May 10th: Reese's Nutrageous (UK/Canada)

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

A few months ago, last March I reviewed the Nutrageous bar that I imported from America and really quite enjoyed it. It scored a very respectable 8.3 out of 10 on the Chocolate Mission scale. Today I saw the UK version in my local newsagent...so I thought I would conduct some essential research into whether there are any differences between the two bars.

The first notable difference is the size - the UK version is 9g bigger at a whopping 60g. Hunger fufilment wise the US version was more than adequete already; but this UK version really did a job...I felt stuffed after eating it. Proposition wise the bar was exactly the same...'crunchy peanuts, a peanut butter centre, caramel and a chocolate coating'.

The UK wrapper was almost identical, though revealed that the bar was actually manufactured in Canada. The UK version sadly lacked nutritional information - something I find terribly annoying. Asthetically the bar looked no different...as you will see above it is a long knobbly finger - not the prettiest thing ever but when split the cross section does look quite appertising.

Tastewise the bar still retained the qualities of its US equivalent - and in some ways surpassed it. Frequent readers of this site will know that im not the biggest fan of the chocolate that Reese's use...i generally find it a little flavourless and to have a bit of a waxy texture. Though the chocolate was still slightly disappointing it did seem to have a little more flavour to it than the US bar. The chocolate tasted a little fresher if anything and had a less waxy texture to it which melted in the mouth a little easier.

The crunchy peanuts in the bar also seemed to have a bit more of a freshness to them. Their texture was far crisper and flavourwise they seemed to have a more fuller flavour. The peanut butter and caramel ingredients retained their amazing flavours and again made for a delightful chewy yet smooth centre filling - absoluely delicious.

Overall I was suprised to find that the version of the bar that is more widely avalible in the UK is actually the better of the two. The US version as far as Im aware is manufactured in Mexico, whislt our version in Canada...I dont know if the ingredients they use are actually different but the UK version definately had a far fresher taste. The chocolate aspect is still slightly disappointing and slightly holds back the score challenging the very top bars. Despite this though the other elements of the bar make for an amazing mix of textures of and flavours that make you savour every single bite of this huge bar. One of the best bars tried on Chocolate Mission - if you like peanuts or caramel try this now!

8.9 out of 10

May 9th: Milky Way (UK)

Kcal 236 Fat 8.8g Carbs 37.4g

Despite the wrapper featuring on my website banner, yesterday I realised I hadnt reviewed this bar - so today I went about putting that right.

In proposition the bar is identical to the '3 Musketeers' bar which currently sits a proud 2nd in the Chocolate Mission ranks: 'a light whipped centre coated in milk chocolate'. The Milky Way is slightly smaller than the '3 Musketeers' and is comprised of two 26g half bars...despite this slightly smaller size it certainly still hit the spot in the hunger fufilment stakes.

Its particulalry hard to describe the smell of the Milky Way as its aroma was so faint - it had a slight cocoa scent but in honesty it was pretty non descript. This may be due to the relatively low amount of cocoa in the bar...the ingredients list told me that the milk chocolate only contained 14% cocoa solids...I know this is a more milk based product but still thats really quite low.

Despite its low cocoa content the chocolate was tasty. It was almost identical to the chocolate found in the Mars bar and had the same smooth creamy characteristics. The 'whipped white centre' was also particulalrly nice tasting - it again had a very milky taste that although was very sweet, avoided being overly so and offensive. The flavour wasnt quite as deep as the '3 Musketeers' and lacked the slightly malty edge of the US bar.

Texturwise the nougat centre was slightly softer and not quite as substantial as the US equivalent - despite this it still provided a firm contrast to the melt in the mouth outside chocolate layer.

Overall this dosent quite hit the heights of its US equivalent though retains a majority of its counterparts qualities. The taste of the whipped centre isnt quite as full on as the '3 Musketeers' but still has a very pleasant creamy flavour that is incredibly moreish. Despite the low cocoa levels the chocolate is of a better than average standard and holds many of the qualities of Mars' Galaxy brand with a creamy smooth taste. Personally I think this bar is missing a special something...another ingredient...and I dont just mean caramel!! Just think of how tasty this bar could be with a layer of coffee/hazelnut/oragne creme or fondant....the opportunities are endless. Despite this its still a tasty bar with a very rich brand heritage - its a bar definately targeted at a younger audience..but in reality this is can be enjoyed by everyone.

8.2 out of 10

May 8th: Cadbuys Twisted

Kcal 210 Fat 9.4g Fat(sats) 5.8g Carbs 27.9g

This is probably one of the hardest reviews I have had to write for Chocolate Mission.

