It has been a familiar sight in shops for years with fans knowing that a wonderful chocolate treat is encased inside the purple packaging. The wrapping for Cadbury treats has been that color ever since 1914 but chocoholics are only just discovering why this is the case.
Showing they are just like us in enjoying the chocolate bars, the Royal Family first gave Cadbury a royal warrant in February 1854 during the reign of King Edward VIII.
This means that it became the official cocoa and chocolate makers for the monarch. It has had a warrant since then and has had to reapply for the honor, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
And among the adverts it produced during the Victorian period is one of Queen Victoria drinking Cadbury’s Cocoa while sitting on a train.
As the Cadbury’s website explains, the global chocolate giant had humble beginnings almost 200 years ago when John Cadbury opened a grocer’s shop in Bull Street, Birmingham, in 1824.
Among other things, he sold cocoa and drinking chocolate and by 1842 he was selling 16 different types of drinking chocolate, and 11 cocoas.
The Cadbury manufacturing business was born in 1831 when they started to produce on a commercial scale.
In 1847, the booming business moved into a new, larger factory in Bridge Street in the center of Birmingham.
When the Bridge Street factory became too small, John’s son George Cadbury began searching for a very special site for their new factory.
The brand’s first Easter egg delighted chocolate fans when it hit the shops in 1875.
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Dairy Milk was launched 30 years later, in 1905, and back then customers purchased a “continental style parcel wrap” decorated in “pale mauve with red script”.
And the reason why it became purple is because that was Queen Victoria’s favorite color.
The manufacturer battled against Nestle 10 years ago when Cadbury’s wanted to trademark the color Pantone 2865c, which is the purple chocolate fans love.
MailOnline reports that a spokesperson said: “Purple was Queen Victoria’s favorite colour, and the Cadbury brothers were loyal supporters of the Queen.”
The spokesperson added: “We have gone to great lengths to guard our trademark rights and we have been looking to protect the color for years.”
But the firm lost the legal test case after three judges ruled its distinctive purple packaging lacked “specificity” so could not be registered as a trademark.
The challenge to Cadbury was brought by its Swiss rival Nestle, but the impact of the case meant any supermarket or rival could use “Cadbury purple” for their products.
But the color is still mostly thought of as being Cadbury’s, and people know what they are going to get when they unwrap some Dairy Milk or munch their way through a pack of Buttons after a tough day at work.
