Happy New Year! Feeling the January blues already? Well here’s an adorable Pocky box from Japan in order to chase some of those blues away.
Dipped pretzel/biscuit stick brand Pocky have been creating these tasty and convenient snacks since 1966. They are so well beloved in Japan (and throughout the world) they even have their own national holiday – 11th November!*
Banana pudding Pocky
As with many consumer products that emerge from Japan, the cuteness element known as ‘kawaii’ runs strong on this wrapper; featuring a soft, yellow-toned friendly lion seen squishing up against a giant portion of banana pudding (the featured flavour of this wrapper).
The colour scheme is so warming, like a hazy sunny afternoon with all those golden tones exaggerating the banana theme of the Pocky. The floating bananas and desserts in the background create an almost ‘dream like’ design where you’re in a world that’s bright, whimsical and filled with tasty treats. The cuddly lion is also joined by an adorable panda and pink rabbit at the top of the box – as if one kawaii animal wasn’t enough!
‘Share happiness’? I ate the whole box!
I may be approaching thirty…but these cute, child-friendly, cute, cute characters never fail to lift my spirits during the cold, freezing, blue tones of early January (not to mention that Pocky is delicious to eat, as well as fun to collect).
* Please see post ‘National Pocky Day’ for more info on the famous Japanese snack!
Cadbury ‘Animals‘ are a selection of zoo-themed mini biscuits with an underbelly of Cadbury milk chocolate, and have made frequent appearances in packed lunches for a several generations since the 1970’s/80’s -now produced by Burton’s Biscuits (established 1935).
This pin badge, with its somewhat insensitive proposal, would never pass today’s PR and advertising boards, but it did attract my attention and thus has been added to my collection of confectionery clutter. I believe that this particular badge is an early piece of Animals advertising as the design coincides with a similar 1980’s advertisement.
Hunting animals, biscuit or otherwise, is generally frowned upon these days…
Animals that can be ‘hunted down’ in the Cadbury jungle include Leroy the Lion, Rockodile Crocodile, Cheeko the Monkey, Swoop the Parrot and Ella Funky the Elephant along with an assortment of other menagerie friends.
What do you make of this? Is the language too cruel and provocative for today’s market? Did anyone bat an eyelid at this kind of campaign in the ’80’s?
Every country seems to have its own ‘confectionery identity’, and it seems the Scandinavian identity is salted black liquorice.
These ‘Salte Fisk’ by Katjes hail from Denmark, but neighbours Norway and Sweden also have the taste for these types of rich and salty treats.
Katjes Salte Fisk
The German Katjes company has origins that date back to 1910 when Klaus Fassin, using his father’s liquorice recipe, created liquorice black cats. He called these ‘lucky charms’ Katjes – the Dutch word for ‘kitten’.
Sometimes referred as ‘salmiakki‘ the combination of liquorice and salt is a big part of Scandinavian food culture and childhood. It’s sharp, and sour and full of deep flavour.
If you saw this in a supermarket, would you try it too?
The Grześki wafers from Poland are perhaps one of my favourite pieces of confectionery. I’ve always said, wafer candy from this country simply can not be beaten, and for me, the Grześki range is the peak of crispy perfection!
Plain chocolate, toffee and milk chocolate hazelnut wafers
The founding company Goplana was established in 1912 on the outskirts of Poznań, western Poland. And alongside E.Wedel, is one of the country’s oldest confectionery brands. The company’s name is derived from the traditional Polish name for a nymph – a type of mythical woodland creature.
The Grześki (pronounced zesh-ki) are a multi-layered, thin wafer bar, sandwiched with chocolate creme and enrobed in a coat of chocolate. They are available in a variety of flavours; the ones featured here are plain chocolate, toffee and milk chocolate hazelnut. But they can also be found in a few different formats too – such as bite-sized wafer balls, a solid chocolate bar with wafer bits, and a ‘nude’ bar without the chocolate coating.
The combination of feather light wafers, flavourful fillings and a rich chocolate coat means I will pick these over a KitKat any day! They’re such a satisfying eat, especially if you’re after something to tame your sweet tooth, but don’t want to be weighed down by having too much chocolate.
I also like how strong the branding is across these bars – even if you are not familiar with the brand, or speak Polish (I do not), you can quite easily tell that they belong to the same brand, and the imagery makes it clear what flavour you’re picking up, and what exactly you’ll be eating – sometimes it can be a bit of a mystery when you take a foreign chocolate bar home!
I know I may have struck a confectionery nerve with some of you, picking these over Nestle’s KitKat…but you tell me, which one do you prefer? Or is there another contender for the wafer crown?
Did you know that Terry’s Dessert Chocolate Apple was the precursor for their famous Chocolate Orange?