Let me get this straight from the start...this is a great tasting chocolate bar...bottom line.
Though let me also get this straight from the word go...this is not an 'an innovative bar' nor is it really 'innovation' as we have been led to believe by Cadbury in their press releases.

With wording like that from their marketers I was actually really quite excited about this bar and forked out 55p to get my hands on it...ok this is not exactly breaking the bank but this is relatively more expensive than your average Cadbury bar...hmmm I seem to remember paying 38p just a few weeks ago for a Cadburys Dairy Milk with Creme Egg.

55p later and further inspection of the snazzy looking wrapper revealed some intriguing facts... the 'Twisted' had exactly the same nutritional information than the Cadburys Dairy Milk with Creme Egg..surely not...!? YEP down to the last gram!...coincidence!?

Opening the bar it had a sweet fragrant Dairy Milk cocoa aroma - apparently according to the wrapper, Dairy Milk contains min 20% Cocoa Solids- news to me. The bar itself is smaller than your standard Dairy Milk bar...further research has show that it is only a few grams smaller at 43g in weight though - it was really quite a filling bar anyway so no complaints there.

As you will see in the picture above the bars' name is obviously derived from its shape. Its shaped identically to a Mars Delight bar - a long rippled finger...though as you can guess this its quite alot thicker...at least it looked more impressive than the Cadburys Dairy Milk with Creme egg.

You will also see in the cross section above that the chocolate was really quite thick - it provided a nice solid coating to the bar and stopped any of the fondant centre seeping out (a common problem I always had with the Dairy Milk with Creme Egg variant). The fondant centre had a smoother texture than you will find in the standard creme egg - to be honest I preferred the smoother feel.

Tastewise...guess what???? Its Dairy Milk with Creme Egg fondant centre...this of course is a good thing. The Dairy Milk chocolate was its normal creamy self, a combination of a smooth but rich cocoa taste...always a winner in my book. The fondant centre was also its usual tasty self, of course ever so sweet, but again like in the Creme egg, its correctly proportioned with the chocolate, making for a good balance of flavours. Anything missing here!??? ahh yes that marketing buzzword...'innovation'!

Overall its been very hard to score this bar. As I said above its damn tasty and on this basis alone I would recommend it to anyone...this is where my recommendations on this bar stop though because in truth I feel cheated. This is not the innovative product we were promised..this is the Cadburys Dairy Milk with Creme Egg bar but with a snazzy wrapper and new bar appearance. Even if these changes are admittedly for the better, this does not excuse the fact we are now paying around 20p more for these irrelevant changes. At the end of the day this is simply a bit of 'marketing magic' that I'm sure I will not be the only victim of. Cadbury have managed to create a buzz about a product that already exists, and are charging a higher price for it. In relation to the standard Creme Egg it just doesn't have the same magic...it doesn't look as good and the value isn't a great. Despite all this its a great tasting bar..but if your expecting something ground breaking your going to be left disappointed.

8.0 out of 10

May 7th: Reese's Sticks

Kcal 230 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 23.0g

The good people at CandyPirate sent me through another batch of goodies today and there seemed no better place to start than with Reese's direct comparison bar to yesterdays 'Butterfinger Crisp'.

Essentially the product is almost identical in concept - several interspersed layers of peanut butter and wafer coated in milk chocolate. The Reese's 'Stick' weighed in at a slightly less 42g and was no where near the size of the Butterfinger Crisp.

Looking at the back of pack, the ingredients read very similar to yesterdays: sugar, peanuts and vegetable oil comprising the top three...so again this was not another organic natraul experience.

Opening the package the bar did not have a particularly striking aroma which was slightly disappointing due to its relatively high peanut content. The pack was split into two 21g bars which looked almost identical in appearance to the Cadbury Timout bar; despite not having the most unique asthetic look it wasnt that part of the bars appearance I had a problem with...it was more the glistening layer of grease that was lining each bar. This felt horrible when handling the bar and left an unpleasent residue on my fingers.

Despite the wafer layers being in constant contact with the peanut butter, the wafers retained a nice crispy crunchy texture. The chocolate was quite thin in thickness which was slightly disappointing though the peanut butter layers had a nice smooth creme like texture which agaisnt the crispy wafer provided a nice contrast.

Tastewise the bar had mixed fortunes. As you can guess the chocolate was weak in flavour which is a common trend with most Reese's products. Conversely the peanut butter had a strong smooth creamy nutty flavour with a slight saltyness edge. Though the wafer was a little weak in taste it did have a slight maltyness that although could have been a little stronger, was pleasant.

