My 10-year-old goddaughter in New York used to ask me to bring her back Toblerone bought in Switzerland. She maintained that somehow it tasted different. In her mind, the milk came straight from the Swiss cows and the factory was at the base of the Matterhorn. Little did she know that it is owned by Mondelez and manufactured in Bern. This July, it is expected to undergo yet another major shift and will be produced in Slovakia without the Matterhorn logo. For many of us who grew up on this chocolate, we feel as though we are losing a brand that has deep-seated memories of our childhood. Who doesn’t remember breaking a triangle of chocolate after a hike or a long ski run?

And as far as our emblematic cheese, Gruyère, is concerned, a Virginia court decided that it is a generic term for cheese. For decades, the term has been used in the US to depict a type of cheese with holes. Holes? Indeed, referred to in Switzerland as Emmental, the US, considers that type of cheese to be a gruyere. Confused yet? Well, just as long as you don’t ask for Gruyère in the United States thinking that you’ll actually get Gruyère, you’ll be fine.

Cultural attachment to these products is driven by strong emotion, so it is only fitting that whenever radical changes occur, legitimate fans view it as a punch to the gut.