Go On, Eat Your Feelings — the British Chocolate Club Got Shut Down

Last month, news of a US ban on British candy bars, like these below, made many an American Anglophile shed a tear.

Source: Nicole Perry

Due to a lawsuit settlement between Hershey's Company and Let's Buy British Imports, British Cadbury products, like Dairy Milk, Flake, Curly Wurly, Double Decker, Crunchie, and Wispa, can no longer be imported and sold stateside. The reason? According to a Hershey's representative, these products were not intended for sale in the United States and were infringing on trademarks, as Hershey's holds a licensing agreement to produce American versions of Cadbury products.

The licensing agreement between Hershey's and Cadbury was actually a boon for American fans of Cadbury Creme Eggs earlier this year. After a day of the Internet freaking out, it was revealed that fears of an altered Cadbury Creme Egg recipe were unfounded, as Hershey's produces this Easter icon stateside, and Cadbury, not Hershey's, was making changes to its recipe, but this ban is just plain sad.

Source: Nicole Perry

Cadbury wasn't the only British candy manufacturer hit by the lawsuit. Nestlé's Yorkie and ToffeeCrisp are banned because they too closely resemble Hershey's York Peppermint Patties and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, respectively. Let's let that sink in: according to this lawsuit, Americans can't distinguish between a disk-shaped mint-chocolate confection called York Peppermint Pattie and an oblong chocolate bar called Yorkie? ToffeeCrisp's ban is purely packaging related, as its (and Reese's) wrappers are orange, with lettering in brown-outlined yellow script.

Source: Nicole Perry, Flickr user jeepersmedia

Do the similarities boggle your mind?

Source: British Chocolate Club

All in all, the ban is a major nuisance for fans of these candy bars, as they'll no longer be available on store shelves. But there are a couple workarounds. If you're lucky enough to have British friends, convince them to smuggle in candy bars on their next visit, or turn to an online purveyor of British goods. For an all-too-brief few hours, British Chocolate Club, a subscription box service started by a British couple, offered monthly shipments of candy bars by mail, but they're now shut down, making it much more difficult to get your hands on a Crunchie or Curly Wurly.