Overall this is not a bad product but its definately not the best in the Reese's range. The peanut butter element as ever in the Reese's products was strong and the wafer certainly had a nice crunch too it making for an intresting texture. Unfortunately the chocolate was yet again a disappointment and this combined with the slightly lazy appearance of the product accounts for its relatively average score. If you have tried the KitKat Chunky Peanut Butter before and enjoyed it, its definately worth you trying this bar.

7.2 out of 10

May 6th: Nestle Butterfinger Crisp

Kcal 250 Fat 14.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 31.0g

Its amazing how many peanut butter based bars they have on the market in the US compared to our nonchalant approach in the UK. Thanks to the kind people at http://www.americalicious.co.uk/ I have been able to sample yet another offering in this area the 'Butterfinger Crisp'.

You may recall me reviewing the original 'Butterfinger' way back in February - I wasnt overly impressed with that bar and really didnt take to texture and sugar based flavour of it too much.

The 'Butterfinger Crisp' came in a largish 50g bar - it certainly did the job fufilling my hunger which isnt normally the case with a lot of wafer based bars. On pack it describes itself as 'Wafers and Butterfinger candy creme'. In more detail the bar had a several interspersed layers of peanut butter creme and wafer all coated in milk chocolate with small pieces of chopped nuts on top.

On closer inspection of the ingredients it was evident that sugar was infact the most prominant, followed by vegetable oils....oh dear...Montezuma's clean cut organic ingredients this is not...at least roasted peanuts was third on the list!?

Opening the wrapper I was met a mixture of feelings....one being 'damn this bar looks ugly (see above!!) but two...'damn this bar smells awesome'. Yes indeed it looked terrible but had a very appealing nutty aroma.

Texturewise the bar as you can imagine was very crispy. The wafer had a nice solid crunch whilst the creme layers provided a cool smooth variation. Due its crispy nature the bar was a little messy eating - bits of wafer, chopped nuts flying all over place which you can imagine isnt the most fun. The chopped roasted nuts on top gave the bar an extra element of crunch - despite their ugly appearance.

Tastewise it wasnt half bad. Unlike the original 'Butterfinger' where the main peanut flavour was a very highly sugar based one, this was avoided here and the peanut butter creme took more of a roasted slightly salty flavour. This was slightly helped due to presence of the chopped nuts on the top of the bar which really added to the overall nutty taste. The wafer had a nice biscuity malty flavour and the chocolate, despite its backseat in flavour prominance did a nice job of providing a creamy coating.

Overall despite my reservations due to the original Butterfinger I really enjoyed this bar. It avoided the pitfalls the original fell into and despite sugar being the main ingredient it wasnt the prominant taste. The peanut butter flavour is done really well with both the creme and chopped nuts providing a creamy yet slightly salty taste that is at least on par with the better peanut butter bars out there. Unfortunately its the looks of the bar that let it down - my word this bar is ugly...this is not the crafts work of the finer chocolatiers and a redesign should really be considered by Nestle. This small issue aside this is a great tasting bar that you should really try if you fancy the sound of it.

8.0 out of 10

May 5th: Montezuma's "Whoopee"

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

I continued making my way through the Montezuma's gift set today sampling the "Whoopee" bar. This was another white chocolate variant from the range and this time had the added flavour of raspberry.

Again this was a boxed and plastic wrapper sealed 45g bar that was split into six blocks. From the picture above you should be able to make out speckled appearance of the bar - it was simply six blocks of white chocolate, interspersed with small fragments of raspberry. In honesty this didnt make for the most impressive or appertising bar...it looked far from unappealing but it did very little to excite.

The bar had a slight vanilla essence smell though any hint of raspberry was lacking in the aroma which was again slightly disappointing.

The white chocolate had a very creamy milky flavour with quite a strong vanilla undertone. It made for a pleasent taste and avoided the pitfall that many white chocolate bars fall into and was not overly sweet. The raspberry flavour in the bar is established using freeze dried raspberrys (4%). Tastewise the raspberry wasnt to strong and could have done with being a bit more concentrated - due to the nature of being freeze dried, the texture of the bar wasnt very good....the chocolate when melted was relatively smooth though due to the smallness of the freeze dried raspberrys this smoothness was offset by a grainy texture. I also kept finding small pieces of raspberry in my teeth for a good hour or so after which as you can imagine be rather annoying.

Overall this again is a fair but unspectacular bar from Montezuma's. The white chocolate is a good standard but isnt quite the best I have had (see Thorntons!!) and the raspberry although not at detriment to the bar is rather weak and poor in texture. This is another good attempt at a classic recpie from Montezuma's..its not a bad bar nor is it an overly impressive one - I would expect more though for such a premium price.

