Fry’s Chocolate Cream

The Fry’s Chocolate Cream is 151 years old, just let that sink in a second, you can go out to the shops and buy a chocolate bar that has remained virtually unaltered for over a century and a half, it is truly an artifact under our very noses, a relic from a bygone age, consumed and enjoyed by thousands before the mighty Dairy Milk was even a passing thought cloud.
Today we take a look at the story behind JS Fry & Sons and their game changing creation, but we have to start over 100 years before the Chocolate Cream came to be…

In 1761, a Quaker by the name of Joseph Fry (who had been making chocolate himself since 1759) and his business partner, John Vaughn, purchased their first shop in Bristol, along with a patent for the process of chocolate refining. After Fry Sr. died in 1787 at the grand old age of 59, his son, Joseph Storrs Fry, assumed control of the business, and patented a process by which cocoa beans could be ground using a steam engine.
Jump ahead to 1847, and by now Fry’s had become the largest producer of chocolate in the UK, but it was also the year in which they had successfully moulded a bar of chocolate suitable for mass production, this prototype was to become the famous Chocolate Cream, released in 1866.

Various Chocolate Cream brandings up to present day.

Now, the bar itself is essentially a fondant center covered in dark chocolate, the advent of a worthwhile milk chocolate recipe was still several years from coming to be, so yes, the first chocolate bars were all gluten free, and dare I even say, vegan! Obviously, it was never advertised as such, as the term “vegan” didn’t even enter our vocabulary until the mid 1940s, and the plight of coeliacs wasn’t linked to wheat intake until the early 50s, but aside from the scientific reasoning, nobody would have really given two shites back then anyway.

The bar is a rarity among Cadbury stock in that it has undergone very little tampering outside of the wrapper design in its many years of service, and that’s a fact that’s unlikely to change, considering the uproar when Cadbury mess with the sacred Dairy Milk, any Fry’s products, should, by virtue of longevity, be virtually untouchable nowadays.
Unless you’re the Orange Cream, in which case you get canned in 2015 after over 100 years. Sickos.
This brings us nicely onto the many relatives of the old Choco Cream, sadly all but the Peppermint Cream have been discontinued, so if you were to go to Sweet Cemetery, there would be a whole acre dedicated to the deceased members of the Fry’s chocolate family, so let’s have a quick rundown, accompanied as always by a stunning collage.

1. Perhaps no discontinued confection in the history of the universe has been mourned more than the Five Centres, having a glorious run from 1934 to 1992, it consisted of five different fondant flavours spread across each individual square, the most well known combination being orange, raspberry, lime. strawberry and pineapple. Personally, it wouldn’t have been my thing, but to think that Cadbury haven’t even sniffed at the idea of bringing this one back from the grave is beyond me, I think it’d be massively popular not just with the nostalgics among us, but across the generations with its incredibly unique flavour variation, the youngsters would definitely go for this, and even if I’m wrong, all the pensioners would haul enough boxes to make Cadbury a small fortune! Doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon though, tragic.
2. As mentioned just before, here’s one thing with even less hope of returning, it’s the poor old Orange Cream, kicked to the curb after all that service in 2015. Why, Cadbury? Why’d you do it? It wasn’t doing any harm, orange is a great flavour, you could have just made less of them if it wasn’t selling too good, but no, you chose to trash the old bugger, and yet somehow it’s acceptable to invest millions into making Dairy Milk Puddles… PUDDLES!
   Shame on you, Mondelez, shame on you.
3. From deserving a comeback to barely deserving a mention, the Fry’s Spirit range was a by-product of the 90s fetish for “revamping” old fashioned things in an attempt to make them look “cool and hip”, along with margarita and cream liqueur flavours, these oddities just didn’t work out and were gone pretty swiftly after their introduction.
   Truly a cocktail for disaster.
4. Finally, we have the Five Boys, which was produced from 1902 all the way to 1976, whilst the bar itself was just an unassuming milk chocolate slab, it’s most famous for the packaging, featuring five boy’s faces, apparently holding the expressions of “Desperation, Pacification, Expectation, Acclamation and Realization”  looking back from a modern standpoint, the old school etchings are quite unsettling, and you can maybe understand why this didn’t quite make it past the 1970s into more modern times.

Before we finish up, here are a few advertisements I found for your viewing pleasure. First we have a strange “auctioneer” one from the 70s, not really sure what to make of it, but there you are, there’s one featuring an in her prime Twiggy from 1975 and even George “Bond” Lazenby promoting the bar, among many “fabulous prizes”, he he he.

So there we have it, a rather concise look at the bar that set the bar! Hope you enjoyed reading and if you’ve got any extra bits of info on the Chocolate Cream or any of its relatives, especially if you work for Cadbury so you can explain to me why the hell the Orange Cream got axed, WHY, JUST TELL ME WHY! 

Until next time!