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Terry's Chocolate Orange

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"Chocolate orange" redirects here. For the fruit, see Chocolate navel orange.
Terry's Chocolate Orange
Product typeConfection
OwnerCarambar & Co
CountryUnited Kingdom
Introduced1932 (1932)
MarketsWorldwide
Previous owners

Terry's Chocolate Orange is a chocolate product with orange flavour created by Terry's in 1932 at Terry's Chocolate Works in York, England. The brand has changed ownership several times, and production was moved to Poland in 2005. Since 2018, the Terry's Chocolate Orange has been produced in Strasbourg, France, by Carambar.

Development

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Main article: Terry's

Chemist Joseph Terry joined a York sweets company in 1823, where he developed new lines of chocolate, candied peel, and marmalade.[1] In 1830 he became sole owner of the business[2] and following his death it was eventually passed to his sons, including Joseph Jr. who managed the company.[3] In 1895 it became Joseph Terry and Sons Ltd., with directors including Joseph Jr. and his own son Thomas.[4] The company opened the Art Deco-style factory known as Terry's Chocolate Works[5][6] in 1926, and began launching new products.[7] These included the Dessert Chocolate Apple (1926), Terry's All Gold (1931) and the Chocolate Orange (1932).[8]

At the onset of World War II, confectionery production was immediately halted. The factory was taken over by F. Hills and Sons of Manchester as a shadow factory to manufacture and repair aircraft propeller blades. With the factory handed back to the company post-war, production was difficult due to continued rationing in the United Kingdom, and limited imports of raw cocoa. In 1954, production of the chocolate apple was phased out in favour of increased production of the chocolate orange.[7] In 1979, Terry's launched the Chocolate Lemon, but it was withdrawn three years later.[8]

Sculpture of a Terry's Chocolate Orange at The Chocolate Works site

In the North American market, where it has had a variety of importers over the years, it was briefly sold as a Tobler (maker of the Toblerone) product.

Chocolate oranges appeared on the South Korean market in the GS25 chain of convenience stores in 2017.

2005 saw the closure of the Terry's factory in York, and Chocolate Orange manufacturing was moved to continental Europe by then-owner Kraft Foods.[9] Following the 2016 sale of the brand by Mondelez (one of two successor companies to Kraft Foods Inc., the other being Kraft Foods Group Inc.) to investment company Eurazeo, manufacture was consolidated in 2018 in Strasbourg, France, as a product of Carambar & Co.[10]

The company says that global sales of Terry's Chocolate Oranges doubled from 2019 to 2022, including a tripling of sales in the United States, for a total of 44 million Oranges annually, in countries including the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.[11]

Structure

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Terry's Chocolate Orange Bar, a chocolate bar version of the Chocolate Orange

The Terry's Chocolate Orange comprises an orange-shaped ball of chocolate mixed with orange oil, divided into 20 segments, similar to a real orange, and wrapped in orange-skin patterned foil. When packaged, the segments are stuck together firmly in the centre; therefore, prior to unwrapping, the ball is traditionally tapped severely on a hard surface to cause the segments to separate from each other (dubbed "Tap and Unwrap" or "Whack and Unwrap").

Spin-offs

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There have been a number of spin-off products, currently including:

  • Chocolate Orange bar: a bar of six segments, initially produced with smooth vertical segments (similar to a Toblerone bar), then, later, with textured segments that mimic those of the traditional orange shape.
  • Chocolate Orange minis: a bag of small segments
  • Chocolate Orange White Eggs: egg-shaped white chocolate versions of Chocolate Orange that are available at Easter
  • Segsations: individual segments of chocolate in different flavours, including: milk chocolate, puffed rice, honeycomb, cornflake and a "double seg" of layered milk and dark chocolate, all flavoured with orange oil.
  • Segsations Mini Eggs: individual foil-wrapped eggs of chocolate in same flavours as Segsations, for Easter
  • Chocolate Orange – Egg & Spoon: a milk chocolate egg filled with an orange fondant filling (similar to Cadbury's Creme Egg)
  • Chocolate Mint: A mint-flavoured version of the Chocolate Orange.

