A chip shop ran out of deep-fried Mars Bars due to a national shortage of the popular treat.
Shelves across Britain have been stripped bare of the product after its manufacturers, Mars Wrigley, were hit with production issues.
Giueseppe Andreucci, the owner of the Clamshell Takeaway on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, usually offers deep-fried Mars Bars on his menu, but struggled to get hold of the confectionary staple last week.
He told Edinburgh Live : “The deep-fried Mars bars were very popular during the [Edinburgh] festival and it was hard to keep up with demand.
"We were out of stock all of last week and over the weekend but we have them again for now.”
Andreucci called the deep-fried Mars Bar a “Scottish delicacy” that every tourist should try while they are visiting the city, and said Mars Bars in particular worked better than other chocolate bar options.
He added: "If customers have never had one before, I always steer them away from the Twix and Snickers towards the Mars Bar because they are the best."
On a Tuesday morning just after the Festival Fringe, Andreucci showed how he expertly submerged a whole Mars Bar in a vat of simple flour batter.
He explained that the batter acted as a barrier between the chocolate and oil.
While the batter created a golden, crispy exterior the inside becomes full of melted warm chocolate.
Despite the Mars Bar stock issues, Andreucci said business and tourism have been good for his shop this season.
He said: “The festival has been pretty normal. The rubbish situation has not helped, but things are getting better.
"I don’t think things are quite the same as before the pandemic, and I believe it will be another couple of years before we see normalcy.
“The biggest change is the way people spend money.
"With the utility bills and cost of everything going up, I think people have been very hesitant and careful about spending their money this year, which is entirely understandable.”
Mars Bars global parent company, Mars Wrigley, is the company behind Mars, Snickers, Bounty and Twix bars.
The company previously told The Guardian that it was “experiencing high levels of demand”, but added that it wanted to “reassure the British public that our much-loved brands are still available nationwide”.
Meanwhile, last month, the US chocolate company Hershey warned it would fall short of meeting demand for the all-important Halloween and Christmas holiday seasons this year.
The firm blamed a scarcity of raw ingredients and difficulties in securing suppliers.
The Mirror has contacted Mars Wrigley for comment.
