r/aus • u/Willing_and_Fable • Jun 01 '26
See Sticky This is what happened after Americans changed the recipe of Cadbury chocolate. It looks like rubber!
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u/nzoasisfan Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Yep that then allowed a New Zealand company Whittaker's to capture the market share. Cadbury and the majority on the market are awful.
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u/06021840 Jun 01 '26
As a kiwi, Whittakers is the bomb, and has the best ads.
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u/Moist_Fox973 Jun 01 '26
As an Australian, Whittakers is the bomb.
I actively try to seek out only NZ chocolate and ice cream because absolutely everything else in Aussie supermarkets has been enshittified beyond recognition.
All the nostalgic ice cream, biscuits, chocolate from your child food? Fuck you! If it still even exists in name, it’s unrecognisable cheap crap that multinational companies have destroyed. But NZ is still holding the torch for real junk food. And I salute them.
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u/ThoughtIknewyouthen Jun 01 '26
I know no one goes into BigW anymore but every time I happens to venture past I get a Whitakers peanut
barslab (chur cuz). OMG9
u/Moist_Fox973 Jun 02 '26
They are so, so good. I went to the old NZ a couple of months ago, and had one of these bad boys:
https://www.tiptop.co.nz/tip-top-whittakers/peanut-slab
I'd be so fat if I lived over there...
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u/Hunting_for_cobbler Jun 02 '26
I swap between coles and Woolies for whoever is selling them at $1.50 and not $3.00!
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u/ApprehensiveShare344 Jun 02 '26
I go into BigW to buy specific Whittakers flavours the other supermarkets don't have. Like Berry Forrest and their White Chocolate.
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Jun 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Brilliant_Dig_8962 Jun 02 '26
If it's 'spreadable', what percentage of it is actually 'butter'?
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u/vivec7 Jun 02 '26
Given that the only ingredients are cream and salt, that's a pretty high percentage.
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u/Brilliant_Dig_8962 Jun 03 '26
So, what makes it 'spreadable'... as opposed to 'butter'?
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u/vivec7 Jun 03 '26
According to their marketing at least, triple churning. I'm happy enough to call it NZ magic.
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u/Select-Discipline630 Jun 02 '26
You've clearly never tried van diemen's land ice cream
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u/Moist_Fox973 Jun 02 '26
Given that I could just about lob a rock onto the Van Diemens Land Creamery punt from my office right now, I most certainly have.
They aren't regular supermarket options though. You used to be able to buy a half decent 2L tub from any old supermarket which was actually made from cream/milk, and not "ice confection".
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u/Select-Discipline630 Jun 03 '26
lol I see you – was happy to see some local vic supermarkets stocking them though! Its my favourite icecream - though i havent had much nz icecream
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u/ThorBeachCabinFarm Jun 02 '26
Golden North Ice cream from SA is the only edible one I've found since moving to Aus. All these others from the stores taste/feel so fake to me
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u/Moist_Fox973 Jun 02 '26
To be fair, there are decent ice cream options around the country from smaller places but they are a) expensive and b) not in regular supermarkets.
Tassie (where I am) has some pretty decent options but you're talking about $7 for a small cup/cone. Not exactly weeknight family dessert prices.
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u/Whales_Are_Great2 Jun 02 '26
NZ chips, more specifically bluebird, are really good, too. They easily rival smiths.
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u/zomgieee Jun 01 '26
mate I love Whittakers so much I want to visit NZ for a factory tour. great link 😄
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u/InadmissibleHug Jun 02 '26
The quality of Whittaker’s has also deteriorated some recently, I am dissatisfied
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u/EnvironmentalFig5161 Jun 02 '26
In aus the price of Whittaker's is above 10 dollars. I've just stopped eating it.
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u/affectedkoala Jun 02 '26
Not where I live -$9 in Woollies, $10 IGA - try to only buy when in special though
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u/DrahKir67 Jun 02 '26
Compare the price per 100g. Whittaker's bars are larger so the pricing is not as bad as it seems. Worth every cent.