7.0 out of 10

May 4th: Cadburys Dairy Milk Snack (Aus)

Kcal 270 Fat 12.1g Fat(sats) 7.6g Carbs 35.0g

The Cadburys Dairy Milk Snack is another single serving imported bar (55g) I got my hands on thanks to www.sanza.co.uk - it is originally manufactured in Australia.

I must admit I was rather sceptical at the chances of me liking this bar looking at the wrapper. Now I dont know who pays the marketing guys over at Cadbury Australasia but they seriosuly need to have a word to whoever is in charge of the front of pack information. The wrapper informs you that this bar includes 'Dairy Milk chocolate with six delicous flavours'....now not anywhere on the pack does it tell you what these flavours are...dont even think about looking at the ingredients for clues..unless your a fan of revising your food flavouring numbers your not going to have much luck there.

For those of you that do want enlightening these 'six delicous flavours' were infact: strawberry, pineapple, orange and coconut fondants with the final two being Turkish Delight and caramel.

Enough about the wrapper - disgarding it revealed the bar was split into blocks which were shaped in accordance to their flavours (see above). Not only did this look rather good but it was also very handy being able to easily distinguish between the flavours. The bar had a very fruity yet unfortunately artifical aroma, this did slightly worry me to how the bar was going to taste.

Texturewise all the flavours were relatively the same. The chocolate covering each was quite plentiful and thick. Again the Dairy Milk from Australia was slghtly less thick in viscosity and a bit less creamy but it was overly nice tasting and correctly proportioned.

Moving on to the six different flavours the four fruity fondants registered mix results with me. The strawberry, orange and pineapple centres were although very sweet, were distinct and not overly sickly due to them being correctly proportioned with the chocolate: each had an individual flavour that delivered in terms of both taste and uniqueness. The same cannont be said for the 'coconut ice' flavour - this was odly pink in colour and had no resembalance to tasting of coconut...furthermore this is made more odd by this being the only fruit centre that actually contained any of the real fruit..puzzling huh.

As you can imagine the Turkish Delight and Caramel blocks were identical to the flavours found in their respective individual Cadburys bars. The caramel block retained the sweetness of the Caramello and made for a nice differentiator from the other fruit flavours. The Turkish Delight had a nice rosewater sweet taste which combined with a slightly runny jelly type texture made for another tasty block.

Overall this is a really intresting bar that succesfully manages to merge six different flavours into an overly satisfying exprience. Though the fruit fondant centres were a tad sweet for my liking they did avoid the trap of being overly sweet and sickly tasting by beig correctly proportioned agaisnt the chocolate. The only slight disappointment as I said is with the utterly pointless 'coconut ice' flavoured block which is truly a waste of one sixth of the bar. At 55g its satisfying for hunger and the bar greatily benefits from the nice-looking shapes that each block corresponds to. I didnt hold out much hope before I tasted this bar, but its truly worth giving a go if your in the mood for something packed full of different fruity flavours.

7.9 out of 10

May 3rd: Snickers 'Adventure Bar' (US)

Kcal 250 Fat 12.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 32.0g

This is yet another 'limited edition' candy from the US and was kindly sent to me by the kind folks at http://www.americalicious.co.uk/!

The Snickers 'Adventure bar' is a 53g bar that adds a slight twist to the original composition of a regular Snickers with the added addition of 'a cliffhangar kick of exotic spice and a hint of sweet coconut'....sounds intresting huh!

Now Despite being 9g smaller than our original UK Snickers this was still really quite a filling bar - suffice to say after finishing the bar I was not needing another. The bar asthetically looked exactly the same to an original Snickers..obviously a bit smaller though.

The added 'adventure' ingredients were oddly MIA from the ingredients list on the back of the wrapper...no mention of any spices or real coconut there - though they didnt take long to make their presence apparent. The bar had a faint coconut aroma, it smelt rather synthetic...which is likely due to the fact it was :) .... this aside the bar retained its nutty smelling attribute that made the original so appertising.

Texturewise the bar remained relatively the same to the original - the caramel and nuts mixed together provided a pleasurable contrast in sticky yet crunchy bites - whilst the nougat retained its fluffy yet slightly firm viscosity.

Tastewise the chocolate had a slight hint of coconut, though the flavour was very sparing in this layer. The caramel and nut combination maintained the brilliant sweet nutty flavour that has that slight hint of saltyness which makes it so incredibly tasty. The main area of change in taste in the bar is the nougat, it had a quite strong coconut flavour that unfortunately was as artifical artifical in taste and it was in smell. Mars used flavourings rather than original ingredients to generate this coconut taste and unforunately its producded an overly sweet flavour - one which unfortunately mostly dominates the other better flavours of the bar. The nougat does also have some slight spice flavours that come through in the after taste...it tastes slightly of cinnamon and peppery though these are very subtle and dont add much to the experience.

