Ritter Sport (History, Varieties & Marketing)

Ritter Sport sounds more like a sports company that makes something like golf clubs or basketball gear. However, this is the name of a chocolate company that has been around since 1912. The company is headquartered in Germany, but they sell their products in many other markets with great success.

The company has expanded over the years to make many different kinds of chocolate products, and they are the most popular chocolate bar products in many of the countries where they are sold. Ritter Sport products are sold primarily online in the US, but they might appear on the shelves of stores of various kinds in other markets around Europe.

History

The Ritter company was founded in 1912 by Alfred and Clara Ritter. They introduced their own brand of chocolate, which they called Alrika. By the mid-1920s, the company had about 80 employees, and they were transporting chocolate all over Europe. The factory expanded in the 1930s, and it was during this period of expansion that Clara had an idea to make a chocolate bar that would fit into the pocket of a sports jacket without breaking. 

The idea was that the Ritter Sport bar would weigh what a traditional candy bar weighed but be square in shape. This has been the most common shape of the Ritter chocolate products ever since, and you will find that most of the varieties of this candy product are still sold in this shape.

This was the reason for the rebranding of the product as the “Ritter Sport” since it would fit into the pocket of a sports coat with ease. Today, these kinds of concerns do not elicit much of a response from consumers, but at the time, this was a very relatable benefit of picking this candy product. Most men wore suits everywhere but at home, so having a candy product that would pop right into the pocket of your suit jacket made sense.

World War II halted the production of chocolate in Germany until the 1950s, when chocolate rationing finally ended. Albert Ritter died in 1952, and his son took over the company. The focus of all of the products was shifted to the trademark square candy bars that Clara had dreamed up, and from this period forward, almost all the products were made in this shape. The sport coat would continue to be a common part of menswear on a daily basis for another twenty years or so, which made the concept of a small, square candy bar a great sales device even after World War II.

The packaging of the products changed to be more colorful in 1970 in order to keep up with newer chocolate brands that also used really bright and colorful wrappers. More product types were introduced as well, making the Ritter Sport more diverse and appealing to those with different kinds of tastes. There is a wide variety of these products today, and most of them are made with the finest chocolate that has been sourced from other countries.

The Ritter Sport company began associating itself with sustainable sourcing and farming practices in the 1990s. They launched projects like Cacaonica, which supports the growth of organic cocoa agriculture in Nicaragua, and they also launched Ritter Solar, which is the leading European marketer of solar thermal products and large solar thermal installations. The company also now owns a CHP power plant, which supplies most of the factory’s energy needs each year. The company has been run on entirely renewable energy since 2002.

There is also a Ritter Museum that you can visit, which was opened in 2005. This location offers you the chance to see paintings, objects, sculptures, and other works which were designed for Ritter chocolate. The ChocoShop is connected to the museum and is a great place to visit to buy various kinds of Ritter chocolates and other related products.

The company recently opened up a couple of shops at theme parks, and they also began making vegan candy bars. There is now a Dunkle Voll-Nuss Amaranth bar that is made with hazelnut cream, a Dunkle Mandel Quinoa bar that is made with quinoa and almonds, and a Sesam bar that is made with almond cream chocolate and sesame.

A limited edition bar of Ritter Sport was also sold in 2018 that was made from the first harvest of their Nicaraguan cocoa plantation. In 2019, the company developed a concept to offer a chocolate bar with hemp seed filling in honor of World Cannabis Day in the US. They planned to call the ad campaign Choco & Weed, but it has not yet been approved for sale.

More recently, the company made a controversial decision to continue to sell chocolate products to Russia despite the war with Ukraine. The Russian market composes about 7% of the company’s income, so they did not feel they could break ties with this market entirely. The company did concede that it would halt advertising and investment in Russia until the war ends. This has been very controversial in Germany and has led to calls for the German government to cease providing any state aid to Ritter Sport if it is requested in the future.

