May 14th: Toblerone Dark Chocolate

Kcal 500g Fat 30.0g Fat(sats) 18.0g Carbs 50.5g (per 100g)

Upon reccomendations from more than a few dedicated Chocolate Mission readers, and having already sampled the original milk chocolate version with relative success (a score of 7.9) I didnt take much convincing to try this bar . The Toblerone Dark Chocolate is simply the same as the original, just with the obvious dark chocolate now accompnaying the honey, almond and nougat pieces.

I bought this in a 100g bar from a high street discount store (Woolworths) for the mere price of £1!! Bargainalicious! I ate a good 50g in one sitting which is a suprising amount for a dark chocolate product, as normally dark chocolate is so rich; as you can imagine this went quite a good way to supressing my hunger.

The bar looked as stylish as the original milk chocolate version with the very distinctive triangular blocked design. This dark chocolate version looked particularly impressive with the nougat adding a decorative white speckled effect - very classy looking. Like the original the aroma wasnt that strong apart from a very subtle sweet scent.

Despite containing 50% cocoa solids, tastewise the chocolate wasnt as rich as I was expecting. The sweet honey and nougat pieces took the slight bitter edge off the plain chocolate which made for a slightly less concentrated and intense cocoa flavour - which I think perfectly suited this bar. Unfortunately the flavour of the chocolate was strong enough to offset the taste of the almond....a flavour that was already quite weak in the original milk chocolate alternative.

Texturewise the bar was as interesting as its milk chocolate counterpart. The nougat pieces being as small as they are made for a slightly grainy but not overly chewy texture. The nougat flavour was not lost despite the smallness in size, and the pieces were perfectly proportioned throughout the bar ensuring an appealing but not overly convoluted texture.

Overall i would say I ever so slightly prefer this dark chocolate version to the original milk chocolate. Tastewise the chocolate is nicely implemented - having a deeply routed cocoa flavour that avoids being overly bitter due to the sweetening effect of the honey and nougat ingredients. The only disappointment flavourwise comes with the almond flavour which is unfortunately lost due to the intensity of the other flavours. The bar looks amazing asthetically and this coupled with an intresting texture has landed this bar with a very respectable score. If your a dark chocolate addict I would strongly recommend this bar to you...especially at the ridiculous price of £1 per 100g!

8.1 out of 10

May 13th: Nestle Crunch

Milk Chocolate Kcal 170 Fat 9.1g Fat(sats) 4.8g Carbs 19.7
White Chocolate Kcal 166 Fat 8.8g Fat(sats) 5.6g Carbs 19.4

Today you guys are extra lucky and are getting two for one!! This is mainly due to the fact that last night I was particularly hungry meaning I managed to sample both the milk & white chocolate variants of Neslte's Crunch bar. The Crunch bars are solid bars of chocoloate which include 'Rice Krispie' type bits of cereal in them.

To my knowledge these arent the most highly distributed Nestle produts - I had a bit of a search for them myself..eventually finding both occupying a shelf in local newsagent. The bars themselves are not the biggest weighing in at just 31g each - this means that both are quite kind on the calories front but I guess its just relative to their size.

Asthetically the bars looked the same - they were just long slabs of chocolate with some nice patterns and the word 'Crunch' etched into the surface....very simplistic but nothing to complain about. Smell wise they slightly differed, the milk chocolate variant offered very little in this department; whilst the white chocolate offered a more appertising milky aroma.

Looking at the ingredients the milk chocolate variant actually included more cereal than the white chocolate version (15% compared to 10%). This wasnt particularly noticeable in texture as both offered a relatively pleasant yet similar mixture of smooth chocolate and crisp cereal. The 'Rice Krispie' like cereal gave the same 'snap, crackle and pop' texture that is so synonymous with the breakfast cereal - it made for an intresting, unique and ultimately enjoyable texture though as with the cereal didnt provide more than a weak malty taste.

Tastewise I enjoyed the milk chocolate bar more so than I did the white chocolate. I ate the white chocolate version first and was expecting a Milkybar like quality. Unfortunately it wasnt quite up to standard and the creamy milkyness of the Milkybar must have been lost somewhere; judging by the taste it must have been replaced with sugar as the taste quickly became very monotomous and overly sweet.

The milk chocolate was of a slightly better standard - it was not the best chocolate by any stretch of the imagination but was certainly a better quality than the white. Suprisingly the milk chocolate actually contained 35% min Cocoa solids - I say suprisingly as most mass manufactured bars are relatively lower than this. Its flavour was definately more milk than cocoa based and far less sugar based than the white variant, this made for a slightly more enjoyable taste.

Overall these arent bars I would overly recommend you rush out and buy - in truth they arent the best tasting and with the intresting texture aside they are truly unspectactular. A single bar isnt going to really do a job with fufilling any hunger of much note, though I guess you could do worse if you were looking for a very light snack. The cereal provides a nice texture yet a truly uninspiring flavour - much the same as the chocolate in both bars. My personal preference would be with the milk chocolate variant due to the overly sweet and sickly taste of the white chocolate though im still far from recommending these to anyone as theres better out there on the market.

Milk Chocolate 6.8 out of 10
White Chocolate 6.6 out of 10

May 12th: Maltesers

Kcal 187 Fat 9.1g Carbs 23.2g

Its suprising how long its take me to get around to reviewing these as they are actually the highest selling confectionary item manufactured by Mars (Yes even more than the Mars bar!!).

Maltesers, for those who are unaware consist of a spherical malt honeycomb centre, surrounded by milk chocolate. As you will see above generally the chocolate layer is quite thin..though this can vary.