Advertising

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The Chocolate Orange product is known for its unusual marketing, which is usually at its heaviest around Christmas. At one time it was estimated that the Chocolate Orange was found in a tenth of British Christmas stockings.[12] Actress Dawn French has fronted numerous campaigns for the brand, often in a posed scene of defending and hiding "her" Chocolate Orange from others. Famous marketing phrases include:

  • Tap it and unwrap it (since replaced with "whack and unwrap")
  • It's not Terry's, it's mine
  • Don't tap it... Whack it!

French was dropped from advertising in 2007 due to a corporate rebrand.[13]

More recent advertisements (after the rebranding) do not feature French and contain the new slogan "Round but not round for long" (some include the Countdown timer music). The newest[when?] advertising campaign in the United Kingdom features various situations in which people are trying to break the segments of their Terry's Chocolate Orange apart with the slogan "Smash it to pieces, love it to bits".

A new advert in 2020, featuring voiceover by Brian Blessed, explains how the Chocolate Orange is a catalyst for "British Unsquaredness", along with a new slogan, "Deliciously Unsquare".

In 2023, Terry's launched a stop-motion animated advertising campaign centred around a group of eccentric characters called the "Board of Unsquare",[14] to promote the Chocolate Mint, and later, the Chocolate Milk ball.

Product range

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A "tapped and unwrapped" Terry's Chocolate Orange
  • Terry's Dessert Chocolate Apple (1926–1954; precursor to the Orange)[8]
  • Terry's Chocolate Lemon (short-lived 1979-1980s variant)[8]
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Dark (formerly 'Plain')
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowball (white chocolate)
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Mint (discontinued 2012, reintroduced by Ian in 2023 as "Chocolate Mint")
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Bars (chocolate bars, either individual or sharing bar)
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini segments/Segsations (individually wrapped segments)
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange White Egg
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Flavour Carte D'Or ice cream (no longer in production)
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Tangy
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Exploding Candy
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Siesta
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Hazelnut
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Raspberry
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange White Chocolate Smasher
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee Crunch
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Birthday Cake
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Orange
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Ice-Creams (currently sold as limited edition)
  • Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk with Crushed Mini Eggs Easter Edition
  • Terry’s Chocolate Milk (released in 2024, basically just a milk chocolate ball with no orange oil)

Changes to product weight in 2016

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On 29 May 2016, the UK product size was reduced from 175g to 157g (or 147g in Canada) by changing the moulded shape of each segment to leave an air gap between each piece. Despite this, the price doubled in some retail outlets.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Terry's Chocolate Orange | Carambar & Co". Carambar&Co. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  2. ^ "No. 18691". The London Gazette. 18 June 1830. p. 1224.
  3. ^ Chrystal, Paul; Dickinson, Joe (24 August 2012). History of Chocolate in York. Grub Street Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78159-749-1 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Chrystal, Paul; Dickinson, Joe (24 August 2012). History of Chocolate in York. Grub Street Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78159-749-1 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Chrystal, Paul; Dickinson, Joe (24 August 2012). History of Chocolate in York. Grub Street Publishers. ISBN 9781781597491 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ British Association for the Advancement of Science (1932). Report of the Annual Meeting. J. Murray. – via Google Books.
  7. ^ a b "The Chocolate Works". NeolithicSea.co.uk. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  8. ^ a b c d "Terry's Confections (Courtesy of Kraft Foods Archives)". docslide.us. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  9. ^ Wainwright, Martin (20 April 2004)"Chocs away... York mourns loss of Terry's" The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  10. ^ Todd, Stuart. (22 November 2018) "Carambar & Co. completes plant centralisation after EUR35m investment" Just-Food. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  11. ^ Myers, Anthony (14 June 2022). "'Tap it, unwrap it and enjoy it': Terry's Chocolate Orange makes a comeback at Sweets & Snacks Expo – WATCH!". Confectionery News. William Reed Ltd. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  12. ^ "Chocolate history". VisitYork.org. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  13. ^ https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/terrys-cuts-ties-dawn-french/733841
  14. ^ "Ad of the Day: Terry's eccentric board members unveil milk chocolate ball". The Drum. 30 September 2024.
  15. ^ "Terry's Chocolate Orange doubles in price in some supermarkets". inews.co.uk. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
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