Toblerone Advent Calendar - 204g

A shop in Bern, then a factory

Jean Tobler owned his own confectionery shop in Bern, Switzerland, from 1868, producing chocolate confectionery from products supplied by other manufacturers. Then demand did what demand does. In 1899 he founded a chocolate factory of his own, the Fabrique de Chocolat Berne, Tobler & Cie. In 1908 Emil Baumann created the recipe, and his cousin Theodor Tobler devised the triangular shape and the packaging. The Matterhorn is commonly believed to have inspired that shape, which you cannot unsee once someone points it out.

A name, a patent, a few owners

The name joins Tobler's surname with the Italian word torrone. Toblerone is considered the world's first patented milk chocolate bar, a handy fact to bring up when someone opens a door that is not theirs. The company was independent from 1899 until 1970, then merged with Suchard, then with Jacobs as Jacobs Suchard, before Kraft Foods (renamed Mondelez International) acquired it in 2012. That is a lot of signatures on one triangle.

Bern, the airport, the stocking

Toblerone has been produced in Switzerland since 1908 and is exported from Bern to 120 countries and to 500 airports, which explains a lot. Mondelez has been moving some manufacturing to Slovakia, so some bars lose the 'Swiss' label and the Matterhorn outline on the packaging. For plenty of Brits it was the present grabbed at the gate, or the bar wedged sideways into a stocking. An advent calendar simply means you get one every morning, and you can stop pretending it is for the kids.