August 23rd: Cadbury Flake Praline

Kcal 205 Fat 12.8g Fat(sats) 6.7g Carbs 19.3g

A few months ago I reviewed both the original and dark version of the 'Cadbury Flake' and was both left impressed and disgruntled at the 'crumbly' design. One half of me loved the enjoyable melty texture, the other half simply no less than hated it for its annoying tendency to literally fall to pieces when trying to eat it. Today I tried another variant from the 'Flake' range, the 'Flake Praline', a bar that included 'milk chocolate praline and hazelnut'.

The bar didn't have a weight displayed on it's wrapper; it wasn't exactly on the same substantiality level as say a 'Cadbury Boost' but it was a satisfying snack nonetheless. This brings me to the appearance...well what can I say apart from it was completely and utterly flawed in it's design...yes it looked nice, but even worse than the original 'Flake' it literally disintegrated in my hands. Not only this but although I had kept the bar relatively well in-between my purchase and consumption, half the bar was already broken into crumbs at the bottom of the wrapper. Now there's using the crumbly nature of the bar for a USP (unique selling point)...and then there's over using the crumbly nature...this was more the latter. The foil packaging when opened released a sweet chocolaty scent. The smell had a slight nuttiness to it though at this point I was too distracted trying to get the bar out the wrapper with least mess possible to really savour it...grrr.

The crumbliness was indeed frustrating, but the pieces of the bar I actually managed to get in my mouth did indeed have a glorious texture. The base of the bar had a thin chocolate coating that provided a small cracking sensation when bitten into. Tastewise I couldn't really distinguish it from the middle 'Flake' centre. This was supposed to be the part of the bar which added the 'Praline' flavour, though the hazelnut pieces were mostly lying inside the crumbs in the packet. The nut flavour of the coating just didn't come through in the overall taste and was largely dominated by the original 'Flake' centre - pretty disappointing. The 'Flake' chocolate didn't quite have the creaminess of Dairy Milk, but it still had a nice rich cocoa taste. The melt was fast , but the long sweet aftertaste made sure this was not at the bars detriment.

Overall this is a bar that suffers all the problems of the original 'Flake' and unfortunately a few more. I wont go over it all again but as I have described above the design of the bar is largely flawed. Being crumbly is one thing, but being overly so is just a plain annoyance. The bar had an lavish texture, though the taste was largely disappointing. The chocolaty flavour was certainly not unpleasant though was largely dominating; the 'Praline' flavour was disappointingly anonymous and if I had not been aware this was supposed to be a nut enhanced bar beforehand, I would have very much struggled to tell you that it contained any nut content after consuming it. A largely disappointing offering from Cadbury.... my advice if you want this type of chocolate!?...grab a Cadbury Twirl... less mess... all the taste!

6.7 out of 10