Mars Delight, Cadbury Dream and Rowntree’s Texan are just some of the once beloved chocolate bars that have been discontinued over the years, and now after almost six decades the dark chocolate Toblerone is joining them in the confectionery graveyard.
The triangular-shaped almond-and-honey-laced chocolate bar is a staple of supermarkets and airport duty-free shopping, but will be discontinued in the UK.
A spokesperson for Mondelēz, the company that produces Toblerone, said it made the “difficult decision” to discontinue its 360g dark chocolate bar because of “changing tastes”.
“While we understand that this may be disappointing for some consumers, we continue to invest in Toblerone,” they added. They did not say whether the product would be discontinued outside the UK.
The announcement comes as the UK enters the Easter bank holiday weekend, when chocolate sales usually soar.
By Friday afternoon, the bar was out of stock on the Waitrose website as social media users urged people to stock up.
The bar is believed to be a portmanteau of the surname of the bar’s inventor, Theodor Tobler, and torrone, a toasted-almond nougat confection typical of Christmas traditions in south-western Europe.
This is not the first time it has grabbed the headlines. In 2023 Mondelēz said the image of the Matterhorn mountain peak would be removed from Toblerone packaging after some production was moved outside Switzerland. In 2016 it increased the gaps between the triangular chocolate chunks.
This is by no means the first time that chocolate connoisseurs have seen their favourite bars removed from supermarket shelves.
Last year, Nestlé confirmed that it was “taking away” Breakaway bars from food production lines. The Swiss food firm said it discontinued the bar because of dwindling sales of the one-time lunch-box staple.
Milky Way Crispy Rolls were discontinued in 2022 to the dismay of many but, earlier this year, Mars reintroduced the product and new variations of the chocolate-wafer bar including Bounty and Twix versions.
The end of the dark chocolate Toblerone comes as consumers have found a taste for “Dubai chocolate”, a chocolate bar containing a filling of pistachio cream and toasted knafeh, a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made from shredded filo.
Lindor recently released its own version of the viral treat, priced at £10 a bar. Lidl has also launched a more affordable take on the nutty chocolate at £4.99 each.
Shoppers queued outside Lidl stores around the country to buy one of the supermarket’s bars and they reportedly sold out within hours.
The news also comes amid rising cocoa prices, which reached a record high in December. The price of chocolate rose by 13.6% in the year to March, according to Office for National Statistics figures.
Some consumers have complained about soaring Easter egg prices, with some having risen by as much as 50% compared to last year according to a Which? investigation.
Many products have not only gone up in price, but have also shrunk in size. The Which? investigation found that the price of a white chocolate Twix Easter egg from Tesco had increased from £5 to £6 year-on-year. It also shrank from 316g to 258g. In terms of price per 100g, this constitutes a rise of 47%.
The consumer group also found that a five-pack of mixed 200g Cadbury Creme Eggs bought at Morrisons had increased from £2.62 last year to £4 this year.
