These retro chocolate bars are sure to bring back the sweet smell of childhood.
From the bubbly honeycomb of a Crunchie to the caramel peanut fusion of delight that is a Snickers, everyone's got a favourite chocolate bar. But what happens when your best loved treat gets discontinued? Some cry, some start angry Facebook campaigns - and some compile a furious article about it.
Whilst these may not have been the healthiest chocolate bars on the market, these tasty treats were a source of joy to many back in the day. So join us on a little trip down memory lane as we share some of the best retro beauties we once indulged in.
Best retro chocolate bars
1. Mars Delight
Mars Delight, the lighter and fluffier sibling of the standard Mars bar, entered stores in 2004, but was sadly discontinued in 2008. However, fans are trying to rally up signatures with a petition to bring back the beloved treat.
'I've been craving a mars delight for about 5 years,' wrote someone on the petition, which has reached over 4,000 signatures. Sadly, a spokesperson for Mars has stated: 'It's nice to hear that there are still some fans of Mars Delight out there. We regularly review our product ranges and we will pass the feedback on to our Marketing team, but at the moment, we have no immediate plans to bring Mars Delight back.' We still have hope!
2. Mars' White Maltesers
These little balls of malty white chocolate were loved by many. But clearly, not by that many because Mars stopped selling them a few years ago. Since then, petitions have been launched on Change.org (with little success, unfortunately). Luckily for all those Malteser fans out there, it doesn't look like the classic version is going anywhere soon.
3. Quality Street Toffee Deluxe
We've got some seriously sad news for Quality Street fans, especially those who favour a Toffee Deluxe. After 80 years Nestle decided to swap the beloved Toffee Deluxe for a Honeycomb Crunch in the run up to Christmas 2016. And this is one of those retro chocolate bars we sadly miss.
Nestle released the following statement to back up why they removed this popular chocolate; 'We wanted to celebrate Quality Street's 80th birthday by introducing the first new sweet for nearly a decade,' says Nestle. 'We did extensive research and found that the Honeycomb Crunch was the most popular option.' We're GUTTED.
4. Cadbury's Tiffin
The Tiffin chocolate bar was first sold back in 1937 but has been scrapped twice due to poor sales. This delicious chocolate bar did however make a comeback in a 'Special Edition' form in 2016 in the UK. However we'v not seen it on supermarket shelves since...
5. Time Out
In March 2016, news broke that Cadburys had been slowly removing the Time Out that we know and love from our shelves. When one loyal fan tweeted the brand to ask what had happened.
The brand said that they had 'combined the two original slim fingers into one delicious, wafery bar for only 35p that now contains 111 calories', and that it was now known as the Time Out Wafer. The new incarnation is delicious, of course, but couldn't we have had both?!
6. Snaps
Much like a chocolate Pringle, these thin and crisp chocolate delights came in five amazing flavours - Milk Chocolate, Hazelnut, Caramel Crunch, Mint and Orange. Eating a whole pack in one sitting was way too easy - but we'd do it all over again if we could get our hands on them.
7. Toffo
Okay, so these aren't strictly a chocolate, but we definitely wish we could see this tube of chewy toffees on the sweetshop shelves now! These glue-your-teeth-together treats have been gone since 2008, but we still miss them every single day (especially the mint ones).
8. Astros
We're pretty sure these biscuit and chocolate balls were aimed at the kids, but we still ate more than our fair share of them when these retro chocolate bars launched in 1997. You can't get them in the UK anymore, but apparently they're still sold in South Africa - anyone fancy a chocolate cruise?
9. Texan
Nougat + toffee + chocolate = a match made in chocolate bar heaven. Texan bars were one of our absolute FAVES, as was crying "Sure is a mighty chew!" before consuming them. Nestle did re-release Texans in a wave of 2005 nostalgia, but then cruelly took them back out of our lives again. What a tease.
10. Milk Tray Bar
We don't know why this fusion of ALL of the chocolates from a Milk Tray chocolate box worked, but the point is, it did. Strawberry cream, fudge, Turkish delight, hazelnut - and that elusive lime barrel that you can't get for love nor money nowadays. Rest in peace, zesty old friend.
