Fazer changes the recipe of Geisha chocolate and removes palm oil from it.
Palm oil leaves Geisha. Pete Anikari
Classic chocolate Geisha’s recipe is renewed when Fazer removes palm oil from the chocolate and replaces it with cocoa butter. Palm oil has been in Geisha since 1998, when peanut oil was replaced with a combination of palm oil and shea butter. Shea butter is also now removed from Geisha.
Fazer plans to remove palm oil from all its biscuit and confectionery products by the end of 2024.
– We started replacing palm oil at the end of 2021, and at that time we renewed Wiener Nougat candies for the Christmas market. Now it was Geisha’s turn. The recipe change will be done on a rolling basis, and between May and June, the majority of Geisha products will be made with the new recipe, says Fazer Makeinte’s director of communications Liisa Eerola.
Eerola assures that Geisha’s taste will not change even if its recipe changes.
– It has been tested blindly on consumers.
Recipe changes are notoriously sensitive issues for consumers. Just over a year ago, Cloetta renewed the Royal bar in terms of taste, shape and packaging, which made chocolate lovers go crazy. The recipe change sparked heated comments on discussion forums.
The Tokyo Olympics inspired me
Geisha originated in the 1960s when Peter Fazer fell in love with the Japonica pastry made at Karl Fazer Café on Kluuvikatu. The pastry had a hazelnut filling. Fazer asked product development to try the filling with milk chocolate, and that’s how Geisha was born.
The name and pink appearance of the new product was borrowed from the caramel in the Fazer Parhai bag, which in turn was given the new name Tokyo.
Japan-themed products were inspired by the Tokyo Olympics, in which Peter Fazer also participated in sailing.