TOHEROA POPULAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 10

TOHEROA POPULAR

MILK BAES IN LONDON SYDNEY MAN'S ENTERPRISE (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, May 20. Toheroa soup, ence the delicacy of A select few in England, is now becoming available to the man in the street. There are four shops in London at the moment where he can walk in and order a bowl for the modest sum of fourpence. If the ambitions of a firm controlled by Australians are realised it is likely that toheroa soup will be on tap in 400 shops throughout the country and will also be sold on the Continent.

r:rangely enough toheroa has become known to the public through the medium of milk bars, which were introduced into London only last August when the first appeared in Fleet Street. Mr. H. D. Mclntosh, >f Sydney, arrived in England with no idea of inaugurating a chain of milk bars. But on finding a difficulty in securing a glass of milk he, with other Australian friends, decided to launch a new venture, for London, by introducing black and white onilk bars which are such a feature of Australian cities.

Iced milk and fruit drinks sold well while the warm weather lasted, but during the long, dull English winter there was, of course, no demand for them. Hot milk drinks, therefore, made their appearance, and soups were introduced, with tomato juice being added later. The popularity of the Fleet Street bar, which never closes, grew termendously, and other premises have been opened in Cheapside, Richmond, and Leicester Square.

Mr. Mclntosh said that toheroa soup was not asked for immediately, for the reasons that it was comparatively unknown and that few people were able to pronounce the name, and also because its greenness did not appeal to them. New Zealand oyster soup wa» the name decided upon instead ct toheroa for a few months, and the us* of large quantities of milk gave the liquid a lighter colour. Now the tiki* toheroa has been reintroduced, and th# soup is sold under that name. It is claimed by Mr. Mclntosh thaf these four milk bars are riow th 4 largest sellers of toheroa soup in th.4 country. He says that he is con« templating negotiations for the entira supply of this New Zealand product; to be taken over by his shops. "Instead of importing it by the gallon we shall shortly be buying it by the ton,' i he said.

Apart from Australian oranges, passion-fruit juice and pineapple juice, Mr. Mclntosh said that toheroa soup was the only product used in his bars from New Zealand or Australia." An inquiry had been made by a Dutch, firm, he added concerning milk bars, and it was likely that a chain might be opened up through Holland. An invitation has been made to him by an Austrian firm to open a bar there, and the possibility of similar shops being started in Paris is also considered likely. Mr. Mclntosh sees no reason why toheroa soup should not prove as popular on the Continent as it is in England.