February 17th: Cadbury Picnic

*** UPDATE *** 03/01/11

New wrapper added


Kcal 225 Fat 11.2g Carbs 27.1g

It is no exaggeration saying this bar has a bit of everything - peanuts, raisins, rice crispies and caramel all coated in Cadburys milk chocolate ... that enough for ya!?

As you can see above the bar is lumpy in appearance, as if it has been thrown together rather than being beautifully crafted. Suffice to say it wouldn't win any looks contests - in comparison to some of the Guylian bars I have been reviewing recently it does look rather embarrassing and cheap to say the least. Being a bit more positive about matters, the wrapper is at least quite exciting, and communicates the contents quite well. .

As uninspiring as the bar looked it is taste where it counts, but unfortunately the aesthetic appearance was quite insightful. The bar produced a wide range of flavours - some mouthfuls literally overwhelmed my tastebuds with nutty, fruity, caramelly flavours all coming through, however on the contrary some mouthfuls were rather dull and could be nothing more than described as chewy with little or no flavour (this was mostly where just the plain rice was involved!!).

Overall I have to say I have had nothing like the Cadburys Picnic before! Mouthfuls ranged from brilliant to mundane. This leaves me with the overriding feeling that with a bit of extra TLC and craft (and maybe the loss of the rice), this bar would benefit greatly and be better than the average rating it is getting. As I have said before as with the Cadburys Starbar...sometimes less is more.

6.2 out of 10

February 16th: Reese's Whipps

Kcal 230 Fat 9g Fat(sats) 6g Carbs 34g

On the wrapper this bar promises it constains 40% less fat than any other standard 50g chocolate bar…oh joy ;) Saying this the bar still contains 230 Kcal which is hardly the lowest your going to find...anyway...

This is much the same idea as Fast break bar which I reviewed last weekend, though there are a few slight differences. Firstly the nougat is peanut butter flavoured, secondly, instead of a thick layer of peanut butter sitting directly on top, the Whipps has a thin layer of PB running all the way round.

When it comes to taste it was similar style to the Fast Break, with the chocolate coating getting completely lost in the chewy nougat. Conversely the nougat had a far more distinct creamy nutty flavour which was far more flavoursome than its counterpart. The thin layer of peanut butter between the nougat and the chocolate coating did a nice job of keeping the centre stuck to the coating, however it failed in delivering a powerful flavour hit. The lacking of a peanut butter flavour burst was a tad disappointing and ultimately inhibited this bar from scoring higher on the rating system.

Overall the Whipps bar was surprising in that it was a more flavoursome product than the Fast break. Unfortunately it still lacked the real standout peanut butter delivery that was needed for it to be considered amongst the higher end of the scoring system. On a more positive slant it was still relatively tasty and did a decent enough job fulfilling my hunger. Importing it to the UK will be expensive, but it is probably worth a try if you are a real Reese's nut.

7.4 out of 10

February 15th: Guylian Orange Truffle Bar

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Carbs ???

This is bar is no longer in distribution so I waited until a choclate orange craving to try this.

As the people at Chocablog.com so duly noted when they reviewed this bar it does look amazing - the marble top finish makes it look ultra classy and the decorative sea shells make this look particularly stunning.

The bar itself is split into 4 segments each filled with a orange truffle creme encased in a dark chocolate coating. The taste matches the looks and despite the orange flavour not being quite as strong as one might hope, the chocolate is sublime and the truffle filling silky smooth.

Overall if these was mission to find the 'best looking bar' this would be winning hands down. Although not quite living up to highs of the Galaxy & Dairy Milk Caramel bars the taste is hardly disappointing either. One of the best I have tried so far. Good stuff from the people at Guylian.

8.5 out of 10

*Credit to www.chocoablog.com for the pictures

February 14th: Nestle Butterfinger

Kcal 270 Fat 11g Fat(sats) 6g Carbs 43g

This bar came described as a 'centre of peanut butter crunch coated in thick chocolate' - given my love for all things PB I was greatly anticipating it.

A £2 import later from the US and today this became a reality. In regards to appearance the bar looked very large but I didn't think much of the wrapper due to it's cheap plastic feel. Aroma wise the bar didn't smell as strongly as Reese's peanut butter products, but it smelt decent enough with it's mild nut scents.

As soon as I opened the plastic packet it was immediately apparent that the texture of the centre was very unique in that it looked almost wafer like in appearance. Annoyingly the chocolate flaked off when I bit into the bar and even worse it was completely insignificant when it came to the taste. To be honest I can;t actually recall the flavours it added, as they just got lost in the dominance of the inner peanut butter centre. The center tasted nothing like I was expecting ( which was a creamy smooth peanut butter experience), and only generated some very mild peanut butter flavours. Instead I found the taste was dominated by sugar, which wasn't all that surprising when I looked at the ingredients list of the wrapper. Indeed on closer inspection I found that the bar contained 43.0g worth of Carbs - 30.0g of which were pure sugar!

