October 26th: Aero Mint

*** UPDATE 04/01/11 ***

New Wrapper Added


Kcal 256 Fat 14.7g Carbs 28.4g

I think I must be the only person left in the country buying into the Aero brand at the moment. Poor Aero, I'm willing to bet that despite their best efforts of putting the brand back on TV and giving it a re-designed wrapper (not pictured!), that the recently returned Cadbury Wispa is wiping the floor with it in terms of it's market share. Despite rating the Cadbury Wispa higher than the original Aero, my review of the Aero Mint Bubbles was even more positive. Because of this I was very interested to see how the Aero mint in bar form would fair.

As I mentioned above the brand team has in actual fact given their outer packaging a re-design. It is lucky for Aero I am rating the bar on it's old design, as to be honest I prefer the old school paper and foil retro look over the new cheaper plastic looking one. The bar itself also had a fairly decent look. Some may feel the brightness of the green may be a little garish, though myself I thought it gave the bar a unique look. Relieving the bar of it's inner foil wrapper a wonderful minty smell was released. There was no getting away from the freshness of the mint aroma - it smelt pretty fantastic to me.

Last month when I reviewed the original Aero I criticised it for it's waxy outer texture. Despite this being no different with this mint variation, I must pass comment on how superb the overall texture was. The middle bubbly centre had a further coolness factor added to it, which combined to the aerated nature of the centre made for a fantastically unique feel on the tongue. As well as the bar being superb in it's texture it was also fantastically flavoured. The 'middle-ground' milk chocolate that seemed so average and boring in the original bar was a near perfect 'robin' to the mint centres 'batman'. The taste of the brightly coloured centre was fantastically fresh and prevalent with it's strong yet creamy peppermint flavours. The mint taste was extremely long lasting and stayed alive in the mouth for an extended duration.

Overall this was a highly enjoyable, satisfying bar that proved to me there is still life in the Aero brand yet. The subtleness of the milk chocolate complimented the minty filling superbly, allowing the forcefulness of the minty flavours to rightfully take centre stage. The coolness from the mint gave the melty chocolate a wonderfully unique clean, crisp texture. Mint chocolate fans this is one I am sure you no doubt already love, if you haven't tried it yet I suggest you really get a wriggle on. The Aero brand team can breath easy for now ... but with the inevitable re-release of the Wispa Mint (not yet confirmed!!) you have to believe that even this bar might have an uphill struggle.

8.6 out of 10

October 26th: M&M's Chocolate Brownie

Kcal 355 Fat 17.5g Carbs 45.9g 

This isn't the first brownie product to get a ChocolateMission review - those of you may remember the slightly disappointing Reese's Peanut Butter Brownie I reviewed a few months ago. Being generally quite happy with the M&M's brand after the recent success with their 'Premiums' line, I thought why not give their delicious looking brownie a try.

Billed as a 'chocolate brownie topped with milk chocolate and mini M&M's', the product came packaged in both an attractive plastic wrapper and plastic inner box for protection. I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of M&M's content. For starters I only got the 7 which didn't equate to much, but also they were only three colours - red, green and brown ... I guess this was partially down to luck, though you would expect them to have some consistency measures in place. The brownie had a pretty desirable buttery, cakey smell that was pretty evident upon removal from the wrapper. 

Chocolate content was never going to be a problem here - and boy was this one chocolaty experience. The brownie had a nice texture, that was both firm and moist. It had a sweet aftertaste, though during its time in the mouth it radiated a nice chocolaty, buttery set of flavours that I very much enjoyed. The milk chocolate layer that lined the top section of the bar was just about the right thickness and added an exta dimension of sweet milky flavours to the overall taste. The mini M&M's were really the only real letdown. Due to their size their taste was largely just sugar based due to their crispy shells. Despite their minimal portioning, the bites where they were present the extra sweetness they added felt unecessary as the cake was already sweet enough. 

Overall this was pretty satisfying snack, and delivered big time in terms of a chocolaty hit. I can't help but feel the point of the M&M's was slightly missed though, and I would have far preffered standard sized M&M's to have been used rather the smaller Mini versions. If Mars were being really clever they would integrate the M&M's into the brownie mix itself, aswell as placing them ontop ... now that sounds great to me. Despite the areas of improvement, I still think this was a pretty good product, and one I would recommend if your a fan of brownies.

