Product type Confectionery Country Germany | Owner August Storck Markets Worldwide | |
 | ||
Introduced 1903; 114 years ago (1903) Website www.werthers-original.com | ||
Werther's Original (from the original German: Werthers Echte) is a brand of caramel flavoured candy owned by the German company August Storck KG, based in Berlin, Germany. The candy is popular in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Morinaga Milk Industry has the rights to import and sell the candy in Japan.
Contents
History
The candy brand is named after the town of Werther in Westphalia, where the company was founded in 1903. From 1969, the sweet was marketed under the brand name Werthers Echte. The brand name Werther's Original was adopted in the 1990s for the international market. They are now manufactured nearby, in Halle.
Product
The original Werther's Echte was a caramel-flavoured hard candy. Later variants included chewy toffees, and a soft, waxy form which melts easily inside the mouth called "Caramelts." A variant with chocolate filling is also available, as well as three sugarless variants that use isomalt as a sugar substitute: the original caramel flavour, a caramel coffee swirl, and a caramel mint swirl. A product available in the United Kingdom is "Werther's Chocolate," a dark and milk chocolate with butterscotch running through it, sold in the same packaging and wrappers as Werther's Originals. A variant available in Canada, "Caramel Apple Filled," has a green apple-flavored filling.
Commercials
TV advertisements in Germany and the United Kingdom from around 1997 featured an old man offering Werther's caramel to his grandson. The grandfather in the first United Kingdom adverts spoke with an American accent, but was later localised to Received Pronunciation. The actor Arnold Peters appeared in them. In the ads aired in the United States, TV actor Robert Rockwell played the kind-hearted grandfather. An adaptation was later produced for the Japanese market.
One British advert consisted of a montage of the grandfather and grandson bonding together (for example, pointing at animals out of train windows). The lyrics of the song which accompanied this ended: "When one who loves you says to you: You're someone very special too."