Last Chance to Eat…. the real thing…

Kraft’s, of Cheez Whiz fame, has bought Cadbury’s signalling the end of Great English Chocolate and candy.  When Nestle bought the other giant Rowntree, the Swiss company destroyed the taste and you may be sure Kraft will do the same for Cadbury (of course in the US, Cadbury’s taste is now ruined by Hershey which manufactures it).

Cadbury’s choc tasted thick and sweet, stuck to the teeth before softening up nicely in the mouth. My childhood fave was fruit and nut choc bar which  acted on rainy days like a ray of sunshine. The array of Cadbury’s temptations was dazzling, the English lavished their gastronomic imagination on sweets.

As Andrew Malcolm, who grew up in the chocolate city of York, writes today in the guardian “As with the Cadburys, the Rowntrees’ philanthropy came from their ­Quakerism, and that’s where the chocolate came from, too. The plan had been that drinking chocolate would provide a popular alternative to alcohol. I believe Hitler had the same idea, but the Rowntrees were good guys. Joseph Rowntree II installed a female welfare worker in the York factory in 1891. At the turn of the century he established sick and provident funds, along with a pension and savings scheme and a doctor’s surgery. His son, Seebohm Rowntree, wrote Poverty: A Study of Town Life, which in 1908 coined the term “poverty line” and agonised about those below it. Seebohm seems to have left much of the actual chocolate side of things to George Harris, a veritable northern Willie Wonka, who in one inspired year (1935) invented both the Aero bar and KitKat biscuit. Poverty: A Study of Town Life, which in 1908 coined the term “poverty line” and agonised about those below it. Seebohm seems to have left much of the actual chocolate side of things to George Harris, a veritable northern Willie Wonka, who in one inspired year (1935) invented both the Aero bar and KitKat biscuit.”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 10:17 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.