8.0 out of 10

  

October 25th: Milka Alpine Milk Chocolate Raisin & Nut

Kcal 490 Fat 25.5g Fat(sats) 13.5g Carbs 57.5g (per 100.og)

Milka have thus far produced some mighty fine bars of chocolate - the 'Milka & Daim' and the original 'Alpine Milk' being no greater examples. Fruit and Nut however is a different kettle of fish altogether - many have tried with very few nailing the combination on the head completely. Cadbury, Hotel Chocolat, Toblerone and Montezumas had all scored pretty respectfully on the ChocolateMission rating system, so this Milka bar from Dean-German-Grocery had some pretty high standards to live up to. Comprising of the standard Alpine Milk chocolate, Raisins (19%) and Hazelnuts (6%) even before opening, it had already overcome the first hurdle by not containing chopped almonds.

I won't bleat on again about the high quality of Milka packaging - you all know I think it's great. One thing I will mention is the attractiveness of the bar itself - it had a unblemished appearance on the top side of the bar, though turned over the bar revealed the sheer abundance at which the raisins and nuts were portioned ... it looked impressive indeed. Despite the heavy presence in the aesthetics of the appearance, the fruit and nut element was surprisingly absent from the smell of the product. Don't get me wrong - the bar had a pretty great smelling dairy like aroma ... it was just the lack of fruit and nut element was a minor disappointment.

I ate this bar over two really satisfying, fulfilling servings eating half the 100g at a time. The chocolate retained all the fantastic attributes of the original Alpine milk bar, as well as actually being enhanced by the additional ingredients. The taste was deliciously creamy and the melt was fantastically smooth. The usual slight nutty edge to the Milka Alpine Milk chocolate was further intensified by the hazelnut pieces, this resulted in the flavours lasting even longer in the mouth. The raisins were equally as enhancing to the bar, they gave a pleasant sweet, sugary fruity element to the taste, whilst adding an extra softer, chewy variation in the texture. Raisins can sometimes be really hit or miss in such bars, but these were amongst the most flavoursome and enhancing I have tasted ... great stuff.

Overall I am glad to be able to inform you that this bar deserves it's place siting amongst the upper tier of the fruit and nut offerings. Both the raisins and the hazelnuts added unique and enhancing textures and flavours, which already given the high quality of the original Alpine Milk chocolate, it was always going to be hard pushed not to be of a good standard. Fans of Milka and Fruit and Nut products should both be satisfied by this bar. A highly enjoyable product that I would recommend to all.

8.5 out of 10

Fancy trying the Milka Raisin & Nut for yourself!? Fancy any another Ritter Sport / Milka / Lindt / Storck or German Grocery ... head over to Dean-German-Grocery!!

October 25th: Nippon

Kcal 538 Fat 31.4g Carbs 56.0g (per 100.0g / 9 pieces)

Having reviewed the Caramel Chocolate Kellogg's Rice Krispy Square the other week, Dean-German-Grocery sent me across their German equivalent 'Nippon' to see if it would fair any better on the ChocolateMission rating system. These were delivered to me in a 200.0g packet that included 18 mini puffed rice squares that had been dipped in milk chocolate ... it took myself and a few friends a matter of minutes to munch our way through the lot.

These really were no a frills product - from the packaging to the actual squares themselves they were entirely unspectacular. The outer plastic packaging was very plain looking, though the inner plastic tray was a nice touch for the protection of the squares. Despite looking relatively boring in their looks, the squares actually had a relatively forthcoming sweet malty aroma that managed to give them some sort of appeal.

The chocolate that fused the product was was relatively decently portioned, and provided a nice creamy chocolaty base flavour. If I had to liken it to anything I would say it tasted very similar to bog standard Nestle milk chocolate (like on Kit Kats etc!) ... by all means unspectacular, but at the same time relatively pleasurable. I was somewhat disappointed with the crispness of the rice cereal, the chocolate had seemed to soften the rice somewhat meaning it lacked the desired crunch. The flavours of the cereal were also relatively sublte, they were far from the sugary 'Sugar Puffs' type of rice cereal, and added more of a wheaty, cereal undertone to the chocolate.