Overall I thought this bar was underwhelming to say the least, and I cant quite understand why it comes with such a cult following of people who think its utterly brilliant. Personally I thought it was a real disappointment - but I'm glad to have finally tried it. I don't expect I will be having this bar again in the near future and I wouldn't recommend it to my readers. Unlike I was predicting this doesn't trouble the top 5.

6.6 out of 10

February 13th: Divine Fairtrade Chocolate Milk

Kcal 241 Fat 14.2g Carbs 25.5g

Despite the poor offering from the white chocolate Divine bar I decided to give the milk chocolate variant a try. Although this bar was not half as bad as the 'sawdust-like' texture offering of the white bar, I still had some particular issues with it.

The packaging describes this as 'heavenly' chocolate which would suggests it should have something luxurious to distinguish itself. Unfortnately this element seems to be lacking somewhat and what you are left with is a distinctly average non descript chocolate bar that you would expect from an Own label supermarket chocolate.

Its by no mean offensive - just not 'heavenly' in any disciputure. The 26% cocoa is a fair indication that nothing special could be expected from this offering.

Overall you would expect more from a bar that has a price point of 80p; the fairtrade stamp dosent justify that alone.

7.1 out of 10

February 12th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Bubbly

Kcal 205 Fat 11.2g Fat(sats) 7.6g Carbs 22.1g

The Cadbury Dairy Milk 'Bubbly' is a no frills bar which incorporates everything you would find in your standard Dairy Milk, but with the promise of offering just a little bit more in the texture department. On the surface of things, this bar is extremely similar to what you get from a Cadbury Wispa - some people would say it was entirely the same aside from the format of the bar. This bar weighed in at 38.0g vs the 50.0g of the normal Dairy Milk.

Of course with the chocolate itself being just plain Dairy milk, this was no bad thing. As per usual the chocolate was delightfully creamy flavour, and the sweet cocoa flavours came through nicely as the melt developed. The bubbly texture brought an interesting melting sensation when melting on the tongue, though it obviously meant that each block lasted a far shorter duration in the mouth. Although aerated the bar was still relatively filling and quite rich, in comparison despite only weighing 38g compared to the standard 50g Dairy Milk.Because of this I felt the bar wasn't as satisfying as a normal Dairy Milk chocolate bar.

Overall this was another solid showing from Cadbury, though it has to be said it isn't one of their most innovative of products. It is a fine tasting chocolate bar but it's lack of USP (Unique Selling Point) holds it back from troubling the the top 5 on ChocolateMission.

7.9 out of 10

February 11th: Divine Fairtrade Chocolate White

Kcal 243 Fat 13.6g Carbs 27.2g

I had never had any 'Divine' fairtrade products before so today I opted for the white 45g bar.

The bar was split into 6 substanstial generous chunks which all had slight groves across the top.

The bar was slightly fragrant of vanilla but had no real strong smell. The label read - 26% Cocoa solids with 'real vanilla'.

Sadly these proportions do not bring a strong flavour to the bar and it leaves the bar being rather tasteless. Some mouthfulls felt like actually chewing sawdust with no flavour whatsoever - which although is probably better than the sickly sweet sugar barrage you get with most white chocolate (Cadburys Dream). Ultimately it meant that this bar is rather boring and lifeless.

Overall I was really disappointed, not the worst but by no means the best white chocolate around - milkybar still leads the way for White chocolate.

5.9 out of 10

February 10th: Mars Delight / Galaxy Senzi

Kcal 222 Fat 13.4g

***UPDATE*** 11/03/2010 ****

Special thanks to ChocolateMission reader Alan who sent me this Galaxy Senzi bar which is pictured above. Galaxy Senzi is simply the name given to the Mars Delight in the Middle East. I personally didn't think that it tasted any different - has anyone else tried one of these bars!? I wonder why they made it part of the Galaxy range and not the Mars range in this region?? Let me know what you think.

***

I guess in a way this is Mars' answer to the Kinder Bueno. It's similar in that it is a milk chocolate coated wafer encasing a crème type filling. The only difference really is that this Mars Delight has a caramel creme, and the Kinder Bueno of course has a hazelnut flavoured creme.

The bar is divided in two already and dividing it up further wasn’t too hard or messy (always a bonus).

