Taiwan’s homegrown TAPPL bar and Trinidad’s Catch have found lasting love among local chocoholics.
As an incorrigible chocoholic, I’ve long been peeved by the uniformity of cocoa-based wares at the average convenience store in Taiwan.
For Brits, who are accustomed to dozens of chocolate bar choices at even the pokiest corner shop, familiar products from U.S. multinational confectioner Mars, such as Snickers, Twix, and Maltesers (the latter two first developed in the UK) provide meagre gratification in the long term. Then, there are the local offerings — generally criticized by connoisseurs for the suspiciously un-chocolatey flavor and waxy residue they leave in the mouth.
Several names have stood the test of time in Taiwan, pleasing generations of sweet-toothed candy fans. Yet a pair of island-born bars continues to impress. Taiwan Business TOPICS takes a look at the best bites in Taiwan’s candy aisles.
Cheap and chunky: TAPPL
Simplicity equals success with TAPPL. Since manufacturer Hunya Foods launched its flagship chocolate bar in 1977, the packaging design has remained largely the same. Multi-colored, retro-arcade-game lettering on a transparent wrapper provides a satisfying window onto the contents within — a neat 3×5 grid of truncated-pyramid pieces, conveying the impression of a mini chocolate computer keypad.
Each piece is embossed with a swirly leaf pattern that also appears on the left-hand corner of the wrapper with the word “Chocolates” on it. Diametrically opposite, in gold uppercase lettering, is the advice, which reads: “This is the best choice to supply full energy of [sic] stay up or camping, mountaining [sic], exercising.”
When TAPPL launched, chocolate was a luxury in Taiwan. “The general public seldom tasted chocolate in those days,” says Charles Hsu, a spokesman for the company. “Coming from a poor farming background, Hunya’s founder Chang Tien wanted to make these products popular and affordable for everyone.”
At NT$10, TAPPL was still a relatively expensive treat for the time, but it stayed at that price for decades. At the current price of NT$20, it remains the budget bar of choice.
As a compound chocolate — one that uses vegetable or palm oil in place of cocoa butter — it couldn’t be marketed as chocolate in the EU or the UK, both of which limit substitutes to 5% and require at least 25% cocoa solids. Likewise, the United States forbids vegetable fat substitutes for cocoa butter but permits a lower cocoa-solids content of just 10%.
Compared to the sole competitor in the same space — the Kaiser bar, also from Hunya — which features an even looser turn of English phrase on its wrapper, it’s still passable to the unfussy palate. The slight film it leaves in the mouth is comparable to that of a Hershey bar. (As an aside, Hershey won an appeal against Kaiser in 2019 for trademark infringement over the company’s similar lettering and foil-wrapped, teardrop-shaped bites that closely resemble Hershey’s Kisses.)
Launched alongside TAPPL, the 77 Nougat brand features the same leafy logo and comes wrapped in its signature orange packaging. Sold as bars or in 123-gram packs of bite-sized pieces, 77 Nougat is instantly identified by its distinctive orange wrappers that feature the same leafy logo as TAPPL. As with TAPPL, limited-run variations are available — most notably when Taiwan’s convenience stores turn pink during strawberry season.
“The 77 Nougat brand is a common childhood memory for many Taiwanese,” says Hsu. “Its iconic status has earned it the unofficial status of ‘Taiwan’s national chocolate,’” he adds.
Thanks in no small part to these two flagship brands Hunya Foods remains a dominant force in Taiwan’s chocolate market, reporting consolidated revenue of roughly NT$1.38 billion for the first nine months of 2025, following NT$1.93 billion in 2023, according to its public financial filings. This left the company with a 12-15% market share behind only major multinationals Ferrero and Mars, according to internal data.
Bonus treat
Established in 2012 in Taoyuan County’s Bade District, Hunya’s Republic of Chocolate museum includes an exhibition hall, factory, and cacao greenhouse. In addition to exhibits, gift shops, and a movie theater, guided tours and chocolate-making classes are available. There’s also a restaurant on the second floor. The two wings of the building look like massive, clumsily snapped off pieces of TAPPL.
The Caribbean Rice Crispy
Thanks to misleading online claims of provenance, Maltese chocolate munchers may be forgiven for assuming the Catch brand started life in the Mediterranean island nation. In fact, the export origin of this popular crisped rice and caramel bar is even more surprising: Trinidad and Tobago.
Manufactured by Associated Brands Industries Limited (ABIL), Catch landed in Taiwan circa 1986. “Because ABIL invested in food businesses — primarily biscuit production — this led to the misconception that the brand originated in Malta,” says Phoenix Huang, assistant manager of the business department at SPI West Port (Taiwan), the current importer for Catch. “In fact, the true origins lie in Ireland.”
The original manufacturer, Dublin-based Urney Chocolates, was established in 1924 and at its height ran one of the largest chocolate factories in Europe. Catch was launched just [jb1] after the company’s acquisition by Unilever in 1976. With the closure of the factory in 1980, the brand was acquired by ABIL, and the manufacturing equipment was transferred to the company’s main premises at San Juan, a few miles from the Trinidadian capital, Port of Spain.
Eagle-eyed consumers may have noticed the quiet disappearance of Catch bars from shelves circa 2019, when ABIL’s relationship with importer Kuai Kuai — best-known for its crunchy puffcorn snacks said to protect electronics from malfunctioning — came to an end. Following contact by ABIL’s Asia representative, SPI West Port took up the slack between 2022 and 2023, reintroducing the brand through fun-sized bags. When these did not perform as anticipated, they were discontinued, and, in November 2024, Catch returned in a bigger bar form. With the size shift from 24 grams to 33 grams came a price increase — NT$15 to NT$35.
“When taking into account the surge in international cocoa costs, which reached historical highs from 2020, as well as sharply elevated refrigerated container and global shipping costs after Covid-19, the increase is moderate,” says Huang. “With a journey that takes approximately 60 days, maintaining stable product quality and affordable pricing despite such high logistics costs is truly remarkable.”
Once ubiquitous, the rebooted Catch is currently available only in branches of 7-Eleven, though the aim is to gradually expand the brand’s presence anew. Huang expresses this goal in a suitably confected style. “We hope to gradually bring Catch’s classic flavor to additional retail channels, allowing more consumers to rediscover this sweet memory that has spanned generations,” she says.
Bonus treat
The Trinidad and Tobago connection is a head-scratcher because, while Taiwan historically maintained diplomatic engagement in the Caribbean, the republic is not known to have been a formal ally. The unlikely cocoa alliance is said to have formed when a senior executive from a Taiwanese food distributor bumped into the CEO of ABIL at a trade fair in Hong Kong.
“After recognizing its strong market potential — thanks to its rich, sweet flavor — the distributor decided to introduce the brand to Taiwan,” says Huang. Noting that the country-of-origin sticker has long “sparked curiosity,” Huang says the unexpected geographic connection has served as a fun starting point for many consumers to learn about Caribbean nations.
