Top Ten Retro Choccy Bars

Here are my personal top ten chocolate bars from over the years. Some are no longer on the sweet shop shelves and are sorely missed. Some still exist in one form or another although most of them seemed to have decreased in size, lost certain ingredients and of course become more expensive. But I guess that's the way of the world or maybe just my imagination since all products seem smaller once you as a person get bigger.

A couple of these are not actually chocolate bars but I didn't want a never ending title for this post. It's also worth mentioning the Nestle buy out of Rowntrees Mackintosh in 1988 as quite a few Rowntrees products are in the top ten. Kraft also took over Cadbury's in 2010. So without further ado here are my favourites.

10 - Topic (Mars 1962) - "What has a hazelnut in every bite? Topic!!"

A bit like a Snickers (aka. Marathon) with hazelnuts instead of peanuts.

9 - Double Decker (Cadbury 1976) - "Nothing fills a hole like a Double Decker"
 

Chewy nougat on top of cereal wrapped in chocolate. Originally with raisins too. 

8 - Starbar (Cadbury mid-1960's) - "Munchiest bar ever"

Caramel and crushed roasted peanut filling covered with chocolate. The Name changed to Boost before returning back to the original Starbar name.

7 - Texan (Rowntrees 1972-1981) - "Texan – it sure is a mighty chew!"
 

Chocolate with a nougat/toffee filling. So chewy it could almost pull out teeth.  

6 - Munchies (Mackintosh 1957) - "Stone me, why call them Munchies?"
 

Individual chocolates with a caramel and biscuit centre. Very moreish.

5 - Club (Jacobs 1914) - "If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club"
 

Cocoa cream biscuit sandwich covered in very thick milk chocolate.

4 - Toffo (Rowntrees 1975-2008) - "A man’s gotta chew what a man’s gotta chew…."

Individually wrapped chewy toffee in assorted flavours such as banana, chocolate and strawberry.

3 - Lion Bar (Rowntrees 1977) - "Bite it! Crunch it! Chew it!
 

Wafer filled with caramel, cereal and peanut butter covered in chocolate and peanuts. For a very long time my dad used to take me to the park to play football every Tuesday evening and also bought me a Lion Bar too. Brings back some great special memories for me.

2 - Dime - Aka. Daim  (Kraft Foods 1993) - "Smooth on the outside, crunchy on the inside"
 

Crunchy almond butter covered in milk chocolate. Delicious but so damn small.


1 - Cabana (Rowntrees 1980) - "I want a Cabana and I want one now!"

So Cabana wins. It's wasn't a difficult choice for me. There was nothing else like it at the time. It felt like a very luxurious chocolate bar. Gorgeous velvety chocolate with a coconut and cherry filling. Unfortunately it didn't last long. Maybe four of five years. But I'll never forget it. Even the ad for it was pure class.

One thing I did notice compiling this list is that I must be quite patriotic when it comes to chocolate bars as seven of the top ten are originally from British manufacturers, Jacobs Clubs are Irish, Kraft is American as is Mars. However, the Topic brand was UK based so you could count that as British too.

Here are some honorable mentions that didn't quite make it into my top ten.

11 Picnic (Cadbury 1958), - "Deliciously Ugly"
 

12 Penguin (Mcvities 1932) - "P-p-p-pick up a Penguin!"

The Tim Tam product made by Australian company Arnotts which I eat here in Indonesia was apparently based on the Penguin.

13 Mint Aero (Rowntrees 1935) - "Every bubble’s passed its test." - "Think bubbles"
 

14 Time Out (Cadbury, 1992), - "No matter what you're doing, Put a flake in your break!"
 

15 Nestle Crunch (nestle 1928) - "Munch Now. Munch Some Later."
 

16 Breakaway (Rowntrees 1970) - "Don’t take away my Breakaway!"
 

17 Revels (Mars 1967) - "A box of chocolates in a bag!"
 

Please don't hesitate to comment with your own top ten or just your favourite chocolate bar that I may have forgotten about. I'm very interested to find out what people think.