Choo Choo Bar

A Choo Choo Bar is a brittle toffee liquorice-flavoured confectionery bar popular[1] in Australia.

Choo Choo Bar Wrapper
Choo Choo Bar Wrapper
A Choo Choo Bar

Available in a 20 g (0.71 oz) bar, packaged in a blue wrapper depicting an old steam train, ("The Choo Choo Funtime Express"), Choo Choo Bars were originally a Plaistowe product, acquired by Nestlé. They are now made by Lagoon.[2][3][4]

There is also a raspberry-flavoured Choo Choo Bar.[5]

Cultural context

The Choo Choo Bar is considered iconic.[4]

Choo Choo Bars are considered to be part of the Australian folklife.[6] Academic work refers to Choo Choo Bars in this manner[7] referring to prior Federal Governmental inquiry outcomes:[8]

Over the years a number of commercial products have so impacted upon the Australian consciousness, developing their own mythology and lore, that it would be churlish to deny them status as part of Australia’s folklife. These include products such as Vegemite and Goanna Oil, and a spectrum of lollies — Minties, Jaffas, Choo Choo Bars. Each has its own place in the Australian ethos, and is widely cherished. The owners of these brand names hold in trust an important dimension of Australia’s heritage. (Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia, 1987, p110)

They are considered to have an elevated status within Australian folklife,[6] and are used when setting historical context.[9]

Choo Choo Bars are used as a specific reference to make a point about Australian food, culture, or lifestyle.[10]

History

Plaistowe released the original Choo Choo Bar in Western Australia, in the mid 1950s.[11] In the 1980s, Choo Choo Bars became unavailable. Lagoon Confectionery, a family business from Williamstown, bought the original Choo Choo Bar recipe and reissued it. In the 1960s, the wrapper featured a little red steam train, the Choo Choo Express, being driven by a golliwog. Lagoon replaced the golliwog with a monkey.[4]

Choo Choo Bars are considered to be perennial favourites by particular generations of Australians.[12] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation used Choo Choo Bars as one of several key nostalgic items to promote the television programme The Baby Boomers Picture Show.[13]

In literature

Choo Choo Bars are referred to in Australian literature, typically when profiling a character. For example:

  • If so... this is the answer[14]
  • Pangea Volume One (Creative) Pangea and Almost Back[15]
  • The Tin Moon[16]

References
  1. Calligeros, Marissa (21 October 2015). "Polly Waffle set to return to shelves thanks to Melbourne company Chocolate Works". Good Food. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  2. "Choo Choo Bar". lollyworld. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  3. "1954 (?) Choo-Choo Bar launched". Australian food history timeline. 18 September 1950. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  4. Lacey, Stephen (17 September 2011). "Of Redskins and black cats". The Age. Fairfax. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  5. "Raspberry Choo Choo Bar Counter Display". Lagoon Confectionery. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  6. "Saving the intangible heritage". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 23 April 1988. p. 23. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Trove.
  7. Santamaria, Juan Diego Sanin (1 March 2017). "Branding Australia: the commercial construction of Australianness". School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. p. 132. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia; Anderson, Hugh (1987). "Folklife : our living heritage / Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia". Australian Government Publishing Service. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  9. Fouweather, Karen Helen (2013). "Ten Pounds for Adults, Kids Travel Free: An essay on the effects of migration upon the children of the British migrants to Western Australia in the 1960s and 1970s; and, The red pipe: a novella set in Port Hedland". School of Communications and Arts, Edith Cowan University. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  11. "Advertising". The Narrogin Observer. Vol. 49, no. 2528. Western Australia. 29 January 1954. p. 14. Retrieved 5 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. Writer, Larry (29 January 2013). "Nostalgia alert: our favourite lollies". The Age. Fairfax Media Publications. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  13. "Switching Channels". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 October 1990. p. 24. Retrieved 25 March 2019 – via Trove.
  14. 200 Gertrude Street (Gallery); Hjorth, Larissa (1997). "If so... this is the answer". 200 Gertrude Street (Gallery). p. 5. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  15. Henderson, Donald Ross (12 July 2017). "Pangea Volume One (Creative) Pangea and Almost Back" (PDF). School of Humanities, The University of Adelaide. p. 14. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  16. Lacey, Stephen (2002). "The tin moon / Stephen Lacey". Bolinda Softcovers. Retrieved 25 March 2019.

Further reading


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