June 27th: Cadbury Old Jamaica

Kcal 270 Fat 13.3g Fat(sats) 7.9g Carbs 32.4g

Two alcohol containing bars in a week...arent I just mental ;) Now I must admit when I recieved this bar and saw the words 'Dark Chocolate' and 'Cadbury' sharing the same wrapper I did shudder...the sheer terror of the experience that was the Cadbury Bournville came flooding back...even before opening I was pretty cautious about this bar today.

To my knowledge the 'Old Jamaica' is manufactured and distributed in Australia - it is described as a 'special blend of dark chocolate with rum & raisins'. It is made with 'Old Gold' dark chocolate which contains 45% cocoa solids...slightly more than the 39% of the Bournville but still pretty lacking for a dark chocolate offering. The bar took the look of a standard Cadbury bar...the plentiful 55g was sectioned into eight individual blocks each of which was enscribed with the customary stylish Cadbury logo. The packaging itself looked nice in appearance and its foil sealed freshness made for a very forthcoming rum scent emerging as soon as the bar was opened. The aroma was pleasant and certainly distinctive being very alcohol rooted, the chocolate aspect was not really to forthcoming but the smell was strong enough to entice me.

I remember criticising the raisin ingredient in my previous Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar review but the ingredient was very well implemented here. The bar was crammed full of them and each block contained at least 2-3... they made for a nice chewy fruity flavour and were definately one of the nicest aspects of the bar.

The 'Old Gold' dark chocolate unfortunately shared some of the characteristics of the dreaded Bournville. Though distinctly smoother in texture than the Bournville it had roughly the same shallowness of cocoa flavour and overly sweet aftertaste...it just wasnt inspiring and Ive really come to expect more from dark chocolate. Fortunately the strongest flavour of the bar was infact the rum which was very concentrated in flavour despite only accounting for 1% of the total ingredients. Upon further inspection of the wrapper the flavour seems to be achieved using artificial flavours - despite this the flavour was strong and one that I enjoyed (probably partly due to it masking the horrible taste of the dark chocolate!!)

Overall this bar was a very tricky one to score. Being frank the Chocolate is pretty awful...not quite as bad as Bournville..but pretty close. What ultimatly saves this bar and actually makes it a pretty credible one are the raisin and rum ingredients...not only are they nicely flavoured but they are also a pretty original idea that you dont see implemented all that much in the confectionary market. For this reason I would recommend this bar to anyone who likes the sound of it..its definately worth tracking down if you do want something a little different....just dont expect much from the actual chocolate.

7.7 out of 10