Terry's Chocolate Orange is a chocolate product with orange flavour created by Terry's in 1932 at Terry's Chocolate Works in York, England. The brand has changed ownership several times, and production was moved to Poland in 2005. Since 2018, the Terry's Chocolate Orange has been produced in Strasbourg, France, by Carambar & Co.

Development

Chemist Joseph Terry joined a York sweets company in 1823, where he developed new lines of chocolate,

candied peel Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type ...

, and marmalade. In 1830 he became sole owner of the business and following his death it was eventually passed to his sons, including Joseph Jr. who managed the company. In 1895 it became Joseph Terry and Sons Ltd., with directors including Joseph Jr. and his own son Thomas. The company opened the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

-style factory known as Terry's Chocolate Works in 1926, and began launching new products. These included the Dessert Chocolate Apple (1926), Terry's All Gold (1931) and the Chocolate Orange (1932). At the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, confectionery production was immediately halted. The factory was taken over by F. Hills and Sons of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

as a shadow factory to manufacture and repair aircraft propeller blades. With the factory handed back to the company post-war, production was difficult due to continued

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...

in the United Kingdom, and limited imports of raw cocoa. In 1954, production of the chocolate apple was phased out in favour of increased production of the chocolate orange. In 1979, Terry's launched the Chocolate Lemon, but it was withdrawn three years later. Chocolate orange sculpture

In the North American market, where it has had a variety of importers over the years, it was briefly sold as a Tobler (maker of the Toblerone) product. Chocolate oranges appeared on the South Korean market in the GS25 chain of convenience stores in 2017. 2005 saw the closure of the Terry's factory in York, and Chocolate Orange manufacturing was moved to continental Europe by then-owner

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

. Following the 2016 sale of the brand by Mondelez (one of two successor companies to Kraft Foods Inc., the other being Kraft Foods Group Inc.) to investment company Eurazeo, manufacture was consolidated in 2018 in Strasbourg, France, as a product of Carambar & Co. The company says that global sales of Terry's Chocolate Oranges doubled from 2019 to 2022, including a tripling of sales in the United States, for a total of 44 million Oranges annually, in countries including the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Structure

The Terry's Chocolate Orange comprises an orange-shaped ball of chocolate mixed with orange oil, divided into 20 segments, similar to a real orange, and wrapped in orange-skin patterned foil. When packaged, the segments are stuck together firmly in the centre; therefore, prior to unwrapping, the ball is traditionally tapped severely on a hard surface to cause the segments to separate from each other (dubbed "Tap and Unwrap" or "Whack and Unwrap").

Spin-offs

There have been a number of spin-off products, currently including: *Chocolate Orange bar: a bar of six segments, initially produced with smooth vertical segments (similar to a Toblerone bar), then, later, with textured segments that mimic those of the traditional orange shape. *Chocolate Orange minis: a bag of small segments *Chocolate Orange White Eggs: egg-shaped white chocolate versions of Chocolate Orange that are available at Easter *Segsations: individual segments of chocolate in different flavours, including:

milk chocolate Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing Chocolate liquor, cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed types of chocolate, type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of chocolate bar, bars, tablets and other confectione ...

, puffed rice,

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic cells built from beeswax by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) and stores of honey and pol ...

, cornflake and a "double seg" of layered milk and dark chocolate, all flavoured with orange oil. *Segsations Mini Eggs: individual foil-wrapped eggs of chocolate in same flavours as Segsations that are available at Easter *Chocolate Orange – Egg & Spoon: a milk chocolate egg filled with an orange fondant filling (similar to

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. ...

's Creme Egg) *Chocolate Mint: A mint-flavoured version of the Chocolate Orange.

Advertising

The Chocolate Orange product is known for its unusual marketing, which is usually at its heaviest around Christmas. At one time it was estimated that the Chocolate Orange was found in a tenth of British Christmas stockings. Actress

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

has fronted numerous campaigns for the brand, often in a posed scene of defending and hiding "her" Chocolate Orange from others. Famous marketing phrases include: *Tap it and unwrap it (since replaced with ''"whack and unwrap"'') *It's not Terry's, it's mine *Don't tap it... Whack it! French was dropped from advertising in 2007 due to a corporate rebrand. More recent advertisements (after the rebranding) do not feature French and contain the new slogan ''"Round but not round for long"'' (some include the '' Countdown'' timer music). The newest advertising campaign in the United Kingdom features various situations in which people are trying to break the segments of their Terry's Chocolate Orange apart with the slogan ''"Smash it to pieces, love it to bits"''. A new advert in 2020, featuring voiceover by

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

, explains how the Chocolate Orange is a catalyst for "British Unsquaredness", along with a new slogan, "Deliciously Unsquare". In 2023, Terry's launched a stop-motion animated advertising campaign centred around a group of eccentric characters called the "Board of Unsquare", to promote the Chocolate Mint, and later, the Chocolate Milk ball.

Product range

* Terry's Dessert Chocolate Apple (1926–1954; precursor to the Orange) * Terry's Chocolate Lemon (short-lived 1979-1980s variant) * Terry's Chocolate Orange Dark (formerly 'Plain') * Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk * Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowball (white chocolate) * Terry's Chocolate Orange Mint (discontinued 2012, reintroduced 2023 as "Chocolate Mint") * Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee * Terry's Chocolate Orange Bars (chocolate bars, either individual or sharing bar) * Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini segments/Segsations (individually wrapped segments) * Terry's Chocolate Orange White Egg * Terry's Chocolate Orange Flavour Carte D'Or ice cream (no longer in production) * Terry's Chocolate Orange Tangy * Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies * Terry's Chocolate Orange Exploding Candy * Terry's Chocolate Orange Siesta * Terry's Chocolate Orange Hazelnut * Terry's Chocolate Orange Raspberry * Terry's Chocolate Orange White Chocolate Smasher * Terry's Chocolate Orange Toffee Crunch * Terry's Chocolate Orange Birthday Cake * Terry's Chocolate Orange Orange * Terry's Chocolate Orange Ice-Creams (currently sold as limited edition) * Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk with Crushed Mini Eggs Easter Edition * Terry's Chocolate Milk (released in 2024, basically just a milk chocolate ball with no orange oil)

Changes to product weight in 2016

On 29 May 2016, the UK product size was reduced from 175g to 157g (or 147g in Canada) by changing the moulded shape of each segment to leave an air gap between each piece. Despite this, the price doubled in some retail outlets.

References

External links

* {{Terry's Brand name chocolate British confectionery British brands Yorkshire cuisine Mondelez International brands Products introduced in 1932 Candy Citrus dishes