With cocoa prices eating into profits, Toblerone bar shrinks

Anger and dismay is eating away at fans of the iconic Toblerone bar.

The Swiss chocolate maker has widened the spaces in some of its triangle-shaped bars, creating more valleys and fewer peaks.

It means customers are getting about 10 per cent less product for the same price.

And apparently, when it comes to chocolate, size does matter. Fans were horrified to hear that Toblerone was breaking the mold.

Mondelez International, the makers of Toblerone, have said the change, which affects products globally but mainly in Britain, is due to the rising cost of cocoa and other ingredients.

"Every other triangle from the bar is now missing," said Edmonton chocolatier Rebecca Grant.

"Due to the rising cocoa prices, they could no longer eat the cost of those increases, and so they just decided to cut some of the triangles out." 

Grant said the same market influences are also being felt in Edmonton.

'It's not that iconic bar anymore'

"I understand why they reduced the size," Grant said in an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "Increasing costs is an issue that everyone in the chocolate industry is facing."

The co-owner and founder of the Violet Chocolate company in Edmonton, Grant said makers of chocolate worldwide are grappling with increased costs, cutting into their bottom lines.

"There's increasing demand on the cocoa supply. Some of the plantations have been affected by drought in the last few years, so supply just can't meet demand all the time. And so costs are going up.

Though the rising cost of such a key ingredient has forced Grant to calculate her overhead carefully, she said chocolatiers have to be careful not to mess with tried-and-true recipes.

Though Grant understands why Toblerone broke the mold, she said the changes will be hard for customers to swallow.