During my childhood in India, I stumbled upon a shiny blue canister in my grandparents’ kitchen cupboards. It was the Royal Dansk cookie tin with an elegant design featuring various cookie shapes. The disappointment was palpable when I opened the lid and found nothing but loose change. However, this tin, a trademark for Denmark’s largest butter cookie producer, became an enamoring object for me from that moment.
Today, for individuals all around the world, the blue cookie tin carries the same iconic weight my family fell for. The Royal Dansk brand has become a household name, with the signature blue tin and cursive script epitomizing the essence of the cookies themselves. Nevertheless, I, too, felt the same magnetic connection to the container, and even after departing India, I encountered a similar canister in Canada. Over time, it saw my family and I through the various stages of our immigrant experience.
At school, I was subject to ridicule for being different, made to feel like an outsider because of my name and accent, and even my haircut. My family struggled with the challenges of adapting to life in Canada, from adjusting to harsh winters to finding employment. Though my brother and I enjoyed the delicious butter cookies inside the canister, the container itself signified much more to us.
As a result, I often opened the blue cookie tin in hopes of experiencing the sensation of returning to my grandparents’ garden in India with a grazing cow and an abundance of plants. Instead, I found stale papad; undeniably dissatisfying. Yet I held onto the container, repeatedly searching for something new. The desire to relive the past overrules logic and can rewire the brain, shaping memory in interesting and sometimes perverse ways.
The Royal Dansk Butter Cookie tin carries a similar significance among other immigrant communities. The infamous container is reliably long-lasting and it is not surprising that it is utilized long after the cookies are finished. For example, in many Asian and Latino households, the tin serves as a versatile storage container for items like sewing supplies, spices, and loose change. In a sense, the can symbolizes the disappointment immigrants feel when expectations are not met. Immigrants arrive with high hopes and aspirations only to be met with harsh realities.
