As a child, every Christmas was a time of magic, made more special by my being given a two tray deep box of Cadbury Continental Chocolates. Every year without fail, mum would put a box of these treasures under the tree.
There was a French cafe scene, complete with Eiffel Tower reproduced on the lid. Peeling back the cellophane unleashed the comforting, yet decadently rich aroma of dark dairy rich chocolates with an array of drool inducing centres. Roses, the slightly down market version also offered the same heady sensations.
Every pay day with my first job as a shop boy, I would buy - no invest in, a family sized block of Cadbury's Caramello or Dairy Milk, with it's famous, "glass and a half of full cream milk" emblazoned on the wrapper. I would tear the wrapper off and hastily devour the contents on the walk home.
Leap forward now several decades and Mondelez International an American multinational has bought the Cadbury brand. Gone is the dairy content. The caramel hard centres, Turkish delight and venetian fudge, so loved by generations have been consigned to history, replaced by insipid sickly "chocolates", devoid of taste. This company seems driven in a pursuit to show complete contempt for its market in a race to prove, "if we can't be the best, then hell we'll be the worst."
In the past, a gift of Cadbury chocolates was a thing to look forward to, now they are something to avoid. If you don't give a toss about someone and just want to go through the motions (incidentally that is what Cadbury chocolates now taste like), then give a nod to your gift buying obligations by giving the object of your contempt this Claytons gift. Now New Zealanders think of Cadbury chocolates, as the "gift you give, when you don't want to give one."
Perhaps the new phrase to emblazon Cadbury products should be: "Don't give a shit? Then give a Cadbury."
