Matchmakers is a brand of chocolate sticks currently owned and made by Nestlé. Thin, twig-like and brittle, they were first launched in 1968 by Rowntree's and were one-third of the length they are now - about the length of a match. For many years they were available in either orange, mint, lemon (from the brand's 25th anniversary) or coffee flavour (from its 10th anniversary).
In 2003 Nestlé attempted to raise brand awareness by changing the names of the flavours to Cool Mint and Zingy Orange and adding Brilliant Blackcurrant and Sizzling Strawberry flavour – which counted 'black pepper flavoured sugar pieces' among its ingredients. Similarly, the packaging was altered in an attempt to appeal to 15- to 35-year-olds, and a new slogan was adopted – 'The manic munch that packs a punch'.
In 2008, Nestlé rebranded Matchmakers as 'Quality Street Matchmakers', Quality Street also being a Nestlé brand. They are still available in 'Zingy Orange', 'Cool Mint' and 'Yummy Honeycomb' flavours.
In 2017, before Matchmakers reached its 50th anniversary, they became available in a new limited edition 'Salted Caramel' flavour, and from the 50th anniversary in October 2018 another limited edition flavour of 'Gingerbread'. September 2019 saw another limited edition flavour's appearance in a sky blue box called 'Maple & Pecan'.[2]
In 2022 the 'Salted Caramel', 'Gingerbread' and 'Maple & Pecan' flavours have all been withdrawn and 'Yummy Honeycomb' and 'Coffee' flavours have returned with the name changing due to merging 'Coffee' and 'Salted Caramel' flavours to Caramel Coffee and cutting the name to Honeycomb.
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.
