Kiwis love sweet treats the most

Our favourite brands are: Whittaker's, Tip Top and Pineapple Lumps

The All Blacks are widely regarded as the ultimate Kiwi heroes - but a new survey shows New Zealand's most adored brands are still chocolate and ice cream.

Despite winning the 2011 Rugby World Cup on home soil, Richie McCaw and the team have slipped down the charts in Colmar Brunton's annual research of which homegrown brands the nation is most fond of.

Whittaker's chocolate came out top, with Tip Top and Pineapple Lumps sharing second place.

The All Blacks dropped two places from 2013, to number 5 in the new list.

"The All Blacks have a great recent record but is winning becoming boring, or is the memory of 2011 [when they won the Rugby World Cup] fading?" Jacqueline Ireland, Colmar Brunton chief executive, said.

TradeMe took a big drop in the rankings, falling nine places to equal 14th in the space of 12 months, prompting Ireland to ponder "is it still the brand of the people?"

Whittaker's took a gamble on rehiring Nigella Lawson for a new series of big-money television ads, after the British celebrity cook admitted last year she had used cocaine.

"The Nigella campaign broke new ground, ensuring high salience," Ireland added.

Nicola Leenman, brand manager of biscuits and candy at Pascall, was delighted their flagship Pineapple Lumps leapt five places into second spot.

"Pineapple Lumps are such an iconic New Zealand brand," she said. "We have been celebrating them as the hero of our Pascall range over the last year, telling iconic Kiwi stories and creating mouth watering Pineapple Lump recipes and this has obviously been reflected in the results.

"We are really happy that Pineapple Lumps are a New Zealand national treasure".