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New look, new taste – but revamped Cadbury Roses a flop with fans

Consumers are furious over Cadbury's decision to revamp its Roses chocolates.

Consumers are furious over Cadbury's decision to revamp its Roses chocolates.

Chocoholics have been left not so sweet after a revamp of the perennial fan favourite Roses range.

Cadbury announced last month it was reinventing the Australian favourite, which first hit shelves 70 years ago.

Crowd-pleasers such as hazelnut whirls, classic fudge and strawberry cremes are all out, but the often-controversial Turkish delight has survived to further divide consumers.

Roses’ classic twist wrappers are also a thing of the past, having been replaced by Favourites-style wrapping.

Other flavours hit by modernisation include peppermint creme. Once a sought-after standard, it has been replaced with a flavour called peppermint creme crunch.

Cadbury has also added three new flavours – vanilla nougat, classic caramel and, for white chocolate, lovers, white raspberry, which is made with freeze-dried raspberries.

Chocolate blisses, caramel deluxes and hazelnut praline crisps survived the axe, albeit with minor name changes.

In the wake of the move, chocolate fans have taken to Cadbury’s Facebook page to complain. Some have even accused the company of destroying “an Aussie favourite”.

I don’t know why you had to go and change your Roses chocolates,” one outraged Facebook user said. “Nobody wants peppermint crunch or white raspberry. This is an absolute atrocity, you have forever ruined Roses chocolates”. 

Another said: “Cadbury Roses [were] my every occasion chocolate. Not any more, just had a box given to me and they are horrible”. 

The Roses revamp is also bad news for people with nut allergies and gluten intolerances. The new chocolates now contain peanuts and barley.

It’s not the first time Cadbury has made changes to the Aussie classic, Mandarin creams were introduced in the ’50s, while the weirdly named peppermint cordial appeared in the ’70s. It was followed by the limited edition lemon cheesecake in the early 2000s.

Last year, the company also pulled its Cherry Ripe flavour from the box. 

Chris Ho, who operates the Old Shops Australia Facebook page, told The New Daily that Roses had lost its charm by removing the old favourites.

“The boring individual wrappers suck. It all smacks of cost cutting and is another nail in the coffin of Cadbury’s decline,” Mr Ho said. 

Earlier this year, a Cadbury special edition, Caramilk, sent shoppers into a similar frenzy when it was recalled after food grade plastic was found in some products.

Melanie Yates, senior marketing manager for Cadbury Roses told The New Daily the chocolates had been regularly updated to reflect the changing taste preferences of consumers.

“Before this latest update, we had changed at least five of the flavours in the past seven years,” Ms Yates said. 

“The number one complaint we receive from consumers is that they’ve found an empty wrapper in their box or that the flavour from one piece has transferred into another, and that’s why we’ve adopted the latest, fully sealed packaging design.

“This means the pieces now stay in their individual wrappers, and they’ll stay fresher for longer.”

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