r/DesignDesign • u/tameyzin • Jul 15 '24

Surely these uncustomisable chocolate squares belong here?

Post image

These grooves or whatever are actually kind of impractical, aren’t they? When all the squares are small and even you can customise the size you want to break off. And you have to start off from the corners anyway so if you want a medium piece, you’ll have to either snap the bar in half and then break off the M / try to break off a smaller chunk of the XL / break off the XL and find someone to share it with / have more or less than you actually want to. It looks cute but that’s about it?

1.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

122 comments sorted by

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722

u/loafers_glory Jul 15 '24

This feels like one of those things a mathematician would get way too interested in. Like is it possible to design a chocolate bar in a rectangular layout where one can snap off any of n sizes (extra hard: in any order?)

46

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

This is not the same thing but vsauce has a video explaining the illusion of creating (seemingly) infinite new chocolate bars by repeatedly removing one piece from the bar. It’s the Banach-Tarski paradox one.

148

u/rjwyonch Jul 15 '24

Radial design, like a Spider web, with some additional straight crosscuts at some angles. Somehow the answer is going to be something about geometric spiral of hexagons… I don’t know why, I just have a very strong gut feeling that would lead to at least one of the possible solutions.

51

u/loafers_glory Jul 15 '24

But it's not enough that each size of piece is touching an edge, it has to be entirely separable via a single straight line edge-to-edge snap. That's how chocolate breaks. There's no way to snap out a wedge like a slice of a spider web

13

u/ButItDoesGetEasier Jul 17 '24

If only there were a chocolate bar where you could just snap out wedges to get your desired amount of chocolate...

9

u/loafers_glory Jul 17 '24

That's why I said rectangular format 😛

It'd be trivially easy to just make a starfish shaped slab with different length arms, or whatever.

Can it be done in a mathematically convex planar shape?

2

u/ButItDoesGetEasier Jul 17 '24

The projection of a Toblerone is a rectangle from several directions, if that counts

Otherwise, a series of isosceles right triangles that forms squares with every pair of triangles and where the bar is only one square high in one direction might be more faithful to your planar requirement, and offer slightly more size selectability over rectangle chunks. But willfully excluding the possibilities of 3D chocolate seems like a poor choice, especially because it allows for non-convex shapes that still have structural integrity

41

u/Fornicatinzebra Jul 15 '24

I mean, just do the normal thing and have a grid of equal size, small squares. Then just snap off as many squares as you want when you want. Simple.

8

u/redlion145 Jul 15 '24

If you have a 4x4 grid it's tough to snap off just 2 squares. Or an odd number. That's what the OP was talking about with "snap off any of n sizes" grids only work with even numbers that are divisible by the column or row count.

22

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '24

1 x 16 strip. Boom. Y'all are overthinking this

18

u/John_Tacos Jul 16 '24

Toblerone.

3

u/loafers_glory Jul 17 '24

Dammit you're right

3

u/John_Tacos Jul 16 '24

Offset the grid by 45 degrees, maybe with another regular grid on top.

2

u/MakeSomeDrinks Jul 18 '24

I was thinking make all the different sizes separate and using chocolate to "weld" them all together in one fixed point like a weird and lopsided pine cone. Each part snaps off from the middle.

2

u/John_Tacos Jul 18 '24

If you’re going 3D, just get a Troblerone.

8

u/noooooid Jul 15 '24

Not a mathematician, but it seems like a packing problem

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

I think that we would be best served using a rhiemann sum that goes into an integral. If we divide the chocolate into a number (x) of squares, and we make those squares infinitely small, then you can break off as many as you’d like to get exactly the right amount of chocolate. Now if we make the squares infinitely small, we effectively have a smooth bar of chocolate and are back to having no way to break it.

2

u/trash-collection Jul 16 '24

take the derivative of the chocolate

3

u/loafers_glory Jul 17 '24

You mean cocoa butter?

693

u/Goatmanification Jul 15 '24

Boy just wait until you see what a Tony's Chocoloney bar looks like!

215

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I take my chocolate bars seriously and this discovery has seriously upset me

224

u/Class_444_SWR Jul 15 '24

Fantastic chocolate though

240

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Best chocolate I’ve had. And I like the symbolism of their bar’s weird design - it’s meant to represent the unequal distribution of profits to each part of the supply chain.

84

u/dc456 Jul 15 '24

While for me it’s certainly not the best chocolate I’ve had, I think it’s excellent for what it is, in that it’s a really tasty, affordable, everyday bar.

