The wildly popular Twix chocolate bar has been around for more than 50 years. It was first introduced in the UK in 1967, though it reached American shores only in 1979.
Twix is a caramel shortbread chocolate bar and the Left Twix and Right Twix variants are available with different packaging. So, what’s the difference between left and right Twix?
Well, the difference has been a matter of heated debate for a while now, including whether it even makes any difference in taste!
With the launch of these bars, the parent company of Twix, Mars Inc. encouraged customers to pick a favorite between the two types. It turned out to be a brilliant PR move that generated a lot of interest in the chocolate bar.
Interestingly, though Mars ran a massive campaign around the left and right Twix, it hasn’t really highlighted the differences. While there are claimed differences between the two Twix, it’s all a bit of a jumble.
Well, let’s see if they’re actually different or the whole debate is just PR with flaky changes or packaging differences thrown in.
Left Twix VS Right Twix: The Details And Comparison
It All Starts With A Twix
Before we jump into the left vs right comparison, let’s first take a look at the conventional Twix cookie bar. A fair portion of the debate between right and left Twix centers around how they’re made. So, getting an idea of how a Twix is made should make things clearer.
Twix cookie bar is basically a caramel shortbread chocolate bar. The base is a crunchy cookie that gets a layer of caramel. All of this is then covered in a layer of milk chocolate, thus creating the Twix cookie bar we all love.
While the essence remains the same, the Left Twix and Right Twix apparently have different approaches. It doesn’t quite affect the overall flavor of the cookie bar, or this debate would have settled, or at least been clear, long ago.
So, let’s see what’s different with each side of Twix.
Left And Right Twix Examined Through ‘Our Story’
On their website, Twix has an interesting story on how the Left Twix and Right Twix came to be. It’s more fiction for the sake of marketing than reality, but it’s an interesting story anyway.
The story’s set in 1920, so the company’s page has illustrations showing the happenings and events in that era and the division of Twix between left and right.
As the story goes, brothers Earl and Seamus hit upon an idea to combine cookie, caramel, and chocolate into a delicious package that we now know as Twix. But there was a problem. The brothers disagreed on things like pouring chocolate and caramel consistency.
This caused the ‘schism’ between brothers and they each decided to start their own factories producing Twix the way they wanted it. Thus, came about the left and right Twix.
The brothers eventually reconciled, but their style of making chocolates did not. So, we still have the left and right Twix.
Twix doesn’t mention any moral of the story on its page. However, I believe that the moral of the story is that a debate between choosing right Twix or left Twix is as harmful to a family’s peace as a game of monopoly. Maybe even more dangerous.
The Left And Right Twix Distinction
As the story tells us, there is a distinction between the Right Twix and Left Twix based on how the (fictional) brothers wanted to use chocolate and caramel.
Apparently, Right Twix has its crunchy cookie cloaked in chocolate and then layered with cascaded caramel. Left Twix, on the other hand, has its cookie enrobed in chocolate and then drizzled with caramel.
Unrefined as I am, I’d say neither of that makes any difference and they’re the same bar. And for that, there are plenty of people invested enough into the left vs right Twix debate, to call me out for being wrong.
On their website, Twix mentions that the Left Twix is made in a way that’s “completely different” than the right Twix. The Left Twix page also goes on to declare that the Left Twix is in “no way the same” as the Right Twix.
I believe that both these claims are about as true as the stories of the brothers.
That said, there are many people who are deeply invested in the right Twix and left Twix debate and strongly believe that a difference does exist.
Some of them do it ironically while others are quite serious about the differences between cloaked chocolate with cascaded caramel and enrobed chocolate with drizzled caramel.
Conclusion
The biggest lesson to be learned here is on running a successful and viral marketing campaign. Twix has been running the right vs left Twix campaign for about a decade now and it’s still going strong.
The steady flow of cheeky commentary from the company and creation of the mythos about the brothers has helped keep the story and the campaign alive and kicking.
You could be like me and believe that both Twix bars are the same. Or, you could be amongst those who see a difference between left and right Twix. Either way, we’re all a part of this fantastic marketing campaign.