Duty-Free Food Souvenirs: Cadbury Chocolates

Unless you're lucky enough to shop at a grocery that carries international candy, you may only know Cadbury, the UK chocolatier conglomerate, just for their Easter eggs. Next time you're passing through an airport, be sure to check for these creamy chocolates!

Although Cadbury is no secret (Kraft purchased the company in 2010 and the duo are officially the world's largest confectionary company), their chocolates still aren't widely available in the US. Across the pond they sell an impressive variety of chocolates, from caramel to mint, in different textures and styles. Start with Cadbury's Dairy Milk line, a selection of milk chocolate far creamier than Hershey's or Dove. Keep an eye out for special Cadbury varieties like Flake and Aero bars. They might not be the highest end chocolates available through duty-free, but just like most souvenirs, you'll appreciate them much more once you're home.

What's your favorite Cadbury chocolate?

(Images: Stephanie Barlow)

Comments (18)

I can find several kinds of the Dairy Milk bars in Walgreen's, so I'd say they're relatively easy to find. The non-Dairy Milk candy bars are a little scarce though (unless you have some grocery stores with international sections).

Of the ones I can't usually find, I like the Cadbury Flake and Crunchie.

Hehe "across the pond".. just drive up north. We have all that stuff in Canada!

I guess there are good things about being part of the Commonwealth. That stuff is everywhere in Canada.

I love Cadbury bars!! The milk bars with almonds are one of my favorites and pretty widely available in many supermarkets and drugstores. When I'm lucky, I bump into these small Cadbury bars that have whole hazelnuts in them - sooo good!

I find my Flakes, Aeros, and Curly Wurlies (and Horlicks, McVities digestives & Hobnobs, Lucozade, and Bournville cocoa) at my closest Indian grocery store.

And whenever I'm in any Asian, Southeast Asian, Jamaican, or Irish specialty store I always check for British goods. The British colonized a good part of the world and the remains of that huge empire still show up in food preferences. Even the local Middle Eastern/Mediterranean market sells Aero bars (and lots of Kinder too).

My husband is British so we tend to buy lots of english chocolates whenever we visit his family :)

Dairy Milk is becoming easier to find in the states - Target even carries them.

However, my favorite the Crunchie (chocolate and honeycomb, nothing in the states to even compare it to!) is very difficult to find, as are other favorites such as Aero (chocolate with bubbles) and Yorkie ("not for girls", a huge hunk of chocolate bar).

BTW the Dairy Milk Caramel is the most wonderful chocolate bar ever, very sweet caramel and just melts in your mouth. Delish.

Unless the store you buy your Cadbury from imports directly from the UK, the Cadbury you get here is different (and in my opinion, far inferior) to the Cadbury in the UK. My family even did a taste testing of eggs that I bought them at a Waitrose store in London and eggs they got here at Target. The UK chocolate was the winner.

I agree with TexCausingAScene. Cadbury products in US is not the same as the Canada/UK products. Dairy Milk was not the same when I had it! I assume that Canada uses the UK recipes since the products have always been here (pre-Kraft ownership) but why they would mess with it for the US market makes no sense to me.

There used to be a dark chocolate "Old Jamaica" bar with rum flavored raisins in it that I LOVED. I didn't see it last time I was in the UK.

If you want the true Cadbury experience then pay close attention to the label. Hershey’s is making some Cadbury varieties under licence, and they are not a creamy and delicious as the original.

(I'm in Canada) We have tons of Cadbury products - we even have Cadbury outlet stores at some outlet malls!

My favourite Cadbury would be a tie between Caramilk bar and the Crunchie. I actually had to look up a product list because I don't pay attention to the manufacturer when buying mass-market chocolate bars.

Aero is Nestle, by the way (saw someone mentioned it). I've only seen Flake at the duty-free shop, with arabic writing on it. Tried it and didn't like it. Too messy and the chocolate itself was not good.

It's true that manufacturers make their chocolates different depending on which country they will be sold in. Same with beer, by the way. Molson Canadian made for export to the US isn't as good as Molson Canadian that is sold in Canada. Sorry. =(

You may want to look at World Market. The last time I bought some Dairy Milk there it was the UK chocolate with just a label over the EU area for the US nutritional label. So for those that wantt he "real" stuff and not the "American" this may be a good option for you.

Cadbury Twisted is my favorite ... it's the same filling as the eggs, but in bar form :-) I work for a British company out of our NYC office and there is always a steady supply of Cadbury!

Be careful when buying Cadbury's in the US. Much of it is made by Hershey's, under license. The recipe is different and it simply doesn't taste the same :(

I agree with Ellen in NC - World Market tends to have the real deal, with stickers over the labels. They have Crunchies even! And Tim Tams (although those are an entirely different thing, and Australian, but soooo good...)

Yes, we have Cadbury in Canada and ours is different from the UK. And yes, it's creamier, though I personally don't understand the attraction. It's creamier because Canada requires a higher chocolate content - more filler in the UK makes a creamier product.

Having said that, I'm definitely in the minority. My Canada office colleagues are always begging the UK office to send care packages.

Oh gosh yes foodie friends, Cadbury here in the US is definitely not like Cadbury back home. It seems to be more grainy like Hershey, not surprising since they are manufacturing it under license :( Cadbury obviously aren't going to reveal ALL their secrets. Import stores only for the original, and at a price :( If I need a UK style chocolate fix, Dove seems to be the closest :)

Cadbury's in the US is under licensing by Hershey, so it's not the same as Cadbury from the UK.