The West have their Nutella, but here in Malaysia, we live and die by Milo.
While nowhere near as famous (or infamous?) as the brand synonymous with ‘hazelnut chocolate spread’, Milo is something that next to all Malaysians grew up with.
Before we knew what chocolate was, we knew Milo.
Right after weaning off our mother’s breastmilk, we subsisted on Milo.
To the question “Coffee or tea?”, the correct (and only) Malaysian response should be “Milo.”
We’d have Milo for breakfast alongside our kaya toast and runny quarter-boiled eggs, order it at the mamak for lunch, crack open a cold pack of premixed Milo right after our evening game of football, and sometimes even brew up a steamy mug of Milo to counter our midnight hunger pangs.
For those not in the loop, Milo is a malt chocolate drink most commonly sold in powder form. According to the instructions on its packet, it’s to be mixed and dissolved in hot water, in a ratio of 3 tablespoons of Milo to a mug of water. But Malaysians being Malaysians, we’re terrible at sticking to rules and ideals, as we have our Milo any number of ways – hot, cold, ‘kau’ (concentrated), iced, iced with chunky clumps of undissolved powder, in a Milo Dinosaur (essentially a cold Milo with a sizeable mound of Milo powder heaped on top), mixed with Nescafe to make Nes-lo, and folded it into Indian rotis to make Roti Milo. Heck, I’ve even had spoonfuls of Milo powder straight from the tin itself sans water, and I’m sure I’m not the only Malaysian who did this as a kid.
Having lived in the UK for the better part of the past decade though, I’ve somewhat outgrew Milo. It’s sad really, because despite my purebred Malaysian upbringing, Milo just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I’ll now take a mediocre cup of coffee or tea over a mug of Milo (or any of its dozen variants) any day of the week. Part of me wants to rid myself of this boujie side (no doubt a result of being spoilt by all that damn good hot chocolate and Nutella in the UK), but part of me also knows I’d be insane to ever give real chocolate up.
So to strike a balance, I made the ultimate crossover chocolate spread – Milo-Nutella, a.k.a. Nutel-lo. Or Mi-tella, I suppose. I mean, since I’m now back in Malaysia and all, it’s only right to bring a bit of Milo back into my life.
I started off with a base Nutella recipe (courtesy of The Splendid Table), but replaced a part of the chocolate in it with Milo, and tweaked it some more to get the right texture. I must admit, it is a little grittier than the industrially-processed Nutella we’re so in love with. (I suspect it’s from the hazelnuts.) But apart from that, with the the absence of all that nasty palm oil and the mellow maltiness of Milo coming through, this has become a little cross-cultural monster of a chocolate spread!
A few more batches of this, and I might have Milo running through my veins again.
1 thought on “Milo Nutella”
I made these into Nesholo version! 🤤 thank you for the amazing recipes