Overall I would definately say that this variation in recipe dosent do the Snickers any favours. The coconut and spice flavours are generated through flavourings rather than real ingredients, and this is all but apparent through their synthetic and slightly sickly taste. That being said its an intresting contrast of flavours and I guess in a way its worth picking this bar up just to try it out and see if you like it. If you have been waiting for a bit of a Bounty/Snickers mish mash this could be the bar for you...if not probably best you just stick with the awesome original.

8.3 out of 10

May 3rd: Competition Results

Thank You to everyone that entered the Chocolate Mission Competition....

I can now reveal the winners who were drawn randomly from the hat:

Winner of the American Selection Box......... Doug aka 'Henke' from GamesRadar Forums

Winner of the Cadburys Selection Box......... Aveen aka 'Angeltreats' from EuroGamer Forums

Congratulations to you both...your chocolate is in the post - do let us know if you enjoy them.

Again Thanks to everyone who entered...please be sure to keep checking out Chocolate Mission for more competitions coming very soon.

May 2nd: Cadburys Top Deck (Aus)

Kcal 300 Fat 17.7g Fat(sats) 11.1g Carbs 31.1g

I found this bar listed at http://www.sanza.co.uk/ under their Australian section...I dont ever recall seeing this in the UK and im pretty sure its never been on the UK market.

The Cadburys Top Deck encorporates a bottom layer of Cadburys Dairy Milk and an upper layer of Cadburys 'Dream' white chocolate. It came in a 55g bar which split into eight sizeable chunks - it was really more than adequete satisfying my hunger.

Asthetically as you can see above it did look rather appertising, the same however cant be said for the smell. The bar had an extremely sweet cheap scent that was rather off putting...it certainly didnt fill me with anticipation.

The blocks of the bar broke away really quite easily, Taking the first block between my teeth I was actually able to split the two layers. The bottom Dairy Milk layer was quite similar to the Dairy Milk we enjoy here in the UK. It was slightly less creamy, and it had a slightly less thick texture once melted....the differences wernt major, but on balance I would say the UK Dairy Milk is slighty better.

The 'Dream' white chocolate topping was extremely similar in taste to what we have here in the UK 'Dream' bar....unfortunately this is not such a good thing. The taste is extremely sweet... too sweet even and its to the point that the bar quickly becomes sickly in taste (it gave me that dreadful feeling at the back of my throat..hard to describe). Even when the two layers arent split and eaten in tandem the white 'Dream' layer dominates the Dairy Milk which of course makes for an extremely sweet 55g!

Overall this is a bar that I would strongly suggest you probably leave alone. The Dairy Milk has a nice enough taste and texture, but the overly sweet white chocolate layer really spoils this bar. The taste reminds me of extremely cheap white chocolate and its sickly flavour is not suprising considering the main ingredient of the 51% white chocolate is of course....Sugar. I wouldnt reccomend trying this, but if your like me and like to try everything at least once dont expect much.

5.8 out of 10

May 1st: Montezuma's "Spice it up"

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Dipping again into my 'Speciality Giftset' from the kind people at Monty's I today sampled their "Spice it up" bar. The back of the cardboard box wrapped told me that this was infact the most popular of the 'speciality bar range'..and also that 'this was the bar NASA wanted to take to the moon instead of Buzz Aldrin'.....right :S .... lets just taste it shall we!?

Again in a 45g serving, the bar encorporated 'organic dark chocolate & dragon ginger'. The 'dragon ginger' refers to the origin which you may be able to guess - of course China. As with most of the Montzuma's bars the ingredients list read very cleanly with this bar containing only the two main ingredients Oragnic Dark Chocolate 90% (Cocoa Solids, Sugar & Vanilla) & Organic Ginger 10%. The Cocoa solids composition was a very high 73% - as you can imgaine this made for quite a rich bar.

The "Spice it up" name suggested to me that this bar was going to have quite an edge to it - a real ginger kick - after unwrapping the bar this apparently wasnt to be the case and the strong ginger spice aroma I was expecting never really materialised to anything more than a slight scent.

Looking at Terry's review of this bar over at http://www.thechocolatereview.net/ he was disappointed by the lack of ginger in the bar he sampled....I didnt quite have the same problem here but as you can see above from my picture there was an evident proportioning problem; not only was this at detriment to the asthetic appeal of the bar, but unfortunately as you will learn to the overall taste.

