More chocolaty goodness

February 25, 2005 8:24 AM

And what happened to Nestles?

When I was a kid, there was a classic Nestles ad that went "N - E - S - T - L - E - S, Nestles makes the very best . . . Chocolate." Now, it Nestle. Anyone know what happened to the trailing "S"?

posted by rtimmel to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

Didn't realize the name is a person's last name.

1875 Daniel Peters, a Swiss man, added Henri Nestles condensed milk to chocolate and the two men are accredited with the invention of milk chocolate.
posted by thomcatspike at 8:37 AM on February 25, 2005

It may be an international-marketing casualty, like Tim Horton's apostrophe.
posted by gleuschk at 8:51 AM on February 25, 2005

Ask this man.
posted by crazy finger at 9:02 AM on February 25, 2005

Hmmm, looking at this recent post, is it a UK thing?
posted by thomcatspike at 9:18 AM on February 25, 2005

gleuschk, the separation vote certainly was close, but Quebec still remains a province, not a nation. :-D
posted by shepd at 9:31 AM on February 25, 2005

It was as 's. Notwithstanding thomcatspike's quotation above, the founder's name appears to have been Henri Nestle. GIS reveals the apostrophe missing from the jingle.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:40 AM on February 25, 2005

Wikipedia says the man's name was Henri Nestlé. The classic ad was probably just spelling the possessive noun.
posted by Plutor at 9:40 AM on February 25, 2005

Dangit, MrMoonPie!
posted by Plutor at 9:42 AM on February 25, 2005

Now if only they still made the alpine white chocolate with almonds bar (as sung about by Faith No More). Not only was that the only good product sold by Nestle, it was the only good white chocolate product on the market.
posted by norm at 10:06 AM on February 25, 2005

Nestlé is the company that has been most influential in convincing third-world mothers that their babies are best fed formula instead of real breastmilk. But the third world being what it is, formula is expensive and water isn't always clean, so the babies end up with diluted formula that doesn't provide enough nutrition, and formula that contains all sorts of bad microbes and viruses.

They're also big into slave chocolate.

In short, Nestlé is purest evil, and should be avoided whenever possible.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:15 AM on February 25, 2005

Heh, I should have said "interlingual", shepd.
posted by gleuschk at 10:28 AM on February 25, 2005

fff: What I have read they do, which is horrible, is they give the women free samples for long enough that they can't breastfeed anymore, and then they cut them off and jack up the price.

But yes, purest evil. I do miss Coffee Crisp though. ("How do you like your coffee?" "I like my coffee...crisp!")
posted by SoftRain at 12:53 PM on February 25, 2005

My parents claim that when they were younger, Nestles actually rhymed with "nettles". as in NESS-uhls. Everyone seems to say it the right way now, as in NESS-lay. I think it might be down to the fact that foreign pronunciations are now more accepted in the English language.
posted by wackybrit at 2:51 PM on February 25, 2005

Nestlé's was indeed the American brand at one time.

Nestlé's Quik
Nestlé's Crunch Bar

Nestlé has moved toward a globalized brand in recent years, notably by merging the US Quik (derived, of course, from the English word "quick") with the international Nesquik trademark.
posted by dhartung at 11:30 PM on February 25, 2005

Oh norm. Yum. You are so right. I love white chocolate. But hey, have you tried those round white chocolate truffles that come in the gold wrappers? I think they're Lindt? They're pretty good white chocolate, too.
posted by Lynsey at 11:38 PM on February 25, 2005