July 16th: Thorntons Sicilian Lemon Truffle Bar

Kcal 192 Fat 11.3g Fat(sats) 7.3g Carbs 20.8g

Due to the numerous requests recieved about this bar recently, today I thought it was about time I got round to reviewing this variant in the Thornton's Continental truffle bar range. This particular bar came pitched as 'luxurious white chocolate, with a layered centre of lemon mousse and truffle, finished with a milk chocolate decoration'...I dont know of many (if any) other lemon and chocolate combinations on the market at present so this bar already had points for originality.

Like the other bars in the Continental range this bar came in a 39g serving. The centre of the bar was light in build meaning that this wasnt the most fulfiling of bars I have ever eaten. The bar though slightly small and meager looking, was nicely presented and I appreciated the effort that had been put in with the design of the bar - it looked nice. The bar had strong lemony milky smell that further heightened my anticipation of the eventual taste....it smelt lovely and fresh and very fruity.

I found the way this bar was consumed was extremely important to the flavour experience. When simply bitten into and chewed the taste was completely dominated by the strong citrusy lemon mouse - the flavours of both the chocolates were all but lost and overpowered. I found by far and away the best way to eat this bar was to lick out the centre mousse filling and then eat the chocolate components after. The lemon mouse was light and velvety in its texture and had a deliciously strong and zesty lemon favour...it certainly made for a refreshing and distinctive taste. The milk chocolate was rather lacking in presence and I feel that it was more included for decorational purposes rather than flavour - even the base milk chocolate truffle layer was pretty lacking in flavour despite it nice silky texture. The white chocolate had many of the great attributes that were near synonymous to the Thorntons white chocolate bar I reviewed a few months back: it combined a pleasant creamy slightly vanila noted flavour that avoided being overly sweet....unfortunately its taste was all but overpowered when eaten in unison with the lemon filling.

Overall this bar is only a few recipe adaptations from being a really nice offering. Individually each of the components were excellent - the lemon mousse filling had a delightfully refreshing zesty flavour and the white chocolate was as equally delicious with a luxurious creamy taste. Unfortunately as I have stated the lemon flavour simply overpowered the rest of the bar - it wasnt that it was that overly strong, more so that the white chocolate was simply not balanced in proportion with the filling; if this was to be solved this could be a really quite tasty bar. I wont be going back to Thorntons to grab another of these in the near future but I would recommend this bar to any citrusy flavour lovers.

7.4 out of 10