Curly Wurly is a brand of

chocolate bar A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nut (fruit), nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some variet ...

manufactured by

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

and sold worldwide. It was launched in the UK in 1970. Its shape resembles three flattened, intertwined serpentine strings. The bar is made of chocolate-coated hard caramel.

History

This design was created by David John Parfitt, a long-serving research confectioner based at the Cadbury

Bournville Bournville () is a 19th century model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alc ...

factory, while he was experimenting with some surplus toffee from another piece of work. It was launched in 1970.

Rival products

Similar products were launched by several rival confectionery companies. These were either to compete with Cadbury, or else to act as a spoiler for a Cadbury launch.

Mars

In Europe,

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

introduced a similar bar in March 1972 with the name "3 Musketeers". The packaging had drawings of the titular

Three Musketeers 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

on it. In 1976 this was changed to look more like the US Marathon. The German versions were called "3 Musketiere" and "Leckerschmecker", the Dutch version was called "3 Musketeers". Mars' 3 Musketiers bar in Europe is not to be confused with their 3 Musketeers bar in the U.S. which is a completely different product that does not contain caramel (marketed as the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

in the UK). In the US, Mars marketed their version as "Marathon" first sold in August 1973. Cadbury had launched the Curly Wurly in the U.S. only weeks earlier. The Mars version had bright red packaging with a ruler printed on the reverse with 8 inches (20 cm) markings demonstrating that it was as long as it claimed. It was discontinued in October 1981. The U.S. Marathon bar is not to be confused with the Marathon bar sold by Mars in the UK which was nothing like a Curly Wurly. The UK Marathon was a chocolate-covered peanut bar in a brown packet with blue lettering. It was renamed

Snickers Snickers (stylized in all caps) is a chocolate bar consisting of nougat topped with Caramel#Candy, caramel and peanuts, all encased in milk chocolate. The bars are made by the American company Mars Inc. The annual global sales of Snickers is ...

in 1990, by which name it is still sold.

Mackintosh

A Canadian product made by

Mackintosh's Mackintosh's ( ) was a British confectionery firm founded in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was known for Mackintosh's Toffee, its toffee and the Quality Street (confectionery), Quality Street and Rolo brands. Beginnings The firm was fo ...

, in English known as the "Wig Wag", was available in the 1970s.

Marabou

A Swedish version was called "Loop", released in 2011 under the Swedish brand Marabou (owned by Kraft).

References

External links

Cadbury UK
{{Mondelez Products introduced in 1971 British confectionery Cadbury brands Chocolate bars Mondelez International brands