Tirol-Choco facts for kids
Tirol-Choco Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company that makes yummy chocolates. They are famous for their small, square chocolate candies. These treats usually cost between 10 and 30 Japanese yen, which is like a small amount of Japanese money. The company started as Matsuo Seika in 1903. The very first Tirol chocolate, a coffee-flavored treat with nougat inside, was made in 1962. Since then, Tirol-Choco has created many different kinds of candies!
Contents
The Story of Tirol-Choco
Early Beginnings in Fukuoka
The company that would become Tirol-Choco started way back in 1903. It was first called Matsuo Seika. They made sweets in a place called Ita-mura, which is now Tagawa City in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. In 1919, it officially became Matsuo Seika Co.
The Matsuo family, who owned the company, had faced some tough times. They moved to Tagawa because it was a busy area with coal mining. There, they began making and selling candies and other sweet treats to the coal miners.
Sweet Success and New Ideas
In 1948, Matsuo Seika had a big hit with their caramels. These candies were sold one by one and became very popular. The company grew a lot! However, later on, sales slowed down because of a tough economy.
Yoshinobu Matsuo, who was the second president of the company, had a great idea. He wanted to make chocolate that was cheap enough for kids to buy. With help from another company called Morozoff, they worked to create these affordable chocolates.
Creating the Famous Tirol Chocolate
In 1962, Matsuo Seika started a special section just for making chocolate. They named their new chocolate "Tirol." This name was inspired by a beautiful region in the Alps mountains in Austria.
To keep the price low, they used syrup inside the chocolate. The first Tirol chocolates were sold as three small, bite-sized pieces.
Changes and Growth
In 1973, the cost of ingredients went up a lot because of the oil crisis. This made the price of Tirol chocolate go up, and people stopped buying as much. To fix this, the company changed the chocolate from three pieces to just one square-shaped piece. They also brought the price back down to 10 yen. This helped sales go up again!
Later, Toshihiko Matsuo became the president. He had learned a lot about business from working at another company called Nabisco. He worked hard to make sure Tirol chocolates could be sold in even more places, so more kids could enjoy them.
