CHOCOLATE celebrates another milestone in York this Sunday as Nestle’s Aero reaches its 75th anniversary.

Rowntree’s started making Aero in York in 1935, selling more than 6,000 tonnes of the bubbly chocolate in its first full year.

Back then it was marketed as an easily digestible chocolate, which gave munchers a “lift”, because its energy content could be digested twice as fact as ordinary milk chocolate.

The texture of the chocolate was also said to make the flavour of the chocolate immediate on the tongue.

It had to be relaunched in 1950, following a nine-year period when wartime milk shortages prevented production.

Paper shortages then meant its first post-war advertising campaigns were limited to monochrome and functional literature.

It was in 1951 when the company was able to launch its first large scale advertising campaign for Aero.

Sales declined sharply in 1957, however, reaching an all time low of only 2,510 tonnes in 1963.

It launched its “Adorabubble” campaign and by 1970, sales were back up to 5,000 tonnes and the manufacturer decided to launch the peppermint flavour block, which is still its top seller today.

In 1981 a new smaller Aero bar was launched as a direct competitor to Cadbury’s Wispa, and in 1982 it launched Aero Chunky. Aero Bubbles followed in 2005.

In 2008, Nestlé spent £20 million on a new Aero plant at its York factory to make Aero bars and Bubbles.

Nestlé is celebrating Aero’s anniversary in conjunction with that of its larger brand KitKat, which is also 75 this year.

It is holding another open day of its factory on Sunday, October 10, to the friends and families of Nestlé employees.

Did you know?

• It was originally going to be called Airways to reflect the 1930s fashion for jet travel.

• The name Aero was first registered and belonged to rival Cadbury’s in 1935.

Rowntree’s swapped names they had registered, Airways and Airman, with Cadbury’s for Aero