Toffee Crisp is a British crisped-cereal and caramelconfection with achocolate-flavoured coating. Created in 1963 and manufactured byNestlé, the bars were produced in England until moving to Poland in the early 2020s and containedchocolate until 2025. The brand has been advertised using the slogan "somebody somewhere is having a Toffee Crisp" and has spawned multiple derivatives and tie-ins.
The Toffee Crisp was invented in 1963 by John Henderson, the great-nephew ofMackintosh's founder John Mackintosh.[3][4] Inspired by a cake his wife made for their children, early versions featuredpuffed rice and chocolate cake; subsequent versions comprised caramel, crisped cereal, and chocolate.[5] First made at a factory inHalifax,[5] the brand had moved toCastleford inWest Yorkshire by 2010[6] before moving toFawdon[7] and then to Poland in the early 2020s.[7] In 2025, following a round ofskimpflation caused bypoor cocoa harvests,[8] Nestlé replaced some of the bar'scocoa solids andmilk solids withvegetable fat, which meant neither met the 20% figure required to call itself chocolate under UK law.[9]
Early advertising used the line "somebody somewhere is having a Toffee Crisp";[5][10]Richard Osman investigated the claim for his 2017 bookThe World Cup of Everything and found it was likely correct.[10] A 1995 advert featuring the product being transformed into several cartoon-style objects including apistol and anoose spawned thirty complaints to theIndependent Television Commission, who declined to investigate.[11] The brand subsequently made adverts comprising angry people being placated after eating a Toffee Crisp,[12][13] an advert involving a spoof of the Japanese game showEndurance.[14]
The brand launched clusters and biscuit versions in 1999,[15][12] ice cream bars in 2004,[16] cereal in 2014,[17] and limited editioncoconut,honeycomb, andorange flavour derivatives in 2001, 2015, and 2021.[15][18][19] Biscuit bars began being sold in 2024 as part of Big Biscuit Boxes, which contained 69 bars ofKit Kat,Blue Riband, and Toffee Crisp,[20] while the brand's coconut derivative was advertised using acombover in the shape of acoconut husk.[15] The brand was also used as aBurger King ice cream Fusion in 2015[21] and inKrispy Kreme doughnuts in 2021.[22]McDonald's brought out lines ofMcFlurries featuring the brand in 2017,[23][24] 2025,[25] and again in 2025 as an emergency replacement following quality control failures with the Caramel Loaded McFlurry.[26]
In 2011, the South African newspaperPretoria News reported that the bars could be found on local supermarket shelves despite not being intended for that market.[27] Two years later,Jim'll Paint It featured a three-legged Toffee Crisp holding a mushroom and half a wasp[28][29] and Nestlé's Fawdon factory celebrated the brand's 50th birthday by raffling a 10-kilogram (22 lb) version forAction for Children.[30] In 2015, following a lawsuit byThe Hershey Company, the US importer Let's Buy British announced that it would no longer import several lines of British chocolate and that this included Toffee Crisps due to its packaging being similar to Hershey'speanut butter cups; the lawsuit sparked a boycott and aMoveOn petition.[31] A 2018 episode ofThe Jeremy Kyle Show featured a guest unsuccessfully trying to prove his ex-girlfriend used a Toffee Crisp wrapper as a condom.[32]
1 Brand owned byGeneral Mills; Produced by General Mills in the U.S. and Canada. Produced byCereal Partners under the Nestlé brand elsewhere.2 Brand owned byGeneral Mills; U.S. and Canadian production rights controlled by Nestlé under license.3 U.S. production rights owned byThe Hershey Company.4 U.S. rights and production owned by theSmarties Candy Company with a different product.5 U.S. rights and specific trade dress owned by Nestlé; rights elsewhere owned byAssociated British Foods.6 Produced by Cereal Partners, branded as Nestlé.7 Brand owned byPost Foods; Produced by Cereal Partners and branded as Nestlé in the U.K. and Ireland.8 Philippine production rights owned byAlaska Milk Corporation.9 Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai production rights owned byFraser and Neave.10 Used only in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia.11 Used only in the Philippines.12 U.S. production rights owned by theFerrara Candy Company.13NA rights and specific trade dress to all packaged coffee and other products under the Starbucks brand owned by Nestlé since 2019.14 Brand owned byMars, sold by Nestlé in Canada.15 Produced byFroneri in the U.S. since 2020.
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