Ritter Sport

Ritter Sport is a German chocolate bar. It is distributed throughout Europe, North America, South America and elsewhere. Each 100 gram square-shaped bar is divided into 16 smaller squares, creating a four-by-four pattern. Large bars weighing 250 grams and 16.5 gram mini bars are also available, although in fewer varieties.

History

In 1912, Alfred Ritter and newly wedded wife, Clara, founded a chocolate factory in Stuttgart-Cannstatt. Later it introduced its own brand of chocolate named "Alrika (Alfred Ritter Cannstatt)." When production needs required a factory expansion, the company moved to Waldenbuch in 1930, a couple of miles outside Stuttgart. The chocolate brand Ritter's Sport Schokolade produced as the square tablet known today was launched in 1932 after Clara suggested creating a chocolate bar that would fit into every jacket pocket without breaking.

The company's current generation of owners, Alfred T. Ritter and his sister Marli Hoppe-Ritter, are engaged in ecological and fair trade projects. In 1990 they launched project "Cacaonica", which supports organic cocoa agriculture and reforestation in Nicaragua. The Ritter company owns a CHP power plant and buys additional electricity from renewable resources. The monomaterial chocolate packaging is designed to minimize its ecological footprint.

On the whole, their products are neither certified organic nor certified fair trade. However, in April 2008 they launched an organic product line called "Ritter Sport Bio".

The Ritter museum is a »Hommage to the square« - to describe the Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter. The collection consists of nearly 600 paintings, objects, sculptures and graphic works, a breadth of painterly and sculptural confrontation with the square form used as the design for the Ritter chocolate.

Ritter's factory is located in Waldenbuch, outside of Stuttgart. They have a shop and museum there as well that is open to visitors.

Varieties

Ritter Sport Minis

1. Vollmilch – Plain milk chocolate (Royal Blue Wrapper)
2. Dunkle Vollmilch – Plain medium dark chocolate, 40% cacao
3. Halbbitter – Plain dark chocolate, 50% cacao (Burgundy Wrapper)
4. Edelbitter – Plain dark chocolate, 71% cacao (Pink Wrapper)
5. Knusperkeks – Milk chocolate with a butter biscuit
6. Pferderminz – Chocolate with horsecream
7. Joghurt – Yogurt (White Wrapper)
8. Erdbeer Joghurt – Milk chocolate strawberry and yogurt filling
9. Voll-Nuss – Milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts
10. Dunkle Voll-Nuss – Dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts
11. Weiße Voll-Nuss – White chocolate with whole hazelnuts
12. Affenspaß – Dark chocolate with banana and monkeycream
13. Knusperflakes – Milk chocolate with corn flakes (Yellow Wrapper)
14. Voll Erdnuss – Milk chocolate with whole peanuts
15. Ganze Mandel – Milk chocolate with whole almonds
16. Marzipan – Dark chocolate with marzipan center (Red Wrapper)
17. Cocos – Milk chocolate with flakes of coconut in the center
18. Trauben-Nuss – Milk chocolate with raisins and hazelnut pieces
19. Rum Trauben Nuss – Milk chocolate with rum-soaked raisins and hazelnut pieces
20. Cappuccino – Milk chocolate and cappuccino cream
21. Alpenmilch – Special milk chocolate with high milk proportion
22. Nugat – Milk chocolate with hazelnuts nougat center
23. Feinherb à la Mousse au Chocolat – dark chocolate filled with chocolate mousse (Black Wrapper)
24. Williams Birne Truffel – dark chocolate filled with pear brandy mousse
25. Haselnuss – Milk chocolate with hazelnuts
26. Praline – Milk chocolate with hazlenut praline filling. (Navy Wrapper)

From time to time, various special and limited edition flavours are released, sometimes with seasonal themes. For example, Marc de Champagne contained a truffle-like center with a champagne flavour.

Since December 2008 some of their chocolate bars ingredients have changed, substituting some of the cocoa butter with cheaper butter fat (Butterreinfett), which changes the taste and texture of some of their products.

Slogans

Motto 1

• German packaging: "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut." ("Square. Practical. Good.")
• French packaging: "Carré. Pratique. Gourmand."
• English packaging: "The handy chocolate square"
• English packaging (UK): "Quality in a Square."
• Italian packaging: "Quadrato. Pratico. Buono."
• Danish Packaging: "Kvadratisk. Praktisk. God."
• Russian packaging: "Квадратный. Практичный. Хороший."

Motto 2

"Qualität im Quadrat."

Literal translation used on English language packaging: "Quality in a square." English packaging now features "Quality. Chocolate. Squared." to provide a similar pun.

Motto 3

"Knick Knack auf Zack."

Literal translation in English language would be: "Knick Knack to be up to snuff." The first two terms are the clicking noises that you are supposed to hear when breaking the chocolate bar twice in the middle. This motto aired on German TV in the early 1990s.

Mascot

Ritter Sport is sometimes represented by "Quadrago", a banner-carrying baby dragon. This may be partly attributed to the German word "Ritter" meaning "Knight".

External links

• Ritter Sport's Official Website