Deliver Your News to the World

Brazilians celebrate Easter with Nestlé chocolate brands


WEBWIRE

As Brazilians prepare to exchange Easter gifts this weekend, Nestlé is offering a range of chocolate eggs to please every generation.

Easter - or Páscoa in Portuguese – is the most popular time to give and receive chocolate in Brazil, which is second only to the United Kingdom as the world’s largest Easter egg market.

This year, cartoon-themed eggs for children, football-focused eggs for sports fans, eggs in beautifully illustrated tins for art lovers, and superior-quality cocoa eggs for connoisseurs, are among the choices from some of Nestlé’s most popular chocolate bar brands.

The wide selection includes the Company’s first ever air bubble textured milk and white chocolate Easter eggs from Suflair; an aerated milk chocolate bar brand also sold in other countries under the name Aero.

Innovations from Nestlé’s Garoto brand include the new premium quality Mesclado egg, which blends milk and white chocolate; and Cacau da Amazônia, a milk chocolate egg in the shape of a cocoa bean, made from a distinctly flavoured Amazonian cocoa.

Ricardo Bassani, Marketing Manager of Chocolates for Nestlé Brazil, explained how the country’s Easter egg tradition has evolved over the years.

He said: “Italian merchants were the first to bring Easter eggs to Brazil in 1922. Then in 1948, Garoto produced the first chocolate eggs on a commercial scale.

“What is different in Brazil is the way we display the eggs by hanging them from the ceiling. This is something which began in the 1940s and ‘50s after retailers found it difficult to display the eggs on shelves in an appealing way.

“Today in most Brazilian stores at Easter, you will find eggs hanging all over the ceiling in what we refer to in Portuguese as the ‘parreira de Páscoa’, or the ‘vineyard’.

“The majority of eggs are packaged in brightly coloured foil wrapping which is gathered at the top and tied with a bow, then opens out into an eye-catching fan.

“With hundreds of eggs arranged together in this way, there is a real sense of excitement and celebration in stores.”

Best selling brands

Nestlé confectionery is most popular in southern Brazil, where its much-loved Alpino brand has consistently produced the Company’s best-selling Easter egg.

The milk chocolate brand, which offers a new Easter product every year, has introduced a 60% cocoa, dark chocolate egg for 2011.

Containing sweets made from the same recipe, Alpino Dark is also available in a special pack of three, alongside the traditional Alpino egg and the Alpino Milky egg, which has a more pronounced flavour of milk chocolate.

For the Nestlé Classic brand, Brazilian illustrator Cako Martin has designed a range of three exclusive Easter egg tins in his trademark free-hand style inspired by street art.

There are also a number of Nestlé branded eggs for children, featuring popular cartoon characters from films such as Toy Story and Cars.

Loyal to the egg

While in the United Kingdom, a variety of Easter characters are becoming more popular - such as Nestlé Aero’s milk chocolate lamb, or Nestle Smarties’ new milk chocolate chicken - in Brazil, consumers remain loyal to the egg.

Fernanda Canto, Consumer Marketing Manager for Garoto, explained its significance.

She said. “Easter Sunday is traditionally a time when Brazilian families around the country get together.

“People might give different types of Easter gifts to friends and acquaintances, but for their close friends and family, it has to be an egg. Most Brazilians buy three or four each every year.”

Garoto - more popular in northern Brazil among lower income consumers - is offering more than 30 different styles of Easter egg this year under its main confectionery brands such as Talento, Baton, Serenata and Mundy.

Recipes include white chocolate with cashew nuts, hazelnut, chestnut, cereal and raisin, fruits and berries, and hazelnut.



WebWireID136136





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.