The mars chocolate was rather nice and although not being a wafer fan I thought it was surprisingly tasty as it had just a hint of honeycomb. The creme filling tasted creamy and had a slight tinge of sweet caramel. The size of the bar was about right - no complaints there.

Overall I would say this is on a par with the Kinder Bueno. I don't know if it will be everyones cup of tea as I could see not everyone enjoying the honeycomb wafer rather than a biscuit based one. Not quite challenging for the top 5 but I would still give it a try if I were you.

8.2 out of 10

February 9th: Reese's Fast Break

Kcal 270 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 4.5g

The Reese's Fast Break comes described as 'a thickish layer of peanut butter placed on top of peanut butter flavoured nougat, with a coating of milk chocolate'. Due to it not being one of the few Reese's products distributed in the UK, I bought one of these at pretty high expense from an online American importer (it cost me a little over £1.00 I believe).

In regards to the packaging and presentation the product set reasonable expectations, though I thought the wrapper was a little dull. The secondary Fast Break branding was the thing that was lacking sparkle for me - in my opinion the pastel colours chosen were pretty passive, and didn't have great standout amongst the orange background. Inside the bar had more appeal than the outer wrapper - the layers of peanut butter, chocolate and nougat were nicely defined even though my bar did get a little squished in the post. In regards to aromas the product was pretty nice smelling, but the nutty aromas weren't as strong as I have experienced from other Reese's products.

As with most Reese's bars I have tried in the past, when it came to the taste test the chocolate proved to be pretty unspectacular. The melt of the chocolate was pretty laboured and waxy, whilst the milky cocoa flavours didn't taste all that fresh and were a little weak in comparison to other mass produced chocolates. The peanut butter layer was as expected pretty tasty bringing to the party the usual distinct Reese's cream and nut flavours. The nougat however was much less to my liking, as it was relatively tasteless and it's stodgy texture dominated the softer peanut butter. Although the nougat did make this a more fulfilling bar than your average market offering, the inbalance it caused to the taste was disappointing.

Overall this was a pretty disappointing offering from Reese's and I expected far more. The main gripe for me with this bar was the dominance of the nougat, which fundamentally hampered the delivery of the peanut butter in the taste. The best thing about Reese's product is always the peanut butter, so to have it limited in such a manner was never going to be a positive thing. in the grand scheme of Reese's other offerings I wouldn't overly recommend the Fast Break - they make far better bars.

6.2 out of 10

February 8th: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Banana Creme

Kcal 200 Fat 11g Fat(sats) 6g Carbs 26g

These are a limited edition from Reese's and are diedicated to Elvis. They are the same as standard Reese's cup but with banna crème.

The crème sits just under the peanut butter - meaning less chocolate on the bottom of the cup which isnt a particularly bad thing considering this isnt the strongest component of most Reese's products anyway.

The Banana flavour does taste rather nice however its mostly sugar based and does get sickly by the time you are on the 2nd cup. The peanut butter is still great and the Banana does not clash or dominate it.

Overall a resonable variaion but I do prefer the originals.

8.3 out of 10

*Credit to Cybele at www.Candyblog.com for the pictures

February 7th: Nestle Caramac

Kcal 167 Fat 12.8g Fat(sats) 10.8g Carbs 26.9g

Described as a 'caramel flavoured bar' this wasn't your standard chocolate bar. Although I could in one sense see the resemblance to caramel in colour, it was actually more of a half way house between milk chocolate and white chocolate.

In regards to it's ingredients the bar was very high in sugar which meant it was exceedingly sweet in taste. The thin nature of the bar stopped thisfrom becoming such an issue and prevented it from being either sickly or over powering. I felt that the melt was nicely paced and despite the flavours mainly being sugar rooted I thought the taste had a very pleasant creaminess to it.

Overall this was a good alternative to your standard chocolate bar but not quite challenging the upper tier of the Chocolate Mission ranks. When it comes down to it, the bar does taste really quite nice with it's sugary creamy taste, though one slight let down is the size and I was admittedly left still feeling a little peckish.

8.1 out of 10

February 6th: Twix PB

Fancy trying this bar for yourself? Heat to Yankee Soda & Candy - See HERE

Kcal 280 Fat 17g Fat(sats) 8g Carbs 28g

The Twix PB comes described as 'a layer of peanut butter on top of chocolate cookie, covered in milk chocolate'. As a self proclaimed Twix addict this sounded pretty delicious to me, and giving away the game entirely I have to admit this so totally was.

UPDATE July 2010: This was a bar provided to me by my friends at Yankee Soda & Candy (See website HERE). In regards to the wrapper I have to say I really liked it. In my opinion the red and gold colours are wonderfully suited to the foil packet and the Twix branding has great standout on the pack. The bar itself wasn't half bad looking either. Replacing the standard layer of caramel, the peanut butter layer looked appetising with the contrasting colour tones from the golden PB to the darker cookie base very aesthetically striking.

