Milka is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

confectionery, originally made in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1901 by Suchard. It has then been produced in

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including the ...

, Germany for the past 100 years. Since 2012 it has been owned by US-based company

Mondelez International Mondelez International, Inc. ( ), often styled Mondelēz, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, holding and drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an ...

, when it started following the steps of its predecessor

Kraft Foods Inc. Kraft Foods Inc. was a Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion wor ...

, which had taken over the brand in 1990. It is sold in bars and a number of novelty shapes for

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

and

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

. Products with the ''Milka'' brand also include chocolate-covered

cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...

s and

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...

s. The brand's name is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

History

On November 17, 1825, Swiss

chocolatier A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. Education and training Traditionally, chocolatiers, e ...

Philippe Suchard Philippe Suchard (9 October 1797 – 14 January 1884) was a Swiss chocolatier, industrialist and entrepreneur. He founded Chocolat Suchard in 1826. Early life Suchard was born on 9 October 1797, in Boudry, to Louise Sophie Dubey and Guillaume Suc ...

(1797–1884) established a

pâtisserie A () is a type of Italian, French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets, as well as a term for such food items. In some countries, it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed ...

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

where he sold a hand-made

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

, ''chocolat fin de sa fabrique''. The following year, Suchard founded

Chocolat Suchard Chocolat Suchard was a chocolate factory founded in Serrières (a neighborhood of Neuchâtel) by Philippe Suchard in 1826. It was one of the oldest chocolate factories in Switzerland. History The Suchard chocolate factory took off thanks to hi ...

and moved production to nearby Serrières, where he produced 25–30 kg of chocolate daily in a rented former water mill. During the 1890s, milk was added to Suchard's chocolate, closely following the launch of the Gala Peter brand, founded by

Daniel Peter Daniel Peter (9 March 1836 – 4 November 1919) was a Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur who founded Peter's Chocolate. A neighbour of Henri Nestlé in Vevey, he was one of the first chocolatiers to make milk chocolate and is credited for inven ...

, another Swiss chocolatier. Carl Russ-Suchard, Philippe Suchard's son-in-law, invented the Milka brand in 1901. The first "Milka" chocolate was packaged in the distinctive

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...

-colored packaging. Their products were introduced in Austria in the 1910s in order to spread popularity, and by 1913 the company was producing 18 times more chocolate than they did when at the original plant in 1880. By the 1920s Milka had introduced limited edition themed chocolates. Themes were related around holidays such as Christmas and Easter and had chocolate cast into the shape of Santa Claus, Christmas ornaments, Easter bunnies and various sizes of Easter eggs. By the 1960s the Milka script logo and its lilac packaging was trademarked, quickly becoming Germany’s number one chocolate. Over the next few decades, Milka chocolate enlarged in bigger portions and improved their selection of chocolate products. In 1970, Suchard merged with Tobler to become Interfood. Interfood merged with the

Jacobs Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations *Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK *Jacobs (coffee), a brand of coffee * Jacobs Aircraft Engine Company, former American aircraft engine compan ...

coffee company in 1982, becoming Jacobs Suchard. Kraft Foods acquired Jacobs Suchard, including Milka, in 1990. In 1995 Milka officially became a ski sponsor and would later become one of the most famous sport sponsors after the FIS Alpine Cup that was held in Lienz. In October 2012, Kraft spun off its snack food division, which was renamed Mondelēz International. In 2016, they further expanded their market into China.

Advertising

The brand's symbol is a lilac Simmental cow with a bell around her neck, usually in an

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

meadow. During the 1990s, Peter Steiner appeared in Milka commercials. Milka has put focus on “tenderness” being their main advertising theme since the 1960s. In 1972, the Milka cow named Lila ("Lila" being German for lilac, purple, violet.) became the face of their advertising campaigns and has remained so to the current day. Milka has sponsored many alpine skiing stars since 1995, including five World and Olympic champions. In 2015, Milka used a lilac-colored boat with Lila the mascot on it to tour the rivers of Germany and Austria during the summer. This boat was dubbed the “Muhboot” (pronounced Moo-boat), a pun on "U-Boot" (German for submarine).