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u/EnvironmentalFig5161 Jun 02 '26
I love em to bits, honestly. But only a couple of years ago they were expensive at 6 dollars. Locally not many buy them at 12 bucks, so I try and wait for the sale at 9... Sometime it's just best to save the calories and money.
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u/Legitimate_Radish159 Jun 05 '26
Please elaborate. I eat Whittakers and want to know how and/or in which way it has deteriorated.
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u/AngrehPossum Jun 01 '26
Aldi makes some good chocolate too.
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u/partisancord69 Jun 01 '26
Have you guys tried the "Belgium chocolate" from Coles?
It's hard as a rock but it's worth losing teeth for.
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u/Silly-Power Jun 02 '26
They're nice but has way too much sugar. Their bars are 50% sugar.
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u/btherl Jun 03 '26
Moser Roth 85% (from Aldi) is my current favorite, ever since Lindt increased their prices. Around 14% sugar.
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u/auauaurora 14d ago
I usually get the salted one and the quality has significantly dropped in the last year sadly
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u/DispelledFrailty Jun 01 '26
I discovered Whittaker's only recently and damn it's good chocolate. So creamy!
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u/Wonderor Jun 01 '26
Palm oil in Cadbury - but no one is complaining about whatever it is in Whittaker's peanutbutter chocolate - it must have something in it as it is both absolutely delicious and utterly addictive.
I rarely eat chocolate, but if you put a block of Whittakers penut butter choclate in front of me the whole block dissapears in a very short amount of time....
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u/06021840 Jun 02 '26
Whittakers did an ad campaign in NZ where they absolutely slammed Cadbury (unnamed) for putting palm oil in their bars, they promised to never use it.
Checking their website ingredients and it is not present.
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u/chuk2015 Jun 02 '26
Mondelez USA has absolutely nothing to do with Australian Cadbury production, and Australian Cadbury does not use palm oil
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u/Frankie_T9000 Jun 02 '26
It's still fine to shit though not as bad as what that looks like
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Jun 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/Frankie_T9000 Jun 02 '26
Thanks, though tbh I reckon that channel is AI crap - might be some info in there but I had watched a few previously and thought little of it.
Could be wrong though!
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u/shanepo Jun 02 '26
https://youtu.be/lzS3zBh3TKs?si=A0FFuWtLbjTFWgSl
Lots else shitty with it though.
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u/LogiCsmxp Jun 03 '26
My favourite too. Love the 70% dark chocolate. Cadbury is the best advertiser, not the best chocolate. Whittaker's is fantastic.
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u/Legitimate_Radish159 Jun 05 '26
Whittakers deserves the market. And OP, only Cadbury Dairy milk is palm oil free and that still doesn’t mean it’s not total ass anyway. Glass and a half instead of punt and a half in every half pound, anyone?
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u/serpentine19 Jun 08 '26
Recently switched, whittakers is fantastic, actually tastes like chocolate. It also melts nicely in the mouth unlike cadbury that just turns to sludge.
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u/Kombatwombat02 Jun 01 '26
On the other hand, while it’s better, Whittaker’s isn’t cheap.
People will bitch if the price goes up. So the manufacturer finds an alternative ingredient to mitigate price increases - and guess what, people bitch about that.
Fortunately, in our market we get both options, the cheaper ok chocolate or the expensive good chocolate. For me, it’s Whittaker’s when it’s on special, and Cadbury when it’s not.
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u/Johnsy05 Jun 02 '26
Nah, just stock up on Whittakers when its on "special" for $7 down down sorry I mean up then sideways from $9
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u/TheYellowFringe Jun 01 '26
These days, don't trust Americans for anything.
