11 Discontinued Chocolates We Miss The Most
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Are there chocolates you love but haven't seen in ages? What about your favorite childhood chocolate bar: Can you still find it in the candy aisle, or has it mysteriously disappeared? Unfortunately, if it's not on grocery store shelves, it might be discontinued, because while some chocolates have stood the test of time, others aren't so lucky.
For many people, out of sight means out of mind. They might not even realize some candies have been canceled. Sometimes sales aren't up to snuff and the company can't keep up with the competition. Other times, trademark or sourcing issues are at play. And occasionally, a candy bar comes and goes without ever getting the love it deserves.
Count yourself lucky if you can't recall any chocolates you miss, because, for the rest of us, absence only makes the heart grow fonder. Reminiscing about them brings back some serious nostalgia. So if you're wondering which chocolates are gone for good, keep reading. We'll take a trip down memory lane with the 11 discontinued chocolates we miss the most.
1. Seven Up
This candy has nothing to do with the popular soda. Instead, Pearson's Seven Up is a milk chocolate candy with seven different "pillows," each with a unique filling. While the flavors changed throughout the years, some included coconut, nougat, butterscotch, fudge, mint, buttercream, and caramel.
Two other mainstay flavors, cherry cream and orange jelly, are more telling of this candy bar's era. It was invented by Pearson's Candy in the 1930s and developed quite a fan base. However, high production costs and trademark issues (with a specific soda brand) led to its discontinuation in 1979.
It's a shame because eating a Seven Up bar was an entire experience. It was like opening a box of chocolate — you never knew what you were going to get. While an exact replica has not been achieved, some copycat candies are out there. Necco's Sky Bar offers a chocolate close to what we crave. However, instead of seven chambers, it has only four: caramel, vanilla, peanut, and fudge.
2. Nestle Magic Ball
If you grew up in the '90s, you might remember Nestle Magic Balls. These chocolate balls were roughly 2 inches in diameter, almost the size of a pool ball. However, these treats were much lighter, as each Magic Ball consisted of just 3 grams of hollow milk chocolate. However, we didn't buy Magic Balls just for the chocolate — the main draw was hidden inside.
What's inside Nestle Magic? This question — also the candy's catchphrase — has sadly become obsolete. But once upon a time, these balls held Disney or Pokémon characters, which kids would collect, incentivizing them to eat more. Unfortunately, the FDA wasn't on board with these chocolate treasure chests.
In 1997, Los Angeles Times reported that Nestle USA stopped making the candies due to "an unresolved technical, legal problem." The issue Nestle spokespeople were referring to was a 1938 US law banning "non-nutritive objects" inside candies. It's this same law that prohibits the import of Kinder Surprise eggs.
However, companies are finding clever workarounds. Since their discontinuation, Magic Balls have morphed into Wonder Balls. You still get a hollow ball of chocolate but with candy hidden inside rather than a toy. Collector edition coins and stickers come in the packaging — not in the candy itself. It's better than nothing...but without the mystery of a hidden toy, what can we say? It lacks magic.
3. Swoops
Introduced in 2003, Swoops were chocolates carved into the shape of Pringles chips. Creating chip-like chocolates seemed genius at the time, with each slice promising "an indulgent, mouth-melting experience." Even better, Swoops were flavored like our favorite Hershey's candy bars, such as Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Reese's, York Peppermint Patties, and Almond Joy. Some limited-edition flavors included strawberries and creme and the Christmas-inspired white chocolate peppermint.
Unfortunately, these chocolates didn't swoop the nation as their tagline suggested. These irresistible curves definitely bent the rules on how to eat chocolate...but perhaps they went too far, and the Pringle shape may have ultimately led to its demise. For one, the chocolate chips were fragile, and things could get messy. Plus, only six fit in a box, making the overall product seem a bit pricey. Some people may have even mistook Swoops for chocolate-dipped potato chips.
Whatever the reason, these chocolates were discontinued in 2006. They only lasted three years, and if you ask us, Swoops were discontinued too soon. Despite the aforementioned issues, we miss this Hershey's creation and would buy it again if we could.
4. Wonka Bar
For those that grew up watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," finding the golden ticket was a childhood fantasy. And for a brief moment, it was actually possible. But before we get into that, let's back up and understand how the Wonka Bar came to be.
The Wonka Bar has seen many lives — appearing, disappearing, and reappearing again. The first rendition was born alongside the 1971 film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." This version, created by Quaker Oats, couldn't quite get the formula right, and the bars melted far too quickly. In 1988, Nestle bought the rights to the Wonka brand and took another stab at creating this iconic candy.
Nestle's Wonka Bar was a graham cracker cookie covered in milk chocolate. Yet again, the Wonka Bar wasn't flying off shelves. So circa 2005, with the release of Johnny Depp's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Nestle developed a movie-inspired marketing idea. Five shiny golden tickets were hidden inside Wonka Bar packaging, each worth a $10,000 prize.
Despite these attempts, this chocolate bar never took off, and the Wonka Bar was discontinued in 2014. The candy itself was decent, but if we're being honest, it sold us on nostalgia. But who knows.. with a new "Wonka" film in the works, we just might see a candy bar revival.
5. Thingamajig
You've probably heard of a Whatchamacallit, but have you heard of a Thingamajig? This candy bar existed from 2009 to 2012. It consisted of cacao-flavored crisps topped with a layer of peanut butter and enrobed in Hershey's chocolate. Overall, the flavors balanced each other well. The crunchiness of the rice crisps, the salty creaminess of the peanut butter, and the sweetness of the chocolate came together perfectly.
