Curly Wurly is a brand of

chocolate bar A chocolate bar (Commonwealth English) or candy bar (some dialects of American English) is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily brea ...

manufactured by

Cadbury UK Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally 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

caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...

History

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

Bournville Bournville () is a 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 alcohol was forbidd ...

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 and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

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

Three Musketeers 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 n ...

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 Musketiers". 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 is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

in the UK). In the US, Mars marketed their version as "Marathon" in the 1970s and 1980s, 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 is a chocolate bar made by the American company Mars, Incorporated, consisting of nougat topped with caramel and peanuts that is encased in milk chocolate. The annual global sales of Snickers was over $3 billion . In the United Ki ...

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, Yorkshire, England. It was known for its toffee and the Quality Street and Rolo brands. Beginnings The firm was founded by John Mackintosh (1868-1920) and his wife, Violet (n ...

, 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