Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Tasteless chocolate clones...

New O'Boy chocolate bars
What's with this?!?!

Spotting some new kind of chocolate bar a couple of days ago I decided to buy a couple and give them a try.

Why?

Because they had the same name as the classic chocolate drink here in Sweden; O'Boy. Childhood memories...

The drink is made by mixing the chocolate powder with milk, and was already around when I grew up in the 60's. It's still available, but this chocolate bar variety was news to me.

So how did it taste? Not like O'Boy. More like the Norwegian "classic" Kvikk-Lunsj that's been selling in droves (especially around Easter) since the late 30's.
Once opened the O'Boy bar looks a lot like Kvikk-Lunsj. And - to the best of my memory from eating a couple of the latter a few years ago - they taste very much the same.

With the very, very ... v-e-r-y large Kraft Foods behind both, I figure there must be quite a few other clones in other countries.

I know Kraft has been using the well-known O'Boy brand on other stuff lately; a pre-mixed milk drink as well as smaller portion packages of the powder called O'Boy Mix. And I guess it makes business sense when you consider that 68% of all kids between 10 and 14 years of age in this country drink at least one glass of O'Boy milk/chocolate drink a day!

But putting the name on stuff that's not up to par will erode the O'Boy brand. And - at least to this old geezer - that's what this chocolate bar variety does.

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