The Long Lost Chocolate Bars We Crave

Easter time is upon us and along with people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, we also partake in the giving of Easter eggs. Recently at our Tuesday team meeting, the topic as to what people were giving up for Lent came up. This discussion then transpired into people talking about their favourite childhood chocolate bars that had disappeared and that they wished Cadbury, Nestlé etc. would bring back.

Here are some of our beloved chocolate bars we truly wish were still around today.
 

“Bring back the Dream bars to the Heroes boxes at Christmas”

This was one of the lost bars spoken about and many do indeed mourn its disappearance from our shelves. These bars were first introduced in the UK and Ireland in 2002 and were the sponsored product advertised during episodes of Coronation Street.

Essentially a white chocolate dairy milk bar, it soon became a staple of kids selection boxes at Christmas time and was a firm favourite of many. This bar was discontinued in 2019, to the utter dismay of white chocolate lovers everywhere. If you are brave enough to quip “Ah sure what ya talking about, sure you can just get a Nestlé MilkyBar”, you will do so at your peril.

To those who saw the Dream Bar as the premiership of bars, the MilkyBar is not even Sunday League standard…
 

“My favourite childhood bar would have to be the Moro bar”

The Cadbury Moro epitomises the perfect chocolate bar to me. The ratio of silky milk chocolate, biscuit crunch, caramel goo and chewy nougat throughout means each bite is a delight to the taste buds.

The Moro bar was rebranded in 2015 to what we now know as the “Boost” bar but the quality and taste was hindered in the rebrand. Little has changed in terms of packaging between the two over the years as the striking electric blue and gold wrapper remains. Whilst it does not matter if you call it, a Moro or Boost we can all agree to call it delicious.
 

Next up in the staff picks for a long lost bar they miss is the classic Starbar.

“One bar that fondly reminds me of my childhood strolls with my grandmother to the shop is a Starbar. Cadbury’s chocolate with peanuts and caramel - the perfect combination of crunchy and chewy.”

The Starbar was introduced into Ireland in 1976 and became a cult hit among a section of chocolate aficionados. In 1989, Cadbury created uproar when they took this much loved bar off the shelves. It was originally replaced by a new variation of the Boost Bar called the “Peanut Boost”, but in 1995 the Starbar was back on the shelves. However many devotees were left to wonder “What is this imposter?” as they lamented the bar they loved and enjoyed until 1989.

Oh and P.S. Hershey’s; sorry but your “Reeses Nutrageous Bar” is simply not at the races, compared to the velvety chocolate goodness of the original Starbar.
 

Third in the line of bars our staff members loved as kids is the Yorkie Honeycomb: “This used to be one of my favourites but I haven’t seen it in years”.

While the honeycomb version of the Yorkie bar is still in existence, you would have to search high and low to find one. In 1976, the Rowntree Company set about developing what they saw was their supreme challenger to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and came up with the Yorkie.

From the get go, they sought to make inroads into the male chocolate eater market. Adverts popped up on our TV screens promoting the new product featuring men in trucks and construction vehicles eating them with taglines referencing the “Yorkie Bar Trucker”.

Again, lamentably, the Honeycomb Yorkie is another Bar that today is a pale shadow of its original creation. However, it still contains a uniqueness of its own which marks it out from its rival, the Crunchie.
 

While this is still very much in existence, with many different variations now on offer and it is still a firm favourite of many; “My favourite chocolate bar is very boringly just a Cadburys chocolate bar – no messing with nut or crispin or anything else”.

Like so many others of its kind, the current incarnation is not a patch on the version people enjoyed in the 1970’s-mid 80’s. The Dairy Milk was first produced as long ago as 1905 and it was sold unwrapped in blocks.

You can bet your nelly they were a lot chunkier than today with ne’er a sliver of vegetable fat in sight.
 

 And last but not least, we present what many regards as the crème de la crème of lost bars: The Secret Bar.

This bar came in a golden wrapper and was truly was the perfect mix of light and crispy. Oh how we can still taste the crispy outside and then the magical tingle as it met the light whippy inside, as the crispy chocolate ‘nest’ mixed with the creamy mousse centre, in the most perfect of chocolate symphonies.

Fireworks did indeed go off in one’s brain as they bit into a Secret Bar. Oh what we would do to have one of those bars in our hands now – though keeping them a secret if we brought some home or into the office would be ne’er impossible!
 
For a bit of fun, the respondents to the above were asked “If Cadbury asked you to make the bar of your dreams, what bar would it be?

Below are the top picks:

 

 
Why not let us know via our Twitter account as to which of the four you would pick? Better yet, let us know what your dream bar creation would be!
 
If you enjoyed this blog, we have a sneaky feeling you might also be interested in the “Lost Crisps We Crave”. Or if ice cream is more your thing, check out our top 11 ice cream recommendations to enjoy heading into the Summer!