The Vintage Chocolate Drink Mix You Can Now Only Find In Latin America

When most Americans hear the word "toddy" they probably think of a hot toddy, one of the best warm adult beverages to beat back winter chill. But in many parts of Latin America, a mug of Toddy is a far more kid-friendly refreshment. Toddy brand chocolate-flavored drink mix was quite popular in America through the 1950s and '60s. Nowadays, while Toddy is virtually impossible to find in the United States, the brand remains widely available and successful across Latin America.

Toddy originated in Buffalo, New York, in 1919 (several decades before the birth of Buffalo wings, the city's most famous culinary export). As legend has it, a Buffalonian named James William Rudhard was inspired to create the chocolate drink after seeing a need for quick and convenient nutrition on a New Jersey military base during World War I. When he returned home after the war, Rudhard invested his savings to create a malted chocolate milk that could be consumed hot or cold. The beverage brand, which he called Toddy, was an instant hit. Sales rapidly expanded across North and South America, and Pedro Erasmo Santiago, one of Rudhard's employees, took charge of the company's Latin American operations in 1928.

While U.S. advertisements sold Toddy as a tasty refreshment to enjoy at the drive-in movie theater, Latin American marketing focused on Toddy's potential as a convenient, tasty, and nutritious breakfast option. A 1930s advertisement in Argentina suggested that a cup of milk with two scoops of Toddy was, nutritionally speaking, equivalent to six eggs, a steak, or half a chicken. With the help of Pedro Erasmo Santiago's savvy marketing strategy, Toddy experienced massive success in the Latin American market and soon established itself as a beloved breakfast staple for generations of kids.

Despite its success, Toddy was largely eclipsed in the U.S. market by products like Nestle's versatile Nesquik powder, and had all but disappeared stateside by the 1970s. However, the chocolate drink continues to thrive in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina (where there's a friendly but fierce debate over which goes in the cup first: milk or Toddy). In addition to the drink mix, Latin American customers can enjoy a delightful-sounding array of spinoff products such as Toddy-flavored cookies, cereal, and chocolate. Americans feeling nostalgic for this vintage chocolate drink mix, stateside, will have to search international grocery stores, or perhaps plan a trip to Latin America for the food city Anthony Bourdain thought was extremely underrated — Montevideo, Uruguay.