About This Quiz
In jolly old England, Dairy Milk-maker Cadbury was selling drinking chocolate to eager fans of sweet treats as early as 1824; famous for its creamy truffles, Swiss candy-maker Lindt started selling chocolate confections in 1845; across the Atlantic in the United States, Milton Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company in Pennsylvania way back in the 1880s. Meanwhile, Australia was not much more than a handful of separate British colonies that grew out of what was initially a penal colony. It wasn't until 1901 that Australia even became a nation, gaining independence from Great Britain and uniting as federation all its own.ÂÂ
Yet in not much more than a century, Australia has managed to become one of the strongest economies on Earth. Its remote location in the South Pacific means the nation has developed a unique culture all its own, with rich traditions, an enviable accent and yes, great food, including snacks and sweets. You'll not only find chocolate bars, of the likes of Snickers or Milky Way in the States, but Aussies also enjoy chowing down on some less-familiar classics, including gummies, sherbets and plenty of caramel treats. Think you can name these candies enjoyed from Perth to Brisbane and everyone in between? Prove your Aussie candy IQ with this quiz!
If you turned American M&M's inside out, you'd have the Aussie favorite Clinkers. These chocolate balls are filled with crunchy cores in colors like pink, green and yellow. Sold by Cadbury, they are marketed with the tagline "All will be revealed," because taking a bite unveils the color hidden within.
Perfume flavored candy? Only in Australia. Produced since the early 20th century, Musk Sticks come in a sweet shade of pink and feature a chalky texture, kind of like those candy hearts you eat on Valentine's Day. They are made of sugar, gelatin and musk ... an animal secretion that is commonly used in perfumes. Yum.
Created way back at the start of the 20th century, the Violet Crumble consists of a chocolate-coated honeycomb bar. While comparable to Cadbury's Crunchie, the Violet Crumble is a true Aussie tradition. It gets its unusual name from inventor Abel Hoadley, who chose the moniker after his wife's favorite flower.
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Similar to SweeTARTS in the U.S. Fruit Tingles have a chalky texture and fruit-inspired flavor. Invented way back in the 1930s, they have been sold under the Life Savers brand since the '00s and come in rolls of 16. A pop of fizz in each of these sweets makes the mouth tingle, hence its name.
Hershey's pretty much owns the term Kisses when referring to candy in the U.S., but in Australia, a coconut kiss is actually a buttery cube of caramel coated with shredded coconut. Its primary ingredient is condensed milk, so it makes sense that this treat has been around since the early 20th century when Nestle built a massive condensed milk factory in Queensland.
When the Caramello Koala came out in the '60s, commercials for the candy featured a cartoon koala floating down a river to the tune of "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan. Today this koala-shaped, chocolate-coated caramel fav is one of the top-selling candies in Australia.
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Packaged like a Peppermint Patty, the Golden Rough is actually more like a coconut cluster. This flat chocolate disc is packed with shredded coconut and wrapped in a shiny gold wrapper. Since the '60s, more than 2.5 million Golden Roughs are still sold each year, according to the "Sydney Morning Herald."
Aussie company Allen's sells bags of gummy snakes under the name Snakes Alive. Interestingly enough, the company has done silly studies to see how people eat this treat. The 2018 Lolly Lover's Index found that men are more likely to dive in by biting off the snake's head, while women like to play with their food by stretching the snake out and seeing how far it will go before it snaps.
When you remove their distinctive red and yellow wrapper, the Picnic bar isn't much more than a brown, lumpy log. Take a bite, however, and you'll find out why Australians have been chowing down on this chocolate, peanut, caramel and wafer concoction since 1958.
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Inspired by Jaffa oranges, which are native to the Middle East and shipped all over the world, Australia's Jaffas candy featured an orange-red shell filled with yummy chocolate. Introduced in 1931, they are now sold under Allen's brand. Every year at the Cadbury Chocolate Festival in New Zealand, one tradition involves rolling tens of thousands of Jaffas down one of the world's steepest streets.
Kids have been scooping the effervescent fruity powder in packets of Fizz Wizz into their eager mouths since way back in 1947. Once available only in original sherbet flavor, it now comes in other flavors, including sour versions. Once sold with Disney characters on the wrappers, the packets now feature images of silly monsters like Gross Gus and Weird Wally.
Introduced in the '70s, the Chomp bar is an Aussie original. Geared towards kids thanks to a dinosaur logo and the motto "It's a monster chew," the Chomp bar includes layers of wafer and caramel surrounded by a chocolaty coating.
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Nestle keeps things simple with the name Mint Pattie for this chocolate and mint cream combination. Similar to the Peppermint Patty in the U.S., the Aussie version features a coating made from milk chocolate rather than dark.
Jersey Caramels are old-school Aussie candy classics. Made using condensed milk, which was huge in Australia thanks to a major Nestle factory that opened in Queensland in 1908, these treats feature three layers of caramel-flavored fudge.
