12th January 2011, on the menu today...
Cadbury Crunchie
A blast from the past. Along with the likes of the Curly Wurly, the Crunchie was a popular Cadbury choice as a child. It sported glitzy packaging, had a fun name and promised lots of chocolaty goodness - what more could you want. That said, over the years my selection of chocolate bars narrowed and, for whatever reason, the Crunchie was sidelined for well over a decade. Therefore, reacquainting myself with this old favourite the other day was a moment that certainly took me back.
Design:
The one thing I remember better than anything else when it comes to the Crunchie is the packaging. Gratefully, Cadbury hasn't messed around with the look too much: the primary colour scheme is still intact as well as the fun rounded "Crunchie" font. All in all, this is a glitzy, fun-looking design with great shelf standout.
Taste:
Unwrapping the bar you are immediately greeted by the sweet, milky smell of Cadbury chocolate - always a good start. Breaking the bar in to two, you are exposed to the beautifully golden 'honeycomb' centre as well as a malty almost burnt smell. Taste-wise, sweet and milky are prominent flavours to the point that many would find the bar sickly after a while. However, with a large cuppa to complement my tea break I was more than happy tucking in to this Cadbury offering and particularly enjoyed the contrast in textures between the melt-in-the-mouth chocolate exterior and the crunchy interior.
TV Advertising:
I don't know about you but, after seeing this, I'm already feeling good about the end of the week and it's only Wednesday. "Get that Friday feeling with Cadbury Crunchie" was a slogan that begun to associate the fun and excitement one gets from the end of the working week with the glitzy, celebratory look of the confectionery. Here, this message was supported by a fine piece of animation from Aardman and a fun soundtrack. Great stuff.
History (as per the Wikipedia entry):
Cadbury Crunchie is a milk chocolate bar with a "honeycombed" sugar centre. It is made by Cadbury UK and was originally launched by J. S. Fry & Sons in 1929. Fry had merged with Cadbury in 1919 and Crunchie later became a Cadbury brand.
A similar chocolate bar is available in Australia, Violet Crumble.
In 2010 Cadbury's launched Crunchie Rocks, a mixture of chocolate, cornflakes and Crunchie.
Cadbury Crunchie is sold in several sizes, ranging from "snack size" – a small square piece – through to "king size". The most common portion is a single-serve bar, about 1 inch wide by about 7 inches long, and about 3/4 of an inch deep.
In the early 2000s there were a range of limited edition Crunchies on sale in the UK. These included a lemonade bar, a champagne bar and a Tango Orange bar, in which the chocolate contained the different flavourings. The champagne-flavoured bar was initially launched for New Year's Eve 1999. In South-Africa, Cadbury sold a white chocolate version in a blue wrapper until recently. The UK now has a caramel version available in some stores.
As is common with other chocolate brands, Crunchie brand ice cream bars and cheesecake are also sold in some countries. Such products contain nuggets of the bar within the ice cream or cheesecake.
In 2006, a "Cadbury Crunchie Blast" variety of the product was launched, which featured "popping candy" inside the bar. However, it was discontinued shortly afterwards.
Until September 2010, Crunchie was produced in the Keynsham plant in Somerset, UK; however, production has now transferred to Cadbury's new plant in Skarbimierz, Poland. Labels for these products do not state a country of origin, instead stating "Made in the EU under license from Cadbury UK Ltd"
Web Links:
GetThatFridayFeeling.co.uk (Crunchie Site)
Fellow food bloggers:
It's All About Limited Edition