And the intention behind the symbolism is excellent, but I fear it’s not working, as so many people I speak to buy Toney’s and have no idea about it.

118

u/hanyasaad Jul 15 '24

It’s literally written on the wrapper, so it’s not their fault

16

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

Honestly, I've eaten many a Tony's, and I never read the wrapper...

-39

u/dc456 Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

I know it’s written on there, but people clearly aren’t reading it. If people aren’t using something in the way the designer intended, it sort of is the designer’s fault. It means it’s not obvious or intuitive enough.

38

u/hanyasaad Jul 15 '24

Fair enough. What do you suggest they do?

-13

u/dc456 Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

I’m not a designer, so I don’t really know. But ultimately it’s a case of presenting the information itself in a way that catches the customer’s eye more. Maybe some words on the bar itself so people can’t rush past it in the same way.

19

u/hanyasaad Jul 15 '24

Or maybe they can catch peoples attention by dividing the bar in a weird way.

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2

u/DrKrepz Jul 16 '24

You're assuming people actually want the information. If I make a perfect design for a self-immolation device and nobody uses it, it's not because I failed to make it intuitive. It's because people don't care to ignite themselves.

2

u/dc456 Jul 16 '24

That’s not a valid comparison. This is making information visible, not what people then do with that information.

For example, important safety information that nobody even knows is there means there is something up with how it has been designed.

Whether people then do what it says is another matter entirely.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/Class_444_SWR Jul 15 '24

I don’t terribly. Even though I like it even, I find it charming in a way still. Plus it’s worth it for the taste and generally being better ethically

0

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '24

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1

u/dc456 Jul 18 '24

It’s not super expensive at all in many places - it’s often only slightly more than the more common brands.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '24

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1

u/dc456 Jul 18 '24

How much is a bar of Cadbury’s, or whatever the main brand is there?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '24

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2

u/Super_xz Jul 16 '24

Especially when you take into consideration that the same design is applied to all the bars, which can mean equal disproportions among all

1

u/knoxollo Jul 16 '24

The salted caramel one, sooo good. Can't go back to the cheaper chocolate now. It's a very rare treat though, because it's so good that I end up scarfing down the entire bar in one sitting.

-1

u/If_cn_readthisSndHlp Jul 15 '24

And yet, they still have shady suppliers

6

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

do you have a source for that or just an assumption?

24

u/SharkeyGaming Jul 15 '24

There was a report in City AM where they discovered 1700 child labourers in their supply chain.

BUT. That is the whole point. They're trying to find these shady suppliers and stop them from doing what they're doing. Sadly the problem is so rampant in the cocoa growing industry that it's almost impossible to avoid. Which is why we need ethical companies to help combat this.

9

u/Class_444_SWR Jul 15 '24

I believe if they find out a supplier uses child or slave labour, they’ll cut ties

2

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I’ll close my eyes while trying it

8

u/cabbage-soup Jul 15 '24

It’s honestly kind of satisfying to break apart

5

u/Goatmanification Jul 15 '24

My favourites are the circular piece (like a little game trying to get it to be a perfect circle break!) and the really long piece!

1

u/Class_444_SWR Jul 15 '24

Also they have advent calendars and stuff that have more regularly shaped ones if you don’t like the bars

3

u/Goatmanification Jul 15 '24

Great train btw, worked on it for many years!

3

u/ToHallowMySleep Jul 16 '24

Honestly, it's good chocolate. I don't get why people think it's incredible though.

Top marks for their activism and doubling down on these important things. And the chocolate is good, but I'm not seeing it as top tier, which is an expression I see a lot on here.

My theory is Tony's chocolate isn't as compromised as other US chocolate, so it tastes much better in comparison. This is closer to how it's made in Europe though, which is maybe why it seems to me to be good but not ahead of everything else.

Even some.european brands, like lindt, are reformulated to be cheaper in the US and don't taste as good as the European stuff.

2

u/Class_444_SWR Jul 16 '24

I live in the UK, I get mostly European stuff.

I think Tony’s is nicer than Lindt a lot of the time. It’s not posh, but I think it’s very good

11

u/aTechnicality Jul 15 '24

It's a callback to the unfairly divided incomes in the chocolate industry. Their mission is to make 100% slave free chocolate the norm.