Upon opening the foil wrapper I didn't get the same waft of peanut butter smell that I have experienced from Reese's products, but at the same time the chocolate and nut scents were still very tempting. Speaking of the peanut butter, in regards to taste it was similarly inferior to what you get in Reese's cups, but it was still pleasantly creamy and established a tasty set of salt and nut flavours with each mouthful. This combined with both the outer chocolate and cookie base layers provided a delightful set of variable textures, with the experience flowing nicely from biting in to the crunchy biscuit, to then leading nicely on to the melting chocolate and peanut butter constituents. Both the chocolate and cookie bases were nothing special flavour wise, however they did a fine job of delivering the desired chocolate flavour hit.

Overall this bar was not only one of the more interesting propositions I have tried on the ChocolateMission yet, but it was also one of the best tasting. Before tasting this bar I wasn't altogether that sure about the switch of shortbread biscuit to cookie base, but having tasted the bar I was more than happy with it. Comparing the quality of the peanut butter to Reese's there is only one winner (those guys at Hershey!), but the Twix PB wins out in terms of the quality of the chocolate. I'm not sure I would recommend this as an everyday bar due to it's extremely high nutritional values - (17g of fat is alot), but for the occasional indulgence I'm pretty sure every peanut butter lover would enjoy it. Twix and peanut butter lovers take note ... this is one that should be on your radar.

8.4 out of 10

February 5th: M&M's Crispy

Kcal 180 Carbs 22g Fat 9.3g

These came in a standard 43g bag, which proved to be quite a substantial portion. They are averagely priced at 65p and nutritionally they were pretty good ... better than your average chocolate snack anyway!

Unfortunately In regards to taste they were also quite average. The initial taste of the sugar coating wasn't overwhelming like many other sugar coated and and the chocolate flavour hit came through nicely despite the thiness of the layer. The rice though was disappointing in terms of flavours, and offered little aside from a mild malt like taste.

Overall compared to some of the other M&M variants these were reasonably bland tasting. The crispy rice centres were by no means bad, but they certainly weren't exciting. I for one would look to other M&M flavours before choosing these.

7.3 out of 10

February 4th: Thorntons Continental Cappucino Bar

Kcal 200 Fat 13g Carbs 18g

This 'Continental' Thorntons bar encapsulates Thorntons' Continental Cappuccino truffles (like shown above) in a bar form.

The soft coffee centre is topped by a layer of thin chocolate truffle, which is encased in a white chocolate coating and finished off with a dusting of cocoa powder.

It looked classy and it had a taste to match. The outer white chocolate was divine in taste and had a heavily vanilla noted taste that melted with a delightful ease and softness. The truffle filling was creamy and smooth, though perhaps could of been slightly stronger flavoured in terms of coffee strength.

Overall this was a really classy bar that tasted superb. In another light it was a little on the expensive side for it's small size and it didn't overly satisfy my hunger to the levels I possibly wanted it to. These small gripes are the only things preventing it from challenging the top 5 of Chocolate Mission.

7.8 out of 10

February 3rd: Hersheys Take 5 Peanut Butter

Kcal 220 Fat 11g Fat(sats) 7g Carbs 23g

This was a new concept to me - pretzels in a candy bar! These are amazingly popular in the US and I had been encouraged to try these by reviews from across the pond.

Described as two large pretzels covered in carmel, peanut butter and a peanut coating sounded intresting. The pretzel flavour was an intresting concept but for me did not fuse well with the caramel and peanut butter. The saltyness was unlike what you get with nuts but more like salty crisps; for me this is didnt fuse well.

The peanut coating failed to establish any sort of flavour agaisnt the other layers. Generally the flavours dont mix too well - especially the pretzels taste like they shouldnt be paired with the overly sweet toppings.

Overall the bar didnt do much for me - never good for an expensive import. One thing I do appreciate about the bar is its originality. If this sounds like your sort of thing its definately worth a go.

6.8 out of 10

*Credit to Cybele at www.Candyblog.com for the pictures

February 2nd: Hersheys Cookies n Chocolate

Kcal 230 Fat 12g Fat(sats) 7g Carbs 26g

I cant say I was especially looking forward to this but it certainly surprised me.

This bar was similar to the Cookies n Crème but instead had the standard Hersheys milk chocolate with cookie pieces. The chocolate was creamy and some of the better milk chocolate I have had recently; which is suprising for a mass producded bar.

