“How sweet it is!” That’s a line made famous by Jackie Gleason in the early days of television. He must have been thinking of Cadbury, as do lovers of chocolate everywhere. Small wonder that the Easter Bunny has become best buddies with this global leader in the production and marketing of chocolates and other confections.
We’re coming up to that time of year when the Easter Bunny is very busy indeed. He hops around, hiding chocolates, jelly beans, and other sweet treats (along with dyed hard-boiled eggs) for the young and young-at-heart to seek. Santa has a crew of elves to help him prepare for his big night. The Easter Bunny has Cadbury. Sounds like an equitable arrangement.
The partnership benefits from long years of experience on both sides. The Easter Bunny has been a symbol of Spring, rebirth, and new beginnings for centuries. Cadbury, on the other hand, was founded long before my father’s father’s father’s father was a gleam in his father’s eye. In 1824, John Cadbury let his sweet tooth do the talking and started creating delectable and, he hoped, beneficial alternatives to alcohol. His shop in Birmingham sold coffee, tea, drinking chocolate, and cocoa. Eighteen years later, he and his brother, Benjamin, formed Cadbury Brothers. A little over a decade later, they became official suppliers of chocolate and cocoa to Queen Victoria. Talk about your sweet deals!
Turning the company’s focus to chocolate in 1873, Cadbury stopped selling tea and continued developing their expertise in producing this increasingly popular treat, manufacturing chocolate covered nougats, bonbons delices, pistache, caramels, avelines, and Easter eggs (of course). Their first milk chocolate came out 24 years later. Even two world wars couldn’t stop their quest for confection perfection. During both, they carried on, even providing chocolate bars to soldiers. Today, their products have a wide range, from chocolates shaped like roses and buttons, to a variety of chocolate bars (milk or dark chocolate either solid or with different fillings such as fruit and nuts or cereal and raisins).
As for the Easter Bunny, he’s loading up those Easter gift baskets with some of each kind of Cadbury treat and will be sending out his army of bunnies (you didn’t think he hid all those treats in lawns across the U.S. all by himself, did you?) to every town and city. They will assure that when you go hunting on Easter, there will be plenty of goodies to find.
By the way, do you remember the ad campaign that first ran in the 1970s or 1980s where the Cadbury bunny would “cluck” and produce a Cadbury crème egg? The truth is that bunnies don’t “cluck” — they “moo”! Happy hunting for those Cadbury Easter crème egg and other chocolates!
As we speak, Peter Cottontail is hoppin’ down the bunny trail, and when he gets here I’m pretty sure he’ll be stoppin’ by A.C.’s blog, Tea Time with A.C. Cargill. You should too!
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