Toblerone Facts for Kids

This page is about the chocolate bar. For the Swiss defensive line, see Toblerone line.

Quick facts for kids
Toblerone


Type	Chocolate bar
Owner	Mondelēz International (U.S.)
Country	Switzerland
Introduced	1908; 117 years ago (1908)
Related brands	List of Kraft brands
Previous owners	Kraft Foods Inc. (1990–2012) Jacobs Suchard AG (1982–90) Interfood S.A. (1970–82) Tobler (1908–70)

Toblerone is a famous Swiss chocolate bar. It is known for its unique shape. The bar looks like a series of connected triangular prisms. You can also see special letters carved into the chocolate.

This chocolate is made in Bern, Switzerland. Today, it is owned by a company called Mondelez International.

The Sweet Story of Toblerone
Toblerone Sizes and Flavors
- Changes to Bar Size
How Toblerone is Made
Other Chocolates Like Toblerone
Toblerone's Impact on Culture
Images for kids
See also

The Sweet Story of Toblerone

Theodor Tobler helped create the Toblerone bar and its packaging.

The Tobler chocolate factory started in 1899. It was founded by Emil Baumann and Theodor Tobler in Bern, Switzerland. At that time, the Swiss chocolate industry was growing fast. New milk chocolate was becoming very popular.

In 1908, Emil Baumann, Theodor Tobler's cousin, created a special recipe. It included milk chocolate, white nougat, almonds, and honey. Theodor Tobler then came up with the famous triangular shape. He also designed the unique packaging. The name "Toblerone" comes from Tobler's last name. It also uses the Italian word torrone, which is a type of nougat.

The Matterhorn mountain inspired the bar's shape.

Many people believe the triangular shape of the Matterhorn mountain inspired Toblerone. The Matterhorn is a famous peak in the Swiss Alps. However, Theodor's sons said the shape came from a pyramid made by dancers. This was part of a show Theodor saw.

Even so, a picture of the Matterhorn is on the Toblerone packaging today. You can also see an outline of a bear on the mountain. The bear is a symbol of Bern, the city where Toblerone is made.

Theodor Tobler got a patent for how Toblerone was made in 1909. A patent protects an invention. The Toblerone brand was also trademarked that same year. This happened at the Swiss Federal Institute in Bern. Some people think Albert Einstein might have helped with the patent. He worked there as a clerk. Toblerone was the first patented milk chocolate bar.

A dark chocolate Toblerone was first made in 1969. A white chocolate version followed in 1973.

The Tobler company was independent for many years. In 1970, it joined with another company called Suchard. Suchard makes Milka chocolate. Later, they joined with the Jacobs coffee company. In 1990, Kraft Foods Inc bought most of Jacobs Suchard, including Toblerone. Then, in 2012, Mondelēz International took over Toblerone.

Toblerone Sizes and Flavors

Toblerone bars come in many different sizes. They range from small, about ten centimeters, to very large, almost one meter long! All of them have the same special triangular shape.

Here are some of the sizes and how many peaks they have:

Size(g)	Tiny	Mini	35 g	50 g	75 g	100 g	150 g	200 g	360 g	750 g	4.5 kg
Size(oz)			1.2 oz	1.7 oz	2.6 oz	3.5 oz	5.3 oz	7.0 oz	12.7 oz	26.5 oz	159 oz
Peaks	3	3	8	11	11	12	9	10	11	17	12

Every year, for the Toblerone Schoggifest (Chocolate Festival), a huge bar is made. Its weight matches the number of years Toblerone has been around. For example, the first bar in 2008 weighed 100 kg.

Since the 1970s, many different kinds of Toblerone have been made:

Plain chocolate: This comes in a yellow box. (1969)
Dark chocolate: You can find this in a black box.
White chocolate: This one comes in a white box. (1973)
Milk chocolate Mint Crisp: This has a white and green box. (1985)
Snowtop: These have white chocolate peaks. They come in a white and silver box.
Filled editions: These are milk chocolate with a white chocolate center. They are in a blue box.
OneByOne: These are small, individually wrapped triangular pieces.
Toblerone Pralines: These were released in 1997. They are single-peak chocolates in a beige package.
Fruit & Nut: This version came out in 2007. It has a half-purple box.
Honeycomb crisp: This has honeycomb pieces. It comes in a half-white box. (2009)
Crunchy Salted Almond: This has honey, almond nougat, and salted almonds.
Berner Bär: This is a 500g milk chocolate bar. It has a picture of the Bernese Bear and the Coat of arms of Bern on it. It is the only Toblerone that is not triangular.
Toblerone Tobelle: These are thinner Toblerone pieces in a beige box.
Crispy Coconut: This has honey, almond nougat, and coconut.
Golden Caramel: This flavor has caramel with honey and almond nougat.
Tobler Truffles: These were a special, limited edition in 2022.

Changes to Bar Size

In 2016, the Toblerone bars sold in the United Kingdom changed. Some bars had fewer peaks and bigger gaps between them. This made the bars lighter, but the package size and price stayed the same. Many people were not happy about this change.

However, in 2018, the bar went back to its original shape. The smaller bar was replaced with a 200g bar.

How Toblerone is Made

In the past, Toblerone was made in other places. These included Bedford in England and Dundee in Scotland. From the 1970s to the 1980s, it was also made in Yugoslavia by a company called Kraš.

The company that owns Toblerone, Mondelez, plans to start making some Toblerone bars in Bratislava, Slovakia. This will begin at the end of 2023. Because of Swiss rules, these bars cannot say "Swiss" on the package. They also cannot show the Matterhorn mountain. Instead, they will say "created in Switzerland." The mountain image will be a new, modern design.

The main ingredients in a classic Toblerone bar are sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, honey, milk fat, almonds, and egg white.

Other Chocolates Like Toblerone

By 1920, other companies started making chocolates similar to Toblerone. For example, a Swiss company called Cailler launched the Chocmel tablet. Another similar chocolate from Switzerland is Mahony, made by Frey.

There is also a chocolate from Croatia called Kolumbo. It is made by the company Kraš. This chocolate also has pyramids of hazelnuts and honey. Kraš used to make Toblerone under a special agreement in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 2017, a UK store called Poundland launched its own version of Toblerone. They called it "Twin Peaks." This was after Toblerone changed its size in 2016. The Twin Peaks bar was larger than the changed Toblerone bar.

Toblerone's Impact on Culture

These anti-tank blocks are called "Toblerones" because of their shape.

The unique triangular shape of the Toblerone bar gave its name to the Toblerone line. This was a series of anti-tank barriers. They were used in Switzerland during World War II to protect its borders. They look just like giant Toblerone pieces!

The inside of the Tobler factory in Switzerland was used for filming. It was where the opening scene of the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was shot.

In 1995, a Swedish politician named Mona Sahlin faced a problem. She had used her government credit card for some personal shopping. Among the items she bought were two Toblerone bars. Some journalists tried to make it seem like a small issue, calling it the "Toblerone affair." However, she still had to step down from her role as a possible Prime Minister. She later returned to politics in 1998.

There are also triangular student buildings at the University of Manchester in England. They were built around 1975. Students often call them "the Toblerones" because of their shape.

The largest size of Toblerone bar is also a funny running joke in the 2017 Netflix series Neo Yokio.