We had lofty goals but somehow went astray

Picture this: a bustling test kitchen filled with the tantalizing scent of chocolate, marshmallows, and coconut. We stood there, aprons on, spatulas in hand, ready to embark on a noble quest—taking our beloved Rocky Road to the next level. Little did we know, we were about to take a detour into a SLICE disaster.

The Great Experiment

Our first bright idea? "Why not add more vegan marshmallows?" And so, we did. A lot of them. It was like Willy Wonka had exploded in our kitchen. While it ended up looking like a science project gone wrong—think marshmallow lava threatening to engulf the entire kitchen, the taste was amazing. A big yes to vegan marshmallows.

Next, we thought, “What about changing to plant-based chocolate?” Spoiler alert: we did, and it tastes fantastic. There were many hands raised in the office when we asked for taste testers; even the most serious meetings were paused temporarily for a nibble of potential greatness (or disaster). When the Product Development team roll in the samples, productivity might take a dip, but the mood skyrockets! Another big tick for plant-based chocolate.

But the pièce de résistance was our attempt at turning our Rocky Road on its side. Our intentions were pure. Our results? Not so much. Our factory team presented a strong argument that changing the direction of cutting the Rocky Road would mean great efficiencies and would reduce the amount of wastage. And yes, to their credit they were spot on, it did reduce our wastage, it also meant we could produce more… helping us to keep up with the demand.

The crash.

Fast forward 3 months and we are flying high on the success of our new range until… we received a very unimpressed email from a customer letting us know that they, and their team LOVED our Rocky Road (sounding positive), that is until we decided to change it. They claimed our new Rocky Road looked like it was covered in a ‘fatty melted layer’ and that the new way of cutting them ‘means there are barely any marshmallows’.

Could this be true, how could we have strayed so far from our goal, surely not. An emergency meeting was called - we pulled together a few retention samples of our production runs from before we made the changes and after. Upon opening them up, we were shattered. Imagine opening what you hoped looked like a delicious yet slightly ugly piece of Rocky Road, only to have your eyes assaulted by one of the most genuinely hideous SLICEs ever created. There were tears. We don’t talk about that day.

The Sweet Return

Honestly there wasn’t much deliberation. We couldn’t in our right minds subject our loyal customers to such a hideous mistake. We decided it’s time to face the music. And make all right with the world once again.

So, we’re taking a page out of the "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" playbook and going back to the original way of cutting our Rocky Road, the way you all know and love. Yes, we will keep some of the other changes that you have embraced – like vegan marshmallows and plant based chocolate. But we promise no more streaky lines down the side, fatty melted layers and plenty of marshmallows in each piece!

Lessons Learned

We learned some valuable lessons on this journey. First, just because something sounds good in theory doesn’t mean it should see the light of day (or the inside of a SLICE wrapper). Second, customer feedback is invaluable (not that we didn’t know that already) however it’s worth taking those ‘uncomfortable’ emails as warning signs. And finally, the best Rocky Road is the one that doesn’t try to be something it’s not.

So, here’s to the return of the classic! We’re sticking with the tried and true, the marshmallow-y, coconutty, chocolatey goodness that got us here in the first place. Because sometimes, the best way forward is to go back to basics—and leave the Rocky Road standing upright where it belongs.

Thanks for sticking with us through this bumpy (and sometimes ugly) road. We promise, to keep our crazy experiments to a minimum and will continue to listen to our customers.