Yorkie Bar Review

  I'm beginning to think that a weekly format for this site is a bit unreasonable given how busy I am, I'm going to try this for about two more months and then decide if I'm going to switch to bi-weekly reviews. Now, on to the review.


  This week I am reviewing something different again, it's actually a candy bar made by Nestlé for the UK (there's an international section at my local grocery store) and it caught my eye a while ago because of it's tagline "It's Not For Girls", which obviously means it's targeted toward men. After researching the bar I actually found its history quite interesting, the following info is from Wikipedia:

  History:  The Yorkie bar, a chunkier alternative to Cadbury's Dairy Milk, was aimed at men. In the 1980s for example, toy lorries with the Yorkie bar logo were manufactured by Corgi, and television advertisements for the Yorkie bar featured truck drivers. In 2001, the advertisement campaign made this more explicit with the slogan and wrapper tagline It's not for girls, which caused controversy. Nestlé also received complaints about this campaign from Norwegian and UK people, who found it sexist and distasteful. Special versions for use in Ministry of Defense ration packs read It's not for civvies. In 2006 a special edition that was for girls was sold, wrapped in pink. Aside from the original milk chocolate bar, several variants are available, such as "raisin and biscuit" flavour, "honeycomb" flavour, and Yorkie Ice Cream. 

  In 1976, Eric Nicoli spotted a gap in the confectionery market and used the cheap cocoa from Rowntree's favourable futures market position to launch Yorkie. Production was at York and Norwich (until 1994). 

  For a time, trains arriving at York railway station would pass a billboard which read "Welcome to" and then a picture of a Yorkie bar, with the end bitten off, so it read "Welcome to York" (and beneath it, the slogan "Where the men are hunky and the chocolate's chunky"). 

  Yorkie was originally composed of seven chunks of chocolate, which was reduced in the 1990s to six with each chunk featuring one letter from the Yorkie name. At the same time, the packaging was changed from the original foil wrapping with paper surround to the current style, which projects at the ends giving it the appearance of being the same length as the original on the shelf. More recently, in an effort to further reduce cost, the number of chunks has been reduced to five, with "Yorkie" written in full on each chunk.In 2002, Yorkie bars were 70 grammes. This had been reduced to 64.5 grammes by 2010, and was reduced further to 61 grammes in 2011 and then 55 grammes later that year. Yorkie King size bars have also reduced in size. In 2011, standard Yorkie bars became available in 3 packs.

  So obviously the Yorkie is supposedly a more "manly" version of a regular chocolate bar. But, how does it stack against other manly snacks? Let's find out...

  Taste: Well, the original idea of using cheap cocoa is still in effect here, not the best chocolate I've ever had but definitely not the worst either and considering that it's just chocolate I think it's still pretty good. 7.5 out of 10 Points.

  Edibility: Pretty good, a little hard to chew each chunk at first but if you let it melt in your mouth a little it's perfectly fine. 7 out of 10.

  Packaging: Straightforward candy bar wrapper, love the design and tagline. (Update: According to Wikipedia they have removed the tagline, however I'm leaving that info in but crossed out to reflect the fact that it was reviewed with it on the wrapper and I thought it was cool.) +1 Point.

  Summary: Tastes pretty good, easy to eat and nice wrapper. Plus it has an interesting backstory. 15.5 out of 21 points overall.