An 18-year-old employee at MacRobertson's Candy came up with the solid chocolate Freddo Frog in 1930. Now available in milk, white, dark and peanut-filled varieties, close to 100 million Freddos are sold each year, according to the "Sydney Morning Herald."
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Milko Chews are yet another candy produced by Allen's. These small chewy sticks are made from condensed milk and usually sold in variety bags with other Allen's chews, including Sherbies and FanTales.
We might call them nonpareils in the U.S., but Aussie candy fans refer to these colorful chocolate discs as Freckles. When you take the colorful balls off the chocolate and place them onto buttered toast instead, you've got yourself a treat that Australians call fairy bread.
In Australia, Bullets are tiny cylinders of licorice coated in chocolate. Available in both milk and dark varieties, they are produced by numerous candy companies within the country and sold under a variety of brand names.
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Remember that insane Tide Pipe Challenge in 2018, when people of dubious intelligence were filming themselves biting into pods of Tide laundry detergent? If only they had something more palpable like the Pods Mars sells in Australia, which are filled with gooey caramel, peanuts and more.
Forget puny gummy worms; Aussies prefer the deliciousness of Killer Pythons. These gummy treats used to be more than a foot long, until 2014, when manufacturer Nestle shortened them by a few inches to help fight obesity.
Minties have been around since 1922, and have been blamed for pulling out teeth and messing up dental work ever since. These chewy, minty rectangles are sold under the slogan "It's moments like these you need a Mintie," indicating that a refreshing candy chew can turn a bad day around.
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Australians have been chewing on Red Skins for a long time. These raspberry-flavored chews used to feature an "Indian" in full headdress on the package, but have since been toned down to a more neutral red and purple wrapper.
FanTales are an Aussie creation that came out in the '30s, just as films with sound were hitting the country. These chocolate caramel sweets quickly became a favorite for moviegoers, and today, as was back then, the wrappers feature stories and trivia about popular stars.
Inspired by the beloved Penguins snack in the UK, Tim Tams are cookie sandwiches filled with cocoa cream and coated with a layer of chocolate. True Aussies know you must bite off-diagonal corners and use a Tim Tam to slurp your drink - a move known as the Tim Tam Slam.
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Introduced way back in 1924, Cherry Ripe is not only the oldest candy bar in Australia but also the most popular, according to a 2013 study by market research firm Roy Morgan. If shredded coconut and cherries formed into a bar and dipped in chocolate sounds just right, it might be time to give the Cherry Ripe a try.
FruChocs are such a beloved treat Down Under that they were listed with the National Trust as a vital part of Australian heritage, according to the Government of South Australia. In some parts of the country, they are sold under the name Chocolate Apricot Balls because the manufacturer found that some consumers were confused by how to pronounce FruChocs.
The honeycomb sweetness of the Violet Crumble was so popular with Aussies, that it's only natural it spurred competition. Now owned by Cadbury, the Crunchie was introduced in 1929 and is remembered for its iconic train robbery commercial, which aired from the '70s through the '90s.
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In 1943, these candy cigarettes were given a name inspired by a slang term for cigarettes in Australia. As smoking grew less cool over the years, and the name of the product became a derogatory term for homosexuals, the name of the candy was changed to Fads. A red tip that resembled a lit cigarette was eliminated from the candy in the '00s.
People in the Middle East have been enjoying a fruity, jelly candy since at least the 1700s. In 1914, J.S. Fry and Sons made it into a chocolate-coated bar of fruit jelly known as a Turkish Delight, which people are still buying to this day.
As the 19th century turned to the 20th, Lord Lamington served as Governor of Queensland. Legend has it that his cook came up with the idea for Lamingtons, a creation made of chocolate-soaked sponge cake rolled in shredded coconut.
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In the '50s, Wild West movies were very popular in Australia, prompting the introduction of Arnott's Wagon Wheels. These marshmallow sandwiches are topped by biscuits, and the entire thing is coated in chocolate. Today, you can also find orange, caramel and malted versions.
Inspired by the Jelly Babies eaten in England, Aussies call these brown, chocolate flavored babies Chicos. The problem is, Chicos translates to children in Spanish, so some call out the name for being offensive to Latin Americans.
Americans think of lollipops as candy on a stick, but Australians use the term lollies to refer to many loose candies.
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The Chokito bar is a bit like the 100 Grand in the U.S., complete with fudge caramel and crispy rice. Many commercials for this bar put power into the hands of everyday guys, showing them saying "No, no, no" to authority figures like bar bouncers.
The Choo-Choo Bar is an old-school Aussie classic. It comes in thin layers of toffee flavored with licorice or raspberry. The wrapper fits the name well, featuring animals riding aboard a colorful train.
The honeycomb core in a Violet Crumble shatters pretty easily. To keep all that sweet toffee from going to waste, a company named Hoadley's came up with Berties Beetles in the '60s. These chocolate insects are filled with crumbled bit leftover from broken Violet Crumbles.
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