Terry's Chocolate Orange facts for kids
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| Type | Confection |
|---|---|
| Owner | Carambar & Co |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1932 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Previous owners |
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The Terry's Chocolate Orange is a popular chocolate treat shaped like an orange. It was first made in 1932 by a company called Terry's in York, England. Over the years, different companies have owned the brand. Since 2018, it has been made in Strasbourg, France, by a company named Carambar.
Contents
How the Chocolate Orange Began
Joseph Terry, a chemist, joined a sweets company in York in 1823. He created new types of chocolate, candied fruit peels, and marmalade. By 1830, he owned the business. After he passed away, his sons, including Joseph Jr., took over. In 1895, the company became Joseph Terry and Sons Ltd.
A New Factory and New Treats
In 1926, the company opened a new factory called Terry's Chocolate Works. It had a cool, modern design. They started making exciting new products there. These included the Dessert Chocolate Apple in 1926 and the famous Chocolate Orange in 1932.
Chocolate During Wartime
When World War II started, chocolate making had to stop. The factory was used to make and fix airplane parts instead. After the war, it was hard to make chocolate again. This was because there wasn't enough cocoa, and food was still rationed in the UK. In 1954, they stopped making the chocolate apple. They wanted to make more Chocolate Oranges instead. In 1979, Terry's tried a Chocolate Lemon, but it didn't last long.
Global Sales and New Owners
Terry's Chocolate Oranges are sold all over the world. In North America, they were even sold by the company that makes Toblerone for a short time. In 2017, they started appearing in stores in South Korea.
In 2005, the original Terry's factory in York closed. The making of Chocolate Oranges moved to Europe. Later, in 2018, all production was moved to Strasbourg, France. The company says that sales of Terry's Chocolate Oranges have doubled from 2019 to 2022. This means about 44 million Oranges are sold each year!
What Makes a Chocolate Orange Special?
The Terry's Chocolate Orange looks like a real orange. It's a ball of chocolate mixed with orange oil. This ball is divided into 20 segments, just like a real orange. It's wrapped in foil that looks like orange peel.
When you buy it, the segments are stuck together. To get them apart, you traditionally "tap" or "whack" the ball on a hard surface. This breaks the segments apart so you can easily unwrap and eat them.
Other Chocolate Orange Treats
Over the years, many other products have been made:
- Chocolate Orange bar: A chocolate bar with six segments.
- Chocolate Orange minis: Small chocolate segments in a bag.
- Chocolate Orange White Eggs: White chocolate eggs shaped like the orange, sold at Easter.
- Segsations: Individual chocolate segments in different flavors. These include milk chocolate, puffed rice, honeycomb, and a mix of milk and dark chocolate. All have orange oil.
- Chocolate Mint: A version of the Chocolate Orange with a mint flavor.
Fun Advertising
The Chocolate Orange is famous for its funny adverts, especially around Christmas. Many years ago, it was thought that one in ten British Christmas stockings had a Chocolate Orange!
Actress Dawn French was in many adverts. She often pretended to hide "her" Chocolate Orange from others. Some famous slogans include:
- "Tap it and unwrap it" (now "Whack and unwrap it")
- "It's not Terry's, it's mine"
- "Don't tap it... Whack it!"
Newer adverts have different slogans. One is "Round but not round for long." Another recent campaign uses the slogan "Smash it to pieces, love it to bits." In 2020, an advert with Brian Blessed's voice said the Chocolate Orange helps with "British Unsquaredness."
Types of Chocolate Orange Products
There have been many different kinds of Terry's Chocolate Orange products:
- Terry's Dessert Chocolate Apple (made before the Orange)
- Terry's Chocolate Lemon (a short-lived version)
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Dark (also called 'Plain')
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowball (white chocolate)
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Mint (brought back in 2023)
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Bars (individual or sharing bars)
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini segments/Segsations
- Terry's Chocolate Orange White Egg
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Tangy
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Exploding Candy
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Hazelnut
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Raspberry
- Terry's Chocolate Orange White Chocolate Smasher
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee Crunch
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Birthday Cake
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Ice-Creams (sometimes sold for a limited time)
- Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk with Crushed Mini Eggs Easter Edition
Product Size Changes
In 2016, the size of the Chocolate Orange sold in the UK was made smaller. It went from 175g to 157g. This was done by changing the shape of each segment to leave a small air gap. Even though it was smaller, the price sometimes doubled in stores.
