Crunchie

Crunchie
Product typeConfectionery
Current ownerCadbury
CountryUnited Kingdom
Introduced1929; 97 years ago (1929)

Crunchie is a brand of chocolate bar with a centre of honeycomb/cinder toffee, manufactured by British confectionery company Cadbury, currently produced in Poland. It was originally launched by J. S. Fry & Sons in 1929; a very similar product named Violet Crumble was already invented in Australia in 1913. The Crunchie bar is widely available in several countries around the world and has also been grey imported elsewhere.[citation needed]

Manufacture

A close-up of the bar's honeycomb centre

During manufacture, the honeycomb toffee is produced in large slabs, and is cut up using a highly focused jet of oil, though in Canada rotary saws are used. The use of a blade would lead to fragmentation, while water would dissolve the honeycomb. Oil prevents both of these happening, and produces uniform sharp-edged portions. The honeycomb toffee is then covered with chocolate, cooled, and packaged.

Until September 2010 Crunchie was produced in England at the Somerdale Factory plant in Keynsham; however, production then transferred to Cadbury's new plant in Skarbimierz-Osiedle, Poland.

In 2025, Mondelēz International teamed up with Tesco to trial new Cadbury Crunchie multipack packaging that, it claims, will reduce the outer plastic by 60% per pack. The new packaging will be implemented on approximately 1.8 million Cadbury Crunchie four-bar multipacks sold in Tesco stores until early 2026.

Size

The Crunchie is sold in several sizes, ranging from "snack size" – a small rectangle – 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 inch deep (2.5 cm × 18 cm × 2 cm).[citation needed]

Variations

Like other chocolate brands, Crunchie brand ice cream bars and cheesecake are also sold in some countries. Such products contain nuggets of the honeycomb.[citation needed]

NameLaunchedDiscontinuedNotes
Cadbury's Crunchie Orange 1997 1997 A variant with Orange-flavoured milk chocolate. Limited Edition offering.
Cadbury's Crunchie Mint 1998
2000
2002		 1998
2000
2002		 A variant with Mint-flavoured milk chocolate. A limited Edition offering that was sold for many years.
Cadbury's Crunchie Explosion 1999 1999 A variant with popping candy pieces. Limited Edition offering.
Cadbury's Crunchie Champagne 1999 2000 A variant with champagne-flavoured milk chocolate. Limited Edition offering for the millennium.
Cadbury's Crunchie Tango Orange 2000 early-2000's A variant with Tango Orange-flavoured milk chocolate. It was created as a collaberation between Cadbury and Britvic.
Cadbury's Crunchie Lemonade 2000 2001 A variant with Lemonade-flavoured chocolate. Limited edition offering.
Cadbury Crunchie Blast 2005 2006 A version of Crunchie with popping candy pieces inside the bar. While the bar was only sold for a limited time, an ice cream of the same name, which is Magnum-shaped honeycomb ice cream with popping candy covered in milk chocolate, has been sold by Cadbury in the British and Irish markets.
Cadbury Crunchie Rocks 2010 Present A bagged variant featuring a mixture of chocolate, cornflake and Crunchie.
Cadbury Crunchie Duo 2026 Present A variant of the regular Crunchie featuring two smaller pieces of chocolate inside a larger wrapper.

Nutrition information

Average values British Crunchie Australian Crunchie
Per 100 g Per
40 g bar		 Per 100 g Per
50 g bar
Energy (kJ) 2020 775 1950 975
Energy (kCal) 465 185
Protein 3.0 g 1.6 g 1.5 <1.0
Carbohydrate 73.5 g 27.8 g 80.5 40.2
Fat 18.4 g 7.6 g 14.8 7.4

Advertising

In Australia and New Zealand, Crunchie bars are widely known for having New Zealand'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.

Crunchie has been advertised in Britain and Ireland since the 1980s with the slogan "Get that Friday feeling". Prior to the 1980s, Crunchie was advertised as "Crunchie makes exciting biting".[citation needed] In 1991, Cadbury launched a TV ad campaign that made use of The Pointer Sisters song, "I'm So Excited", which became one of the longest running advert campaigns in television history, continuing to be used up until 2008. These ads were animated and produced by Aardman Animations.[citation needed]

Literary references

The Crunchie bar is mentioned in Enid Bagnold's 1935 novel National Velvet, as the Brown sisters' sweet of choice for the year.[citation needed]

Stuart buys Bertie a mint Crunchie bar in the 44 Scotland Street book The Importance Of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Known as "sponge toffee" in Canada as well as "hokey pokey" in New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 ConfectioneryNews.com (29 July 2010). "Confectionery News - Chocolate industry, Candy industry".
  2. ↑ "Crunchie page". cadbury.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  3. ↑ "Australia's iconic Violet Crumble chocolate back in local ownership". BBC News. 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2025-10-05.
  4. ↑ Berry, Steve; Norman, Phil (2014). A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers. London: The Friday Project. p. 25. ISBN 9780007575480.
  5. 1 2 Kenny, Cath. "Everything you ever wanted to know about Cadbury Crunchie".
  6. ↑ "Cadbury Crunchie Gets Sustainable Makeover As Mondelēz And Tesco Test New Packaging". ESM Magazine. 2025-08-12. Retrieved 2025-12-22.
  7. ↑ "All Crunchie Chocolates". chocolate brands list. 18 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 "It takes two fun brands to Tango". Marketing Week. 2000-10-05. Archived from the original on Oct 10, 2012. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  9. ↑ https://www.marketingweek.com/crunchie-variant-signals-launch-of-third-cadbury-masterbrand/
  10. ↑ "Crunchie blast stick". Cadbury Ice Cream Land. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  11. ↑ Writer, Staff (2010-05-19). "Support for new Crunchie Rocks". Talking Retail. Retrieved 2025-10-05.
  12. ↑ https://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/confectionery/cadbury-crunchie-launches-into-duo-formats-05-10-2026/
  13. ↑ "CADBURY CRUNCHIE BAR. GOLD RUSH". Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. 1975. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  14. ↑ "filmarchive.org.nz". Archived from the original on March 15, 2009. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
  15. ↑ "The inspiration room (film)". theinspirationroom.com. 2005. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  16. ↑ Off the Rails: A Love Story, Episode 1 - TVNZ, 2005
  17. ↑ "Cadbury Crunchie". www.cadbury.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2004-08-04. Retrieved 2025-10-05.