Have you ever opened a favourite snack and thought, “Wait… wasn’t this bigger before?” That feeling has a name: shrinkflation. It’s when companies keep the price the same (or even raise it), but quietly reduce the size of the product.

Our latest ESL lesson for B1+ learners looks at a real case: Milka chocolate in Germany. In 2025, the manufacturer Mondelez reduced the weight of its classic bars from 100g to 90g while raising the price from €1.49 to €1.99. Consumer groups were not happy. The NGO Foodwatch gave Milka the “Golden Windbeutel” award for the most misleading product of the year, and the Hamburg Consumer Protection Agency even took the company to court.

This lesson includes:

• A warm-up to connect with students’ own shopping experiences.
• Vocabulary activities (matching and sentence halves) to learn useful words like lawsuit, mislead, scandal, shrinkflation.
• A pre-reading task where students guess the meaning of numbers and words from the text.
• A reading text (400+ words) about the Milka case.
• Comprehension questions to check understanding.
• Discussion questions on economy, consumer choices, and personal experiences with shrinkflation.
• This lesson is available as a presentation or A4 document.

It’s a practical and thought-provoking way to combine reading, vocabulary, and critical thinking. Plus, your students will never look at chocolate bars the same way again!

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