We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how everything from Pepsi to digestive biscuits used to be sold as gut health products (so 2024, right?).
But I had no idea until today that Nutella, which roughly translates to “sweet nut” in Italian, used to be sold in huge blocks.
Its first spreadable form’s name, Supercrema, isn’t one most of us recognise today either.
What was the first product?
According to Nutella’s site, the cocoa-based product the hazelnut spread is based on is a substance called Giandujot.
Ferrero made this in 1946, but a similar product named gianduja had existed as far back as 1806 after a huge hike in cocoa prices.
This was a sold block of hazelnut and cocoa paste, which was wrapped like butter in foil.
It was produced because cocoa beans were hard to get a hold of after World War II, so Fererro chucked more hazelnuts in to bulk the block out.
It could be sliced and eaten with bread like cheese (sounds like a plan, TBH).
Years later, in 1951, Ferrero found a way to make the product way easier to spread and started selling it in jars.
This was called Supercrema.
It took until 1964 for the first jar of Nutella ― with the same iconic branding we know now ― to launch.
The brand uses a LOT of hazelnuts
According to Quartz, Nutella ― which uses about 52 hazelnuts per jar ― uses about 25% of the world’s hazelnut supplies each year.
That makes it the world’s top buyer of the product.
The Guardian says the company makes about 125 million kilograms of the paste every year.
If only they just made a few of those into loaves...