11. Fuse
We'd really like to shake the hand of whoever thought of putting nuts, raisins, fudge and cereal pieces in a chocolate bar - and have swift words with whoever pulled Fuses out of production! The mini versions in the tubs of Cadbury Heroes were always the first to go in our house - was it really 2006 when we last unwrapped one of these beauties?!
12. Kit Kat Senses
The beyond yummy Kit Kat Senses bars, (which were basically a Kinder Bueno by any other name) were all the rage in 2009. Girls Aloud were roped in to promote this new kind of Kit Kat - and if it was good enough for Cheryl Cole it was good enough for us!
13. Kit Kat Caramac
On the subject of Kit Kat-related deliciousness, where the flipping heck did the Kit Kat Caramac go? These crispy wafers coated in creamy caramel chocolate were one of the best retro chocolate bars EVER - the only problem being the snappable finger format, because people always expected you to share.
14. Aztec
70s children will definitely remember the Aztec! One look at that iconic purple wrapper and we can almost taste the caramel-nougat centre. Nowadays, we have to make do with Mars Bars, which are probably the closest modern chocolate bar you can buy, but if we're honest, it just isn't the same!
15. Banjo
We don't know what they had to do with the musical instrument, but we do know that we could never decide between the coconut or roast nut bars (and always ended up eating both anyway). Want to see Banjos revived? Someone's created a Facebook campaign to get them back on the shelves!
16. Wispa Mint
Wispa (and Wispa Gold) have been brought back into Cadbury's current range - but what about our beloved Wispa Mint? Tucked inside that shiny green wrapper was every mint chocolate lover's dream - sweet, bubbly chocolate with a hint of peppermint goodness. If they bring these retro chocolate bars back we're buying in bulk, just in case the worst should happen again.
17. Mint Crunchie
Now that we're on our minty-fresh high horse about the Wispas, we're going to kick up a fuss about Mint Crunchies too. These crunchy bars of gold were all of the things we love in one delicious package, and it's an absolute travesty that they're not being made anymore.
18. Orange Crunchie
Whilst we're at it, we'll have the orange ones back too. Thanks in advance, Mr Cadbury.
19. Cabanas
If you're a fan of tropical chocolate, you were probably as obsessed with Cabana bars as we were. To this day, there's nothing quite like that caramel, cherry and coconut centre (and no, before you say it, a Bounty bar doesn't count). If we try really hard, we can just about picture ourselves in the slightly sinister jungle from the advert...
20. Snow Flakes
The crumbliest flakiest chocolate did taste like chocolate never tasted before, when the geniuses at Cadbury decided to put their white ‘Dream' chocolate inside a standard flake and blow our tiny chocolate-loving minds. Sadly, these fabulous creations are no longer available - and come to think of it, has anyone seen a Dream bar recently?
21. Taz
Image: Facebook When we were kids, Freddos cost 10p - and you could pick up a Taz at the same time. With the Looney Toons Tasmanian Devil in pride of place on the front, we thought these were the best things you could buy with spare change from your pocket - but the early frog clearly had more fans, as Taz was discontinued and replaced with the caramel Freddo instead.
22. Treets
It makes us sad that our kids will never know the joy of a bag of Treets. Whether you went for peanut, toffee or mint, you know that when you opened that packet, you'd be greeted with the chocolatey nuggets of pure, crispy-shelled joy that no one has managed to replicate since. All together now, "they melt in your mouth, not your hand"...
23. Echo
Fox's Echo bars were classic lunchbox biscuits - just the right size to be stashed away next to the sandwiches and apples - although we must confess that we were partial to dipping these bubbly bars into a cup of tea too. The milk and white chocolate ones were obviously the best, but we'd never say no to a mint one either.
24. Five Centres
It seems impossible to us that Fry's stopped making these in 1992 - it feels like just yesterday that we were guessing whether it'd be raspberry, coffee, blackcurrant, orange or lime in our dark chocolate coated square.
Considering they launched in 1924, they had a pretty good run, but we'd love to see them back and reinvented - especially as they were