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Aztec bar
In a deep purple wrapper, Cadbury's answer to the Mars bar had a short and much remembered life.
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The Aztec was a chocolate bar made by Cadbury from 1967. It was nougat and caramel covered in milk chocolate, sold in a deep purple wrapper, and it had one job: to take on the Mars bar.
Cadbury against Mars
By the 1960s, the Mars bar, first made in Slough in 1932, was one of the biggest sellers in Britain. It is a simple formula: caramel and nougat under milk chocolate. The Aztec was Cadbury's attempt to beat it at its own game, with the same kind of filling and Cadbury's own milk chocolate. See Forrest Mars and the Mars bar.
A short life
It did not work. The Aztec was discontinued in 1978, after about eleven years. Cadbury tried again in 2000 with a revived Aztec 2000, but that was also discontinued soon after.
The one that worked
Cadbury did find a successful answer to the Mars bar elsewhere. The Moro, first sold in New Zealand in the 1960s, was a similar product that became a much more successful rival there.
Why the Aztec is remembered
Like many sweets of the 1960s and 1970s, the Aztec lives on mainly in people's memories, with its purple wrapper and its brief moment as a challenger to the Mars bar. For another lost bar, see the Texan.
Chocolate bar rivalries
The Aztec was part of a long running battle between Britain's chocolate makers. Cadbury and Mars have competed for decades, and Cadbury itself later became part of the American group Kraft, now Mondelez, in 2010: see how Cadbury was sold to Kraft.
More lost sweets
For more bars and sweets that have come and gone, see sweets you can no longer buy and what sweets were popular in the 1970s?.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
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Questions and answers
What was an Aztec bar?
A Cadbury chocolate bar of nougat and caramel covered in milk chocolate, sold in a deep purple wrapper from 1967.
When was the Aztec bar discontinued?
In 1978. It was briefly revived as Aztec 2000 in 2000, but disappeared again soon afterwards.
Is there anything like the Aztec bar now?
Cadbury's Moro bar, first sold in New Zealand in the 1960s, was a similar and much more successful rival to the Mars bar.
Sources
- Aztec (chocolate bar), Wikipedia
- Mars bar, Wikipedia
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