July 3rd: Reese's Peanut Butter Fudge Egg

Kcal 180 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 17.0g

Todays review again comes courtesy of the team at CandyPirate who yet again provided me with another offering from the extensive Reese's range.

The Reese's Peanut Butter Fudge Egg came in a 34.0g one piece serving. Despite its thickness the egg did seem relatively small in size - I feel like it could have been made a little bigger. Despite its smaller size it still looked and smelt dreamy once cross sectioned...no second guesses what it smelt like...a deep roasted nut smell just literally left my mouth watering. The packaging was nicely presented and included a cardboard sleeve to ensure extra protection..what was lacking was the paper cup that you find with the standard Reese's range...of course this wasnt even really an issue but personally I just feel like its a nice touch.

Now anyone whos read any of my Reese's reviews before will be aware of my constant disappointment at the quality of the chocolate used in the range - in all honestly it really wasnt that much better here with the added fudge element. The chocolate as you can see above was proportioned pretty thickly, despite this though it still lacked a real standout flavour. The fudge taste wasnt all that evident apart from adding a slightly longer more sugary aftertaste, the chocolate still simply didnt do enough for me...its texture wasnt bad and it had a relatively smooth texture...its just its flavour was still little more than I can describe as milky tasting...it just lacked real flavour depth.

Overall as with every Reese's product its the same old story. The chocolate was largely disappointing - and here the fudge element was all but lost but for a slightly sugary fudge noted aftertaste...luckily the peanut butter element was as ever just delicious. It smelt divine, its texture combined both smooth and rough superbly and its taste was just absolutely sublime. Its rich, creamy , buttery, nutty goodness all round...and I just couldnt get enough of it...unfortunately I really didnt due to its rather small size lol! If you love the Reese's range this is another product you will get on with...no doubt there are better Reese's products out there but this is worth trying at least once.

8.2 out of 10

Want to try the Reese's Peanut Butter Fudge Egg yourself head to CandyPirate to find this and more American Candy & Foods

July 3rd: Cadbury Snack Raisin Cereal Bar

Kcal 150 Fat 5.4g Carbs 23.2g

Little over a week ago I hadnt even heard of the Cadbury Snack range until I stumbled across the 'Cadbury Snack Shortcake' - today I found a further two products in the range so today im bringing you my review of the 'Raisin Cereal Bar'.

This cereal bar came in a 35g serving - I ate it around 11am and it was a more than adequete at fufilling my mid morning munchies! The bar encorporated oats, bran flakes, raisins, crispies and honey in a bed of Cadbury's milk chocolate. It look relatively nice appearancewise - the wrapper had a nice vibrant look and its foil constituants ensured a pristine, nice sweet smelling bar. The aroma was strongly honey rooted though did have a minor milky cocoa element to it.

Taking the bar out the wrapper it was quickly evident at how thin the chocolate layer was. The on pack description claims it covers half the bar...which it does...just extremely thinly! Not only did this mean its flavour was all but lost in the rest of the denser elements, but due to its thiness the chocolate melted extremely quickly when handling the bar. To be honest I think I ended up with more chocolate on my fingers than in my mouth lol! The other cereal elements in the bar were pretty fair in taste - the crispy cereal was the strongest in flavour which dosent really say much for the rest as its taste was not all that strong itself...slightly malty and sugary. The oats combined with the honey added a nice consistant chewyness to the bar though both remained pretty lifeless in flavour. The raisins implemented in this bar were largely disappointing adding very little flavorwise and a bit of an uncomfortable mushy texture.

Overall this bar was a bit hit and miss across the board. It failed to deliver on the taste front - the chocolate was the tastiest element but severely lacking in portioning...the different cereals were all pretty fair but overly lifeless with none particularly outstanding from the others apart from the rice. The bar had a nice chewyness and due to the dense nature of the ingredients did a nice job of settling my hunger...its just unfortunate that its best element (the milk chocolate) was implemented both not enough and annoyingly in the design of the bar. You could do worse for a mid morning snack but if its a real chocolate hit your after you better look elsewhere - this could be done better!

7.1 out of 10

July 2nd: Lindt Excellence Milk Extra Creamy

Kcal 196 Fat 12.9g Fat(sats) 7.7g Carbs 17.5g (per 35.0g)

After the success of the 70% Lint Excellence bar last week I simply couldnt waite to try the milk chocolate Lindt Excellence. Ive tried some extremely good milk chocolate bars lately including the Milka Alpine, Cadbury Dairy Milk and of course Hotel Chocolat's 40% bar...this had a lot to live up to in an already pretty busy market.