That’s right! In 1926 Terry’s of York produced a segmented apple flavoured chocolate. This novel invention was the original chocolate fruit – a steady progression from Terry’s 18th century origins as producers of candied fruit peel, marmalade and medicinal confections.
The Dessert Chocolate Apple was marketed as a luxury item, suitable for dinner parties and the well-to-do, and was produced until 1954 until being overshadowed by its more successful cousin the Chocolate Orange (whom we tend to eat in pjs sat on the sofa).
Terry’s Dessert Chocolate Apple and Orange from a 1930’s catalog
In 2013, two employees with the National Archives discovered the recipe for the Chocolate Apple, and with the assistance of York Cocoa House, re-created the chocolate for a public event and exhibition!
Terry’s (famous) Chocolate Orange was introduced six years later in 1932 and has become a Christmas chocolate staple for many homes, often replacing the tradition of placing a satsuma, or orange, as a treat in xmas stockings (or eating all year round for that matter).
Terry’s Chocolate Lemon and Dessert Apple boxes
Continuing with their fruity-chocolate theme, Terry’s Chocolate Lemon was also launched in 1979, but had a much shorter lifespan of just two years, being discontinued in 1981.
Terry’s Chocolate Lemon advert (1979)
If given the choice, which would you tap and unwrap: apple, orange or lemon?
We’re on a trip to Greece for this Wrapper Wednesday, with two chocolate bars made by the Greek brand ION.
ION milk and dark chocolate with almonds
Even though I did not enjoy the chocolate itself, I am rather taken by the beautiful image of almond blossom that features on both of these bars. Each one contains the nutty substance, with the pink wrapper made with milk chocolate, and the blue with dark (or ‘Devil’s arse’ chocolate – please see my Fact Friday on the Marquis de Sade for that reference!).
Founded in 1930 in the city of Athens, ION has been creating chocolate products for 90 years, taking their name from the ancient Greek for sweet violet, and also using the flower as a symbol for the company (unfortunately not featured on these wrappers).
There are many things that I have inherited from my Grandad George; my creative streak, love of history, The Beano, getting frustrated at UFO conspiracy shows, and of course, a huge sweet tooth!
Grandad George and Me, roughly the same age…can you see the family resemblance?
Since there are few chocolates and sweets I can yet get dewy-eyed with nostalgia over, I thought I’d reminisce with Grandad about some of the confections he used to (and still does) enjoy – starting with Ross’s Puff Candy.
Ross’s was founded in Edinburgh by James Ross in 1880, beginning with creating batches of tablet (similar to fudge, but with a gritty consistency), a variety of traditional hard-boiled sweets, and the famous crumbly textured Edinburgh rock (originally invented by Alexander Ferguson when a tray of sweets left exposed turned soft and sweet).
Puff Candy – a sizable wedge of honeycomb/cinder toffee/hokey pokey (depending on where you’re from), sometimes covered in milk chocolate, was created in 1948 by the grandson of James Ross (also named James Ross), and quickly became ‘an absolute knockout’ across the country, costing only thruppence during the 50’s and 60’s.
Ross’s Puff Candy wrappers
Scottish readers might be able to tell me if the term ‘puff candy’ was originally a brand name by Ross’s, that evolved into a regional term for ‘cinder toffee’ or vice versa. And I imagine the name comes from the way in which cinder toffee tends to ‘puff’ up when making it as the main ingredient bicarbonate of soda, creates a hot, foaming sugary sponge that rapidly expands when poured out onto a tray…puff!
1960’s Ross’s Puff Candy t.v. advert
Ross’s no longer produce Puff Candy, but you can still find the name with another Scottish confectioner, Gardiners of Scotland, who still make a chocolate coated PuffCandy today.
Gardiners of Scotland coated Puff Candy
Whatever you call it, Grandad George remembers it thusly…
“…about the length of a Mars bar but slightly wider and deeper. It was a bar of cinder toffee, covered with milk chocolate. In the 1950’s they cost 3d (I think)…“
Are you sure it was made by Ross’s?
“As sure as I can be without going back to 1954 to have a look – but if I did, I probably wouldn’t come back! We were poor but we didn’t have global warming, covid-19, Trump or Johnson. The Beano cost 3d as did The Dandy and a Ross’s Puff Candy…summer lasted forever and kids could play in the streets safely.”
Unfortunately that’s all Grandad George remembers about Puff Candy, that and how tasty it was in order to leave a lasting impression for over sixty years!
No matter how dire the situation outside may be, at least we have some comfort in reminiscing about more comforting times – and all the more comforting if our favorite sweets are a part of those memories. Ross’s may no longer make Puff Candy, but cinder toffee still remains a staple of Grandad George’s sweet selection…I do wish The Beano still cost 3 pence though!
