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Toblerone A Brexit Victim? Candy Bar Shrinks, Fans Go Nuts [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 05:18 PST, Nov 8, 2016

Has the Toblerone candy bar become the latest victim of the Brexit? That’s what many in the UK seem to think after their favorite candy bar apparently underwent some overnight shrinkage. Produced by Mondelez International, Toblerone bars are found around the world, and they are so popular that they’re almost always available at international airports. Toblerone is a very distinctive bar of chocolate indeed.

Toblerone is described as “unique milk chocolate including nougat, almonds and honey with a distinctive triangular shape.” Now, that “distinctive triangular shape” is even more distinctive, but apparently for all the wrong reasons. And UK Toblerone fans are blaming the Brexit for what’s become of their chocolate of choice.

According to Mondelez International, rising ingredient prices necessitated a change. Is Toblerone a Brexit victim? As CNN Money reports, maybe. At least a little bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxUZMaVe0Zk

Since the controversial Brexit vote, the value of the British pound has fallen sharply against the U.S. dollar. The dollar is the currency used to price commodities, such as cocoa. Reportedly, the costs of production have also gone up markedly in recent months. What does this mean? Well, it means that the Toblerone crisis of 2016 could be directly related to the Brexit fallout.

So what horrific changes have been made to the “distinctive” Toblerone? What could possibly be so bad that chocolate lovers in the UK are decrying the Brexit over their favorite candy bar? The makers of Toblerone made the cost-cutting decision to increase the distance between the Toblerone triangles, shrinking them down, making the Toblerone triangles tinier versions of their pre-Brexit selves. The reason? By shrinking down the Toblerone triangles, the manufacturer was able to continue utilizing the same packaging and retain the length of the Toblerone bars.

Overall, your average Toblerone bar (formerly 170 grams of chocolate bliss) now weighs only 150 grams. The 400 gram Toblerone bars have been whittled down t0 360 grams. The only thing about Toblerone that hasn’t shrunk in the aftermath of the Brexit is the price, which has remained the same, even though chocolate lovers are now getting 10 percent less of Toblerone’s “unique milk chocolate, including nougat, almonds and honey” with every purchase.

As The Verge reports, the manufacturer denied a Toblerone/Brexit connection in a statement made on their Facebook page.

“Like many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients. We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable, and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight [of the bars].”

The company added that despite the fact that, since the Brexit, the low value of the pound has become “not favorable,” the shrunken down Toblerone “wasn’t done as a result of Brexit.”

To be fair, Mondelez International (the producer of Toblerone) is an American company. And the Toblerone bars are now scrawnier all over the world, not just in the UK.

Reportedly, the plan to shrink down Toblerone was announced in October. However, most candy connoisseurs didn’t get the memo. And because the Toblerone packaging hasn’t changed at all, the vast majority of Toblerone eaters didn’t know about the change until after they opened up their disappointing treat. It was a devastating blow to many chocolate lovers and something that seemed to have happened overnight and without warning.

Some are saying that if Toblerone wanted to shrink their candy bar, they should have done so by making it shorter rather than shrinking the trademark triangles. That way, buyers would know when they buy their chocolate how much is in the package.

While many in the UK are blaming the horrific new Toblerone on the Brexit, the truth is that many brands have gotten in the habit of shrinking down their products to protect their bottom line recently.

“The new gappy-teeth Toblerone is yet another example of shrinkflation, where shrinking pack contents allows for a backdoor price rise.”

What do you think? Is Toblerone the latest casualty of the Brexit, or do disappointed Brits see a connection where none exists?

[Featured Image by gcpics/Shutterstock]

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