August 20th: Topic

Kcal 234 Fat 12.3g Fat(sats) ??? Carbs 28.0g

Whose favourite bar is the Topic!???... Anyone???... I thought not!! Not a single person has requested this bar to be reviewed - which is surprising considering the vast amount of wide ranging bars that have been suggested to me. The Topic bar occupies most UK retailer's shelves! So why the lack of love? Today I tried answering this question the only way I could...yep the Chocolate Mission way!

The Topic comes billed as 'milk chocolate with hazelnuts, soft nougat and smooth caramel' - nothing wrong with that eh!? The bar came in a 49g serving that although sounds large looked disappointingly small in its appearance; in comparison to say a Mars bar it looked less than two thirds the size and unfortunately this corresponded with its hunger fulfilling credentials...it just simply didn't satisfy my hunger to the degree I wanted. Although somewhat lacking in size the bar looked nice in it's appearance, the layering was distinct, and each component looked appetising. The bar lacked a notable aroma and apart from the slightest sweet scent I couldn't really detect much; I was expecting more of a chocolaty, nutty smell but this was sadly lacking.

Despite its small size each bite was full of flavour and had a nice variety of textures. The outer milk chocolate didn't provide the strongest of chocolaty hits, though it's flavour was nice and creamy and it melted at a pleasant rate. The next apparent layer was the caramel that tasted absolutely divine. Its taste reminded me of the Galaxy Caramel bar - a luxuriously smooth, deep sweet taste with the nicest of salty notes; it provided the most perfect of chewy layers to compliment the nougat. The nougat had a crumbly texture that varied nicely from the moistness of the other components. It had a milky creamyness with a lovely nutty edge to it. The whole hazelnut pieces dispersed throughout provided a strong woody nutty flavour that contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the other ingredients. The whole nature of the hazelnuts added yet another layer to the contrastive textures, adding an extra bitty crunch to most bites.

Overall if this bar was judged on its taste credentials alone it would be up there with the best of them. Unfortunately this isn't the case for the Topic and its lacking in the aroma and hunger fulfillment categories somewhat pull it's overall score down. Though the bar has shortcomings in these areas it actually tastes really quite good. The focal point of the bar, the hazelnuts, are strongly flavoured and make for a delicious creamy nutty nougat. The caramel is particularly fine and well flavoured, bringing an added sweetness and chewyness.

I think the reasons for why this bar receives such little acclaim are two fold. Firstly the lack of mainstream publicity - ask yourself this...when was the last time you have read, seen or heard about the Topic brand?? ...Thought not! Secondly I believe people are simply put off it by its size; it looks feeble and in truth it's simply not big enough. A tasty treat, but not one you want to eat when ravenously hungry...Mars I demand you make this bar larger...it deserves better!

7.7 out of 10