This Lindt Excellence offering came with the promise of being 'Extra Creamy' ... how have they done this I thought? A quick look at the ingredients list told me the bar is formed of 30% Cocoa solids and 20% milk solids....neither really outstandingly high. Further inspection showed the ingredients list containted 'butterfat'....lol im not even too sure what this is to be honest but i going to assume that the combination of that and large levels of cocoa butter were indeed acountable for the ultra smoothness of this bar. Butterfat!?? Anyone??

The bar came in a 35g serving which in truth just didnt feel enough to satisfy my hunger...Im obviosuly quite aware this isnt the usual serving size (around 50g) but im pretty sure even that wouldnt have fully satisfied me completely. The presentation of the bar itself was... well....excellence!! The wrapper looked sophisticated and worthy of a more premiuim brand of chocolate. The bar was coated in a tight layer of foil that not only kept the bar in mint condition but also maintained a nice dairy aroma to the bar....it smelt appertising and looked even better - Lindt always excel in these criteria.

I chilled the bar before eating it and with doing so the bar had a nice crisp crack as I split the pieces. The surface of the chocolate was slightly rippled due to the patternwork though the chocolate was soon as smooth as silk once placed on the tongue. It melted gorgeously on the tongue releasing its ever so creamy slightly vanilla noted taste. The flavour was sweet though not overly so and despite its slightly low cocoa content the cocoa flavour was relatively intense for the duration of the time the chocolate was present in the mouth. The only very slight shortcoming with this bar was the longevity of the taste...the texture was so soft and silky the flavour left the tastebuds all too quickly...probably not the biggest of problems if you have a 100g bar...but the quickness that the flavours disappear is slightly frustrating - especially as it tastes so creamy and delicious.

Overall this is another masterclass in how to create great tasting chocolate by Lindt. I say it everytime I review one of their products but they are still to let me down. Lindt seem to apply a pretty similar formula by producing great looking, smelling and tasting products made with high quality ingredients...this bar is another perfect example of this. The texture of the bar is to die for...its probably one of the smoothest tasting chocolates Ive reviewed; unfortunately the smoothness of the texture slightly comes at detriment to the taste and although the flavours are outstanding they leave the mouth just all too quickly. Theres no doubting this is some very high quality chocolate..definately worthy of a place in the overly cluttered milk chocolate market.

8.6 out of 10

July 2nd: Oh Henry!

Kcal 230 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 33.0g

The Oh Henry bar has been manufactured since 1920. In the US the bar is manufactured by Hershey, though for reasons unbeknown to myself Nestle manufacture the Canadian bar. I was sent a sample of today's bar courtesy of the guys at Sweetstall once again - I suggest you head there if you want to try it for yourself.

The Oh Henry bar came in a 51g serving formed by two suprisingly small looking rippled fingers. As you can see above despite their small size they were dense with ingredients...literally crammed full!! The bars encorporated a thick base layer of fudge, a generously proportioned layer of caramel and roasted peanuts...all covered in a coating of milk chocolate. The packaging itself was plain but classic in appearance, as I said above the two bars themseleves were a little meagre looking though generally the product looked pretty sound...if a little unspectacular. Opening the wrapper the product had a very evident nutty smell...very much alike a Snickers but not as strong...really quite tantalizing though.

Though the ingredients were very compact, the flavours were very individual and identifiable. The fudge layer was extremely dense in texture and made for an extremely chewy base. It had a strong buttery taste with a creamy aftertone - a very nice base flavour. The mixed caramel and roasted peanut layer was as equally tasty and combined a chewy crunchy contrast of textures and flavours. The caramel was sweet and chewy whilst the peanuts had a converse crunchy salty flavour...again it was very comparable to that of a Snickers though the caramel was significantly more viscous. The only slight negative I could find with this bar was the quality of the chocolate...compared to the rest of the ingredients it was lacking in a strong flavour and was little more than I can describe as milky. It also lacked distinctive texture...it was thin and flaked off in places...disappointing.

Overall despite its relatively small size, each mouthful of this bar was packed with flavour. The fudge base made for an extremely buttery dense layer and gave the bar a really unique taste that im struggling to aliken to any other. The mixture of the caramel and roasted peanuts is also a good contrast of flavours and textures and is applied well in this bar like in many others. Despite the disappointing chocolate element I would definately recommend this bar to those who like the sound of it - well worth checking out epecially if your a fan of fudge...definately one for you Snickers fans!

7.9 out of 10

Head over to Sweetstall to find the Oh Henry and many more imported Candy items

July 1st: Montezuma's "Orangutang" / "Surf Nut"

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

I realised today looking over my vast collection of bars that I have to review that I had neglected the remaining selection that Montezuma's sent me a few months back...so inorder to make it up to them I decided to bite the bullet and do the only thing I could do ....yep eat two of their bars in one day :D ... its a hard life sometimes!

