Mars bar without signature ripple sparks online frenzy in UK — and a £2 compensation voucher
LONDON, Dec 1 — So, imagine this: You’re cruising along the road, en route to a classic car show, and you grab a Mars bar at a service station.
You rip it open, only to find it’s missing that signature swirl of chocolate — the ripple that makes a Mars bar a Mars bar.
Cue shock, confusion, and a whole lot of internet chatter.
That’s exactly what happened to Harry Seager, 34, when he unwrapped his treat in Thame, a market town near Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Seager, thinking it was some new cost-cutting move, posted about it on the Dull Men’s Club Facebook page — and boom, over 16,000 comments came flooding in, making his discovery go viral across the UK.
Mars Wrigley UK, the company behind the beloved chocolate bar, was quick to respond.
They reassured everyone that the swirl is still very much a part of the recipe and that apparently, this particular bar had slipped through the production line without its usual ripple.
While Mars didn’t give Seager a clear reason for the hiccup, the online sleuths from the Dull Men’s Club speculated that the bar escaped the crucial “air blow” process that gives it that signature rippled finish.
A few former Mars workers even chimed in, explaining that all Mars bars are meant to go through a machine called an enrober — think of it as a chocolate waterfall — and if a bar misses the air blow, well, it ends up ripple-less.
But here’s the best part: Mars sent Seager a £2 voucher as an apology (about RM11.50), and he’s planning to use it to snag a couple of replacement bars.
“I think £2 is great, it will be two free Mars bars. Maybe they could have sent me more, but I’m not being ungrateful. I think it’s amazing — after everything that’s happened — that I got the £2 voucher,” he was quoted as saying by Australian tabloid The Age.
Mars also reassured everyone that with 2.5 million Mars bars rolling off the production line every day, this was just a rare slip-up. The classic swirl is here to stay, folks.
