June 12th: Drifter

Kcal 264 Fat 12.4g Carbs 35.8g

Well its back!!....Anyone else not notice it even disappear? Well according to Nestle in order to 'ride the wave of consumer demand for nostalgia inspiring bars' (like the Cadbury Wispa) the Drifter is now back in distribution.

Personally I have a few problems with what Ive just 'informed' you of. First of all since when did the Drifter become such an iconic brand!? To some extent I can see why Cadbury have very cleverly brought the Wispa in and out of distribution...the bar has a history with consumers - they have a connection with it...can we really say the Drifter has the same brand power to evoke similar feelings!?...for me no! Secondly theres a few rumours going around that more to the point say the Drifter was brought out of distribution in the first place due to it having a very high transfats content....so its not really a relaunch its just been taken from the market and reformulated....well the pack gives nothing away on transfats content so whether that is true or not is unclear.

Anyway....on to the important stuff.

For anyone thats forgotten the Drifter contains a 'crispy wafer dipped in chewy caramel and covered in milk chocolate'. The bar came in a 52g serving that despite its size was hardly the most fufiling bar.

Now from what I remember of the Drifter they used to come in a foil wrapper? Not anymore it seems - it came in a standard plastic wrapper with a very plain design. The lack of finesse and glitz on the 'on-pack' design work transpired to the actual bar aswell...its was pretty boring in my opinion just two long fingers with a very subtle wripple effect...really not exciting. Despite the lack of foil wrapping the smell of the bar wasnt bad - it had a sweet cocoa smell that had a hint of a honey-like scent to it...not bad at all.

I sightly chilled this bar and this made for a nice variation of textures. The slighlty chilled outside layer although lacking a tad in thickness had a nice thickness to it and had a nice 'crack' to the bite. The chocolate was pretty standard Nestle quality...I have remarked on it several times already but I will reiterate the point again its sweet tasting and slightly milky...its not bad for chocolate that is massed producded.

The caramel and wafer layers are interspersed throughout the bar. The wafer didnt have the crunch I was expecting and was slightly soft and stale like in texture - compared to say the wafer of a Kit Kat it was poor in contrast. Its flavour was also lacking...largely flavourless though it had a slight note of wheat.

The caramel layer was described as chewy and that it was - it was very thick and unfortunately clung to my teeth. Its flavour was sweet but lacked an edge that the better caramel based bars establish.

Overall I cant see to many people getting excited about the re-emmergence of this bar. The chocolates ok..but its nothing you cant get with any other Nestle bar. The caramel element isnt bad either its flavour is ok but its partially spoilt by an overly thick texture. What really let this bar down was the wafer which was largely lacking in flavour with a below par texture. I guess if you enjoy a Kit Kat and can deal with a slightly less accomplished wafer then you may enjoy this bar...for the rest its probably just another relaunch you can let pass you by.

6.7 out of 10