Crunchie
Encyclopedia
Crunchie is a brand of chocolate bar with a "honeycombed" sugar centre. It is made by Cadbury UK and was originally launched by J. S. Fry & Sons
in 1929. Fry had merged with Cadbury in 1919 and Crunchie later became a Cadbury brand.
A vaguely similar chocolate bar, Violet Crumble
, is available in Australia
.
In the early 1960s, there were a range of limited edition Crunchies on sale in the UK. These included a lemonade
bar and a Tango Orange
bar, in which the chocolate contained the different flavourings. A champagne-flavoured bar was launched for New Year's Eve
1999. In South Africa, Cadbury sold a white chocolate version in a blue wrapper until recently. The UK now has a caramel version available in some stores.
As is common with other chocolate brands, Crunchie brand ice cream
bars and cheesecake
are also sold in some countries. Such products contain nuggets of the bar within the ice cream or cheesecake.
In 2006, a "Crunchie Blast" variety of the product was launched, which featured "popping candy" inside the bar. However, it was discontinued shortly afterwards. However, an ice cream of the same name, which is Magnum (ice cream)
shaped honey comb ice cream with popping candy covered in milk chocolate is sold in the UK and Ireland.
In 2010, Cadbury's launched Crunchie Rocks, a mixture of chocolate, cornflakes and Crunchie.
Until September 2010, Crunchie was produced in the Somerdale
, Keynsham
plant in Somerset, UK; however, production has now transferred to Cadbury's new plant in Skarbimierz, Poland. Labels for these products do not state a country of origin, instead stating "Made in the EU under license from Cadbury UK Ltd".
, Republic of Ireland
, India
, Canada
, Australia
, New Zealand
, and South Africa
. It is imported in other countries, including the United States of America, Malaysia, Singapore
, Philippines
, Hong Kong
, Malta
, Cyprus
, Saudi Arabia
, Panama
, and Sri Lanka
.
During manufacturing of the Crunchie bar, the sponge toffee
is produced in large slabs, and is cut up using a highly focused jet of oil
. The use of a blade would lead to fragmentation, while the use of water would result in the sponge toffee dissolving. Oil prevents both of these scenarios and results in uniform sharp-edged portions. The sponge toffee is then covered with chocolate, cooled, and packaged.
and featured Tango Orange flavouring.
and New Zealand
, Crunchie bars are widely known for having the country's longest-running television advertisement
, the "Crunchie Train Robbery" which won many awards and ran in unchanged form for over 20 years from the late 1970s.
In the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland
, the Crunchie has been advertised since the 1980s with the slogan "Get that Friday feeling".
's 1935 novel National Velvet
, as the Brown sisters' sweet of choice for the year.
J. S. Fry & Sons
J. S. Fry & Sons, Ltd. was a British chocolate company owned by Joseph Storrs Fry and his family.This business moved through several names and hands before ending up as J. S. Fry & Sons.- History :*circa 1759 — Joseph Fry starts making chocolate...
in 1929. Fry had merged with Cadbury in 1919 and Crunchie later became a Cadbury brand.
A vaguely similar chocolate bar, Violet Crumble
Violet Crumble
Violet Crumble is an Australian chocolate bar manufactured in Campbellfield near Melbourne, Australia, by Nestlé. It is one of the best selling chocolate bars in Australia. Violet Crumble is also common in Hawaii and is available in other places, including Hong Kong.The bar is a crumbly sponge...
, is available in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Size and variations
The Crunchie is sold in several sizes, ranging from "snack size" – a small square piece – through to "king size". The most common portion is a single-serve bar, about 1 inch wide by about 7 inches long, and about 3/4 of an inch deep.In the early 1960s, there were a range of limited edition Crunchies on sale in the UK. These included a lemonade
Lemonade
Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar.The term can refer to three different types of beverage:...
bar and a Tango Orange
Tango (drink)
Tango is a carbonated soft drink sold primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland and from 2010 in Sweden, Norway and Hungary as well, first launched by Corona in 1950. Corona were bought by the Beecham Group in 1958, and Beecham Soft Drinks were bought by Britvic in 1987...
bar, in which the chocolate contained the different flavourings. A champagne-flavoured bar was launched for New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
1999. In South Africa, Cadbury sold a white chocolate version in a blue wrapper until recently. The UK now has a caramel version available in some stores.
