Hershey Canada sending Cherry Blossom to the chocolate graveyard

Some are grieving; some will dance on its grave. Hershey Canada is discontinuing Cherry Blossom, the novelty sweet that consists of a syrupy maraschino cherry encased in milk chocolate with bits of coconut and peanut.

“After being a cherished deal with for Canadians for a few years, Hershey Canada confirms that Cherry Blossom will likely be discontinued throughout the nation in early 2025,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement despatched to CBC Information.

“This Canadian confectionery icon has created candy reminiscences for generations of followers.”

The bonbons have been initially produced on the Lowney Manufacturing unit in Montreal, which was inbuilt 1905. Hershey Canada took over the model within the Nineteen Eighties. The sweets are immediately recognizable from their easy yellow packaging.

However not everybody who’s tasted one would agree it is a “cherished deal with.”

Montrealers shared a variety of opinions on the sweet with CBC Thursday afternoon. Steven Eisenberg mentioned he appreciated Cherry Blossoms when he was youthful, and now he finds the sweet “type of gooey and silly.”

Morgan Thomas had by no means tasted a Cherry Blossom earlier than. She tried one on the spot and gave a reside overview to CBC: “It is alright,” she mentioned, grimacing. She declined to complete it.

Emilie Lavery additionally ate a Cherry Blossom, a staple of her youth. “I can not erase the previous,” she conceded. “So I prefer it.”

A love-hate relationship

Canadians have a “love-hate” relationship with the Cherry Blossom, particularly those that grew up within the ’70s and ’80s, mentioned Jordan Lebel, a professor of meals advertising and marketing at Concordia College’s John Molson College of Enterprise.

“Instances have gotten troublesome within the confectionery enterprise. It is extraordinarily aggressive,” he mentioned, citing new expertise that assist producers create extra advanced merchandise, like chocolate with sea salt-infused caramel.

Customers, in the meantime, are on the lookout for treats that “shock them and take them some other place,” he mentioned. 

“I am undecided that the parents at Cherry Blossom had managed to seek out the successful components to re-engineer the product.”

Lebel famous that retailers most likely aren’t eager on giving high shelf house to a chocolate that hasn’t advanced a lot, however mentioned that the cherry-chocolate mixture is a uncommon one, and one other firm may attempt to pursue the identical area of interest.