Cadbury was founded almost 200 years ago and has since stolen the hearts of chocolate lovers everywhere.
The company makes three of the United Kingdom’s top 10 best-selling chocolate bars, and the first one is Cadbury Dairy Milk. According to Bloomberg, in 2012, Cadbury Dairy Milk was the fifth most popular chocolate bar in the world, with sales amounting to $2.5 billion. Cadbury Twirl milk chocolate bar is also a U.K. favorite, as is Wispa.
The company’s products also include Double Decker, which is made with nougat-whip and Rice Krispies; Crunchie, which is chocolate and a honeycomb filling; and Fudge, which is, fudge and milk chocolate combined in bar form.
Hershey’s has owned the rights to making and distributing Cadbury chocolate in the U.S. since 1988, and in 2010, U.S.-based food company Kraft took over U.K.-based Cadbury, causing a significant amount of controversy.
Discord aside, though, the chocolate has been high quality from the beginning.
1. 1824 was the beginning of Cadbury as we know it.
93 Bull Street in Birmingham was the site of John Cadbury’s grocer shop. His wares included cocoa and drinking chocolate that he made himself with a pestle and mortar. Cadbury was only 22 years old at the time.
2. The American and U.K. versions taste different.
British-made Cadbury uses a slightly different recipe than the American-made version, just as Mexican Coca-Cola differs from that made in the U.S. The first ingredient in American Cadbury chocolate is sugar, but milk is listed first in the British version.
3. Cadbury Dairy Milk has a glass and a half of milk in every half-pound chocolate bar sold in the U.K.
The classic logo of a glass and a half of milk being poured appears on the wrappers of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars, which were first sold in 1905. The logo represents the milk, which is fresh from the British Isles, in each bar.
4. Cadbury Dairy Milk has been fair trade chocolate since 2009.
The move reportedly tripled sales for cocoa farmers in Ghana, increased fair trade cocoa sales for certified farming groups that already existed, and created opportunities for thousands of farmers to reap the fair trade system’s benefits.
5. Cadbury eggs with cream fillings were sold in 1923, but the iconic Creme Egg didn’t appear until 1971.
TV advertising helped sales take off in 1975, and now, over 200 million Creme Eggs are sold every year in the U.K. The company’s Bournville factory in Birmingham has the capacity to make over 1.5 million Creme Eggs each day.
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