The first bar I sampled was the "Orangutang" bar which was a mixture of 73% organic dark chocolate & sweet orange oil. Later in the evening I also helped myself to the "Surf Nut" bar which combined 34% milk chocolate with macadamia nuts & coconut. Both bars came in 45g servings and both proved to be more than substantial at fufilling my hunger needs.

The "Orangutang" and "Surf Nut" came presented in the same cardboard box / plastic wrapper presentation style as the other bars in the selection box. The boxes were nicely designed and implemented some nice colours but as with the rest of the selection bars I couldnt help but feel the plastic wrapping was just a bit on the tacky side...the bars themselves were presented nicely seperated in to six blocked chunks; I felt the "Surf Nut" had a more distinctive look as the implementation of the whole nuts gave it a more interesting appearance than the just purely blocked dark chocolate of the "Orangutang".

The "Orangutang" had a very slight fruity orange smell but failed to really register a cocoa scent of note. I would like to think that my dark chocolate palette has become reasonably adept but the intital flavour of this bar registered quite bitter to my tastebuds. I have had far stronger bars than this 73% but the initial bitterness in this bar wasnt the nicest. As the flavour developed it did progress to a pleasant rich flavour that had an ever so slight sweet vanilla aftertaste. The orange taste was refreshing though hardy anything overly special - a pretty standard orange flavour that I feel could have been better implemented with the use of orange pieces rather than the orange oil. The dark chocolate did have a nice smoothness once melted though I think the implementation of the orange pieces could have made for a more intresting contrasting texture.

The "Surf Nut" had a very nice creamy smell though lacked a nutty scent that could have really made it very enticing. The milk chocolate itself was genuinely great tasting and lived up to its aroma with a deliciously milk taste that had an enjoyable sweet aftertaste. This bar was literally crammed full of nuts and was all the better for it - what I also appreciated was the fact that the nuts were nicely dispersed with every block containing either one of the two different types. The macadamia nuts included in this bar were whole nuts and were genuinely the best tasting nuts I have ever had in a chocolate bar - buttery in taste and just absolutely deliciously crunchy and fresh tasting. The coconut was less forthcoming in flavour though added a similar fresh crunchy texture...its taste further extenuated the milkyness of the chocolate whilst adding a nice roasted undertone..it definately merited its inclusion in the bar.

Overall both these bars were pretty tasty though the "Surf Nut" genuinely stood out as one of the best whole nut bars I have tried on Chocolate Mission. I simply couldn't get enough of the macadamia nuts which seriosuly added an absolutely stunning nutty flavour - the coconut element less so but still added to a genuinely great texture. The "Organutang" bar was less spectacular though was a nice solid offering for a dark chocolate orange bar...as I said after the initial bitterness the dark chocolate was great tasting though I just think that the use of orange oil rather than orange pieces was a bit uninspired when considering the array of organic nuts and other fruit pieces that are used in other Montezuma's bars. I genuinely think you would enjoy both these bars if you like the sound of the flavours...I especially recommend the "Surf Nut" which is truly a unique great tasting nutty bar.

"Orangutang" 7.7 out of 10
"Surf Nut" 8.6 out of 10

June 30th: Hotel Chocolat 40% Milk Chocolate

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

Again this weeks Hotel Chocolat review comes courtesy of dedicated reader Maxine who included this 40% milk chocolate slab in the box of goodies she so kindly donated to the Chocolate Mission cause.

After last weeks absolute triumph - the 85% dark chocolate bar, to say I was expecting 'good things' from this bar would have been an understatement...it didnt let me down either!

This milk chocolate offering came in much the same form as last weeks dark chocolate variant. The two 60g slabs came beautifully presented in a stylish looking box and inside wrapping...right from the off the beautiful presentation and clean cut shimmering slabs just gave the product the classy look that it deserves - a real cut above the rest in this sense. The on box description described the chocolate as 'made with less sugar and more cocoa for a deep chocolaty taste' - the ingredients list told me the bar contained 40% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids ... though hardly particularly high in either this is higher than you will find in most mass producded milk chocolate.

Again I ate the two slabs at different times - I found one slab to be a nice amount but it wasnt as fufilling as the dark chocolate variant. The slabs had a crisp snap to them when breaking them apart...again I had slight reservations over the slab design...yes it looked nice but it truly was a pain breaking it up into sizeable pieces. The slabs had a nice aroma - alot stronger than most plain milk chocolate bars - it smelt very dairy based with a slight undertone of caramel...very nice indeed.

