It's long been a measure of the state of the UK economy, but now the daughter of the creator of the Freddo bar has had her say on the rising prices of the infamous chocolate treat.
Without wanting to expose my age, I remember a time when the delicious chocolate frogs, which fortunately didn't run away in the same way as the ones in Harry Potter did, cost just 10p in the UK.
The trip to the tuck shop after school was full of possibilities if we had just a £1 coin in our pocket, thanks to the endless supply of 1p and 10p sweets.
Now, in a time where there's rarely enough money for a sweet treat anyway, thanks to increasing inflation and a higher cost of living, having a 10p chocolate Freddo available at the shops would perhaps be a cure for this ailing country. But no, we are now forced to pay sometimes 10 times as much as its original price, despite everyone insisting that the chocolate bar has even gotten smaller.
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It's a small solace, but the daughter of original Freddo creator Harry Melbourne is seemingly just as horrified as we are.
Leonie Wadin told Sky News: "Dad was disgusted with how small it is now and how much they charge for it.
"He'd roll over in his grave if he could see it now; he'd be disgusted. It was a penny chocolate.
"Since Dad died, I haven't bought a Freddo."
The price of the Freddo first rose to 15p in the mid-2000s before jumping again to 20p in 2015.
It is in the last few years that Brits have really started to complain about the chocolate's cost, however, as it rose to 25p in 2017, 30p in 2024 and then 35p earlier this year.
But some shops are seemingly trying to charge as much as £1 for the beloved bar.
The origins of the Freddo bar
Freddo was originally produced by Australian confectionery company MacRobertson's but was bought by Cadbury all the way back in 1967.
Harry was just a teenager when he cooked up the bar at the confectionery company in 1930, having changed the mind of a boss who wanted a chocolate mouse under the argument that women and children might be scared of mice.
He named the bar after his best mate Fred, with the sweet treat quickly flying off the shelves in Australia at the time.
According to the Bank of England, if the price of the chocolate bar had risen in line with inflation, it would go for 21p, rather than 30 or 35p as we often see in shops, and certainly not the eye-watering price of £1.
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, told Sky News: "Both cocoa and sugar prices have shot up, with the former up more than 750% between then and now, and raw sugar prices up almost 250 per cent.
"So finding that the price of a Freddo has jumped 200 percent in the intervening period shouldn't surprise anyone."
Topics: Cost of Living, Nostalgia
James Moorhouse