The recipe of Fazer’s beloved Geisha chocolate is changing: “We are responding to consumers’ wishes”

Fazer Geisha has been among Finns’ favourite chocolates since the 1960s, and now its recipe is being updated. Palm oil in the Geisha chocolate filling will become a thing of the past as, moving forward, it will be replaced by sustainably produced cocoa butter.

The word “Geisha” refers to artist in Japanese. “Gei” means “art” and “sha” a skilled person. The updating of the recipe has also required skills and expertise. Cocoa butter proved to be the solution for updating the recipe without compromising the familiar soft flavour and texture.

The Geisha recipe update is part of Fazer’s commitment to remove pail oil from all of its biscuit and confectionery products by the end of 2024. Palm oil used in the Geisha chocolate filling will be replaced with sustainably sourced cocoa butter. In addition, the production of this classic chocolate has switched to using Rainforest Alliance certified hazelnuts.

“We have listened to consumers’ wishes and are now responding to them. We started to replace palm oil with other ingredients in our products already in autumn 2021, and now it’s Geisha’s turn. Recipe changes are always delicate matters, and it’s of utmost importance for us to keep the taste experience consumers are familiar with,” says Liisa Eerola, Communications Director at Fazer Confectionery.

“Geisha has been loved throughout the decades because of its soft flavour and texture. Despite the recipe update, Geisha’s flavour will not change. In the updated Geisha chocolate, the familiar flavours of milk chocolate and crispy yet silky hazelnut nougat filling will remain,” Eerola adds.

The first renewed Fazer Geisha products hit the stores this spring

All the cocoa used by Fazer comes from sustainably managed sources. For Geisha, the ingredient change has been carried out gradually since January, and the change is also reflected in the product information on the Geisha packaging. This is not the first recipe of a classic Fazer product that has undergone a change particularly because of palm oil. Palm oil has already been replaced with other ingredients in the recipes of Wiener Nougat pralines and Fazer’s beloved Domino biscuits, among others.

Geisha’s story – A trace of oriental mystique

• Geisha’s success story started from a sweet pastry in the 1960s. Peter Fazer was very fond of a sweet pastry called Japonica with a scrumptious hazelnut filling in the Karl Fazer Café on Kluuvikatu in Helsinki. He asked product development to pair this filling with milk chocolate – and a recipe for success was written!
• The name “Geisha” and the pink colour were borrowed from a sweet in the Fazer Parhain bag of sweets, which was then renamed as Tokyo. Japan inspired the new product through the then topical Tokyo Olympics in which Peter Fazer competed in sailing.
• All of Fazer’s cocoa comes from certified, sustainably managed sources, which means that its sustainability has been certified by a third party. More than 40% of the cocoa butter used by Fazer is sourced from small farmers included in the farmer programme in Nigeria.  Fazer is committed to developing the traceability of the cocoa supply chain, and the cocoa acquired through the farmer programme can be traced back all the way to individual farms. This way, it can be ensured that cocoa is not sourced from areas of deforestation, for example. The farms have been mapped with GPS to track that cocoa is not farmed in rainforests or the buffer zones thereof. 
• The international success of the Geisha products is based on a delicious and widely popular flavour, a great product concept, and beautiful packaging. The popular Geisha Original is available in many different forms of packaging, all the way from gift boxes to an easily enjoyable small chocolate countline.
   

Further information:

Liisa Eerola, Communications Director, Fazer Confectionery

tel. +358 44 710 8860 liisa.eerola@fazer.com

Fazer’s media phone line is open Mon–Fri from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., tel. +358 40 668 2998, media@fzer.com

Image: www.fazergroup.com/media - Public Image Bank – Media/Press – Finland - Geisha

Fazer uses certified and sustainably produced palm oil

Caring for the well-being of people and the environment is part of Fazer's heritage and future. Our ambition is to be an innovative leader in whatever we do.
Sustainable sourcing means that we continuously develop the basic requirements for all our suppliers while paying extra attention to chosen raw materials. As a member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) we are committed to using only sustainably produced and RSPO certified palm oil. The high yields of palm oil makes it the best choice among naturally hard tropical oils.
We have identified our main development areas and defined clear goals and indicators for them. For us, sustainability is a journey towards a better tomorrow.

Fazer Group 

Fazer, The Food Experience Company, enables people to enjoy the best moments of their day. Our mission, Food with a purpose, builds on our strong 130-year heritage, consumer first approach and innovations to create the sustainable food solutions of the future. With our dedicated team of approximately 5,000 professionals, we focus on fast-moving consumer goods and our direct-to-consumer business in Northern Europe, and beyond with exports to some 40 different countries. Fazer’s operations comply with its Code of Conduct that is based on the Group’s values and the UN Global Compact. In 2022, Fazer Group had net sales of 1.1 billion euros.   

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