The on-pack blurb described the bar as having a strong cocoa taste - though the cocoa was more forthcoming than your standard milk chocolate the flavour wasnt quite as deep as I was expecting. The taste was in actual fact very milk based - this combined with the silky smooth texture made for a very flowing moreish flavour that I simply couldnt get enough of. The high levels of cocoa butter ensured the chocolate melted delightfully on the tongue - pure luxury. Every bite of each of the 60g bars seemed like pure indulgence...the flavour wasnt quite as deep and thick textured as the dark variant but it was still very good - superb infact.

Overall this is another great offering from Hotel Chocolat. The chocolate is devilishly creamy and has a texture that is just as silky-smooth as any chocolate out there. It dosent quite have the depth or richness of flavour of the dark 85% bar but this is still chocolate in some of its most divine form. This is definately the best milk chocolate I have tasted and its rating obviously reflects that - simply if you like milk chocolate (and who dosent!?) you need to try this bar.

9.0 out of 10

June 29th: Lily O'Briens Sticky Toffee

Kcal 232 Fat 12.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g (per 47.0g)

Before I go into todays review I just want to quickly acknowledge the mention that this website got in this weekends Guardian newspaper!! Yes indeed ChocolateMission was mentioned in the supplementry 'GUIDE' magazine - now thats recognition for you :D :D anyway enough blowing my own trumpet onto the review :D

The kind people at Lily O'Briens are the latest lovely bunch of people to send some of their range my way and today saw me sampling their 'Sticky Toffee' selection... read on to see how they matched up on the Chocolate Mission rating.

Lily O'Briens describe these as 'sweet smooth caramel encased in milk & dark chocolate'. Looking at the ingredients it looked a pretty clean list..the usual suspects were present..sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass - the milk chocolate contained 30% and dark 55% solids respectively.

The chocolates came in a box of eight which weighed 110g - I ate these in two sittings and found four at a time a perfect amount. My opinion was split on the aesthetic appeal of this product...the packaging I didnt feel looked the greatest - I dont know what it was but to me it just didnt have the classiest of appearances. The box design was ok but the inside plastic bag and gold coloured wrappers just all looked a bit 'Cadbury Roses' to me...by that I mean not really as sophisticated as maybe other crafted chocolates are...they looked more mainstream and less specialised. Out their wrappers the chocolates had a nice dairy creamy aroma with just a little sweet scent that reminded me of honey...the chocolates themselves looked impressive and as you can see in the cross section above had a nice smooth appearance and good use of distinguishable colours for the different elements...the caramel especially had a nice golden appearance.

The chocolate that coated the caramel insides was comprised of both dark and milk chocolate. My method of eating these was biting off the dark chocolate top and eating it, then licking out the caramel centre before munching on the rest of the milk chocolate.

The dark chocolate had a rich taste that I found suprisingly darker and more cocoa rooted than I was expecting. Though strong in flavour it avoided being overly bitter and provided an initial nice deep taste that balanced nicely agaisnt a very sweet centre. The milk chocolate was also equally as good. It reminded me alot of milka chocolate in that it was sweet and milky without the cocoa edge thats more alike Dairy Milk...the taste was smooth and very moreish.

The caramel on pack is described as smooth but to be honest this couldnt have been further from the truth. Its texture was grainy and thick - a bit like a more fluid fudge...this is not a criticism! I believe the texture cotrasted nicely with the smoothness of both the chocolate elements, it gave a nice distinctive feel in the mouth. Flavourwise the caramel centres were very sweet but balanced nicely with a salty aftertaste; the taste was very different to most caramel and was more buttery than sugary...different but equally as tasty as any caramel out there.

Overall these are a pretty decent first offering from Lily O'Briens and I must admit im impressed. In my opinion the packaging dosent quite match the quality of the product and that slightly lets its appearance rating down. Besides that the combination of different chocolate types and unique tasting buttery caramel filling make for a rich but enjoyable experience. Definately a product for fans of caramel to try - a good score and a Chocolate Mission thumbs up.

8.4 out of 10

June 28th: McVities Jaffa Cakes

Kcal 46 Fat 1.0g Fat(sats) 0.5g Carbs 8.6g (per Cake)

I know...I know....this isnt a chocolate bar...but Jaffa Cakes have been one of the most requested product review requests since starting Chocolate Mission...they do fall roughly into the same category as the Kinder Slice and Oreo Cakesters and it would have been rude to turn all the requests down...besides im rather partial to a Jaffa or two :)

For those who are not in the know (im guessing those outside the UK!!) a Jaffa cake consists of a sponge base with a layer of orange jam...the top of these cakes are then covered in plain chocolate..which account for 20% of the total ingredients. I sampled these in a pack of three - I am a bit of a greedy bear but three simply wasnt enough for me...be warned these are incredibly moreish!!

Everyone has their own way of eating Jaffa cakes but my own favourite method was to eat the three different layers in isolation.