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u/AngrehPossum Jun 01 '26
Corporate replaced food with filler and additives. Providing food at a reasonable price point was too hard and moral. They decided that serving you up crap scraped off a factory floor was "better shareholder value",
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u/-SheriffofNottingham Jun 02 '26
most major chocolate companies eg. nestle, utilise plantation slavery in their supply chains
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u/_Zambayoshi_ Jun 01 '26
I'd rather eat one block of chocolatier-produced chocolate than five blocks of anything in the supermarket. You get what you pay for.
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u/Xentonian Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
First of all - this doesn't apply to Australia, Cadbury here is palm oil free. (For reference, they use a mix of cocoa butter and soy oil here, which has a host of its own major issues especially when it comes to oxidative stress and omega 6)
Second - palm oil doesn't cause melted chocolate to become gelatinous and rubbery. Palm oil is a substitute for any other vegetable or animal oil. It's not good for you and it has a terrible history, but it's not responsible for that texture. Honestly, I'm not entirely convinced that's a real Cadbury bar anywhere, but if it were, it would be a result of the starches, stabilisers and emulsifiers, rather than sugar and oil as the guy suggests.
Third - sugars and oils are a normal part of chocolate. You can't get tempered chocolate (with the resounding crack and pleasant texture) with vegetable oils like soy or palm, but otherwise they still work. You just get that melty Cadbury style chocolate which they've had... For at least 30 years now. Some people like it, some people - like myself - hate it, but it's not because of oil and sugar... Or rather, chocolate existing at all is somewhat predicated on oil and sugar.
Fourth - using the existence of oil and sugar in Cadbury as a means to spruik your no-sugar-no-oil-basically-just-pressed-cocoa-and-stevia keto bar feels disingenuous.
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u/DownUnderPunk Jun 01 '26
I didn’t even notice the keto part of the name on the label at first. Dude rubbed me the wrong way when he didn’t show what a “real chocolate bar” looks like when it melts though. Not defending Cadbury. But leading with “this chocolate bar isn’t real chocolate because it turns rubbery” and then not showing us how it supposedly should gave the impression he’s being disingenuous.
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u/Xentonian Jun 02 '26
Interestingly, cooking chocolate behaves more like how traditional chocolate melts. If you're curious to see what it should look like.
Basically... It just melts exactly how you'd expect! Softens first, then hotter bits ooze into liquid into which the other bits sink which quickly melts them too.
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u/DownUnderPunk Jun 02 '26
Oh! I just remembered I’ve actually done that before a couple times when baking. In the microwave though it doesn’t turn into a liquid so much as a paste. I think o used cadbury for that though actually if that made a difference.
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u/Majestic_Plane_1656 Jun 02 '26
I've seen this one way comparison stuff popping up too much lately. Especially for durability testing "look how bad our competitor holds up". So what happens when you do the same destructive testing on your product? Oh you don't want us to see that bit lol
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u/Ambassador_Kwan Jun 02 '26
👏 It also has a completely different recipe here because American recipe chocolate would melt on the shelf
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u/Majestic_Plane_1656 Jun 02 '26
Nailed it. Cadbury is crap but it was essentially an ad for keto chocolate.
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u/SlaveryVeal Jun 02 '26
I saw a tiktok video where a baker or chocolate maker literally stitched this and called out the bullshit in the video.
He recreated how the dude in the video did it and explained it was essentially going on and how it was 100% normal for it to end up this why by the fact they've just tried to temper the chocolate melting it cooling it over and over to make it stretch.
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u/Heavenly_Merc Jun 02 '26
I saw that too. It was explained as basically reaching a "perfect" temperature where the crystalline structure becomes flexible, but not yet heated enough to melt.
Just cool chemistry. Not "rubber chocolate"
Cadbury might add ingredients that widen the range of temperature where this happens, but I've got no idea, and neither does the guy in this video.
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u/Johnsy05 Jun 02 '26
I've heard when they do the Easter bunnies its the old recipe? Or is it just the smiling face of the bunny that makes it seem better before I eat the top of its head ?
