It’s the perennial purple people pleaser. Whether you’ve had a diabolical day at work, need a chocolatey snack while watching your favourite series or are getting klapped by killer cravings, a slab of Daily Milk will do it for you every time.
Cadbury as a chocolate brand is so entrenched in this country that many consumers believe it’s as South African a product as they come. Who can forget adverts like the Chomp hippo – or Lunch Bar’s “Makhatini from Maritzborough” who showed the Scots how it’s done?
Fast-forward a few years and “Oviaas” became another of those indelible SA catch-phrases, this time thanks to a modern Lunch Bar hero.
And who didn’t adore the 2010 Cadbury Dairy Milk advert in which a gorilla smashed his way through a drum solo of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight?
But, while the chocolate has been distributed in SA since 1903, and manufactured in Port Elizabeth since 1938, its story actually began in a Birmingham store in the UK in 1824, with founder John Cadbury selling cocoa and drinking chocolate among a range of other products.

These were among numerous titbits about the brand shared during Cadbury SA’s 80th birthday bash at Savages in Port Elizabeth last Tuesday.
Did you know the “modern” chocolate we know and love today was only really possible from 1879, with the invention of the conching machine? This allowed for chocolate to be sufficiently refined so it would have that silky, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Though the brand is now owned by Mondelez International, Cadbury’s SA heritage began in 1903, when brothers Richard and George Cadbury appointed an agent here. The SA arm of Cadbury was formed in 1926, with plans put in place for the construction of a manufacturing plant...