Farmers Union Iced Coffee is a flavoured milk drink popular in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, primarily the state of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. It continues to be sold under the "Farmers Union" banner, originally a South Australian co-operative, subsequently the listed company
National Foods
Bega Dairy & Drinks is a subsidiary of Australian diversified food company Bega Cheese, having been purchased from the Japanese company Kirin (who owns Lion in Australia) in November 2020. While owned by Kirin, it was known as Lion Dairy & D ...
, and then by a series of subsidiaries of the Japanese brewing company
Kirin. The current manufacturer's company name is
Bega Dairy & Drinks
Bega Dairy & Drinks is a subsidiary of Australian diversified food company Bega Cheese, having been purchased from the Japanese company Kirin (who owns Lion in Australia) in November 2020. While owned by Kirin, it was known as Lion Dairy & D ...
.
Launch
First launched in 1977 when Farmers Union was a co-operative of South Australian dairy farmers, the brand has achieved iconic status in South Australia and is now also available in all other Australian states and territories. Branded as “
iced coffee
Iced coffee is a coffee beverage served cold. It may be prepared either by brewing coffee normally (i.e. carafe, French press, etc.) and then serving it over ice or in cold milk or by brewing the coffee cold. In hot brewing, sweeteners and fl ...
”, the
coffee milk
Coffee milk is a drink made by mixing coffee syrup or coffee extract and milk together in a manner similar to chocolate milk. It is the official state drink of the US state of Rhode Island.
Coffee syrup
Coffee syrup is a sweetened coffee concent ...
drink is made with coffee, glucose, and homogenised reduced fat milk and milk solids. In the past Farmers Union Iced Coffee's labelling also made mention of "iced confection" as an ingredient. The flavour of the product changed considerably when this ingredient was removed. The product is available predominantly in 600 mL and smaller 375 mL cardboard cartons. However, the 375 mL cartons were changed in 2019 to 300 mL bottles, much like the “Stubby” style of the 750 mL bottles. The standard 600 mL cartons remain the same. It is also sold in 2 litre plastic cartons and 500 mL bottles. It was also sold in 3 litre plastic cartons up until 2017 and 1 litre cardboard cartons up until 2013.
In 2003, Australians consumed in excess of 22 million litres, making it Australia's best selling flavoured milk drink/milk shake at that time. The drink's popularity has more recently been reflected by some
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
,
KFC
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...
and
Hungry Jack's
Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is an Australian fast food franchise of the Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's owns and operates or sub- ...
restaurants beginning to sell it as a part of their menus across the country.
Also, the drink holders of the locally made third generation
Mitsubishi Magna
The Mitsubishi Magna is a mid-size car that was produced over three generations between 1985 and 2005 by Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL). Developed as a replacement for the Mitsubishi Sigma, each Magna generation derived from Japane ...
and first generation of the
Holden Cruze were designed to hold both normal round drinks and Farmers Union Iced Coffee cartons.
Commercials
![Street art in Birkenhead, South Australia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Street_art_in_Birkenhead%2C_South_Australia.jpg)
Farmers Union Iced Coffee in Australia also enjoys a high profile for popular commercials featuring rough male workers acting out
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
with heavy machinery in order to take up their boss on his word that he would provide them with a truck load of Iced Coffee if all his workers took up ballet. Another well-known run of advertisements features a dramatic voice-over detailing world headlines and issues, but shows very low-key average Australian equivalents on screen. These include:
*
"When the wall came down" - depicts two men demolishing a wall as part of a DIY project. This relates to when the Berlin Wall was demolished.
*
"Survived the Apollo Disaster" - shows three motorists (one consuming Iced Coffee) as their
Holden Apollo
The Holden Apollo is a compact and later mid-size car that was distributed from 1989 to 1997 in Australia by Holden. As a successor to the GM-engineered Holden Camira, the Apollo was a rebadged version of the Toyota Camry, also sold in Austral ...
is towed away after an accident. This may refer to one of two major incidents involving
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...
—either the
Apollo 1
Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
fire, in which three astronauts died during a launch-pad test exercise, or the
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...
explosion, which scuttled a planned lunar landing but saw the three astronauts safely return to Earth.
*
"There when the bras were burnt" - shows an absent minded male watching television as a bra is burnt by an iron in the foreground. This refers to the famous act of
female liberation.
*
"When Chisel broke up" - shows a construction site with a devastated builder holding two pieces of a broken chisel. Refers to when the band,
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel are an Australian pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums and Don Walker on piano and keyboards. They were soon joined by Jimmy Barnes (at the ...
broke up.
*
"Saw Cathy in Sydney in 2000" - shows one male supposedly meeting with an old friend in Sydney who is also named Cathy. Relates to Cathy Freeman winning the 400 m in the Sydney Olympics.
*
"The Children Overboard" - shows two males in a speedboat talking as their children have fallen off the back in an inflatable that is being towed. Refers to the scandal when the Howard government falsely claimed that children were thrown overboard from a boat full of asylum seekers.
*
"Lived through the Millennium Bug" - shows a man in a dinner suit in a sleeping bag drink an Iced Coffee while slapping a bug on his neck. Relates to the
Y2K bug.
*
"...and Trevor's Underarm" - shows two construction workers both drinking Iced Coffee; one lifts his arm revealing his body odour and the other recoils in disgust. Refers to
Trevor Chappell
Trevor Martin Chappell (born 12 October 1952) is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played 3 tests and 20 One Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shi ...
's
infamous underarm delivery on the last ball of a One Day Cricket International. Features actor Terry Rogers in an early role.
*
"Strongly opposed the Bush Invasion" - shows a man cutting his neighbours overhanging bushes. Relates to the opposition of George Bush leading the invasion into Iraq.
New flavours
On 23 October 2006, two new flavours of Farmers Union Iced Coffee were released in South Australia. Farmers Union Strong Iced Coffee which features a stronger coffee blend, which subsequently began sale in Tasmania, and Farmers Union Light Iced Coffee which has no added sugar (where aspartame is added as a substitute) and a taste similar to the original.
According to the company, both the original variety and the Light flavours contain approximately 18 mg of caffeine per 100 mL, while the Farmers Union Strong Iced Coffee contains 24 mg.
The Light Iced Coffee proved to be rather unpopular, as many consumers did not like the slightly weaker taste and instead chose the original. In August 2011, the company released a new product, Farmers Union Iced Coffee One, claiming that One had "100% taste, 1% fat and no added sugar", and was a completely new formulation. One was not overly popular at launch, given the reputation of the Light Iced Coffee, leading to a huge promotion in December 2011, where customers who 'liked' the
On the Run
On the Run may refer to:
* "On the run", a phrase often used to describe a fugitive, a person fleeing custody
Literature
* ''On the Run'' (novel), by Nina Bawden
* On the Run (novel series), by Gordon Korman
* ''On the Run'', a novel in the S ...
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page could print a coupon from the internet, and redeem one of 10,000 free Iced Coffee Ones from any petrol station or convenience outlet in South Australia.
Farmers Union Iced Coffee's Facebook Status regarding promotion. (Retrieved 17/4/12)
Also sold under Farmers Union imprint are the Feel Good range of low-fat/sugar milk drinks, currently including coffee and chocolate flavors.
See also
*South Australian food and drink
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Farmers Union Website
Coffee brands
Australian drinks
Culture of South Australia
Kirin Group
Products introduced in 1977
Coffee companies of Australia
Brand name dairy products
Flavored milk
Dairy products companies of Australia