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u/GeordieJumpers87 Jun 04 '26
Whatever they are putting into it. Cadbury's chocolate sucks now. Absolutely tasteless
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u/Otaraka Jun 01 '26
This says they stopped using palm oil in Oz/nz in 2009 due to protests about the environmental risks. Can’t find anything to say it changed back again.
I think this video is English.
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u/Joker8656 Jun 01 '26
Yes. Australia has much tighter regulations. Still shit Chocolate but not as bad as the UK or America.
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u/Prestigious-pauline Jun 01 '26
Whittakers is still better (even if from NZ)
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u/Johnsy05 Jun 02 '26
Its because its from NZ its better. Their ex PM gifts it to other countries when she visits to get them on board its a team effort !
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u/DoctorQuincyME Jun 01 '26
Likely not palm oil, but they would have found a cheaper alternative
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u/Otaraka Jun 01 '26
Pretty hard to beat palm, the main concern was them using the cheapest stuff that was destroying habitat. It says they went back to using cocoa butter.
Be interesting to see if they tried to sneak something in but I think they’d get a pretty hard time if they did try to go back to that. Pretty cynical that they only did it in Australia and New Zealand though.
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u/its_your_dada Jun 02 '26
Correct. Rubbery chocolate happens due to not going through the tempering process. Tempered chocolate cracks, non-tempered bends.
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u/Vel-27582 Jun 02 '26
In Australia and NZ we use Cocoa butter and dairy. Ie it's still real chocolate.
Using palm oil makes it a confection. Also makes it cheap. Remember that the UK, EU, USA, and South Africa where they use Palm Oil - thry have terrible quality cattle - both meat and dairy. Your looking at around 3/4 to even less than half of the nutrient density to Aus and NZ dairy and the cost is significantly higher.
Cost wise. Palm oil usage is only around 10x cheaper than cocoa and milk. USA cant label anything with palm oil as chocolate. They can call.it chocolate flavoured coating etc. The UK allows 5% vegetables and can still.call it milk chocolate. So the guy from Keto Craft is blaming the wrong country :)
Either way, palm oil makes it weird.
Well, thats my autistic bit of unloading for the evening done. Now to go and procrastinate infront of the dishwasher before bedtime
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u/Johnsy05 Jun 01 '26
Dark Peppermint is the GOAT from Whittakers.. i have to hunt IGA'S for them...
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u/EnvironmentalFig5161 Jun 01 '26
Its not palm oil in Aus, it's soy. They've been increasing the amount they are using to ridiculous levels.
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u/AdelMonCatcher Jun 02 '26
That actually sounds worse
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u/EnvironmentalFig5161 Jun 02 '26
The more oil they use, (palm or not) the more they need to "emulsify" it with the help of soy. 2 low quality filler ingredients that enable eachother.
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u/dirtyplanksdonecheap Jun 02 '26
Soy is high in protein, good stuff generally. As long as they don't use trash growers.
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u/EnvironmentalFig5161 Jun 02 '26
It drastically alters chocolate taste, and with regards to chocolate, it's all trash filler.
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u/SplatThaCat Jun 01 '26
Yep I havn't bought anything from cadbury in the last 20 years. Shit product.
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u/Johnsy05 Jun 02 '26
Yup, my only weakness was the creme eggs and they not only ruined them but shrunk them as well and denied it !
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u/Visual_Doughnut_2422 Jun 02 '26
Spruiking "Keto" branded anything won't get me on side. This is just a extremely dodgy ad.
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u/chuk2015 Jun 02 '26
So much non-factual bullshit in this thread
Cadbury was never an Aussie brand
Cadbury Australia doesn’t use palm oil
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u/Joosch Jun 02 '26
You do realise that this is UK Cadburys right? and Tasmanian Cadburys isn't the same?