Varieties:

• Vollmich – Milk chocolate in a blue wrapper
• Schoko-Duo – Milk chocolate and white chocolate, also with a blue wrapper
• Dunkle Vollmich – Medium chocolate with a different blue wrapper
• Halbbitter – Dark chocolate in a burgundy wrapper
• Die Milde – Dark chocolate from Ghana in a blue and pink wrapper
• Die Feine- Dark chocolate from Nicaragua in a yellow and blue wrapper
• Edel-bitter – Dark chocolate from Ecuador with 71% cacao in a pink wrapper
• Edel-bitter – Plain dark chocolate from Ecuador, 73% cacao in a black wrapper
• Die Kräftige – Plain dark chocolate from Peru, 74% cacao in an orange and blue wrapper
• Die Starke – Plain dark chocolate from Ghana, 81% cacao in a green/purple wrapper
• Knusperkeks – Milk chocolate with a butter biscuit brown wrapper
• Pfefferminz – Chocolate with peppermint filling in a green wrapper
• Joghurt – Yogurt in a white wrapper
• Erdbeer Joghurt – Milk chocolate strawberry and yogurt filling in a light pink wrapper
• Voll-Nuss – Milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts with a brown wrapper with a hazelnut pattern
• Dunkle Voll-Nuss – Dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts with a dark brown wrapper with hazelnut-Pattern
• Weiße Voll-Nuss – White chocolate with whole hazelnuts in a white and cream wrapper with a hazelnut pattern
• Knusperflakes – Milk chocolate with cornflakes in a golden yellow wrapper
• Voll Erdnuss – Milk chocolate with whole peanuts in an orange wrapper
• Ganze Mandel – Milk chocolate with whole almonds in a dark green wrapper
• Marzipan – Dark chocolate with marzipan center in a red wrapper
• Cocos – Milk chocolate with flakes of coconut in the center in a silver wrapper
• Trauben-Nuss – Milk chocolate with raisins and hazelnut piece in a red wrapper
• Rum Trauben Nuss – Milk chocolate with rum-soaked raisins and hazelnut pieces in a red wrapper
• Cappuccino – Milk chocolate and cappuccino cream in an amber wrapper
• Alpenmilch – Special milk chocolate with high alpine milk proportion in a blue wrapper
• Nugat – Milk chocolate with a hazelnut-nougat center in a blue wrapper
• Feinherb à la Mousse au Chocolat – dark chocolate filled with chocolate mousse in a Bistre wrapper
• Williams Birne Trüffel – dark chocolate filled with Poire Williams pear brandy mousse inside it
• Karamel Nuss – Milk Chocolate with butter caramel cream, dropped hazelnuts, and crispy rice in a yellow wrapper
• Haselnuss – Milk chocolate with chopped hazelnuts in a green wrapper
• Neapolitan – Milk Chocolate with Neapolitan wafers, made with hazelnut cream-filled wafers and praline in a dark orange wrapper
• Noisette – Hazelnut-flavored milk chocolate in a light green wrapper
• Kakao-Mousse – Whipped Cream Cocoa in Alpine Milk Chocolate in a brown wrapper
• Kakao-Keks – Dark chocolate with cookie center in a brown wrapper with cookie background
• Karamell – Milk chocolate with caramel filling in an orange wrapper
• Olympia – Milk Chocolate with yogurt, honey, and glucose in a gold wrapper
• Honig Salz Mandel – Milk chocolate with salted almonds and honey in an orange wrapper with chocolate-coated almonds in the background
• Macadamia – Milk chocolate with halved Macadamia nuts in a blue wrapper with chocolate-coated Macadamia nuts in the background
• Waffel – Milk chocolate with cocoa cream-filled waffle square in an orange wrapper
• Mandel Orange – Dark chocolate with almond pieces and candied orange peel
• Cashew – Milk chocolate with roasted and salted cashew nuts

Specialty Bars:

• Mandelsplitter – milk chocolate and almonds
• Macadamia – milk chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts
• Trauben-Cashew – milk chocolate with cashew nuts and raisins
• Vollmich 35% – milk chocolate with 35% cacao
• Feinherb 60% – dark chocolate with 60% cacao
• Kakaosplitter Nuss – Milk chocolate with 35% cacao, chopped nuts, and cocoa kernels

Logo

Ingredients

From the Ritter site entry for the original Ritter Sport bar:

• Sugar
• Cocoa butter
• Whole MILK powder 21 %
• Cocoa mass
• Emulsifier SOYA lecithins. 

The company does state that the products may contain traces of peanuts, nuts, cereals containing gluten, and egg.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	6 pieces (38g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories	200
Calories from Fat	110
Total Fat	12g	18%
Saturated Fat	6g	30%
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	10mg	3%
Sodium	30mg	1%
Total Carbohydrates	21g	7%
Dietary Fiber	1g	4%
Sugars	20g
Protein	3g
Vitamin A		2%
Vitamin C		2%
Calcium		8%
Iron		2%

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet.

Pictures

Commercials

A recent Ritter Sport ad:

Another fairly recent ad for Ritter Sport products:

An ad highlighting the summer vibes of the 70s: