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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Umbongo


add heywood

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I am gutted :( Just been to asda to do the shopping, needed to get juice for the kids and I found they sell Umbongo :) I used to love this as a kid so was well made up.

 

Couldn't wait till I got home so opened it in the car ...... only to find it tasted completely different :( like a smoothie. I feel cheated and betrayed.

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Yeah, it was like those horrible Capri-Sun ones and SunnyD bleghk!

 

I remember one night I was staying at a friends and we'd been out drinking. I was really craving some juice in the night so went to her fridge and she had SunnyD. I was so desperate I drank some, it was gross and didn't do anything for my thirst!

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Do they actually drink it in the Congo?

 

Wickedpedia says:

 

Umbongo: many people believe that the phrase “Umbongo, Umbongo, they drink it in the Congo” was simply a marketing device that was for the benefit of television adverts.

This is not so, and Umbongo is one of the top three soft drinks consumed in the Congo and many Central African countries, although it is re-named “Cheers”.

 

Roundtree McDavish Group who manufacture Umbongo in the UK and Europe did try to compete in the Central African soft drink market in the late 1970’s but found sales were slow and the name left them with a number of law suits as “Umbongo” was sold by Congolese exporters to Tanzania where the name was being confused with “Umbogo” which is the local name for the chest flem that results from excessive smoking of the dabinga root, a popular tobacco like substance.

 

When in 1984 Roundtree McDavish Group changed the name to “Cheers” they saw sales increase steadily and today “Cheers” is the third top selling soft drink after Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, the latter being sold as Peepee-Cola.

 

Roundtree McDavish Group have now manufacturing plants in four Central African Countries where they manufacture “Cheers” and also a range of heavy duty industrial cleaning agents and paint strippers.

 

So now we know :)

 

G

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Snopes says:Umbongo is one of the top three soft drinks consumed in the Congo and many Central African countries, although it is re-named “Cheers”.

 

Well I never :)

 

Snopes says:and also a range of heavy duty industrial cleaning agents and paint strippers.

 

That figures :D

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