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Mars - chocolate company


Famous for the original MARS BARS, the Mars chocolate company is a famous name in confectionery worldwide. Mars bars are multilayer glucose-filled gummy scrummy bars of chocolate which can be consumed in the traditional way straight after removing the wrapper, or can be deep fried in Glasgow style, or can be put through a mangle between two sheets of paper, frozen, and eaten as a delicate frosted wafer.

According to an old newspaper article, a horse named "No Bombs" won a race by ten lengths and so was immediately drug-tested. It was then found that the horse had earlier stolen a Mars bar from a stable boy, and so the win was disqualified. Now whether a Mars bar does indeed supercharge a horse is open to question and further experimentation, but it must surely cheer up the company making these confectioneries?!

The Mars company is also responsible for the production of the Snickers bar, which in its kingsize form (as far as I know) has the highest energy content of any standard chocolate bar available without a prescription. Snickers was previously known as Marathon, the idea being that the energy contained was appropriate for running 26 miles 385 yards. However, much to the dismay of chocolate-eaters, the name was changed to Snickers. It has been speculated that one of the reasons for this is that it's not possible to trademark "Marathon" as it is a name of a place, and of a race, etc. In contrast, "Snickers" has no meaning before the renaming of the bar of chocolate and so it's possible to trademark it. I don't know if any of this is true, but it's a good guess based on the problems the company must have had with the naming of a bar of chocolate which had the same name as a classical god of war as well as the planet Mars

The official website of the Mars chocolate company is www.mars.com , and I hasten to add that the page you are reading here is not part of that. It's an independent review, and as surely as someone can review a movie, or popcorn, or sticky chocolate bars, it is a matter of freedom of speech.

To be fair to Mars, they have currently (2009/11) got some material at their site about the good works they do, the sustainability of their cocoa, and other good public-spirited things including the environment.

However, some time ago I found it difficult to forgive them for a thing they did which could be regarded as using people with allergies as human-shield to defeat small corner-shop grocers in the practice of splitting multipacks. The splitting of multipacks has always been a snag for manufacturers who want to control the market, and the shopkeepers have sometimes managed to boost their livelihoods by breaking open cheap multipacks and selling the individual products at a profit. The best most manufacturers could do is to put on the product "this is part of a multipack. not to be sold individually". However, what Mars did was to put on the individual Snickers bars inside a multipack something like "Not to be sold individually. Allergy warnings! See outer pack!". In other words "Hey you grocer, if you sell this pack individually we don't include the proper nut-allergy warnings. So it's tough luck on you if you poison someone". Please bear in mind this was at the stupid period in food history when Walnut Whips had to have warnings eg "may contain traces of nut" even though it was obvious for anyone with a nut allergy to see, the thing had a clearly visible half-walnut on the top, never mind about "traces". Plus, the name gave it away somewhat.

It goes almost without saying, that a Snickers/Marathon bar is full of peanuts and glucose, and there is no question of any subtlety of any "traces" sneaking in.

I have an unusual metabolism, being a diabetic, coeliac, and schizophrenic. So, it's not surprising I have experienced some odd things with some of these products. However, I take my own risks on these things!

It would be nice if MARS had an affiliate program, as I'm sure there could be an additional page created here a bit like the page about Cadburys. Different people prefer different styles of chocolate, and there's plenty of room in the market for such differences.

Another Mars Bars website is www.marsbar.co.uk but last time I looked, they expected me to tell them my date of birth. Well it's none of their business! I wouldn't tell them. I wonder what possible excuse they have asking such a question. This surely undermines people's sense when it comes to protecting personal information.


Please note: This page is an independent review by an independent reviewer, and does not represent the views of the Mars Chocolate Company. If you believe there is anything wrong with what's being said, there are diplomatic ways to get it adjusted. See [correct]