Caramello Koala is a brand of
chocolate treat currently manufactured by
Cadbury Australia. It consists of a chocolate cartoon
koala
The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the w ...
(named "George" in certain advertising material) with a
caramel centre.
The chocolate bar is sold in two sizes: the more common size and the "Giant" size, usually sold as a fundraiser. 50 million Caramello Koalas are sold in Australia each year, making the product the second most popular in the Australian children's confectionery market, after the
Freddo Frog.
['Caramello Koala gets new look', ''Packaging'', 30 November 1999.]
Cross-over products are occasionally made available featuring the Caramello character, including Cadbury Caramello Koala Choc Caramel flavoured
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...
in 2003 and Caramello Koala Sundae ice-cream in 1997. They were also sold in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
under the name "Caramello Bear", where they were marketed with the Caramello Bear admitting: "Caramel? That's a weakness!", but they were discontinued in 2012. The
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
slogan for the Caramello Bear in South Africa was "Met 'n magie propvol caramel", which translates to "with a tummy full of caramel".
A 20g Caramello Koala contains of
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...
and of
fat
In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...
.
Caramello Koala was introduced in Australia as the Caramello Bear in 1966. It was reputedly the first mass-marketed confection to be modeled on
Australian fauna
The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of animals; some 46% of birds, 69% of mammals, 94% of amphibians, and 93% of reptiles that inhabit the continent are endemic to it. This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent ...
. Television advertisements for the chocolate in Australia featured Caramello and his cartoon friends sailing down a river or riding on a steam train to a modified version of
Donovan's "
Mellow Yellow". Caramello's packaging and imagery was updated in 2000, after market research revealed the character was seen as daggy, one-dimensional and not sufficiently 'animated'.
[
In 2003, then ]Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
MP, Mark Latham
Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961) is an Australian politician and media commentator, currently serving as a member in the New South Wales Legislative Council. He previously served as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and ...
, was labelled a "Caramello Koala" by Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
MP Christopher Pyne, for allegedly being "soft in the centre".
To deal with rising input costs, in April 2015 Cadbury announced a reduction in size of the chocolate to . Despite the 25% size reduction, the price is unchanged. The giant Caramello Koala has also been reduced from to .
See also
* Freddo
* List of chocolate bar brands
This is a list of chocolate bar brands, in alphabetical order. Flavour variants and discontinued chocolate bars are included. A chocolate bar, also known as a candy bar in American English, is a confection in an oblong or rectangular form ...
References
External links
*
{{Mondelez
Chocolate bars
Cadbury brands
Mondelez International brands
Fictional koalas
Australian confectionery
Australian brands
Products introduced in 1966