Firstly I ate the sponge layer...it had a nice texture that was neither too light or too dense. It had a nice sweet taste with just a slight vanilla note. Left with the jelly like jam covered in chocolate I then went about nibbling away at the chocolate. In truth its flavour was suprisingly good...slightly more cocoa based than expected and despite the thiness of the proportioning actually quite strong in favour. The orange jam was jelly like in texture and had a sweet fruity taste. I wasnt too suprised looking at the ingredients to find that the flavour is actually achieved through the use of orange juice (12%!) it had a nice fresh taste. I guess eating Jaffa cakes is a little like eating Cadbury Creme Eggs...its really a question about how do you eat yours!??? Please Do tell!!!

Overall theres no doubting that Jaffa Cakes really are a great choice if in need of a snack. They combine three great elements that are not only great fun to eat but are also actually quite high quality. Even the plain chocolate used in these although slightly lacking in quantity, is of a fair standard...its taste is really quite rich and distinct. Personally I think there is slight room for improvement with this product...how about fully chocolate coated Jaffa Cakes!? or Jaffa Cakes with far thicker chocolate!? The opportunities are endless. In truth these arent the most filling of snacks you can have and they are quite dangerous in that if bought in a large pack one sneaky Jaffa Cake can quickly turn into ten lol!! Despite this though they taste pretty damn good...as far as im concerned they come with a Chocolate Mission endorsement!

7.3 out of 10

June 28th: Lindt Lindor Orange Truffles

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

Strike another off the long list of Lindor flavours - the Orange variant is the focus of todays review.

As with the rest of the Lindor range these came individually foil wrapped...that were get this....orange coloured!!! Big suprise there eh! I was lucky enough today to sample four of these...all of which I ate in one sitting....they didnt seem as substantial as some of the other flavours from the range but four was still a nice amount. Removing the truffles from their wrappers they had a very pungent orange smell...not artifical smelling at all - just very fruity and fresh.

Im not going to claim to be able to tell the difference between 60% or 70% dark chocolate but at a guess i would say the 60% was used for the coating in these truffles. The chocolate had a nice texture and melted smoothly in the mouth with a slight sweet aftertaste, unfortunately though I must say it lacked the real flavour depth and richness that I experienced with the Lindt 70% dark chocolate.

The orange element was implemented in the soft centre of the truffles through the use of orange essence oils. This made for a very strong orange flavour that dominated the flavour of the chocolate...though I enjoyed the taste I must admit the sweetness of the flavour by the fourth truffle was quite overbearing and I would have struggled to eat another. The Lindor centre lived up to its credentials and was just as buttery, smooth and luxurious as normal...for texture there really are no better truffles than the Lindor range...not that I have reviewed yet anyway!

Overall these are a nice alternative in the range and definately boast the strongest flavour of the line I have tasted to date yet. The orange flavour is delievered with a fresh sweet fruity taste though I must say some may find the concentration of it slightly on the strong side...admittedly it does dilute the flavour of the dark chocolate a little. If your a fan of chocolate orange theres probably very little better on the market...maybe not the flavour I would buy in huge quantities but one or two at a time are very pleasant.

8.1 out of 10

June 27th: Cadbury Old Jamaica

Kcal 270 Fat 13.3g Fat(sats) 7.9g Carbs 32.4g

Two alcohol containing bars in a week...arent I just mental ;) Now I must admit when I recieved this bar and saw the words 'Dark Chocolate' and 'Cadbury' sharing the same wrapper I did shudder...the sheer terror of the experience that was the Cadbury Bournville came flooding back...even before opening I was pretty cautious about this bar today.

To my knowledge the 'Old Jamaica' is manufactured and distributed in Australia - it is described as a 'special blend of dark chocolate with rum & raisins'. It is made with 'Old Gold' dark chocolate which contains 45% cocoa solids...slightly more than the 39% of the Bournville but still pretty lacking for a dark chocolate offering. The bar took the look of a standard Cadbury bar...the plentiful 55g was sectioned into eight individual blocks each of which was enscribed with the customary stylish Cadbury logo. The packaging itself looked nice in appearance and its foil sealed freshness made for a very forthcoming rum scent emerging as soon as the bar was opened. The aroma was pleasant and certainly distinctive being very alcohol rooted, the chocolate aspect was not really to forthcoming but the smell was strong enough to entice me.

I remember criticising the raisin ingredient in my previous Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar review but the ingredient was very well implemented here. The bar was crammed full of them and each block contained at least 2-3... they made for a nice chewy fruity flavour and were definately one of the nicest aspects of the bar.

