
Chocolate means a lot to me. I always have chocolate in the cupboard, I make chocolate cakes, I eat chocolate ice cream, I drink chocolate, I have been paid in chocolate for some projects. Chocolate is life. So it may not surprise you to learn I sometimes have ideas about chocolate.
I talked about one of these ideas in a previous post, and here is another. This is a chocolate idea for something that I believe could be a big deal in the asian community, particularly the Chinese community, and would work well both locally and overseas in Hong Kong and China (for example). It would particularly sell well at Chinese New Year.
The game of Mahjong is hugely popular in asian countries. It consists of tiles with many different characters. If you’ve never played the game, give it a go; it is a lot of fun. Anyway, the idea here is to make sets of chocolates shaped liked Mahjong tiles.
This idea was originally submitted on October 24, 2024, to the President of Cadbury Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Since I have yet to receive even a basic acknowledgment, it appears that Cadbury has no interest in the idea – or the good courtesy to respond. Therefore, I am now sharing these ideas with other companies out there who may be interested in bringing this idea to life. I also sent a previous idea to Cadbury which I documented in detail.
A deluxe Mahjong tile typically is a white and green tile similar to the following:

Most tiles these days are made of acrylic, though historically they have been made of bone, ivory, and bamboo, and in more recent times different plastic-like materials.
The Pitch
Now, imagine a chocolate that is basically white chocolate on top, green chocolate (ideally green-tea-flavoured given the asian connection, though could be mint if that was difficult to produce or too expensive) on the bottom. This would be very similar to “Top Deck” (the famous Cadbury chocolate that has white and milk chocolate layers), but rectangular instead of square.
On the top of each chocolate would be a character from a Mahjong set. Here is a quick sketch I made:

The Design
A traditional set of Mahjong usually includes 144 tiles (don’t get put off by that number). The 144 tiles consist of 36 circle tiles in four sets of nine, 36 character tiles in four sets of nine, 36 bamboo tiles in four sets of nine, 16 wind tiles, 12 dragon tiles, four flower tiles, and four season tiles.
Someone making these chocolates could basically make sets of chocolates with 42 chocolates each. Each set consists of:
- 9 circles
- 9 characters
- 9 bamboo
- 4 wind
- 3 dragon
- 4 flowers
- 4 seasons
Here’s a look at a typical modern set.

If someone really wanted to play a game with chocolates, they could buy 4 sets, which would cover all the pieces in a game (with some additional flowers, dragons and seasons). More likely though, people would just give the gift of a set with the 42 chocolates, as it is not really something you would play with (but you could, if the chocolates don’t melt). You can also add in some chocolate dice for completion.
The Execution
In terms of colours, if possible it would be good if there could be more than one colour character available; a traditional set usually uses 3 colours, so you get something similar to what is shown above.
Given it is only a chocolate gift though, you could possibly get away with using 2 colours (like red and green ‘ink’). You might also need to simplify designs for tooling, depending on expense or complexity.
This would likely be a premium product, maybe a special edition for Chinese New Year. It could be a big viral hit with appropriate advertising. I could imagine the package being in a box, with individual chocolates in a tray (2 layers say), with the front clear plastic so you can see the amazing looking pieces. The package would be red and gold, as this would be a big Chinese New Year item as those colours are often associated with this celebration. A real premium gift that everyone will want to get to give to parents, grandparents, or keep for themselves.
Of course, Mahjong is popular in Japan too, so a similar set could be produced there (maybe with some slight change in packaging colours to work best in that market). It’s also played in Korea. And Australia has a huge asian population.
Someone make this a reality. All I ask in return is for some free samples to be sent my way.
Jamie