These came in a 37g bag though they felt considerably lighter. A Malteser in hand feels light as a feather and it must be said they didnt do the greatest job subsiding my hunger. A quick glance at the ingredients list revealed the dreaded 'hydrognated vegetable fat' - boo! These are generally regarded as a lighter option for a chocolate snack, and the lower than 190 Kcal really does make these a viable option for a dieting chocoholic needing a cure for a chocolate fix - though as I said not the most filling option avalible.

Tatewise these were pretty good. The chocolate was just about the right thickness and had a nice texture that melted away from the honeycomb centre at just the right rate. The outside coating despite its low cocoa level (min 14%!) had had a quite strong cocoa taste and had the light creamyness that is synonymous with Galaxy chocolate. The honeycomb centres were also quite tasty. As you can imagine they had a strong malty flavour with undertone of honey which was pleasant and not overbearing mix. Personally I would prefer the centres to be more substantial in texture - they melted away in the mouth far too easy which meant the delicous flavours were all but gone too quickly.

Overall these are a nice tasting product. The chocolate and honeycomb centres provide a nice pleasant combination of flavours which are incredibly moreish. Unfortunately they are just so unsubstantial you will finish a packet of these in no time at all and still be left hungry. If your after something more substantial you best look elsewhere but if your after a good tasting but light chocolate snack you can go very little wrong here.

7.4 out of 10

May 11th: Kinder Milk Slice

Kcal 114 Fat 7.4g Carbs 9.4g

Ive recently had a number of requests asking me to review some German products - seeing these going for 50p each on Ebay I couldnt turn it down.

I didnt have a vast knowledge of what these actually were until they turned up on my doorstep last week. Looking at the packaging I wasnt helped to much...it was all in German! A spot of internet research was needed....the Ferrero website informed that that these were 'chocolate sponge cake with a milky filling'...and they were exactly that - two thickish chocolate flavoured cakey slabs with a very healthy milk truffle like textured centre - all with an added dash of honey!!. The site also informed me that these needed to be kept in the fridge to keep them fresh..lucky I looked really!

As per instructed I stored these in the fridge - Each individual 'slice' only weighed 28g but in truth one was more than enough for a sufficent snack. I opened the package and immediately detected an extremely sweet sugary smell...it wasnt the most pleasant - I was expecting more of a milky aroma.

I split the slice into four triangular bits - this caused a slight out spill of the filling but this was only due to its plentiful nature. The slice proved quite fun but if a little messy to eat! my own method was biting off one of the sides of chocolate cake slice and then eating the whipped centre followed by the other cake half...as I said messy but fun!

Flavourwise this slice was delicous. The cocoa flavour wasnt the strongest in the sponge element and if made a little stronger could be a real winner. The 'slice' was made extremely tasty by the centre filling - its texture was smooth and truffle-like whilst its flavour was all types of creamy milky goodness with just a little extra sweet kick from the added honey - truly delicious. I would aliken the flavour of the centre to whipped cream - just that its texture was far more substanstial.

Overall this is a delicous snack/bar that I would very much recommend to any Kinder fans out there. I was expecting the worst initially opening the wrapper..it smelt overly sweet and cheap...that being said it tasted divine and combines two simple yet delicious elements of sponge and milk. I believe that these were once avalible in the UK!? Can anyone shed some light on this? Another tasty product from Kinder - for a simple light snack you could do little wrong choosing the Kinder Milk Slice.

7.0 out of 10

May 11th: Thorntons Continental Viennese Truffle Bar

Kcal 195 Fat 11.7g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 20.8g

My yearning for a decent truffle again got the better of me today so I decided to 'treat' myself to a more premiuim brand chocolate bar and invest in something from my local Thorntons.

How could this bar possibly not taste amazing??...'a special blend of white and milk chocolate, with a layered centre of feather-light mousse and truffle, finished with a sprinkle of sugar' - it sounded terrific and at 75p it really should have been.

The bar itself was really quite small, it was no longer than a KitKat finger and although a weight wasnt specified I wouldnt say it was anything over 35g. It looked a bit measly and in truth it was, I still felt quite hungry after eating this bar. Another area of slight concern to me was the colour...I know its supposed to be a mixture of white and milk chocolate - but surely that dosent produce this weired looking grey colour!?

The bars outer layer of chocolate although thick wasnt all that resilient. Despite being chilled in the fridge for an hour it texture was soft and almost verging on nougat...it certainly didnt have the solid coating I was expecting. Unfortunately this outer coating also really lacked any substantial flavour - for Thorntons chocolate thats really quite a rarity but this had a very shallow cocoa flavour that was more milky that it was chocolaty. The bar was not helped at all by the 'sprinkle of sugar' that was placed ontop - it gave a slight crunch but agaisnt the rest of the nonchalant flavours it made this bar overly sweet.

The centre mousse filling was also disappointing in texture and flavour. I was expecting it to have an extremely light whipped viscosity but in reality I would aliken it more to nougat. Unortunately the mousse centre provided nothing more than an overly chewy flavourless layer.

Finally the truffle layer sat just below the mousse centre. Just like the other layers, compared to expectations it was weak in flavour and texture - it wasnt smooth like you expect a truffle layer to be like but actually rather tough and chewy. This coupled with a totally non descript flavour made for another disappointing ingredient.

Overall I cant say how disappointed I am in this bar. I was expecting a luxurious creamy chocolaty experience but this bar was nothing more than a poorly textured, bad tasting overly priced bar. I wouldnt reccommend this to anyone other than the overly curious that have to try everything once. This bar does not come with a Chocolate Mission endorsement.

3.8 out of 10

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