14/6/2020
What are the top-rated chocolates in South Africa? Well, according to the Sunday Times Top Brands Awards over the last 4 years it is the Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar. This mainstay of the candy store and sweets shop will be familiar to citizens of the member states of the Commonwealth. John Cadbury, began selling drinking chocolate in Birmingham in 1824, and his name is synonymous with British colonial expansion into its empire. In 1920, Cadbury opened a chocolate factory in Tasmania, Australia. In 1938, it began manufacturing chocolate products in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and continues to this day. Favourite South African chocolate: The sweet taste of home reminds many of their former roots in far flung places.
I Visited the Cadbury Chocolate Factory
In fact, I visited the Cadbury chocolate factory as a youngster in short pants. In a stroke of rare good fortune my primary school travelled vast distances to the other side of the country and included a day outing to the home of delicious milk chocolate. In scenes reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory troops of 10-year olds made their way around this temple of sweet delight. Nobody fell in a vat of liquid chocolate and I did not see a single Oompa Loompa but it was a memorable excursion. My favourite South African chocolate: The sweet taste of home remains on my tongue to this very day. What we encounter in our formative years forges an indelible impression and chocolate is no exception.
South African Cadbury Lunch Bar = A Picnic
Cadbury’s Lunch Bar is a close second in the favourite South African chocolate stakes. In Australia, we call this a Picnic Bar. Containing peanuts, nougat, caramel, puffed rice, biscuit and milk chocolate, the Lunch Bar is a perennial favourite with Saffers everywhere. Other highly regarded brands of chocolate are: Kit-Kat, Peppermint Crisp, Bar-One, Lindt, Ferrero Rocher, Tex Bar, Rolo and Chocolate Log. What are your favourite chocolate bar memories from your time in South Africa?
We all have our own special experiences from the sweets shop filtering through our childhood memories. Children love their sugary hits and the smooth sweet taste of chocolate informs their passage through their formative years like the later taste of first love. Chocolate is a sensual story and deserves its place in our canon. The world would be much diminished without the advent of chocolate on the culinary stage.
