According to some people, the advice offered by Dawn French in Terry’s Chocolate Orange adverts throughout the years – Don’t tap it… whack it! – no longer applies.
On Reddit’s r/AskUK page, user h00dman posted: ‘Are Terry’s Chocolate Oranges easier to break into segments these days, or have I finally become ‘ard as nails?’
Responses flooded in from others who’d noticed the same thing, with this shared experience leaving them convinced it was the former.
‘Used to have to slam it repeatedly into the corner of a table to get anywhere and now I can do it unassisted,’ wrote Bitter-Crazy4119, while Sm0keytrip0d joked it had been ‘downgraded to a Terry’s Chocolate Easy Peeler.’
Some blamed it on a manufacturing change, including Judge_Dredd who claimed the pieces were previously solid but now feature a raised outer edge, ‘meaning a certain proportion of your orange is now just air, and also making them easier to separate.’
And they aren’t the only ones pushing this theory; it’s been cropping up every so often for the last few years on social media, with many surmising the treat was modified after the brand’s acquisition by French firm Carambar & Co in 2017, when production was moved to Strasbourg.
Given the various confectionery conspiracies that have turned out to be true recently – such as Nestlé’s Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband failing to meet the standard to be called ‘chocolate’ – Metro did some digging to try crack the case wide open.
Have Terry’s Chocolate Oranges changed?
Terry’s refused to confirm or deny the structure and recipe of the ball had changed in any way that could impact your opening experience.
However, news reports from the last decade suggest the moulded shape of each Chocolate Orange segment may have been altered to leave an air gap between them, allowing the product to keep to the same dimensions despite getting smaller in weight.
Carambar said the move was necessary as a result of ‘sky-high cocoa prices due to massive cocoa shortages’, but Grocery analyst Richard Price, from Britsuperstore, told the Daily Mail called yet another case of ‘shrinkflation’.
Archive images bolster this hypothesis; Terry’s wedges look largely solid in pre-2016 photos, after which a new ripple effect design reveals a noticeablelevel of ‘hollowing’.
With undeniable evidence the Chocolate Orange Ball has quietly been weakened (Terry’s-gate, if you will), if you’re finding it easier to break into your festive chocolate, it’s probably not because you’ve suddenly become hench without realising.
However, while Carambar remains tight-lipped about manufacturing, it does note that higher storage temperatures (warmer is better) and technique (it’s best to bash them off a hard surface) play a major part too.
‘Cracking a Terry’s Chocolate Orange has always been part science, part ceremony,’ Mimi Williams, spokesperson at Terry’s Chocolate tells Metro. ‘Success depends on the right conditions: the correct tap, a confident unwrap and the perfect chocolate temperature.’
That’s not the only Chocolate Orange controversy to hit the headlines recently either.
Terry’s had to leap into action last week after a UK-based American influencer’s viral TikTok sparked nationwide outrage and almost caused ‘an international incident’.
The video in question, which has now surpassed 2.2m views, showed Russell Valentin (aka @redbusruss) taste-testing the product, biting into it like an apple, rather than following the traditional segment-by-segment method.
Thousands of Brits commented to share amused shock and pure horror alike, describing his technique as a ‘crime’ against a time-honoured sharing ritual.
Terry’s was forced to step in, issuing vital ‘tap it, unwrap it, share it’ advice on its Instagram.
Russell then released an apology and correction — and despite smacking the Chocolate Orange off his head in the second clip, was largely forgiven by the UK public.
