Q 01/05

Chemist Fredric Baur asked that some of his ashes be buried in the tube-shaped can he designed for which snack?

A) Pringles

B) Lay's Stax

C) Planters

D) Cheez Balls

Answer · why

A) Pringles

Pringles honoured the wish: part of Baur's cremated remains went into an Original-flavour can in his grave, the rest into an urn buried beside it.

Q 02/05

What does 'Nestle', the Swabian-dialect surname of Frankfurt-born Henri Nestlé, founder of the Swiss food giant, mean?

A) A mountain spring hut

B) A small bird's nest

C) A baker's stone oven

D) A wooden milk pail

Answer · why

B) A small bird's nest

A small bird's nest is what the name means, which is why the company logo shows young birds being fed: the family coat of arms had three chicks in a n...

Q 03/05

7 Up, created by Charles Leiper Grigg in 1928, at first claimed to contain which drug?

A) Sodium bromide

B) Potassium iodide

C) Lithium citrate

D) Cocaine extract

Answer · why

C) Lithium citrate

Lithium citrate featured in the drink's early claims; Grigg launched it a year before the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Q 04/05

Starbucks took its name from Starbuck, the chief mate in which 1851 novel?

A) Treasure Island

B) Captain Blood

C) Robinson Crusoe

D) Moby-Dick

Answer · why

D) Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick supplied the name almost by accident: co-founder Gordon Bowker said the book had nothing to do with the coffee shop and the sound simply see...

Q 05/05

Reuben Mattus coined Häagen-Dazs in the Bronx in 1959 to sound as if his ice cream came from which country?

A) Denmark

B) Sweden

C) Norway

D) Finland

Answer · why

A) Denmark

Denmark was picked as a tribute to its treatment of Jews during World War II; the made-up words mean nothing in Danish, which has no umlaut ä.