Dunedin-born Crowther gave the Dunedin Sound real teeth with his astonishing little box of concrete-encased wires, a device sought after by guitarists all over the world. I am smacked with gob there isn't a science laboratory named after him at Kaikorai Valley College. The plane lever thing needs no further accolades from me. Heavens to Betsy, what a thing it is! And as for chocolate and peanut butter, well, they remain quite simply the two finest health foods on the planet.
How exciting is it, then, to learn these two have now been combined to produce what can only be described as the fifth most significant invention of the past 500 years: Whittaker's Peanut Butter Chocolate. When I found this at New World last week I just about had a coronary seizure.
Whittaker's is already in the Haute Cuisine Hall of Fame with its peanut slab, so it was only a matter of time before it fiddled with the peanut formula and moved it to milk chocolate. But peanut butter chocolate was a brave move. Americans may mix peanut butter with just about everything - jelly, dairy whip, door hinges - but New Zealanders are far more conservative.
Some people, unbelievably, don't even like peanut butter. This might explain why my torrid investigative research into the new flavour brought such an intriguing range of reactions. The bag girl at checkout said it was like a peanut block without the peanuts, which is like a pavlova without egg whites and sugar. But she was right.
Whittaker's has used smooth, not crunchy, peanut butter, and this decision could well replace real estate as the supreme conversation topic at prestigious dinner parties.
A woman who told me it tasted wretched also told me, when we were discussing the death of Davy Jones, that The Monkees were better than The Beatles because The Beatles were "scary". Apart from Yellow Submarine, I have never been scared by a Beatles song, so this woman's opinions clearly belong in a wheelie bin. The Whittaker's Facebook site was predictably delighted, though there was the repeated suggestion of darker chocolate and hien! - more salt.
Holly Whittaker, at Whittaker's, answered my raft of investigative questions. Yes I know, same surname as the company, what are the odds?
Holly said the peanut butter chocolate has been selling like hot cakes, not the Paul Crowther ones, and Whittaker's is very excited. This has been the most successful new flavour, and anyone who stands with glazed zombie stare at the Whittaker's supermarket stand, as I do, will know there have been quite a few new flavours recently.
Peanut butter chocolate is not a one-off, said Holly. Whittaker's is in this one for the long haul.
It was only a couple of days ago I finally tasted peanut butter chocolate. Shirley, from Ohio, had been staying, and quite frankly, she ate much of the block without asking. Then I went off to Wellington to see Lucinda Williams, using a plane lever, and when I came back, Shirley and the chocolate were gone. Not even a note of apology in the fridge.
I bought another block and demolished it while watching The Breakers minus Thomas Abercrombie hammer The Perth Wildcats in the first game of the NBL Finals last Thursday night. An exquisite doppelgobbler experience.
The nutlessnessness was perfect, despite the difficulty I have in typing that word, and the texture made gravel seem smooth. Slid down the throat with a yum you could hum. I don't know what other taste hybrids Whittaker's has lined up. I do have some alarming suggestions, but I feel we are in very good hands. We could be in for a tremendous winter.
- Roy Colbert is a Dunedin writer.
