It was the sweet-toothed romance between the Royal family and one of Britain’s most cherished chocolatiers.
But after surviving 170 years and the rule of six sovereigns, confectionery colossus Cadbury’s tie to British royalty seems to have lost its sugary allure.
The chocolate juggernaut based in Bourneville, Birmingham, was among 100 companies to lose out on official approval from ‘The Firm’, after being stripped of its Royal Warrant status.
King Charles ripped away its globally recognised mark of excellence after deciding not to renew it.
It comes after the company’s recent takeover by an American snack giant led to claims Cadbury had ‘betrayed its heritage’, by introducing bizarre new recipes and shrinking bars – while outsourcing its chocolate production abroad.
Queen Victoria first granted Cadbury its Royal Warrant in 1854 – which was then repeated by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1955, who was a huge fan of the brand.
It is thought that she received boxes of Cadbury’s Bournville chocolate every Christmas since she liked it so much.
Yet the pool of Cadbury products to royal households has declined in recent years.
Its attraction in the Palace appears to be further damaged by the King’s reputation for eating healthily since he prefers a piece of fruit or seeds high in fibre to a chocolate bar.
The brands that lost their Royal Warrant status were notified via letter, as is customary, but they were not provided with an explanation.
Other chocolate companies like Nestle, which owns Milkybar, and Smarties as well as Bendicks and Prestat have all kept their titles.
Being granted a Royal Warrant is deemed a tremendous advantage for British companies both in the UK and abroad – and losing the stamp of approval has left Cadbury’s owners ‘disappointed’, the company admitted.
For two centuries, Cadbury has captivated the nation’s palates, starting as a tiny grocery shop in Birmingham. Its advertisements, which include a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ song “In the Air Tonight,” have become iconic British favourites.
This year saw the beloved brand behind the likes of Dairy Milk, Flake and Heroes, marking its 200th birthday.
The confectionery behemoth was established by the nation’s very own ‘Willy Wonka’, John Cadbury, in 1824 in Bull Street.
Among the display of goods sold at the grocer’s shop, John introduced hand-made drinking chocolate which laid the footing for the brand today.
As a Quaker, John was eager to promote cocoa as a healthy substitute for alcohol.
In addition to selling hops, mustard, patent cocoa, and cocoa nibs, he was formerly a tea trader and coffee roaster.
The store was the first in Birmingham to use plate glass windows with mahogany frames to draw in wealthier clients, and John is reputed to have polished them daily.
Chinese vases and oriental figures filled with black and green tea were among the shop’s eye-catching decorations.
Cadbury’s dedication to quality and invention allowed the company to grow quickly while enthralling Britons with its mouthwatering confections.
John began selling various kinds of cocoa and moved to a factory on Bridge Street, Birmingham in 1831.
By 1864 the company was being run by John’s sons, Richard and George, and the brothers were eager to distinguish themselves from other cocoa and chocolate manufacturers.
A purer, more luxurious drinking chocolate called Cocoa Essence was introduced by the duo in 1866.
This product used a new process which pressed cocoa butter from the cocoa beans, and it is this that was the forerunner of the cocoa known and loved today.
The firm then introduced its first chocolate selection boxes, demonstrating that the surplus cocoa butter from the press could be utilised to create an early kind of edible chocolate.
Richard and George soon got sick of Birmingham slums and in 1878 they moved to a rural location four miles out of the city in a place called Bournville.
Bournville, which was named after the model hamlet, developed into a staff sanctuary where they could live, work, and play.
Alongside semi-detached cottages with gardens for the employees, there was a field next to the factory where they could play cricket and football; a garden and playground for the girls; and proper welfare provisions.
Sports facilities expanded throughout time to include facilities for bowling, tennis, squash, and hockey.
Finally, swimming pools were built with everyone in Bournville taught how to swim.
Staff days out were common and for employees living outside of Bournville, Cadbury’s negotiated reduced train fares with the local railway company. Education was made available for everyone and the company actively encouraged vocations outside of their business interest.
However, because Bournville was a location of moral living, it was prohibited from having pubs, a prohibition that still stands today.