Overall I would say these were better than our Kellogg's Rice Krispy Square, though were still far from being a spectacular - 'must-try' product. The portioning of the chocolate was quite generous, and it did have a nice milky appeal - a real contrast from the chocolate starved Kellogg's alternative. Unfortunately though, every other aspect struggled to be little better than average, the cereal, overall presentation and hunger fufillment credentials were all nothing more than mediocre. I wouldn't really go out my way to recommend these, as there is nothing really that special about them. If you come across them though, they will provide a decent enough tasty snack.

6.5 out of 10

Fancy trying Nippon for yourself!? Fancy any another Ritter Sport / Milka / Lindt / Storck or German Grocery ... head over to Dean-German-Grocery!!

October 24th: M&M's Premiums Mocha

Kcal 230 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 25.0g (per 42.0g)

Today sees me complete the final piece to the M&Ms Premiums puzzle with the review of my most eagerly anticipated flavour - 'Mocha'. As you will all probably know I love my coffee, and I have a particular soft spot for coffee flavoured chocolate ... hence why I saved these till last. Could they top the rest of the Almond' flavours, though they still had a very appealing look. Nothing quite beats the smell of freshly roasted coffee, obviously this would be entirely impossible to replicate in the form these M&M's, but they still had a strong, slightly sweet coffee aroma - enticing to the extreme.

So how did they taste? Well as the smell suggested the coffee flavour was strong and was very much the dominant flavour. As with the rest of the range, the normal hard shells had been replaced with a glaze type coating. I still preferred the use of the softer coating, however I was somewhat slightly disappointed at the texture and melt of the pieces. The flavours really didn't hit until the chocolate beneath the coating had been reached. This meant that with the slow melt of the outer coating, the 'letting them melt on the tongue' method sometimes got a bit tiring. This was somewhat excusable due to the melt being quite smooth, however I would have preferred a flavour hit as soon as the pieces entered the mouth. The milk chocolate and coffee flavours were absolutely delicious and very moreish. The milk chocolate was sweet and milky and the coffee had a wonderfully long taste that lingered in the mouth for a great deal of time. They were not the most fulfilling out of the range, a richer darker chocolate maybe could have solved this problem.

Overall these didn't quite take the crown of the best in the range like I was hoping for, however they were still a very good chocolate and coffee offering. The presentation, smell and to a great extent the taste were all absolutely fabulous ... but there were just some areas that I thought could have been executed a bit better. Despite the milk chocolate providing a nice milky background flavour to the coffee, one part of me couldn't help but think that maybe an unsweetened, darker chocolate may have been better implemented. Not only do I think it would have enhanced the taste even further, but I think it would have also made for a more fulfilling product. Regardless, this was still a pretty awesome flavour variant. The 'Chocolate Almond', 'Mint Chocolate' and 'Triple Chocolate' flavours may form the top 3 from the range - but this is still one for the chocolate and coffee fans to look out for. A special thanks to **I SHOP 4 YOU II** for giving me the chance to review the M&M's Premiums range.

8.2 out of 10

*** EU & UK Readers Attention*** Ever been been browsing Chocolate Mission or any other Candy Site and felt frustrated not being able to get hold of an American bar/item!??? .... well feel frustrated no more!!! 'I SHOP 4 YOU II'!! is a great service that provides a unique "one stop shop" international shopping experience!!! Visit the Ebay shop - if they dont have the item you want instock simply give them a message - there is no harm in asking. This service comes with a Chocolate Mission Seal of Approval!! It is a genuinely great, fast and friendly service... Just say you came from Chocolate Mission.

October 24th: Reese's Snackbarz

Kcal 120 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 16.0g

Reese's certainly aren't a brand scared of launching new products are they!? It seems almost every other week I hear about a new product of theirs! Today's review comes courtesy of Yankee Soda & Candy, who are actually the only UK distributor I have seen with these in stock as of writing!! So what have Reese's come up with this time?? ... 'crispy rice & marshmallow with Reese's peanut butter' ... an interesting mix I thought and well worthy of a quick review.

