The British version is sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful taste. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it". It is similar to the Australian Vegemite and Swiss Cenovis, and is suitable for vegetarians and vegans, while Bovril is not.

You Know You Love It!

This distinctive product was originally British, but a version with a noticeably different taste has been manufactured in New Zealand since 1919, and this is the dominant version in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The image on the front of the British jar shows a marmite (French, "large covered earthenware or metal cooking pot"). The British Marmite was originally supplied in earthenware pots, but has long been sold in glass jars that approximate the shape of such pots. A thinner version in squeezable plastic jars was introduced in March 2006.

The Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, in 1902, with Marmite as its main product. By 1907, the product had become successful enough to warrant construction of a second factory at Camberwell Green in London. Today, the main ingredients of Marmite manufactured in the UK are yeast extract, with lesser quantities of sodium chloride (table salt), vegetable extract, niacin, thiamine, spice extracts, riboflavin, folic acid, and celery extracts, although the precise composition is a trade secret. By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost for Marmite, as the spread is a rich source of the vitamin B complex; vitamin B is not naturally found in yeast extract, but is added to Marmite during manufacture.

In 1990, Marmite Limited—which had become a subsidiary of Bovril Limited—was bought by CPC (United Kingdom) Limited, which changed its name to Best Foods Inc in 1998. Best Foods Inc subsequently merged with Unilever in 2000, and Marmite is now a trademark owned by Unilever.

Marmite's publicity campaigns initially emphasised the spread's healthy nature, extolling it as "The growing up spread you never grow out of." During the 1980s, the spread was advertised with the slogan "My mate, Marmite," delivered in television commercials by an army platoon (the spread had been a standard vitamin supplement for British-based German POWs during the Second World War). By the 1990s, another strand entered the company's marketing efforts; Marmite's distinctive and powerful taste had earned it as many detractors as it had fans, and it was commonly notorious for producing a binary and exclusive "love/hate" reaction amongst consumers. Modern advertisements play on this, and Marmite runs two websites, I Love Marmite and I Hate Marmite, where people may share their experiences of Marmite.

A 2004 UK TV advert, which parodied the 1958 Steve McQueen film The Blob, substituting Marmite for the original alien space menace and including frightening scenes of fleeing people, was dropped after being screened on children's television: a few concerned parents reported that their children were scared by the ads and had nightmares after viewing them.

Marmite is less common outside of the United Kingdom (see Availability worldwide). It is frequently cited as the most-missed foodstuff by British expatriates. Paul Ridout, a British backpacker kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists in 1994, was quoted as saying "It was pretty good. It's just one of those things—you get about of the country and it's all you can think about."

Bill Bryson, in Notes from a Small Island writes: "There are certain things that you have to be British, or at least older than me, or possibly both, to appreciate: skiffle music, salt-cellars with a single hole, [and] Marmite (an edible yeast extract with the visual properties of an industrial lubricant)...."

In 2006, a new "squeeze" jar of Marmite was released. It was released to make the Marmite easier to get out. The "squeezy" jar is made of plastic, and when first launched the "Marmite" logo was replaced by the words "Squeeze me".