Maria Antoniou, 48, a chocolatier from Chelmsford in Essex, appeared on BBC One Dragons’ Den on Thursday 15th February.
The confectionary business owner creates unique, and slightly controversial chocolate bars stuffed with crisps. Having previously caught the attention of the nation, sharing her creations on TikTok and garnering over 900K views, Maria had hoped to take her products from her spare room into the mouths of the Dragons to secure investment. The investment was going to be used to scale up her business and have the bars made by a manufacturer so she can then branch out into retail stores.
The Bar of Crisps® is a moreish combination of milk chocolate and crunchy crisps available in ready salted, salt & vinegar and cheese & onion. It’s a combination that Maria has been eating since she was a school girl and created the bar in lockdown. It has amassed a loyal following on social media but sadly the Dragons’ felt the scope was too small.
As a chocolate lover, Maria felt the market has become a bit samey with the same flavours marketed to us in different formats. She wanted to bring a new exciting chocolate bar to the market that gets people talking and sparks intrigue.
In the Den, four out of the five Dragons praised Maria for creating a delicious chocolate bar, however Steven was not a fan and criticised the packaging and quality of the chocolate. Peter disagreed and gave the entrepreneur a glimmer of hope. The figures were just too conservative and all five dragons bowed out of an investment.
Catch Maria in the Den on BBC iPlayer.