August 19th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Whole Nut

*** UPDATE 18/10/2010 - New wrapper added
Kcal 270 Fat 17.3g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 24.3g

The Cadbury Dairy Milk Whole Nut to coin a phrase 'is exactly what it says on tin'...it's a solid bar of Dairy Milk with whole pieced hazelnuts dispersed throughout. Its hard to believe that one of these standard bars contains almost 25% of an adults RDA of fat, and nearly 40% of the RDA of saturated fat...now that's pretty high!

The bar came in a 49g serving that proved to be superior at fufilling my hunger than a standard Dairy Milk ; the six blocks proved a very substantial amount...you would hope so too with the nutritional values of the bar. The wrapper had a nice glossy appearance and ensured a nice freshness; its worth noting that the new styled matted wrapper is equally as nice looking aswell (I bought this bar a few weeks ago hence the older stlye pictured!!). The actual bar itself looked all the more appealing for the inclusion of the whole hazelnut pieces that could be seen when the bar was divided into its blocks. The bar had a slightly muskier smell than the standard Dairy Milk aroma - it was still detectable, but just not half as imposing as with other flavour variants - there was no real evidence of the included nuts from the smell, which was to some extent disappointing.

The textures of this bar were for me spot on. The Dairy Milk chocolate had its typical wonderfully thick, smooth feel in the mouth which once melted revealed the whole crunchy hazelnut pieces. The nuts had a nice fresh crunchyness to them that proved to be the perfect comparator to the silky feel of the Dairy Milk chocolate - great stuff. The Dairy Milk was everything I had come to expect tastewise - a near perfect combination of cream and cocoa with just the right sweetness...all in all as pleasurable as ever. Though deeply satisfying in their texture, the same unfortunately could not be said for the taste of the hazelnuts. When eaten in unison with the Dairy Milk they seemed to lack flavour and were dominated by the rich tasting chocolate. When I tried the hazelnuts in isolation they were not strongest tasting and lacked the roasted, woody nuttiness of the nuts in bars such as the Ritter Sport White Chocolate Hazelnut & Rice.

Overall this is a bar that ticked a lot of boxes, though was missing something in its nutty flavour credentials to substantiate itself as a really great offering. The Dairy Milk provided a delightful flavour base to the bar, however the actual whole hazelnuts were lacking in their taste. The hazelnuts did provide a pleasant texture and added an extra substantial element to the bar but on the whole their lack of flavour was disappointing. This isn't the greatest chocolate and nut bar on the market though it's still a pretty good one - largely due to the excellence of the Dairy Milk chocolate. If your a fan of good milk chocolate and subtle nut flavours then this will be the bar for you....probably not one for anyone on a diet though.

8.2 out of 10