The cookie bits were a nice added element to the chocolate and provided a nice crispy crunch.

This came in a 40g bar which was just the right size - it didnt get sickly like the cookie n creme. One thing to note is that this was a limited edition bar which is now out of distribution in the US.

Overall this was above all expectations and one of the best bars I have had recently; its definately worth its place in the upper tier of the Chocolate Mission stakes.

8.9 out of 10

February 1st: Green & Black's White Chocolate

Kcal 573 Fat 36.6g Carbs 53.5g (per 100.0g)

REVIEW-REVISITED - 04/09/2010

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a bit of stubborn person when it comes to forming an opinion. Generally if I form an opinion on something, I stick with it! Even I however couldn't ignore the amount of e-mails I received along the lines of "Jim you are wrong about Green & Black's White Chocolate, it's a lot better than you say it is" (actual quote!). As you will see in my previous review below, the last time I tried the bar I acknowledged the fact it had promise, but I thought it could have been even better. After receiving what felt like the 100th e-mail telling me to give it another try - I did just that!

Unlike the rest of the Green & Black's range this bar hasn't changed at all in terms of it's wrapper or presentation in the last year - this was all down to a retest of the taste.

Well what can I say!? After sampling a good deal of the 100.0g bar I'm willing to admit that I thought a better of it. The milk based undertones of what I percieved originally were maintained, however both the cream and vanilla elements came across as much more pronounced in the taste, with both having far longer sustained flavour longevity. The vanilla pod pieces no longer felt rough in the texture, with the chocolate melt feeling so much smoother and almost butter like. Compared to what I percieved last time this chocolate taste so much more satisfying and richer - it was almost likea completely different product.

Overall this Green & Black's White Chocolate was well worthy of a higher score than I gave it last time. I don't think I have got many of my reviews wrong down the years, but having tested this one I'm happy I have revisited to give it due credit. This is a fantastic white chocolate that needs to be tried by anyone that considers themselves a white chocolate fan. Would I still prefer to have a Nestle Milkybar!? Err no thanks!

8.6 out of 10



ORIGINAL REVIEW - 01/02/2008

Kcal 202 Fat 12.8g Carbs 18.7g

Green & Black's is range of chocolate bars owned by Cadbury. The idea of the range is that they are supposed to offer consumers a more prestigous chocolate option in the same places of distribution that you can buy any mass consumer chocolate product. This 35.0g bar cost me a pretty pricey £0.80, which is verging on double what you pay for something like a Cadbury Dream or Nestle Milkybar. On the wrapper the bar came described simply as 'white chocolate with Madagascan vanilla.

Presentation wise it thought the bar was nice. I like the cream colour wrapper, and I liked the autheticity of the specs of vanilla within the chocolate.

Moving onto the taste I think it can be best described as quite weak with a mild offering of vanilla. The chocolate avoided being cheap and sickly tasting like the Cadbury Dream, however I think there was room for greater flavour generation. One thing that did spoil the experience for me somewhat were the small bits of vanilla pod which could be felt in the melt of the chocolate which created a somewhat uncomfortable texture.

Overall white chocolate isn't something I would consider myself very knowleadgble about, but I would say this was of a fair to decent standard. Despite having a pretty pleasant vanilla hinted milky taste, the flavours didn't have great longevity and thus didn't create the impression they could of done had they been stronger. Given the price I'm not sure I would consistently pay pay double the price of a Milkybar if I fancied a white chocolate.

7.6 out of 10

January 31st: Cadbury Starbar

***UPDATE***

New wrapper added 02/01/2011


Kcal 260 Fat 14.8g Carbs 26g

The Cadbury Starbar is one of the oldest Cadburys bars on the market and comes described as choc nougat,peanuts and rice wrapped in layers of caramel and chocolate.

The bar itself is very substantial and weighs in at 53g. Not surprisingly it's not the best nutritionally, and is rather high in both fat calories.

Taste wise the bar was quite unique, but it did slightly remind me of the Cadburys Boost. Each mouthful started with a nice flavour hit of cadbury chocolate, with the sweet caramel following soon after. Lining the middle of the bar, the nougat was by far the dominant element in the taste, with the peanuts and rice cereal failing to register much of an impression.

Overall I thought this was a bit of disappointing chocolate, and it was one that wasn't all that much to my taste. Personally I didn't think the ingredients mixed all that well, and the nougat pretty much cancelled out the peanuts and rice cereal in the taste. Something that the Chocolate Mission is proving so far, is that sometimes less is more - what I mean by that is that I often found that the better bars are ones that concentrate on just having a single focus in their enhancing flavours. I guess it is still early days though, who knows what the future will bring.

6.0 out of 10