The Chocolate Surpresa was a brand of chocolate made by Nestlé in Brazil.
It was introduced on 1983 and was popular in the 1980s and the early 1990s, but its popularity declined and it ceased to be produced in the year of 2003.
The chocolate itself was a common black milky bar, flat and thin. But what really made it achieve so much success was that each of them would come with a figure made on a thin cardboard paper with a picture of an animal on it.
The Albums
Nestlé, understanding the potential of the pictures, started making themed albums where the pictures would be glued. To obtain the albums, kids in Brazil would buy three or four bars of Chocolate Surpresa and send the packaging in a letter to Nestlé. A few days later the album would arrive at home.
Each year, a new album would be available with a different theme, such as "Animals from Amazon", "Sea Wonders", etc.. And of course the pictures on the chocolate would change too. The Chocolate Surpresa "album fever" was so big, that many kids would buy the chocolate only for the picture, and many times discard the chocolate itself or keep it for later.
The albums would include a page for each animal, with the space to glue the picture and also many infos on that particular animal, including popular name, scientific name, natural habitat, etc.
Album
Year
Animais de Todo o Mundo (Animals from Around the World)
1983
Animais do Pantanal (Animals from Pantanal)
1984
Maravilhas do Mar (Sea Wonders)
1985
Animais da Amazônia (Animals from the Amazon)
1986
A Fantástica Mata Atlântica (The Fantastic Mata Atlantica)
1987
Litoral e Ilhas Oceânicas (The Litoral and Oceanic Islands)
1988
Campos e Cerrados (Fields and Shrublands)
1989
Sertões (Backwoods)
1991
Cães de Raça (Dog Breeds)
1992
Dinossauros (Dinosaurs)
1993
Viagem Surpresa ao Fundo do Mar (Surprise Trip to the Bottom of the Sea)
1 Currently manufactured by General Mills in the U.S. and Canada. Produced by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand elsewhere. 2 Brand owned by General Mills; U.S. and Canadian production rights controlled by Nestlé under license. 3 U.S. production rights owned by The Hershey Company. 4 U.S. rights and production owned by the Smarties Candy Company with a different product. 5 U.S. rights and specific trade dress owned by Nestlé; rights elsewhere owned by Associated British Foods. 6 Produced by Cereal Partners, branded as Nestlé. 7 Produced by Cereal Partners and branded as Nestlé in the U.K. and Ireland. Produced by Post Foods elsewhere. 8 Philippine production rights owned by Alaska Milk Corporation. 9 Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai production rights owned by Fraser and Neave. 10 Used only in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. 11 Used only in the Philippines. 12 U.S. production rights owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. 13NA rights and specific trade dress to all packaged coffee and other products under the Starbucks brand owned by Nestlé since 2019. 14 Brand owned by Mars, sold by Nestlé in Canada. 15 Produced by Froneri in the U.S. since 2020.