The bar came in a 25g serving and was about the same size of the Kelloggs' Rice Krispie Square I reviewed the other day. I ate this as a mid-afternoon snack, though was not left entirely satisfied - I could have easily eaten two. As you can see the bar had pretty typical Reese's styled packaging, with orange being the dominant colour. One thing that did quirk me a bit was the spelling of 'Snackbarz' ... why oh why spell it with a 'z'? It is neither cool or contemporary, and more of an insult to the consumers intelligence if anything. Small rant aside ... the product smelt wonderfully Reese's ... by the term 'Reese's' I hope you can gather it had strong nutty scents that were wonderfully enticing.

The bar was split into three main layers. The bottom layer had the smallest coating of Hershey's milk chocolate. It added very little to the overall taste, though it did a grand job at adding a moistness to the texture bar. The middle layer consisted of the rice cereal, as you can probably imagine it was not the strongest tasting or most substantial, though it gave the overall taste a wheaty, malty connotation that was to be expected. The upper layer of the bar was quite frankly absolutely gorgeous, and was formed of an amalgamation of marshmallow and peanut butter. It had a wonderfully strong creamy flavour that had brilliantly contrasting elements of sweet and salty aspects to its taste that really made the bar a pleasure to eat.

Overall this is by far not the shinning star in the Reese's portfolio, it is still a great tasting small snack, and probably one of the nicest cereal bar type items I have tried *ahem Kelloggs' Rice Krispie Square*. The bar simply isn't big enough to be a truly satisfying experience, though I would greatly welcome the implementation of the marshmallow and peanut butter layer in a grander form. If you are interested in your low calorie, small tasty snacks this could well be worth you taking a look at.

7.8 out of 10

Fancy trying the Reese's Snackbarz for yourself? Head over to Yankee Soda & Candy

October 23rd: Ritter Sport Praline

Kcal 549 Fat 33.5g Fat(sats) 15.3g Carbs 52.1g (per 100.0g)

Today's reviews is dedicated to ChocolateMission reader Lottie, who has frequently recommended this bar to me. Comprised of milk chocolate filled with a huge amount of praline (42%!!!), this was yet another Ritter Sport bar literally crammed full of the proposed filling. Given the praline context of the bar, the comparisons with Guylian were all but inevitable.

The aesthetics of this bar were quite reserved for the range in comparison to say the 'Whole Hazelnut' bars. The outer-packaging was attractive if a little understated, the cross-section of the bar confirmed the wonderful generous amount of praline filling. I was expecting more of a distinctive smell, the nutty element seemed all but overwhelmed by the dairy scents of the chocolate, which was a bit of shame as it could have really set the expectations for the fantastic taste to come.

Personally I think Ritter bars are fantastically sized and sectioned. Each little piece always seem to provide the perfect ratio of filling to chocolate. The milk chocolate played the familiar role of being a slightly better than average chocolate, taking the backseat to the added flavour. I hope people don't perceive this as criticism of the chocolate, it isn't the most flavoursome, but its milky flavours provided a suitable smooth background element to the taste that perfectly accentuated the filling. The praline was slightly denser in its thickness compared to the chocolate, and had the slightest grainy, powdery feel. The creamy, hazelnut flavour was strong and extremely tasty and provided a long lasting nutty taste that lingered in the mouth for an extended time. Half a bar per serving (50.0g) was a more than satisfying experience, and certainly provided the desired chocolaty flavour hit.

Overall this was yet another strong showing from the Ritter Sport range, which is fast becoming one of the most consistent brands I have reviewed. The milk chocolate was again unspectacular, though provided a nice base flavour before the indulgent praline filling. My personal opinion is that the praline filling here was better than that of the Guylian products I have reviewed. The texture was far superior, and was smoother in it's melt in comparison to Guylian praline. In the context of the Ritter Sport range, despite my own personal preference lieing with the 'Whole Hazelnuts' bars, the flavours in this bar were fantastically balanced and creamy, and provided a very enjoyable chocolate. I would highly recommend this bar to any Ritter Sport fans, or fans of nutty chocolate combinations. Another very well deserved score for the German brand.

8.4 out of 10

Fancy trying the Ritter Sport Praline for yourself!? Fancy any another Ritter Sport / Milka / Lindt / Storck or German Grocery ... head over to Dean-German-Grocery!!