If you remember Ross’s Puff Candy, and can provide me with any more information on it, please get in touch!
It’s Wednesday! So that can only mean another dip into my growing sweet wrapper archive! This week is the turn of a mini Alenka chocolate bar, from Russia.
Made by the Soviet confectionery manufacturers Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) in the mid 1960’s, the Alenka chocolate range was driven by the government’s food program to produce a widely available, affordable, and tasty milk chocolate.
Alenka chocolate bar, from my wrapper archive
This iconic staple of Russian confectionery is well known for its image portraying a big, blue eyed baby girl – the very picture of a healthy, beautiful Soviet child. But the child, Elena Gerinas, never received any royalties for the use of her image as a baby (just like the Fry’s boy I wrote about in an earlier Fact Friday)!
I won’t lie, when I first picked up the bar I was a little put-off by this wide-eyed child staring at me as I was soon about to ‘consume’ her (but I think that’s just my own hang-ups with babies)! But I was equally drawn in by this traditional depiction of childhood, something that is not often seen on contemporary chocolate bars now, despite the power of nostalgia that chocolate has as a marketing ploy.
This was picked up for me by my parents while on a trip to Cyprus, where there is a thriving Russian community and plenty of stores and shops catering for Russian tastes. This bar was very milky, silky and melts in the mouth – I really enjoyed my first taste of Russian chocolate, and would love to try more if anyone can recommend any treats for me!
Did you know that in 1905, Milton Hershey and his company, were sued by a Swiss chocolate firm for infringing on their own chocolate bar wrapper design?
Since 1903 (ish) the Hershey Bar colours were maroon and gold, and it is documented that Milton took great inspiration from many European chocolatiers when producing and establishing his own milk chocolate.
However, the Daniel Peter confectioners of Switzerland (inventing some of the world’s first milk chocolate in 1875), along with the Société Générale Suisse de Chocolats, filed a law suit in 1905 complaining that he had clearly copied their design and colours of maroon and gold.
A Hershey bar wrapper circa 1903-1906 in comparison to the Daniel Peter chocolate bar
The lawsuit was dropped after Milton Hershey agreed to make changes to his packaging – which in 1906 resulted in the maroon and silver designs you still see today!
The first silver and maroon wrapper 1906-1911, followed by a more familiar design 1936-1939
Let me introduce you to one of the most intriguing US chocolate bars you’ve probably never heard of – Sperry’s ‘Chicken Dinner’.
Debuting in 1923 by the Sperry Candy Company, Milwaukee, the ‘Chicken Dinner’ enjoyed four decades of production before being discontinued in 1963, a year after Pearson’s (Salted Nut Roll, Bit ‘O’ Honey) bought the company.
Being advertised as an ‘expensive, high grade candy’ (Sperry, 1924) the chocolate bar was originally sold at a hefty 10 cents, which was at the more expensive end of the booming candy market (other high end competitors included the Baby Ruth bar and Oh Henry! which were also selling for a dime).
During 1920’s and 1930’s America, candy production, invention and manufacture was just beginning a golden age. There were hundred of new products each year, with some of today’s most popular and familiar brands being invented during this time: Oh Henry! (1920), Baby Ruth (1920), Milky Way (1923), Reeses’s Peanut Butter Cups (1923), Milk Duds (1926) and 3 Musketeers (1932) to name a few. Up-and-coming companies jostled for grocer’s patronage, and a huge array of chocolate bars, caramels, and candies fought to be the next people’s choice. In the flurry of all these exciting new products how could a new confection stand out? With a memorable name and some clever advertising, that’s how!
Not to be confused with a real chicken dinner, the chocolate bar actually was a mix of fudge, peanuts and milk chocolate, wonderfully described here taken from a 1930’s advert;
‘It’s the bar with the old-fashioned peanut bar centre, and it has a thick layer of delicious caramel and later of fudge-like French cream. And it’s thickly coated with nourishing milk chocolate’.
With a bizarre name and vibrant eye-catching posters and wrapper designs, the Chicken Dinner made itself instantly recognizable and memorable with consumers. There are anecdotes linking the strange choice in name to President Hoover’s ‘a chicken in every pot’ political campaign of 1928, but since the candy predates this movement by five years, it seems doubtful. A more likely reason is that Sperry were clever enough to know that in order to stand out in the ever expanding market they needed something bold, and big…and chicken shaped. The ‘well-being’ of chocolate products were also highlighted during the 1920’s, almost up to the 1950’s…including the Chicken Dinner, chocolate was sold as ‘nourishing’, ‘wholesome’ and simply ‘good’ for energizing and enriching the body. It was sold as a food, not a candy at this point in time, and so perhaps the name Chicken Dinner also carried connotations of being filling and enriching, as well as a tasty treat.