Products

Milka is sold in a number of packages and flavors, according to where it is purchased:

Chocolate bars

*''Alpine Milk'' – Milk-chocolate bar * ''Broken Nuts'' – Milk-chocolate bar with hazelnut pieces * ''Milka and Daim'' – Milk-chocolate bar with

Daim bar A Daim bar ( ) is a Swedish-Norwegian chocolate bar made from crunchy almond caramel covered in milk chocolate. History Daim was created by Marabou in Sweden in the 1950s. Marabou originally wanted to produce a version of the American Heath ...

pieces * ''Milka and Oreo'' – Milk-chocolate bar with

Oreo Oreo () (stylized as OREO) is a brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two biscuits or cookie pieces with a sweet creme filling. It was introduced by Nabisco on March 6, 1912, and through a series of corporate acquisitions, mergers and split ...

filling * ''Choco-Swing'' – Milk-chocolate bar with a

filling * ''Choco and Biscuit'' – Milk-chocolate with cocoa creme filling and a layer of biscuit * ''Strawberry Yogurt'' – Milk-chocolate bar with strawberry filling ** ''Caramel'' – Milk-chocolate bar with

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 ...

filling * ''Almond Caramel'' – Milk-chocolate bar with pieces of almonds and caramel filling * ''Whole Hazelnuts'' – Milk-chocolate bar with whole hazelnuts * ''White Chocolate'' –

White chocolate White chocolate is a confectionery typically made of sugar, milk, and cocoa butter. It is pale ivory colored, and lacks many of the compounds found in milk and dark chocolates. It is solid at room temperature because the melting point of cocoa ...

bar * ''White

Coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

'' – White-chocolate bar with coconut * ''Raisins and Hazelnuts'' – Milk-chocolate bar with raisins and pieces of hazelnut * ''Raspberry Cream'' – Milk-chocolate bar with raspberry fillings * ''Cow Spots'' or ''Happy Cow'' – Milk-chocolate bar with white-chocolate spots

Toffees

* ''Milka Toffee'' – Milk-chocolate-covered toffee filled with caramel * ''Milka Toffee Hazelnut''

Other products

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Milka Cheese *

Hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according t ...

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

spread Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...

German varieties

* ''Alpine Milk'' * ''Grapes and Nuts'' * ''Strawberry'' * ''Milka and LU Cookies'' * ''Peanut Crisp'' * ''White Chocolate and Oreo'' * ''Milka an Oreo-Sandwich'' * ''Triple Choco Cocoa'' * ''Colourful Chocolate Lentils'' * ''Milka and TUC-Cracker'' * ''Milka and Daim'' * ''Noisette'' * ''Whole Hazelnuts'' * ''Cow Spots'' * ''Yogurt'' * ''Broken Hazelnuts'' * ''White Chocolate'' * ''Caramel'' * ''Dark Chocolate'' * ''Luflée'' * ''Alpine Milk Creme'' ** Large Bar * ''Whole Hazelnuts'' * ''Strawberry Cheesecake'' * ''Almond Caramel'' * ''Peanut Caramel'' * ''Milka and Oreo'' * ''Chocolate Cookie'' * ''Toffee Whole Hazelnut'' * ''Alpine Milk'' * ''Noisette'' * ''Triple Choc'' * ''Luflée Caramel'' * ''Nut Nougat Creme'' * ''Crispy Yogurt'' ** Dark Edition * ''Broken Hazelnut'' * ''Cocoa Splinter'' * ''Dark Alpine Milk'' * ''Salted Caramel'' * ''Almond'' * ''Raspberry''

References

External links

* {{Authority control, state=expanded Brand name chocolate Chocolate bars Mondelez International brands Swiss chocolate Swiss brands Canton of Neuchâtel 1990 mergers and acquisitions