The 'Old Gold' dark chocolate unfortunately shared some of the characteristics of the dreaded Bournville. Though distinctly smoother in texture than the Bournville it had roughly the same shallowness of cocoa flavour and overly sweet aftertaste...it just wasnt inspiring and Ive really come to expect more from dark chocolate. Fortunately the strongest flavour of the bar was infact the rum which was very concentrated in flavour despite only accounting for 1% of the total ingredients. Upon further inspection of the wrapper the flavour seems to be achieved using artificial flavours - despite this the flavour was strong and one that I enjoyed (probably partly due to it masking the horrible taste of the dark chocolate!!)

Overall this bar was a very tricky one to score. Being frank the Chocolate is pretty awful...not quite as bad as Bournville..but pretty close. What ultimatly saves this bar and actually makes it a pretty credible one are the raisin and rum ingredients...not only are they nicely flavoured but they are also a pretty original idea that you dont see implemented all that much in the confectionary market. For this reason I would recommend this bar to anyone who likes the sound of it..its definately worth tracking down if you do want something a little different....just dont expect much from the actual chocolate.

7.7 out of 10

June 26th: M&Ms Wildly Cherry

Kcal 210 Fat 10.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 29.0g

It simply wouldnt be a complete Chocolate Mission week without a Limited Edition popping up somewhere...and this weeks comes courtesy of regular Chocolate Mission contributor Justin who sent me a pack of these 'Wildly Cherry' M&Ms to review.

These came in a 42.5g pack which I ate over the course of a few days (more on why later). Aside from the' Limited Edition' tag, on the front of the pack were the words 'Wildly Cherry' with the words 'artifical flavour' closely following...not really what you want to read in all honesty. The pack itself was pretty nice looking though the M&Ms themselves came in some pretty uninspiring red and brown colours...of course I get the link with them being the colours of cherrys but they just looked dull and lifeless compared to other M&M variants. Unlike other M&M variants I have reviewed recently these actually had a pretty strong aroma...unfortunately it just wasnt a very nice one...just very very sweet and artifically fruity....by no means horrible but just not particularly appertising.

The outside candy coating was by far the thickest of any M&M variant I had tried before. These made for a nice initial texture but of course made for an extremely sweet taste. The centre of the M&Ms were much the same as with original M&Ms...the chocolate was soft and smooth in texture and had a milky but very sweet taste. The cherry flavour was contained in the chocolate and became increasinly evident and forthcoming as the chocolate melted in the mouth; it had an initial pleasant fruity flavour but the artifical nature of the ingredient soon shined through as the concentration of the flavour soon became over-bearing making for an overly sweet taste. The flavour itself was hardly repulsive but it was just way way to strong to handle in any heavy dosage and hence why I could only seem to eat 4-5 of these at a time.

Overall these have to be considered as some of the poorest M&Ms I have tried. I think if these were encorporated in say a mixed bag of different flavours this would be a great flavour to have..unfortunately though when eaten solus the artifical concentration was just too much and I found them overly sweet. I could recommend these on the grounds that if you like things like cherry coke or cherry flavoured gum you could potentially really enjoy this variant...unfortunately I just found these overly sweet and i would generally only eat them in very small portions....not the greatest in the M&Ms line.

6.7 out of 10

Fancy trying these M&Ms Wildly Cherry and other American Candy & Foods? Head over to CandyPirate

June 25th: Baileys Original Irish Cream Truffles

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

Some of you may be aware that over the last few days Ive been attending job interviews...suffice to say the pressure and stress that has come with these high pressure situations has led to me hitting the bottle..... :) :) :) well ok not quite...but chocolate liquer truffles seemed a fitting thing to review this evening...with that I bring you todays review - Baileys Original Irish Cream Truffles.

For those of you who are unaware Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur, made in Dublin, Ireland. The trademark is currently owned by Diageo and has a declared alcohol content of 17% alcohol by volume. These truffles were around 14.0g in weight each - I consumed four in one sitting which was more than enough due to their richness. For everyones knowledge I found these in Tesco in small packs of two....£1.50 each so worth noting they are quite pricey!

The truffles came foil wrapped and inside a pretty flimsy but nice looking cardboard box. I was pretty impressed with not only the packaging but also the asthetic look of the product which as you can see above looked pretty tempting....the truffle centre in particular looked particulalry whipped and appertising. Unwrapping each tuffle from their foil packaging each truffle had a slight alochol aroma...the cocoa scent was very subtle and if anything could of done with being more forthcoming.

My main gripe with these truffles came with the chocolate. Now dont get me wrong here the chocolate tasted great...it was a mixture of non-sweetened chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate..dont ask me how this was all mixed but the end result was an incredibly rich but creamy chocolate. What was also pleasant was that some of the whisky was present in the chocolate layer which added a nice edge....so what was wrong you ask?? Well it was the portioning of the chocolate...in some truffles the chocolate coating was very thick...in others it was very thin..the inconsistancy wasnt a major thing but it should really not be something that is overlooked.

