1941 - Scho-Ka-Kola

[rareauldmealtimes]

Hey everyone, I hope your doing well in these crazy times. I just wanted to share this real oddity I happened to snag the other day. I typically don't collect German ww2 era stuff but this one is just a little item that peaks my curiosity on a few levels. I ran across this for sale from a Korean war vet that had a few tins of WW2 scho-ka-kola that he received as payment for mowing a WW2 vets grass back in the day. I've been wanting to find one of these for awhile and the condition and price of this one was near perfect. I commented a year or so back when another board member happened across one of the late war cardboard boxed versions of these and asked what he "thought" about it but he never had a chance to update us. So here I am today doing this thing. It's always so different to see these things online and in picture but to be able to hold one is just such a different experience. I'm still interested in learning more about these as there is a lot of little intricacies and differences between the years of these items. If you have any referrences id love to take a look. It's amazing to open this tin and inhale the chocolate aroma that is still so incredibly strong! Below are some decent pics in an imgur album.

Here's some translation of the Tin to English. My German is elementary (about a year of duolingo.. lol) but google translate did most of it. Had to google all the abbreviations.

Front (top) of Tin - From top to bottom:
Scho-Ka-Kola - (The font of the time was really interesting! Those are lower case "k's in the Fraktur calligraphy style. A pretty historic writing style apparently.)
Oak Leafs - 1941 - Oak Leafs (9 looks like a upside down six stamp - The oak leafs apparently were only put only on wehrmacht packaging)
"The Strengthening Chocolate"

Back (bottom) of Tin - From top to bottom:
Scho-Ka-Kola
Registered trademark.
D.R.W.Z. Nr. 483106 u 490409 - (DRWZ - Stands for: "Deutsches Reichswarenzeichen" or German Trademark. Meaning the trademark was registered nationally. Nr. "Number" following is two different registration numbers. Tin and Chocolate perhaps?)

Dark Chocolate
52.5% Cocoa ingredients
with addition of coffee
and Cola ingredients.
Caffeine content about 0.2%. - (I find it interesting that they used "," instead of "." for separating a decimal number. Is that still done today? - I've seen old German movie reels of the era and they did pronounced it "comma" when being said like "funf Komma acht" or "Five point Eight" / 5.8 or 5,8).
Stimulating and performance-
enhancing. Content 100g net.

H I L D E B R A N D (Manufacturer)
Coffee and chocolate made [in]
GMBH - (GMBH - Stand for: "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung" or "company with limited liability"
BERLIN N 20 - (I believe could be indicating a street or highway. N20 - Not sure)
Defense Force - Packaging -(Wehrmacht)


My thoughts:
TIN: It definitely feels not like modern tinned items today. It's seems harder, sturdier and has very sharp edges. Steel most likely I'd assume. The black tape around the can was the original "seal" that is still visible... Some interesting darkening around the edges on the back indicating it's age. Not sure how those could of showed up. Smoke? Sunlight? Who knows. It looks really cool though. Noticing it a bit more.... On the top of the tin, you can tell the applied paint or stamp of the white font especially the outer white rings appear to be slightly off center showing they were allowing for a bit of error in the manufacturing process. You can see 4 white bars on the left side vs 3 on the right.

Chocolate: Well, you can tell it has some age on it. It is wrapped in a very brittle "cellophane" like material that has the makers mark "Hildebrand" on the sticker that is holding it together in the center on the underside. The under side with the seal shows some bloom where the wrapper has deteriorated. The "top" however is in pretty good shape and it appears you can just make out the Logo in the center of the disk that I think is a knight on a horse like the sticker shows. I still can't get over the smell. It smells like pleasant dark chocolate and it's strong smelling still to this day.

Fun fact: I've read that it was commonly referred to as the "Fliegerschokolade" or "Flyers Chocolate" as it was often used for members of the Luftwaffe for it's caffeine alertness but it was also issued to many branches of the era's forces. During the 1936 German hosted Olympics it was dubbed the "sports chocolate" and used by athletes as sort of an old school "energy drink".

I'll probably get around to do a little video of it soon. Not sure if I'll give it a nibble. Would just wanna do a little history of type of thing. I would love to join the ranks that have gone before me on trying it though! If I had two discs... I for sure would but this was opened with only 1 out of 2 discs (assuming 2). I've had the current day version and I really enjoy it! It is one of my favorite chocolates. Would be really interesting to see what it tasted like back with a compare and contrast!

[SentientTootsieRoll]

Thanks for the post, it was an interesting read. Do you think the smell is similar to that of modern Scho-Ka-Kola? I agree that it would be neat to see a direct comparison between the new and old Scho-Ka-Kola.

[Smitty]

As a big WW2 nut, I am SO jealous. Very awesome find!

[rareauldmealtimes]

Thanks for the post, it was an interesting read. Do you think the smell is similar to that of modern Scho-Ka-Kola? I agree that it would be neat to see a direct comparison between the new and old Scho-Ka-Kola.

Hey, thanks! I'm buying some more modern scho-ka-kola just to test that out. It's hard to say without having both on hand at the same time. Will report back!

[rareauldmealtimes]

As a big WW2 nut, I am SO jealous. Very awesome find!

Thanks Smitty. I'm the same way! WW2 is endlessly fascinating to me.

[steve1989]

Great post man, that is an absolutely incredible find right there too. I agree with sentient with a side by side to the modern being a neat idea.

I remember it being darker, more dense/hard, a bit less thick, and a faint scent of chocolate, metal, and some musk type old smell.

Congratulations on your score, it is one to remember! Plus you got that tin and wrapper still if ya decide to indulge... which I certainly would if I were you.

[Ren]

Strange that they put 1941 right in the front and center.

I can't think of any other chocolate that puts the year up in front. Maybe they knew they would be stored away for rationing.