And I a happy consumer in minimalism. 🙂

Then came back the Coca-cola giant to eat away the market with its anti-ballistic Missile Coca-Cola.Parle sold Gold Spot along with Thums Up, Limca, Citra and Maaza to Coca-Cola in 1993 -source wikipedia. And cola withdrew gold spot to make way for its lack lustre Fanta into the market. Hmmm……

My mother like all mums in the 80s used to read women’s magazines and jot down recipes. Much to my surprise she picked up a cake from one such magazine which was called as the gold spot cake. Made with the basic ingredients of a cake but in addition to it it added gold spot as a flavouring agent. I think it just took carbonated drink to another level at that point of time. The taste still lingers in my mouth. Over the growing years I understood the usage of huge quantities of sugar in these carbonated drinks to add to its vices list. Though I still enjoy a drink or two occasionally. Moreover I need to endorse responsible parenting for my cherub. The principle still remains the same but I still want her to know the taste. She is yet to enjoy her first carbonated drink.

To mark the beginning of Summer solstice which marks the beginning of harvest, fertility and growth here. I baked a cake reminiscing the good old ties of carefree living. I don’t have Gold spot anymore. I whipped up this cake using its rival Coca-cola. 🙁 Hope they introduce the Gold spot back and I could revive my mum’s diary recipe ‘The Gold Spot Cake’.

As for the photography, almost on the verge of tearing my hair apart. The sun refused to come out. It had been a raining the whole day. I wanted to do an outdoor shoot so I kept waiting and waiting and waiting……Ok the rain stopped for approximately 10 minutes. I rushed out with my photography paraphernalia and shot them in record time. 🙂