One of the great unsolved mysteries of my life has been whatever happened to the Secret chocolate bar.
I remember buying it in the newsagent near my school – inside the gold and purple wrapper and the white cardboard inner, lurked yummy strands of milk chocolate surrounding a whipped, truffley chocolate centre. You could snap it in half and then eat down either end to leave a nest-like shape with the last squidge of truffley cream in the middle. Perfection.
Over the years since it mysteriously disappeared, I’ve brought up the subject with lots of people, and almost no one remembers it. Several people have asked if I dreamed it… but it was a real thing! The internet has repeatedly failed me in the past in trying to find it, too. I thought maybe I had dreamed it… or got it muddled up with my very vivid childhood make-believe games .
Then out of nowhere I decided to Google it this morning… and look!
Looks like just as I gave up hunting, other people started looking. And starting petitions to bring them back. And discussing them at length. There is a fascinating (to me, anyway) thread on how they were made, from an ex-Nestle employee, here.
You can even watch the original (slightly random) 90s advert:
It got me thinking about other chocolates and sweets that have vanished (and the Wispa, my all time favourite chocolate, which was retired in 2003, but came back in 2007 after public pressure).
Spira
I mainly remember trying to drink tea through a Spira after biting the end off. Amazing chocolate.
Wispa Mint
Marble
Astros
and bizarrely, the Mint Crunchie (which I loved but had forgotten all about till I started researching this post!)
If you’re feeling nostalgic and have never tried making your own, take inspiration from Pimp That Snack – I went through a phase of debating supersized chocolate tributes a few years ago.
Have a look at such joys as the Juggernaut Yorkie, the D’Opal Fruits, the biggest Party Ring you’ve seen or my personal favourite, the Creme de la Creme Egg.
I’m off to raid the SU shop…
Images courtesy of boards.ie and goodtoknow.co.uk.
I’m afraid I don’t remember Secret either – what a weird, and very 90s advert.
I had forgotten about the marble chocolate, mmm that was good!
Yes Astros and Marbles!! I miss Secrets so bad 🙁
Also there was a premium cocoa Nestle milk chocolate bar at the start of the 00s that I can’t remember the name of that I ate way too many of that they no longer make…
I remember them! Someone’s also just reminded me of Wispa Bite… now they were yummy 🙂
I remember the advert but don’t think I ever tasted the bar. Thanks for linking to that thread with all the stories from the man who worked for Nestle. One of my favourite school trips was going to the Mars factory and seeing big conveyor belts of Flytes. Sadly, it wasn’t like in The Simpsons and we weren’t allowed to swim in the liquid chocolate.
I used to buy them from our school vending machine, they were heavenly! Almost like a walnut whip in a latticed chocolate… sad thing is- they put them on the top racks so when they hit the bottom of the vending machine- they usually smashed into tiny pieces. Needless to say a friend and I found out when it got filled up and made the lady put them at the bottom in future! Lol always thought I had dreamt them up too, apart from that school friend, no one remembers them!