5 Kenyan Snacks From 2000’s You Probably Forgot About

Most of the iconic Cadbury snacks disappeared after Cadbury discontinued manufacturing chocolates in Kenya in 2011, and resorted to importing from their South Africa plant, probably due to regulation and taxation in the country. In 2020 Cadbury decided to close the Kenyan factory altogether. The other candies just disappeared by slowly fading into obscurity, and some exist up to date!

Table of Contents

1. Mint Choco

From the name alone, you might think mint chocolate sounds like the nastiest combination ever. Chocolate is delicious, while mint is fresh and contrasting, so you’d imagine mint chocolate would taste like eating toothpaste inside a dessert. But no, that’s not the case.

Another weird combo that sounds unappetizing but tastes amazing is cheese and onion crisps. It may sound odd, but it’s so good that it’s become a personal favorite.

The point is, that the final taste of anything isn’t based on the individual ingredients but on how they meld together in the right proportions. For this reason, mint chocolate, which theoretically should be a nasty chocolate bar, was probably one of the best treats from childhood in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Like all good things, Cadbury Kenya discontinued them. They used to cost 10-15 KSh a piece, along with Fudge, another Cadbury chocolate. The modern Cadbury lineup includes Mint Crisp chocolate, but it’s nothing compared to the legendary mint chocolate from decades ago.

Taste aside, perhaps the most notable thing about mint choco was the fact that it was non-melt chocolate, I don’t know what they added but never used to melt!

Inside was a peppermint-hardened cream and it was all covered with chocolate on the outside, just like how a KitKat is a wafer inside covered in chocolate.

2. Fudge

The fudge bars were the same shape and tasted a little more dense and intense in chocolatey goodness, its soft fudge is covered with smooth milk chocolate. Unlike mint choco, MIA, you can buy Fudge to date at Monty’s candy shop in Sarit Centre for KSh 130 a piece.

You can find it only here because they import snacks, but it is not readily distributed throughout Kenya by Cadbury which is why you can’t find it at your nearest supermarket or shop, it is exotic. In the UK, they are readily available.

Either way, even if you get your hands on it, won’t taste as good as it used to back in the day because nostalgia makes the past just better and everything from then tastes better, but on the bright side, your childhood won’t be really over.

3. Ecairs

Eclairs have a hard-shelled chocolatey exterior that melts in your mouth once the shell is done, the inside is soft chocolatey goodness that explodes in your mouth, and the outside shell is notorious for being sticky to the teeth.

Eclairs are probably the latest item from Cadbury to disappear never to see the day of light again. But unlike mint choco and fudge which were a result of manufacturing stopping in Kenya, for eclairs, they have been imported and sold in Kenya till around the pandemic era when the government decided to classify them as chocolates and not sweets.

What does that even mean? Well, chocolates are grouped as luxury items, the same as alcohol, meaning on top of the VAT levied on most products, another additional excise duty, ” chocolate duty” would be charged on top of the VAT making Eclairs even more expensive!

Eclair used to sell for 5/= a piece, which was still a high price for an ordinary person to justify paying for one small sweet, getting 10 pieces was just 50/= which is insane, still, eclairs were a niche product and appealed to a few people who found it worth it

Now with the new duties to be levied, it would mean that a single eclairs would sell for upwards of between 10 and 15 KSh a piece, so if you got 10 of them just do the math

For that reason, Cadbury Kenya decided to stop importing them altogether, so that is why you don’t see them, the good news is, you can still buy them from Monty’s in Sarit Centre, the bad news is a pack that used to sell for KSh 210, you’ll get it at KSh 500 there.

4. Patco

Patco was a confectionery that had a chalk-like consistency, texture, and appearance, but in disc shapes. They were extremely brittle and overly sweet!

For Patco, what if I told you they still exist today? It’s just that everyone kind of outgrew them, and their popularity declined over the years. The new generation of kids didn’t uphold that legacy, so while they’re still around, you have to look for them.

Part of the reason they faded away is modernization and improved hygiene. Back in the day, we used to buy Patco, and the shopkeeper would dispense them into your dirty palm because they were sold from a jar and weren’t individually wrapped. Nowadays, each piece is individually wrapped, and they are sold in packs instead of as individual units.

5. Original Mr. Berry

Mr Berry wasn’t a chocolate or confectionery, but a gum. The name doesn’t lie, it was the most strawberry-intense item you could taste to date, the gum was affordable back in the pre-2010’s used to get 2 for KSh 5 which was a steal, perhaps the other popular thing about Mr. Berry was the fact that it blew better bubblegum than any other gum in the market, you could blow a bubblegum twice the size of your head before it would burst haha, good old days!

Someone told me they still exist, it’s just that I haven’t had contact with them since 2009. There is a Mr Berry Shop at Sarit Centre where you can find all Mr Berry products.