I don’t need a magical unicorn, just the magic of junket

I CAN’T be the only one who misses junket. If there’s one thing I remember fondly from the late 80s and 90s it’s making junket.

Junket, come back!

I CAN'T be the only one who misses junket.

If there's one thing I remember fondly from the late 80s and 90s it's making junket.

Choosing the flavour, crushing the tablets, warming the milk and waiting for it to set before the final moment of getting to eat it.

The smell of junket tablets alone is enough to bring back the excitement of childhood. I can still smell those tablets being crushed even now.

But then I noticed quite some time ago that junket vanished from our shelves and this makes me sad.

Plain, white junket powder is sometimes available in scarce supply if you're lucky enough to track it down, but the yummy flavoured stuff - well you can forget it.

For those who don't know what junket is at all, it's a little tablet that you crush and dissolve into milk which then sets the milk, usually giving it a pleasant flavour.

It does also come in a loose powder form, sometimes. 

With the plain junket, you can flavour it or eat it as is.

Flavours used to be varied with pineapple, fruit salad and raspberry being among my favourites.

So what did happen to junket? I got onto Google and found one opinion piece written by John Lethlean for The Age in 2007.

In his piece, John (who clearly misses junket as much as I do) says the final death blow was dealt in 2005 when Coles and Woolies pulled it from their shelves for good.

If you call up a food store now and ask for junket you're either be met with "no, what's junket?" or "no, do you really think you're going to find junket here?" - it's like asking if grocers stock unicorns.

A website link on Mr Lethlean's article for a company called "Simply Junket" is now a broken link - broken, just like my junket-missing heart.

It seems junket is a forgotten treasure that somehow lost to the good old days.

But why not bring it back?

What about all the kids who don't even know what junket is? 

Let's all spread the #bringjunketback hashtag and see if someone somewhere can make our dreams come true.

And if you've never had junket before, well now I bet you're so curious you'd want the chance to try it anyway.