Type | Flavored milk |
---|---|
Country of origin | Netherlands |
Introduced | 1977 |
Discontinued | 1992, 2010 and 2015 |
Flavor | Chocolate, strawberry and banana |
Tjolk was a Dutch milk drink that was created by Coberco and sold from 1977 to 1984 and was revived in 2010 and 2013. [1] [2]
The drink was first sold in the Netherlands in 1977. It was marketed with the slogan, "Tjolk is lekker, overal en altijd!" (Tjolk is tasty, everywhere and always!). [3] The packaging for the drink featured colorful cartoon drawings of animals including cows, bunnies, monkeys and bears [3] and the brand had many commercials aimed at children. [2] The original drink was a sweet drink with various additives. [4] The brand was discontinued in 1992 when Coberco merged with Friesland Foods with concerns of the brand needing updated and being unable to compete with the more successful brand, Chocomél. [1]
The brand was purchased by Sjoerd Stouten in 2010 from Friesland Foods [5] as he felt the brand still had name value, [6] but the revival was unsuccessful. [7] Tjolk was removed from stores after it became known that it could spoil prematurely. Customers were warned not to drink the products and to throw them away. [8] [9] An entrepreneur named Niek Nielen from the Galatrada company bought the rights to the brand in 2013. [4] Changes were made to the drink, as it only used natural ingredients and had less sugar with real fruits being used instead. [4] The brand hit the shelves in 2014 with three flavors - chocolate, banana and strawberry. [10] The brand was supposed to build on nostalgia. [11] Nielen had also planned to expand the brand to Belgium, Germany and France. [12] The brand won an award for best product of the year in 2014–15. [13] The brand managed to get into 1500 stores, however, the success was short lived. The brand was discontinued and sold again in 2015. [2]
Tjolk featured advertisements in Donald Duck comic books during its initial run [5] [14]
Tjolk sponsored a speed skating team in 2015 that was known as "Team Tjolk". [15] One of its athletes, Evert Hoolwerf, won the KPN Cup in 2015. [15]