Toblerone Chocolate Bar Change Upsets Fans

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Chocolate-loving Brits are up in arms over changes to the iconic Toblerone chocolate bar.

The 108-year-old Swiss chocolate bar — made by U.S.-based Mondelez International — still tastes the same, but now it looks different. And that’s the crux of the matter for Toblerone lovers.

The candy is well-known for its triangle-shaped “peaks” of chocolate that until now were separated by small gaps.

According to The Guardian, Toblerone recently changed the design of the iconic candy bars, widening the gaps between the chocolate peaks. The gaps are now so big that they’re actually larger than the chocolate triangle pieces, leading one Toblerone fan to describe the newly designed candy bar as looking “like a weird knockoff of itself.”

In a statement on its Facebook page, Toblerone says the changes to the two sizes of the U.K.-sold confection were necessary to keep the chocolate bar’s ballooning costs in check without increasing the price of the candy.

“We are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients. We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the UK.”

Toblerone officials said the goal was to keep the iconic shape with the smaller bars, which remain in the same size of packaging. The 400-gram bar has been reduced to 360 grams and the 170-gram bar has been downsized to 150 grams.

Fans are not convinced. Lee Yarker writes on Toblerone’s Facebook page:

“Fair enough reducing the weight of the bar, but why the big gap in between segments? Looks stupid imo [in my opinion], could have just made the bar shorter and kept the original design.”

Mondelez has not confirmed whether the change will affect Toblerone bars sold in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Although some Brits were quick to blame Brexit for the candy’s increasing production costs, a Mondelez spokeswoman tells the BBC that although the foreign exchange rate for the British pound is “not favorable” right now, the newly designed candy bar “wasn’t done as a result of Brexit.”

Are you a Toblerone fan? Sound off below or on Facebook.

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