A MYSTERY Creamola Foam fan from East Ayrshire has forked out over £350 for the “last ever“ can of the iconic beverage.
A Glasgow couple put the sealed can of Creamola Foam in an online auction after keeping the product in a safe for six years.
Roddy and Janice Nicoll – from Yoker, Glasgow – paid £60 in 2009 for the sealed can of lemon-flavoured Creamola Foam and £40 for an opened can of raspberry flavoured drink.
The investment returned a handsome £250 profit after the cans sold on eBay for £350.95, including express delivery, on Monday night.
There were a total of 43 bids for the items from 14 bidders, although one person got carried away and on Friday placed a bid of £900, which they retracted two hours later.
The winner, Mark7474Rangers, from Kilmarnock, won the items for £345 with their second and final bid. Postage added a further £5.95 to the total.
Creamola Foam was a soft drink – produced by dissolving raspberry, orange, lemon or cola granules in water to create a foaming, fizzy, luminous beverage.
Production of the drink began in Glasgow during the 1950s – and Creamola immediately become one of Scotland’s most iconic exports alongside Tunnock’s Teacakes and Irn-Bru.
The brightly packaged drink is a staple of many Scots’ fond memories of childhood – and when production halted in 1997 many were heartbroken.
The unopened lemon tin of Creamola was originally priced for just 10p in the 1970s – and the price tag can still be seen inscribed on the bottom of the can.
Reacting to the astronomical rise in the can’s value, Roddy quipped: “That’s inflation for you isn’t it?”
“I think it just caught everybody’s imagination.
“I think there was something like 6.000 views of the Ebay sale and 470 watchers.”
Speaking about the “last ever drinkable” raspberry can – which also contributed to the monster finishing price of the auction – he said: “If there’s ten big glasses in, that must be up there somewhere with a really good malt – maybe a 35 year-old malt.”
He explained that the can is now bound for a buyer in Kilmarnock after they made a last-minute winning bid – but that he currently has “no clue” on their mystery identity or plans for the cans.
He said: “I’m dying to find out whether it’s going away in a cupboard or if it’s a present for someone who wants a glass.”
Describing the lot last week Roddy said: “They sit in the safe for 362 days of the year and nobody sees them. It is time to let them go.
“I got the metal one from an English dealer – the poor guy didn’t know what he had.
“It’s very much a part of the Scottish childhood for anyone of a certain age – everybody begged their mum for it, and maybe your mum wouldn’t buy it but your granny would.
“It was a treat and you had to be good to get it.”
Janice added: “As we both approach our 50th Birthdays the time has come for them to move on to either a private collection, a museum or the hands of whomever wants to be the last Scot to ever taste the original real thing or pop the wee paper seal on the top of a Creamola Can for the last time.”
Creamola Foam’s recipe was lost when production halted – making the last surviving can of the drink the key to any attempts to revive the brand.
