Aldi's Easter offering includes dupe of popular discontinued chocolate bar

Aldi’s Easter chocolate range includes a hidden gem (Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

After 65 years, Caramac was taken off the shelves in November.

Although low sales were cited as the reason for the discontinuation, fans of the treat were devastated.

Fortunately, Aldi has swooped in with their own version of Caramac, and instead of a boring old bar, you get Belgian chocolate office bunnies.

According to the Aldi website, the confection will only set you back by £2.99 — but given Aldi has recently been voted the cheapest supermarket in the UK in 2023, we knew the price would be good.

Aldi’s Easter chocolate range includes a hidden gem (Picture: Aldi)

The only question is, what will happen to the treat after Easter?

It’s currently one of the only ways Caramac fans are able to get their fix, so let’s just hope Aldi’s Belgian Blonde line continues in some form after the celebrations are over.

Chocolate lovers are still heartbroken (Picture: Shutterstock / Photo_Pix)

Nestlé confirmed in November that it will be discontinuing the iconic bar, telling customers it was ‘a difficult decision’.

The caramel-based confectionery will slowly be disappearing from shelves and the news left fans heartbroken.

A Caramac fan started a petition to get the chocolate back on shelves

Gary Millar, who loves the caramel-based sweet so much he was compelled to take action in the hope of keeping it on shelves.

The former Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool decided to start a petition showing demand for the treat, and has managed to rack up over 30,000 signatures as of January 2024.

Appealing to fellow fans and the product’s manufacturers alike, he wrote: ‘We cannot let this piece of confectionery history fade away without a fight.’

In the meantime, Aldi’s Easter section has plenty of other chocolate dupes. Their own-brand Dairy Fine range, for instance include mini egg mix-ups (a dupe of the Cadbury Dairy Milk cream eggs and Oreo eggs), and the old reliable OG Mini-Eggs.

There’s also products like Poppin’s choc — which are designed to be a cheaper alternative to Marks and Spencer’s chocolate-covered popcorn.

Above all, it looks like the Easter Bunny can look forward to being a savvy shopper this year.

Discontinued chocolate bars we’re still in mourning for:

Fuse

Remember this? (Picture: Ebay)

Throwing raisins, nuts, cereal pieces and fudge into the chocolate mix, Fuse certainly lived up to its name.

It was once so popular that it was even promoted to Cadbury’s crowning glory – the Miniature Heroes.

Sadly, after a 10-year run, the bar was discontinued in 2006.

It was briefly resurrected for a Halloween campaign in 2015.

Flake Snow

And this?

One of several variations on the crumbliest, tastiest chocolate, this turn-of-the-century product saw Cadbury put their white chocolate into a standard Flake.

Originally called the Snowflake, It’s also one of the few chocolate bars to make headline news – Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey were accused of cheapening the sanctity of marriage when they were pictured promoting it (inadvertently they claim) at their wedding.

Dream

The nation mourns this one (Picture: Cadbury)

The Dream also went the way of the Flake Snow, despite a high-profile tie-in with Coronation Street.

Cadbury’s white chocolate answer to the Dairy Milk was creamier and arguably tastier than Nestle’s finest, but the power of the Milkybar Kid proved to be too strong.

Rumba

Now this is proper old-school. Cadbury’s Rumba was a two-stick chocolate bar which was marketed for adults due to its unique flavouring of rum.

As its chocolate-brown wrapping suggested, the Rumba was the kind of chocolate bar that could only ever have existed in the 1970s.

Amazin’ Raisin Bar

Ring a bell? (Picture: Cadbury)

Rum was also a central ingredient to the fruit-filled chocolate bar that no doubt got grammar pedants all in a tizz in the 1970s.

The Amazin’ Raisin Bar also threw caramel, nougat, and, of course, raisins into the mix.

Back in the day cost just 5p!

Spira

What a throwback (Picture: Cadbury)

The Spira was undoubtedly the quintessential chocolate bar if you liked dipping them in your cup of tea.

Essentially two Cadbury’s chocolate fingers spiralled into straws, the Spira was once the North West’s second most popular chocolate bar, but by 2005 had fallen way behind the similarly tea-dunking-friendly Twirl.

Aztec

Once a rival to the mighty Mars bar, the Aztec offered a similar mix of chocolate, caramel and nougat.

But, like the empire it was named after, its power eventually crumbled and it was taken off the shelves for good in 1978.

Wispa Mint

Gone but not forgotten (Picture: Pinterest)

Both the Wispa and Wispa Gold have been brought back from the dead, so there’s still hope the popular mint version of the bubbly chocolate will once again grace sweet-shop shelves.

The Wispa brand’s answer to the Aero Mint was discontinued in 2003 alongside the equally tasty caramel and biscuit Bite.

Dairy Milk 30% Less Sugar

Whatever happened to this? (Picture: Cadbury)

Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed the bar has dropped off the shelves just four years after it launched in 2019.

A spokesperson for the iconic chocolate brand says this is due to a fall in demand for the less sweet treat.

Mondelez, formerly known as Kraft, the company that bought Cadbury in 2010, had initially hoped that the bar could become the chocolate version of Diet Coke and become a popular, ‘lighter’ answer to the Dairy Milk bar.

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