October 23rd: Whoppers The Original Malted Milk Balls

Kcal 180 Fat 7.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 31.0g (per 41.0g - 18 pieces)

Maltesers are insanely popular here in the UK, so given the opportunity to review the US equivalents by *I SHOP 4 YOU II* I could only oblige. Produced by Hershey, these 'Whoppers' took the same premise as Maltesers - 'milk chocolate-coated malt balls'. Maltesers are often enjoyed as a lighter chocolate alternative - despite 'Whoppers' containing less fat per portion compared to Maltesers, I was initially surprised to see that all 7.0g were in fact saturated fat ... I was less so when I spotted hydrogenated palm kernel oil listed as the second highest ingredient.

*I SHOP 4 YOU II* sent me a large box of 141g, which lasted me the suggested three servings ... none of which were entirely satisfying. I was disappointed somewhat with the presentation of the product, the Whoppers were loosely rolling around inside the cardboard box with no inner packaging whatsoever. This meant that the chocolates lacked freshness in both their smell and appearance. They offered almost entirely nothing in terms of an aroma, just a very minor sweet smell that struggled to overcome the smell of the cardboard. The 'Whoppers' when cross-sectioned looked relatively pleasant but this did not excuse the dull, blemished surfaces.

Despite the similarities in their physical attributes with Maltesers, these Whoppers had a pretty different taste. The texture and flavour of the chocolate coating was by all means very poor. It had a waxy texture that was slow to melt, it almost felt like the chocolate had a waxy benign skin to it - yuck. The taste wasn't all that much better either, for chocolate they were distinctly lacking in cocoa flavour - they offered a minor milky flavour though it was largely forgettable as it was dominated by the malt centre. I still can't quite make my mind up whether I prefer the malted centres of Maltesers or these Whoppers. The centres of these Whoppers had a more substantial feel about them, and even had a small chewiness once the honeycomb consistency had melted. The malt flavour was strong, and lasted longer in the mouth - though the overall taste had a far sweeter edge to it than Maltesers .... it was if someone had added a tiny bit of unnecessary brown sugar to each piece, which wasn't entirely preferable. Despite their still rather light nature, a serving sized portion did become monotonous and somewhat sickly.

Overall it has to be said that these Whoppers pale in comparison to Maltesers, which are by far the superior product out of the two. Despite at their core having a fairly well established malt flavour, in almost every other criteria Maltesers are the better product. The packaging of the Whoppers was poor, with very little thought given to the long term fresh keeping of the product. Simply letting them loosely roll around the cardboard box was never going to do a job in this respect. The milk chocolate coating was also by and large disappointing, it had a horrible waxy texture, and it's flavours were lifeless and unsubstantial. These are a product that I would in no way recommend unless you genuinely interested in making the comparison for yourself - quite frankly a poor effort.

5.6 out of 10

*** EU & UK Readers Attention*** Ever been been browsing Chocolate Mission or any other Candy Site and felt frustrated not being able to get hold of an American bar/item!??? .... well feel frustrated no more!!! 'I SHOP 4 YOU II'!! is a great service that provides a unique "one stop shop" international shopping experience!!! Visit the Ebay shop - if they dont have the item you want instock simply give them a message - there is no harm in asking. This service comes with a Chocolate Mission Seal of Approval!! It is a genuinely great, fast and friendly service... Just say you came from Chocolate Mission.

October 22nd: Cadbury Eclairs

Kcal 35 Fat 1.3g Carbs 4.9g (per one piece)

I have no idea why these have taken me so long to review given the fact they are one of my most frequent purchases. I don't think I can actually recall seeing a person ever turn down one of these chocolates when offered. The fantastic inside-out combination of hard caramel and Dairy Milk chocolate seems to have a pretty universal appeal ... I can tell you now I'm not going to argue against that.

I bought these in a standard 200.0g bag, which lasted all of a few hours sitting on my desk parked next to my computer whilst doing a uni assignment. I like the packaging of Eclairs, the foil wrappers for each of the pieces look nice, and the gleaming caramel surface gives a nice fresh look. I had never cross-sectioned an Eclair before but for the purpose of the review I did so as you can see above - looks good huh!? Despite the foil wrappers the pieces really lacked a forthcoming smell. I guess this was to be expected with the nature of the product, though the caramel was utterly scentless ... only when really searching for it could the most subtle of chocolate smells be found.

Why these are described as chocolate caramels I do not know. The outer layer is distinctly hard in my book - making it more of a toffee ... oh well who cares. The hardness of the 'caramel' really means that there is one way to eat these and that is by slowly sucking on the pieces in the mouth. Doing this allowed the ultra buttery sweet flavours of the caramel to slowly intensify -  producing a quite fantastic taste. What makes this product work so well is the fact that the slow sucking of the outer caramel slowly means the inner creamy chocolate heats and melts, making it wonderfully silky when it finally emerges from the softening caramel. The creamy Dairy Milk flavours added brilliantly to the slow releasing caramel taste ... the only disappointment was that the pieces melted away without leaving too much of lasting impression - how do you solve that problem??? ... well of course you grab another .... and another .... and another .... maybe one more .... uh oh the bags empty!! DOH!!

Overall whoever said that chocolate isn't addictive should really open up a bag of these and attempt to only eat one before putting the pack away ... I think it is simply impossible. The caramel is amazingly well executed, and the Dairy Milk adds that delicious product defining contribution to both the texture and the taste. If the flavours had lasted longer the score would no doubt have been far higher on the Chocolate Mission scale. I'm guessing these are already probably a favourite for the majority of people reading this blog, but for those that haven't tried them I strongly suggest you do ... just don't blame me for your inevitable Cadbury Eclair addiction :D

8.0 out of 10 

**EDIT**

On the subject of Cadbury, they are actually running a pretty cool competition that I have been asked if I can share with you all: 

"Making use of the 'Chocolate Steam Dream Machine', you are able to design your own Dairy Milk chocolate bar. If the parrot judge likes it, your very own, one-off Cadbury's chocolate bar could be made and sent to you in the post!"

<http://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/#/factory/>

Would be pretty cool to have your own bar made huh!? Would you eat it though! That is the question!?

October 22nd: Cadbury Magical Elves

Kcal 70 Fat 3.9g Carbs 8.4g

Well well well - It looks like our beloved Freddo has some competition this Christmas! I spotted these Cadbury Magical Elves in with all the Christmas gear at Tesco, and hurriedly grabbed a handful. In my haste I didn't check to see the price so anyone with this information please do share it. 

The packaging stated that the product was comprised of 'milk chocolate with magical popping candy' ..... 'magical popping candy'??? what on earth!?? ... according to the ingredients it was basically sugar, glucose syrup and lactose .... so yeah sugar!! The outer-packaging of the product was reasonable, it was obviously aimed at the younger consumer with a central colour coded elf character taking a focal point of the wrapper. The chocolate mould itself was crafted with the elf character pulling the same rather odd pose as with the Freddo ... I don't know what it is but the whole finger to the mouth thing is a worryingly suggestive pose for a kid focused product :) maybe it's just me. The product did have a nice aroma. Upon opening the wrapper some very familiar sweet Cadbury Dairy Milk scents restored some element of anticipation.

Right let the rant begin ... the Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate tried to deliver its usual delicious creamy, chocolaty flavours but the unnecessary extra sugar content from the 'popping candy' all but spoit its taste, making it overly sweet. Now I don't think I have one good thing to say about this 'popping candy' malarkey. Personally I thought the crackling, popping sensation to the texture was awful ... I just didn't like the fizzing sensation it brought to the back of my throat. Not only this but it disrupted the smoothness of the Dairy Milk and added a completely undesirable extra sweetness ... nope nothing good to say whatsoever. Have I even mentioned it was about half the size of a Freddo yet?? 

Overall this has to be one of the most unrewarding chocolate items I have reviewed for this site. In my opinion the 'popping candy' completely ruined the product - adding a frankly awful popping, fizzy sensation that was not only horrible in its texture but also managed to ruin the taste and smooth feel of the Dairy Milk. Sometimes Cadbury get it wrong ... really wrong (Bournville, Dream etc) .... I honestly wouldn't waste your time with these. Get out of my sight you small, insignificant little elves, give me back my 15p Freddo!! 