As the above shows you two out of the six blocks were crammed full of ginger - these had a relatively strong taste of ginger but even then it didnt really have the 'kick' factor that you would expect with the spice...not like the ginger found in the bars like Duncan's that I have previously reviewed anyway. These two blocks aside the taste of ginger was all but absent, and of course this was down to the other four remaining blocks not actually containing their fair share of the ingredient.

Luckily for this the bar the dark chocolate is absolutely glorious. Like the other dark chocolate bars I have tried in the range it balances a slightly bitter initial taste with one that tansforms into a slightly smooth vanilla routed one. Despite its rather high solids content it is actually quite smooth and this pleasent texture combined with the taste makes for an incredibly moreish chocolate.

Overall this is another bar from Montezuma's that has all the right ingredients yet dosent quite manage to pull off the effect of being an amazing bar of chocolate. The chocolate is again the highlight of the bar and is extremely tasty - some of the best dark chocolate out there. Unfortunately the ginger flavour is what holds this bar back from being great. Its ill proportioned and not quite as strong flavoured as it probably should be. Again I suggest that with a little tweaking from Monty' this could really be regarded as a great chocolate bar - until then I sugget you leave it be unless your a really big fan of ginger flavoured bars.

7.1 out of 10

April 30th: Galaxy Roasted & Caramelised Hazelnuts

Kcal 249 Fat 14.5g Carbs 26.7g

Is it me or are Mars forever trying to out-do Cadburys in the namestakes....for your Cadburys 'Biscuit' you have the Galaxy 'Cookie Crumble'...for your 'Fruit & Nut' you have 'Raisin, Almond & Hazelnut'...and now for the 'Wholenut' equivalent we have 'Roasted & Caramelised Hazelnuts'..bit of of a mouthful eh!

This bar came in a 47g single portion serving - just the right amount if you ask me. Looking on the wrapper aside from the overly long name the bar described itself as 'smooth and creamy milk chocolate with roasted and caramelied hazelnuts'...these nuts which were supposedly comprimising 14% of the bar. If you take a look above those were the pieces that actually contained the relatively less amount of hazelnuts than the others...the bar was absolutely crammed full of them.

Despite the high nut content the blocks actually broke away relatively easily and with less mess than I expected. The bar offered a slight nutty aroma which was very pleasent but mostly the scent wasnt overly detectable which was slightly disappointing.

Tastewie the hazelnuts were neither the best nor the worst. They had that slightly woody nutty flavour but were relatively shallow in taste when considering the sheer volume. The chocolate was its usual dreamy smoothness that retained its normal Galaxy creamy flavour. There seriously isnt much better than Galaxy chocolate...unfortunately the overall flavour was hindered by the texture of the bar.

Due to the volume and nature of the chopped nuts the overall smoothness of the texture of the bar was disrupted. Of course its normal to expect not the smoothest of texture with a bar that contain nuts, but the silkyness is really the main strength of Galaxy chocolate and I just feel that this probably isnt the most suitable ingredient to combine with it - that appears to be the case anyway on evidence of this bar.

Overall this is no doubt a good tasting bar - the chocolate is the normal dreamy Galaxy delighfulness, and the hazelnuts although not as flavoursome as they could possibly be arent at all bad. Personally I just dont think the roughness of the chopped nuts really suits the super smooth chocolate and that stops this being one of the top bars in the Chocolate Mission table. If you enjoy trying different bars with nuts, this is definately worth you checking out.

7.9 out of 10

April 29th: Cadbury Dairy Milk

Kcal 255 Fat 14.6g Fat(sats) 9.0g Carbs 27.7g

The confectionery market is such a busy place with new and exciting products popping up all over the place, its sometimes easy to forget the classics that have been with us for decades. It came to my realisation yesterday despite having reviewed some of the more obscure products on the current market, I had somewhat neglected some of the older time classics.

Today for the first time in a long while I went to the shops and I bought a 49g bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk...no truffle centres...no peanut butter...no fancy biscuit elements in sight...just a plain old milk chocolate bar.

Cadburys have recently just changed their packaging too more subtle matted textured wrappers. Personally I don't care too much, but I must admit they do look a bit more appealing and classy than the previous slightly dated looking foil wrappers.

Opening the wrapper, the Dairy Milk aroma quickly became evident - I think anyone whose had a Dairy Milk bar before will be able to relate to that extremely distinctive Dairy Milk smell, a creamy cocoa scent...gorgeous.