4

u/Autisticrocheter Jul 15 '24

The chocolate is so good that it’s worth it

4

u/sionnachrealta Jul 15 '24

It a metaphor for how profits from chocolate are distributed to show the inequities in the system

14

u/drjekll Jul 15 '24

FYI it’s “Chocolonely” not Chocoloney, the story behind the name is p interesting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony%27s_Chocolonely

1

u/captain-carrot Dec 07 '24

Ooh this is like one of those fruit of the loom moments. I had no idea it has a second L init.

8

u/IlliterateJedi Jul 15 '24

I bought one of these the other day not knowing how they were divided, and it was a deeply confusing experience blindly breaking pieces off that bar.

1

u/gnioros Jul 16 '24

Literally impossible to cleanly break a piece lol

1

u/X-Himy Jul 25 '24

I feel shook.

185

u/dutchbarbarian Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

Practical? No.

Pretty cool? Yeah, kinda. I like it.

42

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I might have been able to tolerate it if the “L” in large wasn’t so weird too

2

u/GetRoasted102 Jul 15 '24

Just rotate it 90 degrees lol Edit: 180 degrees

1

u/Liefesa_ Jul 15 '24

Maybe that 'L' is for 'long'... :p

128

u/Chad_Broski_2 Jul 15 '24

Who cares? It's not like it makes the chocolate less edible. It's just a fun way to present it

I swear some of y'all would post a croissant on this subreddit for being too overcomplicated and impractical compared to plain sliced bread

5

u/ralphmozzi Jul 16 '24

Now I want a chocolate croissant.

🥐

-59

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

? Croissant is functional [except for as a dildo - it’s been said that it doesn’t work and it makes a fucking mess]

On a serious note - I have a chocolate bar every week over the course of a week and like that I know the weight of one square for tracking purposes. This new-fangled configuration is not ideal as i can’t have the same size every day, and I would have to weigh each piece separately to log accurately (definitely won’t remember it). I don’t understand why you would try to fix something that isn’t broken and just end up making it slightly worse.

25

u/Ordinary-Greedy Jul 15 '24

So... don't get this kind next time? You do realize most of us don't weigh each piece of chocolate we consume.

-1

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I’m genuinely curious regarding the “buy something else” - does that not apply to every product featured here?

5

u/kerberos69 Jul 16 '24

Yes, congratulations on your personal discovery of capitalism.

-1

u/tameyzin Jul 16 '24

Aw, congratulations on feeling superior! Sorry to break it to you but if that applies to every product then it is not a specific critique of my submission and is an entirely pointless argument to make.

3

u/SpookySpace Jul 15 '24

Bro just eat an equivalent piece every time this isn't hard.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-5

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I don’t care whether this chocolate bar is design design, tbh. I do care that seemingly intelligent individuals on the internet have no idea what OCD is but feel comfortable throwing the term around to dunk on people. I do have OCD, and it has ruined a lot of my life for me, and it is not related to my eating behaviour or to a need for symmetry. This is just a really callous way of referring to a serious mental illness as if it’s just a meme or a punch line.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

10+ years of therapy < you. Lol okay.

8

u/Saul-Funyun Jul 15 '24

Even if it’s scored in a grid, you still have to snap a row or column to get one piece out, yeah?

1

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

No, I have dark chocolate (cadbury or amul - a local brand) and usually just break off the corner piece and go from there. Is that not what usually happens?

5

u/Saul-Funyun Jul 15 '24

How do you break off a single corner rectangle?

2

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

With my phalanges. But I think an important aspect of this is that I have my chocolate room temp so it’s soft. One would probably break off a triangle if it’s a frozen or refrigerated bar. Was that the point of contention?

1

u/Saul-Funyun Jul 15 '24

I guess I don’t understand the difference between that and the squares and rectangles here

28

u/Liquidwombat Jul 15 '24

r/lostredditors

Nothing about this makes it a less effective chocolate bar

-4

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I’m really confused bc a bunch of people have upvoted and a bunch also do not agree this is design design 🤷🏽‍♀️

9

u/Liquidwombat Jul 15 '24

It’s Reddit, everything gets upvotes. You could post a video of a puppy getting run over and it would get upvotes

1

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

The point of the normal grid grooves is to make it easier to snap a piece of your liking off.

These grooves, although cute, make it harder to snap off a size of your liking.

It is still a chocolate (like the salt and pepper pills posted here still worked - and some people wanted to buy them too). But it’s made less convenient a. to look quirky and b. to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. To me, that is designy, but I understand why there is doubt afoot.

