Toblerone One By One (Major Letdown)

Toblerone! They used to be the in vogue chocolate to bring back from vacation. Once primarily available at the duty free counters in airports in Malaysia, they are one of the most iconic chocolates in the world, with their triangular shape, and the distinctive red block lettering.

For a long time there was only the original Toblerone - the yellow beige boxed one. Then came the white chocolate one, which I thought was even yummier. Then came the dark chocolate in its black packaging. Finally, small bars appeared on the grocery candy racks, but by that time, I was no longer a kid and way too caught up in gastronomy to think about chocolate.

Toblerone came back on my radar when bestie number five, Lim Ying May included mini versions of the chocolate in her daughter's full-moon gift box. I pulled a face when I ate it. It was so different from the ones I remembered, from the time when Swiss chocolate meant Swiss made, and not Swiss-name-borrowed and manufactured in countries with temperatures doubling that of the hottest Swiss summers in history.

I passed it off as perhaps being a slightly off product. Then Nana bought this box for Erin.

Goodbye to an icon.

And this food lover's soul shrivelled just a bit. It was a lovely box and idea. The contents were individual triangles of Toblerone wrapped in shiny wrapper with the chocolate brand. But face value is as far as it went. Though the package says the product was made in Switzerland, something must have gone wrong in the way Kraft foods, which now owns the brand, is making them these days.

To put it bluntly, the chocolate tasted cheap. It could have been something made in Indonesia with palm oil. There was a staleness to it, like inferior, mouldy cocoa. it was also way too sweet, as if sugar was used to mask the non existence or lack of the signature honey nougat. The almond nibs also felt stale, flat, with no crunch, like nuts left out of an airtight bin.

Just looks just don't cut it anymore.

This may well be one of the saddest things to happen to an iconic food brand. As I write I know I will not be buying any Toblerone product ever again. If I am given some, I will try to be as objective as possible when I review it, but I have the gut feeling that it won't be getting any better any time soon.