Queen Victoria proved to be a big admirer of Cadbury, which also established ties with the royal family.
In 1899, the Queen commissioned Cadbury alongside the UK’s two other top chocolate manufacturers, J S Fry & Sons and Rowntree and Company Limited, to produce special chocolates for British troops fighting in the Boer War.
After Queen Victoria died in 1901, Cadbury’s introduced its iconic purple packaging in a nod to the late sovereign, who loved the colour.
In 1902, Cadbury’s went on to produce a commemorative collection of tins to mark the coronations of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
In 1955, Cadbury’s royal warrant was renewed by the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth – producing a comparable coronation tin for the monarch.
With the birth of colour television in the mid-20th century, Cadbury found itself at the forefront of the advertising revolution.
The chocolate company came up with a string of iconic promotions for its products with some of the most rememberable being ‘A finger of Fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat’ and ‘everyone’s a Fruit and Nut case’.
Cadbury went viral in 2007 with a Dairy Milk advert that showed a life-like gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ song In The Air Tonight.
In 2015 the advert was voted the best British ad in 60 years, but a year later, the company met the anger of Cadbury’s chocolate devoted fans.
It followed the earlier takeover by American snack giant, Mondelez International which bought out Cadbury in 2010.
A string of complaints included changing the recipe of the brand’s iconic Crème Eggs, shrinking bars, strange new recipes, and employment losses.
It led to claims that Cadbury had ‘betrayed its heritage’ after the takeover, according to a 2016 TV documentary from Dispatches series – which claimed workers had been sacked and chocolate – including Dairy Milk – was being produced in Poland.
Mondelez, then known as Kraft Foods, bought the British brand in 2010. But it was accused of a slew of ‘broken promises’.
When the buyout was announced, Kraft said it would stick to Cadbury’s commitment to using Fairtrade cocoa beans to produce its chocolate. Fairtrade practices mean that cocoa growers earn a minimum of £1,600 per tonne of cocoa sold.
But in 2016, it established it was no longer working with Fairtrade and had changed to a new cocoa production partnership known as Cocoa Life – which does not exercise the same price rules.
Ruth Cadbury, a direct descendant of one of the founders, said her ancestors would be ‘spinning in their urns’ over the way Mondelez was running the business – especially paying no corporation tax in Britain in 2014 despite making £96.5 million profit.
Talking of no longer being awarded a Royal Warrant, a spokesman for Mondelez International said: ‘Cadbury is a much-loved brand that has been a part of British life for generations and remains the nation’s favourite chocolate.
‘Whilst we are disappointed to be one of hundreds of other businesses and brands in the UK to not have a new warrant awarded, we are proud to have previously held one, and we fully respect the decision.’
Since they altered the formula, more delicious substitutes are now available – yet another great British product allowed to be sold off.
A Royal Warrant should be granted if the chocolate is of high quality; if it hasn’t been, we must consider why it wasn’t.
The new owners have destroyed the product, which makes me wonder why they bought such well-loved chocolate just to destroy it, all sweets, chocolates and crisps have shrunk in size. Open a packet of crisps and inside you have half a packet, but pay for a full packet. Chocolate bars have shrunk in size and tins of chocolates have reduced in size over the years. ‘Shrinkflation’ is certainly that – sadly though they don’t seem to have a tool for shrinking the population – eventually Christmas will be a thing of the past, something that our forthcoming children will only hear about in books.
The answer is quite simple. Corn syrup, palm oil, sweeteners and emulsifiers are being added, with cocoa, dairy and acceptable sugars reduced. It shouldn’t even be called chocolate due to the absence of cocoa, dairy and acceptable sugar.
It’s not British-owned anymore. They sent most of the production to Poland with the loss of numerous British jobs, and they changed the formula, so it no longer tastes like chocolate. Well done King Charles, it was a wonderful decision. They don’t deserve a Royal Warrant.
The chocolate is simply not the same as it once was—it used to be so lovely, rich, and creamy.
The chocolate and oil recipe was altered to a less expensive one, but those who have never tried the original will never understand how delicious it was with the vintage paper and foil wrapping. It was amazing, but regrettably no longer available.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 