They destroyed Walnut Whip

How perceptions change history

Some of you may not remember what the original Walnut Whip by Rowntrees looked like. And then you probably don’t remember what it was like to eat it. But since Nestle bought over the brand decades ago they changed it radically. Is it still good? You be the judge. But for me it will never be the same.

My memories of one of my favourite British chocolates wasn’t simply the taste and the fun shape, but the fun eating experience as well. The Walnut Whip advertisements were all centred on the experience of enjoying the chocolate, a cone of whipped chocolate poured out into a spiral forming the cone shape, and filled with a soft creamy mallow on a thick chocolate base and of course topped by a half walnut. There are many ways to enjoy the Walnut Whip. Some would begin with the walnut or leave it till the end. My favourite was to bite off the top and lick out the creamy filling and nibble my way down to the base. Others prefer to tackle it from the side. The layers of chocolate strands which swirled from top to bottom broke off as you would expect.

Compare this to the modern day Nestle butchered version. Instead of the swirl of chocolate they now have a mould of two halves stuck together. Gone are the nice strands, the swirl of chocolate and in its place the irrational mould shape which is dull and unpredictable in its breaking points. Where’s the fun in that? Why bother with the Whip? Simply make a round ball or something. And horror, Nestle have even come out with a walnutless Whip! How could they?

This is unacceptable. Nestle has taken away the fun. They have destroyed a perfectly good chocolate and made it something that looks like a cheap copy. And it is a cheap copy. No doubt the accountants are happy with reduced production costs. But tell me, how have your Walnut Whip sales been since you took away the whip, the swirl?

And here’s what’s interesting. Nestle have been making their revised copy of Walnut Whip for so long now that it is almost impossible to find a picture of what the original looked like. But I did find one. So you younger generation reading this might think me delusional, imagining things or even misinformed. What are you talking about, you might say. Walnut Whip has always been like this. And so it is with much of our modern day information over our history.

We view history according to the information presented to us. But what if that information is untrue? What if a different story of our past has been forgotten, or even hidden, while a new story has been presented to us? Have we been Walnut Whipped into believing a false past?

I want the old Walnut Whip back. I want our old history back. Where do we come from? Who are we really? Are you an original or a moulded copy?