The Baileys centre...well what can I say it tasted like Baileys :) creamy with an malty alcoholic whiskey kick....im not a massive fan generally of Baileys but I think it worked here - the creamyness of the centre worked extremely well with the richness of the chocolate in what was a nice development of flavour...the two components just seemed to seamlessly transition from rich cocoa to creamy liqueur..yum. The texture of the centre was also very pleasant..it wasnt quite as light as Lindt Lindor truffles but was equally as smooth...personally I would have preferred it to be a tad lighter...it was quite dense but I can also see how hard it would have been to achieve the same creamy taste.

Overall the sole determinant of whether this product is enoyed by the consumer lies litterally in the quite obvious factor of whether they enjoy Baileys or not...the chocolate though lacking in a consistant proportioning level is of a good quality and has a nice rich cocoa taste. This is no suprise looking at the ingredients which state that it is 35% solids chocolate with cocoa butter used to create a nice smooth texture...its good stuff. The obvious dominant flavour is the Baileys liqueur which I luckily enjoyed...its was as creamy as the drink and added a nice edgy different flavour to the truffle. As I have said above my recommendation on whether you should try this product lies solely in question of whether you enjoy Baileys or not..if you do go right ahead this is a great tasting truffle...for this reason it recieves a pretty high Chocolate Mission rating.

8.2 out of 10

June 24th: Cadbury Snack Shortcake

Kcal 40 Fat 1.9g Carbs 4.5 (Per biscuit - 6 in pack)

Before today I had no clue about even the actual existance of this product..I had never seen it before but came across it passing through Gatwick Airport this morning in a Cadburys branded vending machine...anyway I decided to throw caution to the wind give it a try.

The Cadbrys snack is a 43g bar that comprises of six mini Dairy Milk coated shortcake biscuits. As you can see above they are square in shape and have a slight rippled effect across their surface. In truth I thought they looked particularly boring and I was suprised and their lack of branding.

Opening the pack I could detect the magical Dairy Milk aroma - it wasnt quite as strong as with most Cadburys standard chocolate bars but that was due to the lacking of chocolate quantity which I will go into now.

The picture above shows how thin the chocolate layer is. The chocolate retains its great quality creamy Dairy Milk flavour but unfortunately the proportioning per biscuit is so poor the taste does not last long enough at all and is quickly domintaed by the bicuit.

The biscuit element was fair - it had that mixture of sweet biscuity flavour with the slightest hint of salt that most good shortbread have. Unfortunately the biscuit didn't have quite the crunchyness I was expecting though overall it still provided a satisfying taste.

Overall after tasting these im not particularly suprised that these dont get much media exposure from Cadburys. For my liking the chocolate is way too thin and thats disappointing given the fact that I think this would really benefit from having quite a thick layer of Dairy Milk coating it. The biscuit element being the main focus of the bar was also slightly disappointing - the taste was avergae at best but it suffered mostly from not having the expected crunch in texture. If your a fan of shortcake and Cadburys chocolate I would say give these a go but in honesty these really arent anything special.

6.3 out of 10

June 24th: Cadbury Freddo / Freddo Caramel

Kcal 105 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 3.7g Carbs 11.4g (Freddo Dairy Milk)
Kcal 100 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 12.1g (Freddo Dairy Milk Caramel)

Im quite puzzled as to why this has been one of the most frequent requests to be reviewed but the Cadbury Freddo seems to strike quite a chord with a number of Chocolate Mission readers - so heres my review on the original Freddo Dairy Milk and his froggy friend the Freddo Dairy Milk Caramel.Just for a little background geek knowledge the 'Freddo' was first manafactured in the 1930s by MacRobertson's Chocolates (who were later sold to Cadbury in 1967) in Australia and was at first designed into the mould of a mouse. MacRobertson's feared that this wouldnt sell as they believed woman/children were afraid of mice so they quickly changed the shape to a frog....hence the 'Freddo' was born....Wonderful thing Wiki ;) Currently in the UK the Freddo is only readily distributed in the original and caramel varities im reviewing here - though in Australia it is avalible in many more guises including white chocolate , rice crisp, strawberry , peppermint , "Rainbow Crunch" and "Milky Top" (aka. Top Deck ).

