Nostalgic chocolate bars seem to be having a real moment this year. Following M&S bringing back four retro favourites in July and Terry’s reviving its White Chocolate Orange last week, Asda has now joined the trend, relaunching its own Puffin bars for the first time in years.
First launched around 30 years ago, the Puffin bar is Asda’s own-brand take on a chocolate coated biscuit, individually wrapped with a biscuit centre running through the middle. Photos of the returning bars began circulating on social media on 17 August, with shoppers able to pick up a pack of eight for just £1.
The bar has a bit of a controversial history.
Despite the celebration around its return, not everyone is entirely thrilled to see the Puffin bar back, and there’s a fairly interesting reason why. Shortly after its original launch in the 90s, McVitie’s took Asda to court, arguing that the Puffin bar had been deliberately designed to look confusingly similar to its own long-running Penguin bar, a well-known chocolate coated biscuit snack with two layers of biscuit and a chocolate flavoured filling.
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The case focused on everything from the product’s packaging to its overall recipe, with McVitie’s arguing Asda had intentionally created something close enough to cause confusion among shoppers. In the end, the judge largely cleared Asda of directly infringing McVitie’s trademark, allowing the supermarket to keep the Puffin name and continue selling its existing stock, though it was required to redesign the product’s packaging as part of the ruling.
Not everyone online is convinced by its comeback.
The court case clearly hasn’t been forgotten by everyone, with some shoppers taking to social media to voice their scepticism about the relaunch. One Facebook user dismissed it as little more than a cheap own-brand copy of a Penguin bar, while another questioned why another similar chocolate biscuit was needed at all, given how many comparable options already exist on supermarket shelves.
A few shoppers also raised concerns after spotting the phrase “chocolate-flavoured” on the new packaging, rather than simply “chocolate”, with one commenter saying they wouldn’t be buying it as a result. This wording shift isn’t unique to Asda, though. Rising cocoa prices toward the end of last year pushed several brands to swap in alternative ingredients, meaning some products no longer technically qualify to be labelled as chocolate under current standards.
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Plenty of shoppers are excited to see it return.
Despite the mixed reaction, plenty of people online seem pleased about the comeback. One shopper recalled the bars fondly on Facebook, joking they’d be stocking up straight away, while another shared a specific memory of the mint flavoured version, which they remembered fondly from childhood, hoping it might make a comeback too.
Why do supermarkets keep bringing back retro snacks?
This relaunch comes off the back of new research from Asda, which found that more than eight in ten Brits say they’re now more open to trying own-brand versions of their favourite snacks than they were five years ago. It’s not purely about saving money either. The same survey found that the majority of shoppers say they enjoy discovering a good own-brand alternative, with around three in ten saying their favourite outcome is finding one that actually tastes better than the branded original.
Whether it’s pure nostalgia, curiosity, or simply hunting for a bargain, it seems retro snacks are proving a reliable way for supermarkets to catch shoppers’ attention this year, controversial court history included.