Although it did say "limited edition" on the packaging, we were surprised to see it go. It developed a cult following in its short lifespan, with some fans still lamenting its disappearance. One Amazon customer writes, "This has to be the most delicious peanut butter-infused candy bar ever put on the market! (Sorry, Peanut Butter Twix.) Please, please, please bring it back!" Another customer review stated, "This and the bar none (original without caramel) were my favorites. I guess I gotta go the homemade route since they discontinued them."
6. Nestle's Triple Decker Bar
If you had to pick one type of chocolate, would you go for milk, dark, or white? Well, in the '60s, you didn't have to choose. You could have them all in one delectable candy bar. Nestle's Triple Decker Bar consisted of three layers of chocolatey goodness: the bottom layer was made of semi-sweet chocolate, the middle layer featured creamy white chocolate, and the top layer was made of milk chocolate.
The Triple Decker Bar was discontinued around the early 1970s. In a Facebook thread about the beloved candy bar's demise, many fans reminisced about loving this chocolate bar as a kid. One commented, "This was my favorite! I sure do miss them, along with the 10-cent sticker tag!" Another chimed in, "Loved them. [I] worked in a concession stand at a theater and never put the last box out — we all bought all of it."
7. Reese's Peanut Butter Bites
Hershey's Bites lasted from 1999 to 2007. These famous candies were just as they sounded — marble-sized versions of our favorite chocolate bars. They came in crave-worthy flavors like Milk Chocolate with Almond, Reese's Peanut Butter Bites, and Hershey's Cookies and Creme. These beloved bites were easy to eat on the go and were even advertised as a "poppable" snack — which may have been its downfall.
Some people were happy about the discontinuation of Hershey's Bites, primarily parents. Many feared that these bite-sized balls posed a choking risk to young children. If you had a sweet tooth as a child, you probably dreamed of shoveling handfuls of candy into your mouth — and with these chocolatey bites, it would be far too easy. As the popular theory goes, the Hershey Company was inundated with such concerns, ultimately retiring the candies.
However, this theory doesn't entirely add up because Hershey's currently sells three bite-sized products: Milk Chocolate Cookie Bites, Milk Chocolate Pretzel Bites, and Cookies'n'Creme Cookie Bites. These may look tasty, but we want to see the return of our Reese's flavor — and we're not alone. There is even a petition on Change.org to bring these peanut buttery bites back.
8. Twix Java
Coffee lovers celebrated the arrival of this limited-edition Twix bar in 2007. Twix Java had rich coffee-infused caramel over a crunchy cookie and was covered in milk chocolate. Although it was released for less than a year, people went wild for this chocolate bar. For one Candy Addict blogger, it was love at first bite: "Good lord, this candy bar is good [...] and the coffee flavor is just right –- not too strong and not too weak. "
To this day, diehard fans scour the internet searching for their Twix Java fix — and sometimes get lucky. One European turned to the Help Me Find Subreddit, pleading, "I'm from Slovenia [and] I used to buy these exact chocolate bars [Twix Java] around 2010, but I can't find them since. Even a Google search does nothing." Despite being discontinued, someone came to the rescue. We're not sure how — we just hope the candy bar wasn't well beyond its expiration date.
9. Whiz Bar
This old-school candy had a marshmallow base covered in peanuts and chocolate. It was released by the Beich company in the 1920s and quickly took off — with a little help from its catchy slogan, "Whiz, best nickel candy there iz-z."
Whiz Bars hold a special place in candy history, not just because they were delicious, but because they spurred on technological developments. Jason Alikonis, a Beich Candy Co food scientist, used his inspiration from the Whiz Bar to create the Whizolator. This machine used pressurized air to churn out 1,400 gallons of marshmallows per hour, revolutionizing the candy-making industry.
Sadly, the Whizolator is no longer used to make these chocolates because the Whiz Bars are long gone, along with their nickel prices. There's nothing quite like this confectionary combo on the market today. And even with inflation, we'd be happy to purchase one.
10. Bar None (with caramel)
Hershey's Bar None was first released in 1987. The original version was a rectangular bar made of layered wafers and chocolate, topped with crunchy peanuts, and encased in milk chocolate. It bore similarities to the popular KitKat but with a nutty flair, and advertisements described it as "a chocolate extravaganza for the Chocolate Beasty lurking in all of us."
Its name suggests it's the top candy on the market — but it never lived up to this potential. The bar was revamped in 1992, and the new product had two sticks with a layer of caramel added to the mix. The switch-up proved controversial, and ultimately, the bar was discontinued in 1997.
In 2019, the original Bar None was revived by the Iconic Candy Company. Once again, it's marketed as "The true Chocolate Lovers bar," and we're sure it would "tame the chocolate beasty." However, we can't help but miss the caramel version. It was like a KitKat, Twix, and Payday all rolled into one.
11. Snik Snak
Everyone knows Kit Kats, but few have heard of its early competitor, Snik Snak. Turns out, the wafer bar wars started long before we enjoyed these chocolatey snacks.
It was a battle between two top chocolate companies, now known as Hershey and Mars. The Mars company's version took on a few different names during its heyday, including Premium Chocolate Wafer Bar, M&M Chocolate Wafer Bar, M&M's Sprint Chocolate Crisp, and, finally, Snik Snak. Rather than the horizontal breaks in the candy bar like Kit Kat has, the Snik Snak actually broke vertically. The premise was the same, however, and featured chocolate wafers that we held together by a chocolate cream and covered in rich milk chocolate. The boldly-named Snik Snak retired in 1978. We guess the company admitted defeat — and truthfully, we're disappointed. Kit Kats are great, but Snik Snaks had their own charm.