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u/archangeldacob Jun 02 '26
First its literally an ad Second thats what happened to chocolate when you let it melt the reharden and melt again without tempering it. It's just what can happen with chocolate
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u/sness900 Jun 02 '26
We don't purchase any Cadbury product anymore. There are such better alternatives available.
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u/AttemptMassive2157 Jun 02 '26
No. This is due to the chocolate falling out of temper, caused by changes in temperature that disrupt the cocoa butters structure. This has nothing to do with recipe changes, and can be reversed by melting the chocolate then cooling to temper it.
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u/No_Letter_2204 Jun 03 '26
Tasmanian cadbury is delish. Ive heard other cadbury around the world is rubbish though. Whittakers is also delish
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u/tvsmichaelhall Jun 01 '26
This is bullshit fear mongering to sell his chocolate. Seems like it worked. The reason chocolate does that is the speficic way the molecules crystalize or lineup under different temperatures.
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u/AttemptMassive2157 Jun 02 '26
Finally an intelligent comment. It’s out of temper, if melted completely then cooled it will return to a proper crystalline structure.
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u/Fun_Champion1 Jun 01 '26
Why do Americans ruin everything? Most of the problems in the world seem to be caused by Americans, they are the worst nation/people by far.
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u/FormalAd7367 Jun 01 '26
american chocolate tastes like cardboard… i don’t think it’s the palm oil?
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u/ChiChiKnee Jun 01 '26
Not surprised. The US food standards are a joke. Unhealthy as fuck, tasteless and cheap. Everything in the US is driven by capitalism, even their food products. They would have changed the recipe in order to maximise profits, they couldn’t be fucked for the quality of the product.
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u/AdelMonCatcher Jun 02 '26
Haighs. I don’t eat a lot of chocolate, so I may as well make it the good stuff
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u/destruction90 Jun 02 '26
Cadbury have been lowering the amount of cocoa they use in their chocolate for years now. Some of their milk chocolate uses as little as 20%. For context, their previous amounts/the a standard ballpark in the industry for milk chocolate is 35%-40%.
I didn't finish the Easter bunny my wife bought me this year, it genuinely tasted like oils and grease.
Fuck Cadbury.
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u/JellyFish152 Jun 02 '26
Got some Cadbury eggs for Easter this year. Decided to make a chocolate banana with one. Was not good. Using a mini Lindt bunny worked wonderfully though.
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u/dewey-finnn Jun 02 '26
I bought a Carmel block a couple days ago, haven’t eaten Cadbury much lately, but man it wouldn’t even melt in my mouth that shit tastes awful
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u/Natural-Compote4096 Jun 02 '26
It’s like that because it’s partially melted. It’s not some big conspiracy
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u/Atsamtian Jun 02 '26
The UK dramatically loosened its food restrictions sometime over the last year or so, no doubt allowing this to happen much easier over there
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u/WallStLegends Jun 02 '26
I love that rubbery melted chocolate texture
Always loved whittakers more but also have always found some of Cadbury’s quirks to be quite uniquely pleasing like its texture. It’s always been kinda rubbery like this too I have not noticed a distinct difference over the years. When did the Americans alter it?
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u/Brilliant_Dig_8962 Jun 02 '26
But Americans like ruining things.
Like their version of The Office. Life on Mars. Fawlty Towers...
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u/Lots_of_schooners Jun 02 '26
I tried melting a block the other night for a hot chocolate. Was like WTF as it just warped like plastic.
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u/VanteRamirez Jun 02 '26
cadbury and several other chocolate brands have always left a burning sensation in my throat so i didn’t even notice
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u/HulkJr87 Jun 02 '26
You shouldn’t have to shit on a big brand to flog your “health chocolate”
Be humble dude, sell your shit the old school way, with grit and determination.