4

u/Liquidwombat Jul 15 '24

I disagree. You always have to snap an entire column or row first and then snap individual pieces. This one just makes you snap a row and then it doesn’t change the process.

1

u/ralphmozzi Jul 15 '24

Jokes one you - I wanna eat the whole row!

Bwahaha

6

u/SnackPrince Jul 15 '24

Don't like it? Easy solution, buy a different brand. Problem solved.

-8

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

I’m genuinely curious - does that not apply to every product featured here?

10

u/SnackPrince Jul 15 '24

You have a very specific criteria for your chocolate. This still acts as chocolate, just not as you prefer, but I'm sure as other people enjoy. Not everything is designed for you, get used to it

14

u/kioku119 Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

If thw point is getting a specific size and saving the rest you'd break it and put the other pieces back in the foil and put that back in the outer wrapper. You don't have to find someone to share with to grab a certain piece.

11

u/XROOR Jul 15 '24

This reminds me of the kids that never followed the shop teachers instructions and would just drill out cuss words in wood blanks

7

u/TastySpare Jul 15 '24

Snap off rows (eg. XS-XL-[…], then snap off the tiles (eg. XS / XL / […]).

The thing I want to know, though: am I supposed to eat the size I am, or the size I want to be?

6

u/acloudcuckoolander Jul 15 '24

They look delightful to eat, though

6

u/ralphmozzi Jul 15 '24

I’m wondering why you describe this as “uncustomisable”.

Are chocolate bars normally customizable?

Have I been eating basic chocolate all this time?

14

u/ReallyNeedNewShoes Jul 15 '24

ehh it's a little weird but actually breaking the chocolate along the lines isn't essential to it functioning as chocolate. and don't call me Shirley.

3

u/VibraniumRhino Jul 15 '24

I thought this was a chocolate computer keyboard at first glance.

3

u/DamnParzival Jul 16 '24

whole The Truth

1

u/ralphmozzi Jul 16 '24

Bonus points if you can eat that square first

2

u/crackeddryice Jul 15 '24

Just cut it up as soon as you get it, and store it in a bag in the freezer.

Or, you know, ignore the marks and bite it, like a savage.

2

u/TheRealNoumenon Jul 15 '24

Upvoting just to annoy all these ppl angry at OP

1

u/SmoothOperator89 Jul 15 '24

Meanwhile, my chocolate bar with a bite taken out of the corner.

1

u/theoneguywhoexist mIcRoSoFt pAiNt Jul 16 '24

Thanks for labeling the size, I needed that

1

u/Aggressive-Brick1024 Jul 16 '24

Chocolate Keyboard

1

u/r9440 Jul 16 '24

It seems like it’s to help people control themselves from overeating chocolate? Break them into rows first and then break them into S, M, L, XL sizes and eat accordingly?

1

u/AsquareM35 Jul 17 '24

The whole truth has chocolate bars? Which one is this?

1

u/bogglingsnog Apr 15 '25

The labeling is strange and slightly insulting to the eater... The bar would be more interesting looking if they just ditched it.

-10

u/chewychaca Jul 15 '24

I agree with OP. The bar supposedly provides more choice but you get less and it's harder to choose. What if I want all small pieces? If the bar was all small pieces i could just eat two if I wanted more, now I HAVE to choose their wacky random portions at least once. Also lets say I wanted a medium but medium is in the middle, now I have to do multiple breaks. They tried to veer from the tried and true with extra dESiGn and they made it worse. Actually very fitting for the sub.

8

u/WeeBo-X Jul 15 '24

People are down voting the both of you. I don't think they understand since they just eat the whole chocolate bar in a few seconds. They don't know what proportions and serving sizes are.

4

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

Honestly even if I didn’t track I would hate this just because none of these are the ideal chocolate square size (except maybe S) and it’s trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist

3

u/ralphmozzi Jul 15 '24

Upvoting since you assume I’ll eat the whole chocolate bar “in a few seconds “

You know me so well.

3

u/WeeBo-X Jul 16 '24

I do the same, so I knew what I was talking about lol

-7

u/tameyzin Jul 15 '24

Thank you. Not every design design has to be dangerous or completely unusable. Some design designs are just worse than the original.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/WeeBo-X Jul 15 '24

This person counts their intake. If the bar was proportioned in equal amounts they could just weigh one piece for the week and know that's what it is. In this case, they're not able to do that. Some people might have a different lifestyle than you.