I ate the bar block by block letting each melt in my mouth slowly. It had a silky texture that melted at just the right rate in the mouth, releasing its creamy flavour but avoiding being pro-longed in its presence - something that is often the case with more waxy textured bars that just seem to stay an unmelted lump in the mouth. The chocolate melted at such a nice rate that chewing was unnecessary and sucking on the block alone allowed it to release its full flavour.

Flavour wise I think its universally agreed that Dairy Milk has a distinct taste. Dairy Milk's big marketing claim is that there is "a glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound"...and I'm not going to argue this is untrue. The taste...its simplicity in itself...Cocoa routed creamy goodness...and in every bite...in a word..Delicious.

Overall I cant say enough good things about this bar. Its easy to see why it gets overlooked so often by people like myself who are always chasing the new ideas in the confectionery market, but thats really to our own detriment. This is simplicity in itself - just a standard 49g bar of solid milk chocolate - a no frills, no nonsense great tasting chocolate bar. Its not the most exciting bars on the market but its up there with the best and probably will be for years and years to come. Next time your browsing the confectionery shelve why don't you ignore the 'triple nut, double caramel, nougat extravaganza bar' and just indulge in one of these; I can promise you wont regret it.

8.9 out of 10

April 28th: Montezuma's "Space Hopper"

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Today I delved further into the speciality gift set from Montezuma's and sampled the sprightly named "Space Hopper". The "Space Hopper" was yet another 45g bar from the range and combined 'Organic milk chocolate with juicy orange'.

From this description I was expecting a standard milk chocolate bar with the inclusion of bits of orange fruit...looking at the back of the pack though I was left pretty disappointed as it soon came to light that the bar actually only contained Orange Oil. Montezuma's claim this Orange oil is a 'cut above mere segments' but to be honest I disagree and I will explain why.

Montezuma's pride themselves on their organic credentials and although on the ingredients list the 'Orange Oil' claims to be a 'permitted GM free non-organic ingredient' it dosent strike me as in keeping with their whole ethos.

The lack of actual orange pieces effected the texture of the bar too - in that it made it rather boring. The chocolate wasnt the smoothest or most luxurious in terms of texture quality; it didnt reach the pinnacle of the melt in mouth dynamic of Dairy Milk whilst it wasnt as smooth as Galaxy or Lindt chocolate....with the absence of any other element other than the chocolate this made for a rather boring mediocre texture.

Despite my disappointment with the content and texture of the bar the overall taste wasnt bad. The flavour of the milk chocolate was actually really rather good - it had a nice milky cocoa flavour with a slight fragrance of vanilla. Looking at the ingredients again it included a good amount of cocoa and milk solids (24% & 22.5%) and generally just had a fresh tasting essence. The orange oil provided a strong orange flavour which although was far from spectacular was overly pleasent. What was notable however was the aroma that the orange ingredient created - it had a strong orangey fragrance which was superb and really quite appertising.

Overall although not bad tasting this is a bar that I just feel seems a bit out of place in the Montezuma's range. The concept of 'Orange Oil' to me seems agaisnt everything Montezuma's stands for which is all about Organicness and freshness...'Orange Oil' just feels like a bit of a contradiction. Its not only the concept of the orange element but also the execution - it delivers a nice taste but it offers very little of interest in the asthetic and texture departments. This is a bar I think is only for the chocolate orange fans...if your not fussed by the flavour this is a bar you can probably just let pass you by.

6.7 out of 10

April 27th: Trader Joe's Espresso Chocolates

Kcal 150 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 4.0g Carbs 22.0g (per 4 pieces 37g)

These single piece chocolates were another item to me sent to me by Esther in the US from the Trader Joe's outlet. On pack they are described as 'Rich dark chocolates filled with liquid espresso coffee' and came in a nifty pack of 12. Although distributed by Trader Joe's, as Cybele mentioned in her review over at Candy Blog these are actually made in Germany and although still having a very 'clean' ingreidents list (cocoa mass, wheat syrup, sugar, cocoa butter, espresso coffee) offered a slightly different proposition to the normal Trader Joe's products.

Unlike most the reviews on Chocolate Mission which are mostly based on single sitting portions I decided to review these by eating a few a day over the course of a week. I ate them at different times during the day: before my morning coffee, after lunch and after dinner and a conclusion I came to is that these were great to have half way through a morning or alernatively just after a large meal.

Asthetically the box looked nice, the wrappers were a rather boring plain brown with no pattern or designs..but for me sometimes simplicity suffices. Although a little unsure about the shape of the chocolates they did have a nice wooden design etched into the top of each which made the product look suitably stylish.

I ate these chocolates in a number of different ways - I tryed letting them slowly melt in my mouth, biting off one of the ends and eating the centre and also simply chewing them. By far and away the best method was letting them slowly melt on the tongue. It allowed for a nice smooth initial chocolate texture which was then followed by a cool slightly more liquid centre consistency.