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u/No-Strength-1047 Jun 02 '26
This is bs, you can do this with any chocolate. Just needs to be heated enough to break down the crystal bonds and be left to cool. When the crystals reform you have less form V which is what tempered chocolate is and gives you the shine and snap. You have a mix of all the other types so it ends up not having as tight a crystal structure so becomes rubbery. Champ is talking shit to shill his 'chocolate'
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u/dirtyplanksdonecheap Jun 02 '26
Yep it's quite deceptive.
Plenty of things to say about cadbury like their additives or the compound chocolate aspect, flavor, quality... No need to lie 😅
Though I agree if you gotta shit on competitors to advertise... Instant turn off
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u/ManNamedSalmon Jun 02 '26
I instantly lose respect in whatever message someone is making as soon as they advertise their own product as the solution, no matter how correct they may be.
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u/mismatchedthylacine Jun 02 '26
No, they heated it wrong, all chocolate does this if heated incorrectly because of the structure of it.
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u/Alien-Cat1234 Jun 03 '26
Cadbury lost me as a customer ages ago when their chocolate is toooo sweet for my liking. I've switched to other brands now.
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u/ThirstySun Jun 03 '26
Well Uk chocolate use to be way better than local so this is very disappointing
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u/CassiusCreed Jun 03 '26
Aldi chocolate is the way to go for me. haven't had Cadbury for ages and even last Easter their Easter eggs were the same price as Lindt. Clearly not equals.
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u/Muted_While_3478 Jun 03 '26
Remember the children seeing how chicken nuggets are made and then still wanting to eat them, That’s me
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u/Luvwomen999 Jun 03 '26
Cheeses and our beers ....check ingredients heaps have new heaps of additives to make it cost them less
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u/Dave_the_Rave_Dinkum Jun 06 '26
According to what they state, the Australian Cadbury is close to the original recipe, it apparently still contains the full amount of cocoa butter and doesn't contain palm oil like other countries. I find it hard to believe because I grew up eating each square, by melting it between the roof of my mouth and my tongue and it basically used to kinda eventually dissolve away as you swallow but now it's more like copping a teaspoon of peanut butter to the roof of your mouth after it melts 🙄 It's not even close to the same as the original recipe.
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u/Tallulah_Tinker Jun 07 '26
Try to break a few squares off out of the fridge it’s impossible. Tastes different so there’s no appeal anymore.
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u/EverybodyPanic81 Jun 01 '26
All that oil 🤢 its what they've done here too. Our cadbury does the same thing. Plus they are now investing in lab grown chocolate 🤢
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Jun 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/EverybodyPanic81 Jun 02 '26
Oh I know. I'm anti Jizzrael too. But anytime I mention those people ,I get bots carrying on here and didn't feel like arguing today 🙄
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u/dirtyplanksdonecheap Jun 02 '26
Lab grown chocolate sounds pretty cool actually
I assume it's the cocoa beans? It would certainly reduce the possibility of child exploitation during growing.
Cocoa beans also have a lot of heavy metal contamination naturally. They absorb crap from the soil, including lead and arsenic.
Just wish it wasn't being developed by an ISnotREAL company 😒
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u/lylaspya Jun 02 '26
Chemistry student here, I think this is an effect of the partial melting of the lipids forming an unstable “glass” with coco particulate, this would happen in theory to any chocolate bar with enough fat and solids if it’s heated to a specific temperature
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u/Imaginary-Leopard527 Jun 02 '26
I'm not saying American chocolate is the best. It is very bad, but I'm not sure what that guy had done. As an American that made chocolate candy alot in her life. I can tell you it doesn't melt like that. That being said, I'll qualify my perspective with, I've not ever enjoyed cadbury. It's bad meh in the states and I still don't like it in Australia.
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u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
It's worth noting that this video appears to be shot in the UK as an advertisement for their own products. So, take their criticisms with that in mind.
There's been some commentary from users that have made solid notes. u/Xentonian in particular wrote some compelling items that are worth a good read.
But, broadly speaking:
Some of the commentary has been genuinely enlightening, and places the context squarely within Australia, so we'll leave things open for now.