h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Who decided the size of a mars bar

It may be a product of my advancing years, but I am convinced that Mars Bars used to be much bigger just a few years back. They then brought out these supoer size mars bars and then surreptitiously shrank the regular Mars bar...didn't they?

Mars bars in the multi packs seem to have thicker chocolate are these mistakes which they are trying get rid of ?

Duncan your right they seem to be a lot smaller now than I remember being in the past, I suspect this part of their marking tactics.

The size / price of Mars bars (and other bars) seems to go round in cycle.

When they first come out they are quite good value for money then the manufacturers surreptitiously cut the size and weight of the bar.
(A sneeky way of getting increased profits without raising the price, after all we all notice if the price goes up but we don't read the weight printed on the wrapper )

They keep doing this until the bar gets so small that we begin to notice, Then you get the "New bigger bar" routine at a higher price.
Once thats in then its back to sneeky size reductions until the next time we notice.

You can all chat about this in my chocoholics corner, if you like!

Thank goodness for that - I thought it was one of those "policemen look younger" effects of advancing in years.
However, tractors are definitely getting bigger, aren't they?

I was convinced that Mars Bars were getting smaller till I saw one of those "Not-really-famous-people-when-they-were-even-less-famous" programmes featuring a 1950s? Advert for Mars Bars with Bob Monkhouse of all people, and the Mars Bars were TINY - like Milky Ways! So I'm afraid that I'm convinced: the overall trend is bigger...

Hello Rev....first time I've seen you outside the Village de la Vavoom!

Now I feel like a recluse!

I see you around, so I must be going to all the GOOD places - and I've been posting all morning since I got into work(!)

...or maybe it was just the mention of choclate that brought me out of my shell...

Actually, shrinking and expanding the size of candy bars used to be very common in the chocolate business - they'd increase or decrease size to maintain the same price in the face of wildly fluctuating commodities prices (cocoa beans, sugar, milk, etc.) Recently that practice has stopped, in part due to the chocolate companies employing scores of market analysts who watch the market and play it to keep pricing relatively stable.

I'm afraid we're just getting older and need more to satisfy our chocolate fix.
You can't blame the bars or the manufacturer for your addiction!



- X

The current trend for "chunky" bars is certainly a 'welcome break' from the previous trend of "fun size" bars.

Fun? I ask you, what fun is a bar that is one quarter the size of a standard bar?

Twice as big? Much more likely to help you 'work rest and play'! ;_)

Let it be known that on this day, the 29th of August 2000, the weight of a standard snickers bar in the republic of Ireland was 64.5g.

There - now I can check back in 10 years time when I'm next worried about this

I heard a while ago, that the Europeans were trying to get "us" {Brits} to stop using the word "chocolate" as a description of our milk chocolate, does anyone know if that has been dropped now?

Ah. In the US, my Snickers bar is 58.7g I'm jealous!

I was living in Brussels when the argument about British chocolate happened. There was a serious effort by some countries to get the word "chocolate" restricted to products with no vegetable fat (i.e. almost all British chocolate would have been affected).

There was a compromise eventually - it's almost impossible to force something like this through in Brussels if some contries object, and the British objected like mad! I don't remember the detail of the deal, but basically chocolate containing vegetable fat will have to be clearly labelled, so that unsuspecting Belgians and Germans don't accidentally buy our stuff instead of *real* chocolate.

Vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter?!? Now *that's* a vile concept!

Has anyone ever tried a deep fried mars bar? It is just what it sounds like a mars bar in some kind of batter and then deep fried. They taste marvellous. Your first bite is full of gooey chocolate, caramel, fat and sugar... delicious. And size does not matter anymore, one of them is quite enough to make you feel sick
Sadly the only place I know where you can get them is a tiny fish&chips shop on Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia.

Chili

Have you been here ( http://www.h2g2.com/A279803 ) yet?
There's some information you'll be wanting.

Boy, oooooooh goody, never thought there was a real reason to go to Glasgow... but that might just be it! And it is not that far from Germany as Australia is...

Yummy, come to me my deep fried friends

Thanks for the advice...

Chili

Dave & Viv's Chippy (Cleveleys, Blackpool, Lancs) batter anything that the customer asks for!

When I was a kid we frequently used to get Mars Bars and a particular delicacy was the battered Mars Ice Cream.....

arghggghgg... battered Mars Ice... mmmmmm.....

When we were kids and had less money available they would batter a jam butty for us (15p) and would batter anything we brought in for 10p!

Suffice to say their chips tasted a little odd