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Jet Chocolatina

My favourite Colombian chocolate bar is Jet. It's a dark milk chocolate, a little bit bitter like real chocoate should be and perfect for those like me with a sweet tooth. Whenever I come back from Colombia I always bring a couple of boxes with me.

I can still remember the very first time I had one, isn't it odd that I should have such a vivid memory of something insignificant that happened 18 years ago?

It was in the house at Santa Maria De Lago, I must have been about seven years old, it was dusk, the sun had already started to set and everything seemed as though the world was in black and white, the shadows ready to envelope us, candles yet unlit as we were still on electricity rationing at the time.

I don't remember who gave it to me, a Tio probably. Jet comes in a blue foil wrapper, with the name proudly emblazoned in blocky yellow letters and a supersonic plane whizzing past the 'J'. And I tasted this little bar of chocolate and it was delicious. Everytime I've had a bar since then it always takes me back to my first time exploring a world so different to my own.

(Technically it was my second visit, but my first, in 1982, predates my earliest memories of existence.)

The excitment didn't stop there though. In addition to the chocolate bar, inside each wrapper was a little collectors card, as part of a series of 508, sponsored by the Museo de Historia Natural and which depicted a wide range of animals, dinosaurs, early civilisation, natural resources, plant life and the solar system. Of course I couldn't read Spanish back then but I was still able to be enthralled by the pictures and being the magpie that I am I wanted to collect more. It actually remains one my currently unfulfilled ambitions in life to collect all 508.

My favourite one was of the planet Venus, that's the one that was inside my first ever bar, and it's one that I've never seen again, no matter how many I've scoffed since then.

By Cockney Colombian on May 18, 2007, 16:48 in Friendly Talkzone.

jaramillo says on May 18, 2007, 17:06:

Well it's been much longer for me since I had my first jet and the sweet memory has never left me. I remember carrying the little images (caramelos, we called them) and smelling and collecting them. They had a wonderful series on airplanes.

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goin_south says on May 18, 2007, 23:15:

CC, I'm thinking you remember that 'first chocolate'... more than the first time you got laid.
Or,....
has that happened yet?
(Weren't you the guy who really had serious critical issues with Shakira's ... Hips No Lie?)

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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panthdave says on May 19, 2007, 09:07:

Sorry European or Belgian Chocolate Still my Favorite.. Had Jet but nothing like Swiss or Belgian..

panthdave Miami

panthdave Miami

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blueviolet says on May 19, 2007, 09:26:

Sorry panthdave!!! Chocolatina jet is more than a chocolate, is all the colombian childhood for the people who has lived here.... Cockney Colombian I really undersrand you because I grew up eating those chocolates and tying to collect all the cards to fill my albúm with my sister... good memories in those chocolate Bars... for that reason is the best cholatina in Colombia and I think that in the world... well at least for me and for the colombian people.

BLUEVIOLET

BLUEVIOLET

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goin_south says on May 19, 2007, 10:40:

Okay, so for the gringos... Jet Chocolatina is like.... a nickle-pack of Topps Baseball cards back in the 60's, with the sweet aroma of bubblegum and a picture of 'The Mick' inside. Sorry; I didn't mean to be insulting,...CC, bv

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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lockheed says on May 19, 2007, 10:47:

VERKADE That picture looks like santeria cards "JOKING"
He man Dutch chocolate, Verkade, my stepdaughter eats those jets all the time, I try them some time.

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goin_south says on May 19, 2007, 11:43:

I thought they were colombian tarot cards... at 1st glance

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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goin_south says on May 20, 2007, 00:25:

what about SANTANDER Que Ciudad? CHOCOLATE?

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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Cerealkiller says on May 20, 2007, 02:43:

I remember chocolatina Jet, I used to put them outside my window and wait until they got hot and melted a bit and then Id eat them. Kind of gross I guess but I have never been able to eat a hard chocolate bar. Was there ever a Jet Album?

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives -John Stuart Mill

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 20, 2007, 03:13:

Yep i remember jet too, but Yep i remember jet too, when i was a child i was facinated by the the cards, we used to called them caramelos but I never collected them. although in that time it was a bit expensive to buy the chocolatina so we couldn't had it often.

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bamapits3 says on May 20, 2007, 03:23:

what year? How long have these chocolates been out, I was born in 86 and when I go to colombia it looks like I am missing out on something good..... Kat where can I find it, Carre fur?

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 20, 2007, 03:40:

Chocolatina jet you will find it everywhere.. even those street vendor sell them, you can find it in the little supermarkets or little shops it's nothing special but before we have the smarties and all these fancy chocolates Chocolatina Jet was the big thing for kids. now they have the kinder eggs, smarties, and all sort of fancy chocolates. so chocolatina jet became like the poor relative and it never changed the look.

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bamapits3 says on May 20, 2007, 03:46:

gracias I will be sure to remember the name when I am in medellin in 26 days.....Thank u

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jaramillo says on May 20, 2007, 07:38:

It is the smell of childhood I think Panthdave is right, swiss and belgians, and even americans, make better chocolate. The link is emotional. I never completed my 1963 album...

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 20, 2007, 08:34:

i never had the album, i didn't know how to get it?

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 20, 2007, 08:38:

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Cockney Colombian says on May 20, 2007, 09:17:

Yeah as an adult I wouldn't say it was the best chocolate I've ever had, but like Blueviolet says, it is the taste of nostalgia, I always instantly think back to that house in Bogota, the candles in the kitchen, the smell of eucalyptus.. all of it.

In the UK there is a tiny chocolate bar called Milky Way which is with a soft chocolate filling. Last time I was in Bogota I saw a large bar called Milky Way and thought it was the same thing and was excited to dry the giant sized one. But Milky Way is just what they call Mars Bar in Colombia. Confusing!

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goin_south says on May 21, 2007, 01:38:

milky ways? mars bars??? Cockney, you are really confused. Those are so Americana... almost more than McD's.

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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goin_south says on May 21, 2007, 01:38:

North.... of course.

Ciao! Gustav. Bienvenitos, Ike.

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Cerealkiller says on May 21, 2007, 01:44:

Cockney, Mars bars and Milky Way are the same thing. They are both owned by Mars chocolates. Milky way is the American name for it while Mars Bar is the British name.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives -John Stuart Mill

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Cockney Colombian says on May 21, 2007, 02:34:

A Milky Way may well be what North Americans call a Mars Bar, but in the UK a Milky Way is a completly different tasting chocolate bar from a Mars Bar. You can buy a Mars Bar and a Milky Way side by side.

I guess it makes sense then in Colombia, they're just importing it from the North.

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Cockney Colombian says on May 21, 2007, 02:35:

Hmm I always thought Mars was a British company because of the factory in Slough. Guess I was wrong, thanks google!

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Cockney Colombian says on Jun 7, 2007, 04:41:

My sister just came back from Costa Rica and they have a Jet bar there called Choys, but it's very different from the Colombian Jet bar, it's got nuts and toffee in it.

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Peter (Moderator) says on Jul 21, 2007, 23:16:

Hey I'm from Belgium and I like Jet too :)

Poor but snappy

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adrimm says on Jul 21, 2007, 23:25:

My candy-memories involve sitting in the back seat of my mom's friend's car (about 7 years old I think) and passing a little tube - sort of like a toothpaste tube - back and forth with her daughter (same age). The tube had some sort of arequipe-like sweet in it..

OMG.. it was soo soo good. I still haven't found out what it was tho...

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