The World Market experience, and Yorkie

Zee German has been telling me about World Market, a store specializing in foreign made furniture, home décor, and foodstuffs. He goes there sometimes for a little taste of das vaterland, and suggested I check out the beer selection there; according to him, there was a lot of stuff. So today, on this UC holiday, I decided to visit the Huntington Beach location and see the brew stock for myself.

The HB World Market is located in the Bella Terra shopping center, a pseudo-mall where the store entrances face the parking lot. I wasn’t expecting it to be busy because many people don’t get Veterans Day off, but the place was packed. The perimeter walkway was crowded with old ladies with shopping bags and cliquey teenagers in their hipster or skater uniform (depending on what clique they’re in). Cars drove endless circles in the parking lots, hunting for newly vacated spots. Either today rivals Black Friday as a retail bonanza, or everybody else has nothing better to do than shop (which is pretty much true for the OC).

Anyway, inside World Market I stopped at the drinkware shelves on my way to the beer section. There were mostly nonics, tumblers, and beer mugs, but I found what I thought may be Stranges (“strange” is German for “pole”), the tall, slender, and straight-sided glasses traditionally used to serve kölsch. However, I couldn’t tell what they were; the labels had neither volume numbers nor names.

Next was the beer aisle. It took me less than 10 seconds to realize how unspectacular it was. Not only did World Market’s brew selection pale in comparison to the offering at BevMo! (and Dirty John’s), but most of the beer was domestic. Why is Red Seal Ale, brewed by the North Coast Brewing Company of Fort Bragg, California (and BotW #1), sold at a store for international products? Granted, there were a few beers I had never seen before, including an Austrian lager (from Salzburg, I think) and an organic beer from Spain. I’ll have to check those out.

Somewhat disappointed by the beer stock, I decided to make the most of my visit and check out the other drinks and food. I flirted with buying a packet of English beer mats (British beer labels made into pub coasters — nothing special, really), looked over the soft drinks, and saw the various kinds of chocolate covered dessert wafers. Nothing interested me…until I saw the Yorkie bars.

No way! Yorkie!

Here’s the scoop. Ten years ago, when I was a junior in high school, my parents upgraded to digital cable. I don’t know why (all they ever watch is the garbage on ABC and The Weather Channel), but I wasn’t going to ask questions because the package included Fox Sports World, now known as Fox Soccer Channel. The day the digital boxes were installed I came home from school and watched an Italian Serie A game (Juventus versus some minnow) and a rugby match, completely blowing off a huge French assignment. It was my first experience with European sports television, and I was hooked.

Along with the Serie A, FSW’s soccer coverage also featured the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, the Dutch Eredivisie, Argentina’s Primera División, the Brazilian Série A, and, later, the French Ligue 1. (If you ask me, it was 10 times the soccer channel back then than it is now.) I was in soccer heaven. I particularly liked the Bundesliga, but mostly watched the EPL.

Each game was a new experience. I was introduced to new teams, new tradition, new stadiums, and unfamiliar products advertised on boards along the far touchline. Most of the colorful boards lining EPL fields were easy to classify as ads for beer, cars, airlines, or phone companies, but there was one ad I couldn’t figure out; I had no clue what it was for. In yellow, shiny letters, on a blue background, was the word “Yorkie.” That was it. Whatever it was, only the Brits knew.

For years I saw that ad and wondered what it was. My eyes seemed drawn to it every time play was near one. What was it? What was Yorkie? Eventually, the ad was redesigned to include Nestlé along the side, and that was when I realized it was a candy bar. Online research confirmed my assumption: introduced in the UK in 1976, Yorkie is a bar of milk chocolate meant to compete with Dairy Milk, a chocolate bar from Cadbury.

I’d never had a Yorkie bar. Until today.

Quiet Man style, I walked to the register with a single item; everyone else in line had carts full of stuff (including the guy in front of me, who — I’ve never seen this happen — pushed his cart to the side after awaiting a couple minutes and walked out of the store). The bar cost $1.49, and outside the doorway I ripped it open, broke off the first of five pieces, and indulged in Yorkie’s chocolaty delight. Seriously, it’s the best bar of chocolate I’ve ever had. Definitely worth 10 years of curiosity. (It’s marketed toward men, hence the “It’s not for girls!” slogan.)