The Freddo's both came in 20g serving which is far less than your standard Dairy Milk bar - both came in colourful plastic packets which did appear to be a tad thinner and less protective than the standard Cadbury foil wrapping. The Freddo's had a nice Milky smell though it was no where near as fragrant as the Cadbury bars that come in the foil packages. The scent was slightly musty and I think they wernt the freshest of chocolates. The pattern work on the Freddos themselves I guess was quite swish and detailed for the size of the product...'Freddo' was etched nicely and cleanly onto a smooth surface...the damn frog was pulling a rather stupid face though...which made biting his head off all the more enjoyable haha :)

Lets not beat around the bush - both these products tasted awesome...why wouldnt they!?...they are Dairy Milk and Cadbury caramel. Ive described the taste of the Cadbury Dairy Milk too many times on Chocolate Mission already but heck why not one more time...a luxuriously smooth cocoa flavour with a deliciously creamy taste..just delicious in every which way. The caramel element was also implemented nicely in the Freddo 'Caramel' adding a slightly more intresting chewy texture and devilishly sweet aftertaste - gorgeous.

Unfortunately Ive got a few gripes with our friend Freddo - for one his size isnt substantial enough to cure even the smallest stomach rumble...I wasnt satisfied after eating both of these at the same time...I guess some of this goes down to how good they both tasted but the majority was that I was hungry and these just didnt do a job in this respect. Another slight problem was with the texture of the 'Freddo'...the chocolate was thinner in places than others which made for a bit of an inconsistant bite and texture - if it retained the same thickness throughout the product this wouldnt be a problem.

Overall the Freddo's a nice premise...its a child targeted product, its got a fun look and theres no doubt they both taste great. The Chocolate and caramel both being Dairy Milk standard are obviously great tasting so 'Freddo' cannot be faltered in this respect. Unfortunately due to the margin constraints placed on the bar the packagaing dosent allow for the freshest products and its size is just pittiful... it simply dosent even qualify as worthy of a 'snack' in my eyes...any which way your still gonna hungry. It was a hard product to rate though I think that on the scale of things the scores of 6.7 and 6.9 are justified on the grounds stated...I would recommend these to any Dairy Milk fans...though bear in mind this recommendation also comes with the advice to buy a few...which begs the question why not just buy a standard bar of Dairy Milk / Dairy Milk with Caramel ....shhhh! A product for when you want the lightest of snacks!

6.7 out of 10
6.9 out of 10

June 23rd: Milky Way Midnight Dark

Kcal 230 Fat 8.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 36.0g

I think it must be one of the greatet wonders of the world....one that no philosopher has quite managed to pin down....no not 'what came first the chicken or the egg!!'...but simply why is there a difference in the branding of the Milky Way and the Mars bar in the US and UK!? Why!? Someone answer me that!!

Excuse my mini rant! Todays review is the Milky Way Midnight Magic....to my UK readers thats the 'Dark Mars Bar' to you!

The bar came in a pretty standard 49.9g serving...it wasnt the most filling bar ever due to the lightness of the nougat but I was neither left really wanting more. On the wrapper were the words 'Rich, Dark Chocolate', 'Golden Caramel' and 'Vanilla Nougat' ...the packaging was nice in design though it was the look of bar itself that I particularly liked...the colours of the dark chocolate, white nougat and golden caramel (which you can see in the cross section above!) looked pretty appertising - this coupled with a fairly nice dark cocoa aroma made for a pretty enticing proposition.

The outside coating of dark chocolate was suprisingly thick, much more so than in any Mars/Milky Way bar I had consumed before. Its flavour wasnt too bad - it was certiainly richer and more bitter than the standard milk chocolate but it lacked the depth of flavour compared to the higher end dark chocolate brands. Its texture was also slightly disappointing...it didnt quite melt in the mouth the same way as other Mars chocolate does...it melted extremely slowly and into a grainy feeling constituants.

Much like in similar bars the nougat and caramel layers added a nice contrast in textures. The nougat was quite light and not overly chewy whilst the caramel was smooth and had just about the right dexterity. As you can see in the cross section above the caramel was pretty plentiful in proportion - it had a nice buttery flavour and wasnt overly sweet. Unfortunately I found the nougat to be slightly lacking in flavour...on pack it was described as vanilla flavoured but I could detect nothing more than a slight sweet taste...it hardly ruined the taste of the bar but it did mean that flavourwise it was pretty dull and unexciting.

Overall this isnt a bad variation of a great original but it was one that did seem to pass me by a bit. The main selling point of the bar is the variation of the chocolate - with the use of Dark chocolate instead of milk...personally I just dont think it worked that well here. The dark chocolate lacked the flavour and texture credentials of other higher quality dark chocolate...thats not to say it was bad though...it just wasnt great. The type of nougat also did the bar no favours...sure it made the bar pretty to look at but in truth it was devoid of flavour. I would recommend this to Mars/Milky Way fans if only to try out a different variation...I cant promise you wont be pining for the original bars though.

7.7 out of 10