No need to break your teeth to enjoy your Carambar. “We changed the recipe for our Carambar caramel this summer, to make it softer,” reports the Carambar company.
A few days later, she even started questioning her community on her Facebook page, launching a challenge in the form of a sentence to be completed: “Carambar is so hard that…”. “Unfortunately for your dentist, he may not see you again anytime soon,” the brand even said ironically in response to an Internet user who said he had broken a tooth.
“This is the first time in 70 years that a new recipe has been distributed,” explains Carambar
A revolution which quickly pushed the company to reassure regulars, while the French consume on average more than a billion Carambar per year. “The challenge was to keep the product unchanged: the caramel taste, the bar shape, its color, its experience with the joke, because this is what our consumers have liked since the creation of this product in 1954,” said explained the brand to 60 million consumers.
It is since November 2023 that the change in recipe on the packages has finally been visible in stores. Thanks to a new added element: acacia gum, also called gum arabic or E414. “Obtained from stems and branches” of this tree, this “thickening” additive, “already present in mousses and toppings, makes confectionery softer,” indicates Que Choisir on its site.
Before being marketed, this new recipe was tested with several hundred people. “Almost 70% of regular consumers of this product preferred the recipe with the softer texture,” said the famous confectionery company. And the results seem to be there: since the marketing of the new recipe this summer, Carambar sales have shown “growth of 23%”. Proof that, even for sweets, nothing is lost, everything is transformed.