Kvikk Lunsj
Kvikk Lunsj (Norwegian for "Quick Lunch") is a confection created by the Norwegian chocolate brand Freia in 1934.
About
It consists of a thick bar, composed of wafer covered with milk chocolate, and divided into four fingers. Each finger can be snapped from the bar, one at a time. The Kvikk Lunsj XXL introduced in 1999, has one large finger, approximately 2.5 cm wide. In shape and composition, Kvikk Lunsj is almost identical to Kit Kat, which was introduced two years earlier, in 1935.[1] On average a Norwegian eats approximately nine Kvikk Lunsjs every year, three of them at Easter. This means 4,500 tonnes of chocolate during the holidays. During the 1960s, Freia printed fjellvettreglene (Norwegian for “mountain sense/hiking sense”) on the back of the chocolate. Kvikk Lunsj is strongly associated in Norway with family hikes and (cross-country) ski trips in the mountains, which accounts for the increased consumption during Easter, when families often get together and ski trips are traditionally compulsory.
History
Both the name and image of the Kvikk Lunsj as the ultimate Norwegian hiker bar, was determined by a German man in 1887, 50 years before the first Kvikk Lunsj plate was produced in Freia Chokolade-Fabric in 1937.
On his very first hike in Nordmarka outside Oslo, an autumn day in 1887, lightly dressed with summer shoes, Johan Throne Holst began to walk. He wanted to impress a German business associate with a tour of Norwegian nature, but inexperienced as he was, he had neither brought a map, compass or provisions for the trip. In the book "Sjokoladekongen" Holst says that his companion was a much more experienced hiker than himself, and he complained that Holst only had brought some chocolate for the trip - it was in fact a completely normal provision in the German's homeland. They walked and walked and walked, it was wet and gray and bad weather, and when Holst finally admitted that he had no idea where they were and how they would get home, the German exclaimed "Und Sie haben nicht einmal keine quick lunch mitgebracht? "
During and after World War 2, the production of the chocolate was paused for a few years because of a shortage of sugar and the quality of the flour.
Sales
Kvikk Lunsj is produced by Kraft Foods Nordic, and is mainly sold in Norway and Denmark.
See also
References
External links
- Kvikk Lunsj official webpage (Norwegian)