A BRIEF HISTORY OF TÚRÓ RUDI

THE BEGINNING

It’s the 1960s. The musical Hair premiers on Broadway, Apollo 8 orbits the moon with three astronauts on board, and here at home in Hungary, Trombitás Frédi (Trumpet Freddy) becomes a smash hit as the new economic mechanism kicks in. And most important of all: a small group of dairy industry professionals gets inspired by a study trip to Moscow and comes up with a unique new product - a sweet chocolate bar filled with lemony cottage cheese.

They have no idea what to call it – up to now, factories have only made products with obvious names, like milk, butter, or cottage-cheese. So they ask Sándor Klein, a young instructor at the Budapest University of Engineering, to think of a good name for their new cheesy-chocolate treat. Let’s call it Túró Rudi - says Klein – and promptly incurs the wrath of newspaper publishers, who consider the brand name obscene and refuse to advertise it. In spite of this – or maybe because of it – Túró Rudi is a huge success.

Operations soon outgrow the original factory and have to be moved from Budapest to the new dairy plant in Mátészalka, where they are relocated to a nice, large facility at the beginning of the 70s. Sales skyrocket: consumers can’t get enough Túró Rudi.

THE EIGHTIES

It’s the 1980s. Knight Rider is off to conquer the TV screen, Douglas Adams is off hitchhiking in the galaxy, the Hungarian band LGT is at the top and Túró Rudi is a big consumer item. Besides the one in Mátészalka, two other dairy companies have also begun to manufacture Túró Rudi products. It might be around this time that the slogan "Pöttyös is the real thing" takes hold. In 1984, Túró Rudi is given the main role in the family film Kismaszat és a gézengúzok (Little Birdie) and it may even be mentioned a few times in the TV soap opera Szomszédok (Neighbours).

Thanks to competition, several other versions of rudi appear on the market, sometimes called Robi and sometimes even Honey-bear. Now, we’ve got walnut, peanut and vitamin enhanced versions, and the original 3-day expiration time is getting longer and longer.

CHANGES AND TRANSFORMATIONS

It’s the 1990s and Túró Rudi has survived the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain with unbroken success. Foreign films are getting more and more spectacular, Hungarian rap stars Rapülők are singing “I love you…” and our little chocolate rudi is going through all kinds of transformations. The taste is the same, but the world around it has changed, with more and more computers, new technologies and new packaging. Pöttyös has already got an opening strip on its wrapper, and its getting bigger and more colourful – Giant Pöttyös Túró Rudi, apricot, strawberry, and peanut-butter flavours have arrived.

The new millennium starts with a new design and web-site for Pöttyös, which also appears at one of Europe’s largest music festivals, the Sziget Festival. Both Hungarian and foreign stars talk about how much they like Pöttyös Túró Rudi, and rudi is appearing more frequently in newspaper and TV ads too.

THE WORLD IS GETTING SMALLER

The world’s getting smaller - and the world of music, too. World Music stars like Buena Vista Social Club and Oi Va Voi are showing up more and more in Hungary, and at the same time Pöttyös is already conquering foreign markets under the name "Dots". Crazy as it may seem, Túró Rudi has been available in neighbouring countries since 2004, and gourmet Italian shoppers and their precise German counterparts have also been able to taste our little Hungarian treat since 2006.

Here at home, we’re working on new innovations all the time: now we’ve got Pöttyös Bonbon and Pöttyös Icecream along with everyone’s old favourites.

Want to know more about the official history of Túró Rudi? Click here!