The Pollywaffle chocolate bar was introduced in 1947 by Hoadley’s Chocolates. It consisted of marshmallow inside a chocolate-coated wafer tube and became a longstanding favourite with generations of Australians.  Hoadley’s were taken over by Rowntree, then by Nestlé, whose Kit Kat product ate into the Pollywaffle market share. It was discontinued in November 2009. But in January 2019 Robern Menz announced they had bought the brand from Nestlé and planned to manufacture it in Adelaide.

Although the Pollywaffle ceased to be viable for Nestlé, it had an army of devoted fans. They started a social media campaign to have their favourite reinstated. Although they didn’t get a response from Nestlé, a Melbourne company, Chocolate Works, saw potential in reviving the product and in 2015 they announced that it would soon be back on the market.

It seems that they couldn’t call it a Pollywaffle, presumably because they didn’t want to cough up the money to buy the brand from Nestlé. Instead, it’s called The Great Aussie Waffle Log. The name was a big part of the magic, so it failed to take the country by storm.

Then, in January 2019, South Australian confectionery company Robern Menz announced that they had plans to revive the product. The company acquired another legendary Hoadley’s product, Violet Crumble,  from Nestlé in 2018 and hoped the purchase of Pollywaffle would build on that success.  Despite receiving a million-dollar manufacturing grant from the Morrison government, Robern Menz announced in 2021, that the relaunch of the Pollywaffle would be delayed owing to the COVID pandemic. As of January 2023, fans of the chocolate bar were still waiting.

Robern Menz (now called Menz Confectionery) is well-known in South Australia for a number of local favourites, particularly FruChocs – balls of peach and apricot pulp coated with chocolate.