][1]The confectionery firm Rowntree’s was founded 150 years ago this week and the news has sparked a deluge of choc-based factoids.
While brands such as Smarties, Kit Kats and Aero are household names now, they had less illustrious beginnings. Smarties started life as a French sweet called crottes de lapin or rabbit droppings. Once known as Chocolate Beans, they now sell at a rate of 307 tubes per minute.
The Kit Kat, originally known by the rather more prosaic title of the Chocolate Crisp, was renamed after an 18th century political supper club. These days, the firm produces over a billion Kit Kats a year from just its York factory. In other countries, such as Japan, they manufacture the snack in more than 80 different flavours including soy sauce, vinegar and cucumber.
Not every product range has been so successful. A chocolate bar containing meat failed to find favour with consumers.
If you can remember the Seventies, then you might recall the advertising slogan ‘Adorabubble’ which was used to market Aero bars. The phrase was invented by none other than Salman Rushdie.
My favourite factoid is that a box of chocolates used to cost 100 shillings at a time when a factory worker’s weekly rent was around 10 shillings. They were so expensive that giving a woman a box of chocs was such a commitment that it was often seen as tantamount to a wedding proposal.
In 1933, the Black Magic box of chocs was created to offer a more affordable alternative to the 100 shilling ‘fancy’ boxes preferred by the wealthy.