The chocolate had a slightly different taste than the previous Trader Joe's dark chocolate products I had tasted before. Im putting the differences simply down to place of origin as I highlighted above. The chocolate itself had a flavour that was really quite sweet for dark chocolate. I personally would had preffered if the chocolate had a slightly less sugary taste which was more routed in the cocoa - it dosent actually say on the box the level of solids but I wouldnt expect it to be particularly high. This wasnt to say it was poor quality chocolate; it was actually rather good but it just didnt deliver the 'rich dark chocolate' it promised.

The liquid centre is obviously the focus of the product and it delivered a good quality flavour. The coffee flavour was a little more subtle than I was expecting, and its syrup like constituents made for a sweeter taste. I guess with the 'Espresso' billing I was expected quite an intense flavour routed in coffee but on reflection this really wasnt the case. Looking at the actual stated strength of the coffee ingredient, on the box it says that four of these chocolates contain less than 25% the strength of caffeine than a 6oz brewed coffee...so yeah...really quite low strength.

Overall these are a product that dont quite deliver on what they promise, though at heart are still rather good tasting. In both terms of dark chocolate and coffee flavours the product dosent deliver the intensity in flavours I was expecting; I would have preffered a richer darker chocolate with a more intense coffee flavour. That being said the standard of chocolate is still high and despite the chocolates being quite sweet in flavour eaten a few at a time and sparingly these are very good. If your looking for an intense coffee flavoured chocolate I wouldnt necessarily reccomend these on that basis, these are still pleasent chocolates though and if you get the chance to try them give them a go you could do far worse.

7.6 out 10

April 26th: Galaxy Cookie Crumble

*UPDATE 15/08/10 - NB. Original review written in April 2008 - since then the bar is now availble nationwide and in a smaller 50.0g bar (in photo above!)

Kcal 548 Fat 33.4g Fat(sats) 20.1g Carbs 55.4g

There's a good chance if you don't shop in Tesco that you will never heard of this bar. For some strange reason Mars have taken a rather odd decision and have made it a Tesco exclusive - why on earth? Reading Terry's take on this bar over at http://www.chocolatereview.net/ he seems to be of the opinion that Tesco, Sainsburys & Asda currently hold the rights to one exclusive bar each. If anyone can fill me in with what the other two are I would be most grateful as I have had trouble finding out myself.

Hiding amongst the vast selection of Chocolate at my local Tesco today I picked this 119g bar out and bought it despite the huge mountain of chocolate that I currently have sitting at house - I felt best to review it whilst it was widely available so it is more relevant to everyone ;)

The bar had the new 'smooth' shaped design that you can see in the picture above - I'm not too sure it actually adds extra smoothness though I must admit it does look nice to look at. Breaking the bar in half I could make out little specks of dark cookie placed in the chocolate - unfortunately due to the nature of the small cookie pieces the bar didn't break up that evenly and although the bar was split into blocks the cookie pieces stopped it from breaking cleanly. I guess there is nothing Mars can do about that but it does make it extra messy when breaking up the chunks.

The bar offered little aroma and in this sense the cookie element was anonymous. With Galaxy chocolate I particularly enjoy the smoothness and velvety nature of the chocolate that their products normally offer. It normally makes for a truly luxurious experience, this however was not the case here. Having chilled the bar slightly I placed the first few blocks in my mouth and waited - after a few seconds the chocolate started to melt and which point I began to chew. The chocolate was smooth but once the cookie element of this bar was exposed it acted like sandpaper and made for a distinctly rough grainy texture against the roof of my mouth. I ate about half a bar in one sitting but could eat no more due the roof of my mouth hurting - the cookie element was so coarse it actually made my mouth hurt! Ouchie...This wasn't Galaxy smoothness :( !!

Taste wise the bar wasn't too bad - the chocolate is your great standard Galaxy chocolate - smooth and distinctly creamy. The cookie element added very little in terms of flavour - despite its very distinctive texture it tasted of very little - a very slight biscuity note but nothing that added anything of relevance to the bar.

Overall this is really quite a disappointing bar from Mars. The Galaxy chocolate retains its usual great quality smooth creaminess and is luxurious in both taste and texture. The 'cookie crumble' aspect really REALLY lets this bar down though - shallow in flavour and horrible (even painful!) in texture. I really wouldn't recommend this bar to anyone other than Galaxy mad fans...suffice to say if your not at Tesco shopper I really wouldn't bother going out your way to get hold of one of these.

6.5 out of 10