is a Japanese confectionery company, known by their pocket-sized square chocolate candies, usually costing 10 to 30

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

. Tirol Choco originated from the Matsuo Seika (松尾製菓) confectionery company, founded in 1903. The original, coffee

nougat Nougat refers to a variety of similar confections made from a sweet paste hardened to a chewy or crunchy consistency.. The usual version in Western and Southern Europe is made from a mousse of whipped egg white sweetened with sugar or ho ...

-filled Tirol chocolate was created in 1962; since then, the company created several candy varieties.

History

Matsuo Seika was founded in 1903 as a confectionery manufacturer in Ita-mura, Tagawa-gun (now

Tagawa 270px, Views of Tagawa-Ita Station and Mount Iidake from Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Park 270px, Site of Mitsui Tagawa Coal Mine is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 45,389 in 24248 h ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

, and in 1919,as Matsuo Seika Co. {{Cite web , title=条例適用企業のご紹介 / 炭坑節のふるさと田川市 , url=http://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp/zyoureitekiyou/page_48.html?type=top , archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160412144451/http://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp/zyoureitekiyou/page_48.html?type=top , archive-date=2016-04-12 , access-date=2025-03-20 , website=www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp , language=ja The Matsuo family originally lived in Akizuki, Asakura County (now Asakura City), but after a business failure, they moved to Tagawa, which was prospering from coal mining, and began manufacturing and selling sugar confections and candy to coal miners. The company's caramels, which were sold separately in 1948, were a hit and the business expanded, but sales slumped due to the recession, so at the idea of the second president, Yoshinobu Matsuo, and with the cooperation of Morozoff, they developed inexpensive chocolate that children could buy.https://www.fukuoka-fg.com/files/items/11233/File/201506_top.pdf In 1962, the company established a chocolate division and began selling the product under the brand name “ Tirol”, inspired by the Austrian region in the Alps. The price was lowered by using syrup as the chocolate filling, and the company began selling the chocolates in a series of three bite-sized mounds. In 1973, when the prices was raised due to a sharp rise in raw material prices following the oil crisis, sales were sluggish, so the chocolate was reduced from three to one square-shaped mound and the price was returned to 10 yen, and sales recovered. Toshihiko Matsuo, who had trained at Nabisco, became president and worked to expand the sales network.

References

External links

Official site (in English)
Japanese chocolate companies 1962 establishments in Japan