Chocolate and coconut do make a particularly satisfying combination. Originally manufactured by the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company, Almond Joy has been a popular American sweet since 1946; it consists of a coconut filling topped with almonds and covered in milk chocolate. The Mounds bar, also by the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company, debuted in 1920, and has coconut, with dark chocolate but no nuts. Both remain popular today. The successful advertising slogan “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t” was conceived in 1970.
Similar to the Mounds bar, Bounty was introduced in the United Kingdom and Canada by the Mars Company in 1951. It offers a coconut filling covered with milk chocolate in a blue wrapper, and there is a dark chocolate version in a red wrapper. Both packages feature tropical beaches and coconut palms, advertising a taste of paradise. Mars sought to enter the American market with Bounty in 1989 but failed, even though in blind taste tests, Bounty was preferred. Americans are nostalgic about their childhood sweets.
The British continue to enjoy their traditional coconut sweets such as coconut ice, a pink and white layered sweet, which is also popular in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, this...Read more
