Every successful brand has a bite. A bar of Magnum literally lives up to that premise. You bite, it crackles..obliging you with a molten rush of Belgian chocolate. Simple idea. Vanilla purity. And the sinfulness of chocolate. And a business, that according to report published in 2013 has doubled by a billion Euros in the past few years. Launched in the UK in 1987, Magnum is arguably the world’s biggest stick ice cream brand.
Owned by Unilever, Magnum recently arrived in select cities in India (Mumbai,Hyderabad, Chennai) and Bangalore and at the launch, the history of chocolate was delved into. Did we know for instance (we didn’t) that evidence traces the existence of cocoa beverages to 1900 BC.? That chocolate was intrinsic to both Mayan and Aztec way of living? It seems that some very wise priests presented cocoa beans as gifts to the gods and served cocoa drinks during religious ceremonies.
And something we have always suspected. Chocolate was also used for its therapeutic qualities.
In Europe, chocolate became the preferred sin and the ice cream we know today as Magnum was launched in 1987. The Magnum Classic was just a bar of vanilla ice cream on a stick, with “real ” chocolate coating. Now “real” is the key word here. At that time, there was no real chocolate that could stand the temperature of −40 degrees Celsius, so a special kind of chocolate was developed to withstand temperature variations.
Price wise it is a premium brand and the flavours range from Classic, to Almond and Chocolate Truffle. The event was an insight into the history of the brand and rekindled the euphoric love we associate our favourite chocolate memories with. From home baked chocolate cake to the eclairs your first love gave you and more but brand ambassador chef Kunal Kapoor seemed to have mistaken the Bangalore venue as a Master Chef India set with his rather forced attempt at humour. When a brand speaks loudly enough, do you need a chef to tell you how to enjoy it? We think not though he did try to liven things up by making an angry bird and sticking it on the bar. He even asked the audience to clap for him. We focussed instead on the bar and remembered once again why chocolate is the only answer. Regardless of the question.