Ritter Sport

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Ritter Sport is a German chocolate bar, distributed throughout Europe, Canada, 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 mini-bars with only 16.5 grams are also sold but with a lesser choice of flavours.

Ritter Sport Chocolate Bar ("Half-bitter" flavor)
Ritter Sport Chocolate Bar ("Half-bitter" flavor)

Contents

[edit] History

In 1912 Alfred Ritter and his newly wedded wife Clara founded a small shop in Stuttgart-Cannstatt making chocolates. Shortly afterwards they founded the company ALRIKA (Alfred Ritter Cannstatt). The company moved to Waldenbuch, a couple of miles outside Stuttgart, in 1930. Ritter's Sport Schokolade started in 1932.

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The typical square chocolate bars were Clara's idea, who wanted to create a chocolate bar that would fit into every jacket pocket without breaking. When Alfred was found having an affair, Clara left him, but he continued to use her idea. She had not copyrighted the square chocolate bars.

[edit] Corporate Responsibility

The current generation of company owners, namely Alfred T. Ritter and his sister Marli Hoppe-Ritter, are engaged in ecology 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".

[edit] Visiting Ritter

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

[edit] Varieties

Ritter Sport Minis
Ritter Sport Minis
  1. Vollmilch – Plain milk chocolate
  2. Dunkle Vollmilch – Plain medium dark chocolate, 40% cacao
  3. Halbbitter – Plain dark chocolate, 50% cacao
  4. Edelbitter – Plain dark chocolate, 71% cacao
  5. Knusperkeks – Chocolate filled with a biscuit
  6. Pfefferminz – Chocolate with peppermint
  7. Joghurt – Yogurt
  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. Knusperflakes – Milk chocolate with corn flakes
  13. Voll Erdnuss – Milk chocolate with whole peanuts
  14. Ganze Mandel – Milk chocolate with whole almonds
  15. Marzipan – Dark chocolate with marzipan center
  16. Cocos – Milk chocolate with flakes of coconut in the center
  17. Trauben-Nuss – Milk chocolate with raisins and hazelnut pieces
  18. Rum Trauben Nuss – Milk chocolate with rum-soaked raisins and hazelnut pieces
  19. Cappuccino – Milk chocolate and cappuccino cream
  20. Alpenmilch – Special milk chocolate with high milk proportion
  21. Nugat – Milk chocolate with hazelnuts nougat center
  22. Feinherb à la Mousse au Chocolat – dark chocolate filled with chocolate mousse
  23. Williams Birne Truffel – dark chocolate filled with pear brandy mousse
  24. Haselnuss – Milk chocolate with hazelnuts

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.

[edit] Slogans

[edit] 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."

[edit] Motto 2

"Qualität im Quadrat."

Literal translation used on English language packaging: "Quality in a square." However, the German original contains a pun with the algebra meaning of square, so it would be better translated as "Quality squared". English packaging now features "Quality chocolate. Squared." to provide a similar pun.

[edit] 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".

[edit] External links