It’s been a familiar sight in stores for years and fans know that a wonderful chocolate treat is encased within the purple packaging. the wrapper for Cadbury Candies It’s been that color since 1914, but chocoholics are only just discovering why.
Proving that they are like us in enjoying chocolate bars, the Royal family first gave cadbury a royal warrant in February 1854 during the reign of King Edward VIII.
This means that it became the official maker of cocoa and chocolate for the monarch. He has had a warrant since then and has had to reapply for the honor, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
And among the advertisements he produced during the Victorian period is one of Queen Victoria drinking Cadbury’s Cocoa while sitting on a train.
As the Cadbury website explains, the global chocolate giant had humble beginnings nearly 200 years ago, when John Cadbury opened a grocery store on Bull Street, Birmingham, in 1824.
Among other things, he sold cocoa and drinking chocolate and by 1842 he was selling 16 different types of drinking chocolate and 11 cocoas.
Cadbury’s manufacturing business was born in 1831 when they began production on a commercial scale.
In 1847 the flourishing business moved to a new and larger factory on Bridge Street in the center of Birmingham.
When the Bridge Street factory outgrew, John’s son George Cadbury began searching for a very special site for his new factory.
The brand’s first Easter egg delighted chocolate fans when it hit stores in 1875.
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Dairy Milk was launched 30 years later, in 1905, by which time customers were buying a “continental-style packet wrapper” decorated in “pale mauve with red lettering.”
And the reason it turned purple is because that was Queen Victoria’s favorite color.
The manufacturer battled Nestle 10 years ago when Cadbury wanted to trademark Pantone 2865c, the chocolate purple fans love.
online mail a spokesman is reported to have said: “Purple was Queen Victoria’s favorite colour, and the Cadbury brothers were staunch supporters of the queen.”
The spokesperson added: “We have done everything we can to protect our trademark rights and have been looking to protect color for years.”
But the company lost the legal test case after three judges ruled that its distinctive purple packaging lacked “specificity” and therefore could not be registered as a trademark.
The challenge to Cadbury was brought by Swiss rival Nestlé, but the impact of the case meant that any supermarket or rival could use “Cadbury purple” for their products.
But the color is still thought to be Cadbury’s, and people know what you’ll get when you unwrap some dairy milk or chew on a packet of buttons after a hard day’s work.