--- title: Toblerone Chocolate Is Changing Shape, Fans Blame Brexit description: Popular chocolate bar Toblerone is changing its iconic triangular shape, angering loyal chocolate lovers in the U.K. who are blaming Brexit canonical: https://time.com/4562255/toblerone-changing-shape-chocolate-brexit/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-08T11:51:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:37.500Z og:title: Toblerone Chocolate Is Changing Shape, Fans Blame Brexit og:description: Popular chocolate bar Toblerone is changing its iconic triangular shape, angering loyal chocolate lovers in the U.K. who are blaming Brexit og:url: https://time.com/4562255/toblerone-changing-shape-chocolate-brexit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt670672c659d7f68f/6988ad6d2dce013a119eb560/gettyimages-458105141-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: Toblerone chocolate bar og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Toblerone Chocolate Is Changing Shape, Fans Blame Brexit twitter:description: Popular chocolate bar Toblerone is changing its iconic triangular shape, angering loyal chocolate lovers in the U.K. who are blaming Brexit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt670672c659d7f68f/6988ad6d2dce013a119eb560/gettyimages-458105141-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Toblerone Is Changing Shape, and Chocolate Lovers Are Not Happy > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: The Business of Creativity: The Chocolate Makers [Watch (HLS stream): The Business of Creativity: The Chocolate Makers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DhKufoJq.m3u8) (4:13)  _Published 2012-12-27. The Mast brothers followed their passion for chocolate to create a growing artisan business in Brooklyn, NY_ by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 8, 2016 11:51 AM UTC  Swiss chocolate Toblerone is known for its iconic triangular shape. U.K. fans have been left angered over changes to the chocolate's weight and shape, taking to social media to blame Brexit for rising costs. Swiss chocolate Toblerone is known for its iconic triangular shape. U.K. fans have been left angered over changes to the chocolate's weight and shape, taking to social media to blame Brexit for rising costs. lovleah—Getty Images by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Nov 8, 2016 11:51 AM UTC Popular chocolate bar Toblerone is changing its iconic triangular shape, angering loyal chocolate lovers in the U.K. who are blaming [Brexit](http://time.com/4547387/great-british-bake-off-like-brexit/?iid=sr-link9) for the alteration to the chocolate’s weight. In a statement on their [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/Toblerone/posts/1308853319149448), Toblerone said “Like many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients.” The chocolate maker confirmed that the gaps between the triangular segments of chocolate would be wider, reducing the weight of the 400g bars to 360g and the 170g bars to 150g. The size of the packaging will remain the same. A spokesman for Mondelez International, the U.S.-based company that manufactures Toblerone chocolate, was unable to confirm to [the BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37904703) whether the change in the chocolate’s weight and design affected only the U.K. market, as opposed to the wider European market. However, the spokesman added that the alteration in the chocolate’s weight and design “wasn’t done as a result of Brexit.” Despite this assurance, fans of the chocolate bar were left unimpressed on social media. > [](https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/795921769827880960) > [](https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/795885440641470464) > [](https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/795902395922481152) > [](https://twitter.com/markcjgreenwood/status/795903142370099200) Meanwhile, some made light of the chocolate hysteria in the U.K. as voters in America head to the polls today to decide [the next U.S. president](http://time.com/4562091/election-results-2016-trump-clinton-final-hours/?xid=homepage). > [](https://twitter.com/TerrysWineLodge/status/795896381483393028) > [](https://twitter.com/Simon%5FPegg/status/795912723292884992) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Do you think that we could have chosen a better thing to sell than chocolate. In terms of just, being around happy people. And, people smiling, and people being excited, to come here? [ MUSIC ] Mast Brothers Chocolate is a, craft, chocolate maker. Our approach is, basically, to source the best ingredients in the world. And, when you source the best. I guarantee you it will be farmed by incredible people, that are well- paid and on great land. So, if we don't compromise quality, we'll always end up on top. And, we'll be making the most delicious chocolate in the world. Chocolate is, arguably, the most popular food on earth. Everybody loves it, but nobody's connected to how it's made. [ MUSIC ] There's always these things that people do to escape, kind of, from reality. Where, when you're doing, you don't think about anything else. And, food became that for me, so I'm dutching New York, to go to culinary school. Always passionate, about working with my brother, and starting a family business. We were roommates, and always, would through around different ideas. That, eventually led to, to making chocolate as a hobby. When we first started making chocolate, even from our apartment. There were very few people, we could really model ourselves after. Nobody was making chocolate from scratch, in New York. [ MUSIC ] We didn't just wanna start something, and see what happened in the next couple years. We wanted to commit to it, for the long term. We basically did what, I think, a lot of entrepreneurs do. You take out credit cards. That was really our only choice at the time and, and we were so passionate about it we just went for it. When we first started we were making like, a couple hundred bars a week. Tops. And then, we'd sell them at the Farmer's Market, Artist and Flea's Market, Brooklyn Flea Market. And then, we'd take whatever cash we made from that and buy a new piece of equipment or. Buy some more beans. The base of our chocolate is only made with cocoa beans and sugar. To connect people to that kind of simplicity. And, to show them how delicious that simplicity can be. And how complex it can be, is really an exciting opportunity. [ MUSIC ] Basically, we're always, kind of, searching for the new best bean. Now, farmers are sending their beans to us saying. Hey, try this bean, try this bean. We want to see what you can do with this bean. Yeah there's an ingrained trust, almost, with the, with the farmers. That were going to pay tribute, to the hard work that their doing. The large majority of chocolate, consumed on earth, is made by a handful of giant industrial companies. There's no machine, that can really tell you, if your chocolate tastes good. Now, we've got 35 employees. Everybody here is a chocolate maker. No matter if you work in sales or whatever. You have to become a chocolate maker first. Every step of the way, we're almost forced to innovate, because there is no map. For what we're doing. A lot of the machinery that we use. We had to either customize, or come up with, to really make it work for us. [ MUSIC ] Innovation even starts, on just, sorting all of our beans by hand. Making sure, we have the best and most delicious beans, to put into all of our chocolate. Every other chocolate shop, basically, in the world. They're out roasting beans. Every bean, from every origin, gets a slightly different roasting profile. Because, we want to display all of the unique characteristics, of each bean. We use a stone grinding technique, and we age our chocolate. So, we take time. We take time. Our, sort of, stoic, Midwest upbringing has taught us, that hard work. Gets you where you want to go. We've never owned a business before, so we're learning a lot as we go. We get new opportunities thrown at us all the time. So, we have to really define what our company is. Who we are, and how we want to lead this company. Quality is always our focus. Quality is always our focus. So would I like to make more chocolate to reach more people? Absolutely. Absolutely. But, we always have to be careful how we do that, to make sure we never compromise our quality. 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