In 1926 Sperry began a huge marketing campaign in order to spread the word about their Sunday roast themed ‘candy made good’. Billboards and banners were posted along roads and busy down-town centres, sign writers painted on shop windows, traveling salesmen and entertainers were hired to cheerfully up-sell their products and, most remarkably, a convoy of chicken-shaped trucks drove from town to town laden with the dense peanut filled sweets. When sounded, the horns of these trucks would cluck and chirp away signaling that the Chicken Dinner had arrived!
Chicken Dinner truck circa 1950
Despite the surreal and colourful advertising, Sperry soon dropped the image of a roast chicken on its candy wrappers as they thought that it didn’t really communicate well the image of the candy bar they were selling…early wrappers didn’t even tell you what you would be eating! So to avoid any further confusion, the image was removed, but the name remained in a stoic attempt to stake it’s claim in the market.
Wrappers that ditched the roast chicken graphics
This ‘distinctly different’ chocolate bar is a wonderful reminder of the efforts made by the small, pioneering confectioners of early twentieth century America. By having a good product, and some superb marketing sense, the Chicken Dinner was able to endure forty years against growing candy behemoths such as Hershey, Mars and Wrigley. The seemingly crazy concept of a roast-themed candy bar could only be a product of the golden age of confectionery…what would a chicken flavored candy bar taste like anyway?
Did you know that BAFTA award winning actor Miriam Margolyes was the voice of the Cadbury Caramel Bunny?
Compilation of the Cadbury Caramel Bunny adverts
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, Miriam Margolyes (Blackadder, Doc Martin, Merlin, Dickens in America and Professor Sprout in Harry Potter) voiced the sultry west-county Cadbury chocolate mascot in a series of animated commercials. Her dulcet tones, big eyes and sensual patter encouraged other woodland animals to ‘take it easy’ and to enjoy the smooth and indulgent confectionery treat.
Bunny and her voice actor Margolyes
Bunny became the pin-up for Cadbury Caramel chocolate, and made a brief return into its marketing campaign in 2009 sporting made-up lips and sometimes a dress with the sensual tag line ‘Still Got It x’.
Bunny was certainly a confusing and alluring anthropomorphic chocolate sex symbol back in her day…
Hullo and welcome to the first ‘Sweet Spotlight’ – a little article series where I intend on focusing in on one type of candy bar/sweet/chocolate, both current and past. To kick it off I’ve been trying to find out more about the Verne Collier Inc, Birmingham Alabama…
I picked up this original tin whilst rummaging through an antique mall in Kansas last summer; it stands approx. 10cm tall with the front design advertising ‘kitchen fresh fine candy’, and the reverse sporting a rather 50’s retro looking silver star pattern. Only the lid makes reference to what type of candy was inside – I believe that this might have been a design feature of quick and cheap, mass production; allowing candy to be distributed quickly with little time spent on amending designs for each confectionery line. Just pop them in the tin and make sure the right lid is on top!
According to the lid, the tin apparently once contained ‘Cocoanettes‘ – made with (among other things) milk, sugar and cocoanut – an archaic spelling of ‘coconut’, and retailed at only $1 per pound. But apart from the actual information on the tin, I’m struggling to find out much else about this candy (for now)!
The only references I have found so far are advertisements taken out for Cocoanettes, Chocolettes and Peanut Brittle in magazines such as ‘Scouting’ and ‘Field and Stream’ where the tins of candy are pitched as a way for boy scouts, schools and churches to raise money for community causes. They could be bought by these organisations for 50c, giving them the opportunity to double their money; a similar framework is still in place for scout groups buying and selling chocolate and candy today.
Left (1966) Right (1970)
Most of these adverts seem to span the 1960’s and 70’s, and their images of the tins pretty much match mine, hooray! And in the above adverts we can even see images of the candy! They almost look like piece of heavily coated popcorn…but I hazard a guess that they were rolled coconut balls of sorts.
Above (1974)
But I am yet to find any references to Cocoanettes being sold outside this market and appearing in retail stores – perhaps this was solely the purpose of production for the Verne Collier candy company? Not being an American, or familiar with the notion of selling candy even as a girl guide, I feel like there’s a pool of socially based information I am not privy to, so if any of y’all can enlighten me, then please let me know!
I am hoping to find out more about this tin in the future as I work my way through a series of books on American candy, but if any one out there also has a tin, knows anything about the origin of Verne Collier candies, or can remember selling or buying or eating them, please get in touch! I’d love to hear from you, and will update this article if any I can find out any more information about my little American souvenir.
The British Candy Connoisseur 