Flooding the earth, one glass at a time

Some of you don't know this about me, but I am a huge fan of Ovaltine. It started when my brother and I went to my grandparents' house as kids. We only lived a few blocks away, so it wasn't at all uncommon, once we were school age, for us to go over and "help with chores". This usually translated to helping for a little while, then when the task at hand was completed, climbing in the cherry trees, playing in the irrigation ditch, jumping off the roof into snow piles, and all the other useful stuff we could think of. My grandma generally had some Ovaltine on hand for these occasions, and so my earliest memories of it are associated with her.

Side note: This has nothing whatsoever to do with Ovaltine, but I just thought of it and it still makes me laugh. One year my grandma decided to plant carrots in a patch of the garden. She turned the soil and then used a hand spreader to spread seeds over the area. Carrot seeds are actually pretty tiny, and when she was done, she couldn't really see any seeds on the ground, so she made a second pass just to be safe. When those carrots came up, the entire patch was a seamless sea of carrot top, and by the time they were ripe, the carrots were all pressed up against each other underground like passengers on a crowded subway.

My mom was also extremely pragmatic about our eating habits growing up, so we rarely had sugary snacks; sure, in the summer we'd get the occasional half of a Popsicle as a reward for pulling weeds for a few hours, but by and large we ate only mundanely healthy foods. As you can imagine, a sweet drink like Ovaltine (good for you, too!) was a real treat.

Fast forward to my days as a young working professional. Every now and then I would buy a jar of Ovaltine and have a glass before bed or while watching TV. Aside from the nostalgia factor, I genuinely love the taste of Ovaltine Chocolate Malt, and it's a great way to get some extra vitamins. I love to share the things that spark my enthusiasm, so I always generously offered Ovaltine to my roommates, but was routinely and repeatedly rejected. People have made up their minds that Ovaltine is for the elderly and children and it's tough dissuading them from that opinion. The only exception was the gentlemen callers who sometimes inadvertently spotted the Ovaltine in our cupboard -- after an initial display of incredulity, they usually made themselves a glass.

I haven't let other people's narrow-mindedness deter me. For the past few years, I've become more and more dedicated to Ovaltine. I also have a few proselytes now. My husband, my brother, and my sister-in-law routinely dip into the household supply and I always offer it to visitors when I'm having a glass. I may not be winning converts by the dozen, but I'm sowing seeds left and right.