As is common with other chocolate brands, Crunchie brand ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
bars and cheesecake
Cheesecake
Cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cheese, usually on a crust or base made from biscuit , pastry or sponge cake. They may be baked or unbaked...
are also sold in some countries. Such products contain nuggets of the bar within the ice cream or cheesecake.
In 2006, a "Crunchie Blast" variety of the product was launched, which featured "popping candy" inside the bar. However, it was discontinued shortly afterwards. However, an ice cream of the same name, which is Magnum (ice cream)
Magnum (ice cream)
Magnum is an ice cream brand owned by the British/Dutch Unilever company, and sold as part of the Heartbrand line of products in most countries. It was originally made by Frisko in Aarhus, Denmark...
shaped honey comb ice cream with popping candy covered in milk chocolate is sold in the UK and Ireland.
In 2010, Cadbury's launched Crunchie Rocks, a mixture of chocolate, cornflakes and Crunchie.
Until September 2010, Crunchie was produced in the Somerdale
Somerdale Factory
Somerdale was a chocolate factory located in Keynsham near Bristol in south west England. It was the home of a Cadbury plc's production facility, and was originally built by the Fry family when they expanded through consolidation of a number of existing facilities located in the centre of...
, Keynsham
Keynsham
Keynsham is a town and civil parish between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, south-west England. It has a population of 15,533.It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham, which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne....
plant in Somerset, UK; however, production has now transferred to Cadbury's new plant in Skarbimierz, Poland. Labels for these products do not state a country of origin, instead stating "Made in the EU under license from Cadbury UK Ltd".
Availability
The Crunchie bar is widely available in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It is imported in other countries, including the United States of America, Malaysia, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.
Manufacturing
In the UK, Crunchie bars are manufactured at a dedicated plant on a Rockwell Automation distributed control system (DCS), which replaced the original Ferranti ARGUS DCS system prior to 2000.During manufacturing of the Crunchie bar, the sponge toffee
Sponge toffee
Sponge toffee is a sugary confection with a light, rigid, sponge-like texture.The main ingredients are typically brown sugar, corn syrup and baking soda, sometimes with an acid such as vinegar. The baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the highly viscous mixture...
is produced in large slabs, and is cut up using a highly focused jet of oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
. The use of a blade would lead to fragmentation, while the use of water would result in the sponge toffee dissolving. Oil prevents both of these scenarios and results in uniform sharp-edged portions. The sponge toffee is then covered with chocolate, cooled, and packaged.
Crunchie Tango
In 2000, a short-lived (but successful) sister chocolate bar was launched entitled Crunchie Tango.. It was co-produced by Cadbury and BritvicBritvic
Britvic plc is a British producer of soft drinks. It is the number two soft drinks producer in the UK. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index...
and featured Tango Orange flavouring.
Nutrition information
| Average Values (UK) | Per 100 g | Per Bar 40 g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy (kJ) | 1940 | 775 |
| Energy (kCal) | 465 | 185 |
| Protein | 4.0 g | 1.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 69.5 g | 27.8 g |
| Fat | 18.9 g | 7.6 g |
Advertising
In AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Crunchie bars are widely known for having the country's longest-running television advertisement
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, the "Crunchie Train Robbery" which won many awards and ran in unchanged form for over 20 years from the late 1970s.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, the Crunchie has been advertised since the 1980s with the slogan "Get that Friday feeling".
Literary references
The Crunchie bar is mentioned in Enid BagnoldEnid Bagnold
Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, CBE , known by her maiden name as Enid Bagnold, was a British author and playwright, best known for the 1935 story National Velvet which was filmed in 1944 with Elizabeth Taylor....
's 1935 novel National Velvet
National Velvet
National Velvet is a novel by Enid Bagnold , first published in 1935.-Plot summary:"National Velvet" is the story of a 14-year-old girl named Velvet Brown, who rides her horse to victory in the Grand National steeplechase...
, as the Brown sisters' sweet of choice for the year.