4.2 out of 10 

October 21st: Hershey's Rally

Kcal 300 Fat 17.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 36.0g

I was recently contacted by reader Geraldine - who informed me that she had sourced (and was selling) some Hershey's Rally bars through her ebay shop Yankee Soda and Candy. After doing some research it seems to be that these are somewhat of a rare bar. From what I can gather they used to be quite a popular selling bar in the US ... but somewhere along the line got discontinued. Cybele over at Candyblog recently likened the Rally to Hershey's Canadian version of the 'Oh Henry!'. It seems quite likely this Rally bar is simply one of those repackaged ... well personally I can't make the comparison myself having only tried the US Nestle version of the 'Oh Henry' .... blimey how confusing this all is!

Reading the on-pack description - 'Chocolatey nut roll' this bar instantly brought back dreadful memories of the quite frankly terrible Payday 'Avalanche' - thankfully it was far, far superior. The bar looked like a thinner, more structured version of the 'Avalanche', avoiding the dull and dusty complexion of the aforementioned. Upon opening the nice retro looking wrapper, I was met with an absolute barrage of very forthcoming nutty scents - frankly it smelt fantastic.

The bar had an outer layer of thick 'milk chocolate' ... inverted commas due to it being comprised of an assortment of oils. Despite it's artificial constituents it had a relatively tasty sweet milky flavour. Sure, this wasn't milk chocolate at its finest, the texture was a tad grainy and lacklustre in the thickness of it's melt, though on the balance it did it's job. The next layer consisted of whole peanuts and caramel - a perfect complimentary pairing. The peanuts had a fresh, strong nutty taste and provided a particularly enjoyable crunchiness to the bite. The caramel that fused the nuts provided a perfect buttery sweet flavour that offset the saltiness of peanuts superbly. The centre filling was a layer of chewy fudge - I found it largely disappointing in it's strength of flavour, though it did add a large substantiality factor to the bar. Weighing in at 62.0g and with it's strong nutty flavours, this was a very satisfying bar .... you would expect so to for 300 calories I guess.

Overall despite not knowing the complete story behind this bar, one thing I do know is that I actually rather enjoyed it. The chocolate and fudge layers are far from groundbreaking, though the sheer strength of the combination of the peanuts and caramel layer make for a wholly satisfying bar. It has elements that remind me of the Reese's Nutsrageous, Nestle 'Oh Henry!' and the Nestle 'Baby Ruth' ... all rolled in to one. I am hoping some kind American reader is going to provide some clarity on the origins of this product. Until then I suggest if you like the sound of this bar then it is well worth trying out.

8.2 out of 10

Fancy trying the Hershey's Rally bar for yourself?? Visit Yankee Soda & Candy!

October 20th: Hotel Chocolat Kissing Mistletoe / Little Angels

Yes indeed it is getting round to that time of year already - and it is my favourite time of year CHRISTMAS!!! So what does Christmas mean in the chocolate world?? Special seasonal lines that's what! Yours truly in the coming weeks will be bringing you reviews of the finest selections this Christmas. Hotel Chocolat have already been kind enough to supply me with some of their seasonal stock - no better place to kick off in my book.

Both these products came in wonderfully presented 110.0g boxes that included ten chocolates in each. The 'Kissing Mistletoe' was formed of the 40% house milk chocolate, whilst the 'Little Angels' included five white chocolate pieces and five caramel chocolate pieces.

The presentation of these products was brilliant - though to be honest I wasn't expecting anything else! The boxes had classy design work, and the chocolates inside were nicely arranged in plastic trays with several protective layers. I preferred the design of the 'Mistletoe' chocolates to the 'Little Angels' mainly due to the design work looking more interesting and intricate. Both products smelt wonderful, the milk chocolate 'Mistletoe' radiated more cocoa concentrated scents, whilst the little angels were of a mixture of strong dairy, sweet toffee smells. YUM!!

Anyway enough of the descriptive stuff - how did they taste??

Hotel Chocolat Kissing Mistletoe:


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

Comprised of the 40% house milk chocolate these followed much the same premise as the Hotel Chocolat Boo Halloween chocolates that I reviewed a few weeks ago, though there were a few subtle differences that enabled these Mistletoe pieces to score ever so slightly higher.

Even though I have described the taste of the 40% house milk several times I see no harm in doing so once more :) The milk chocolate had the delicious milky taste that I had come to expect from the 40% formulation. I can't emphasise enough how brilliantly crisp the taste was. The nature of the slow and longing melt meant the intensity of the creamy flavours progressed at a wonderful rate. Though the flavours were predominantly milky, there always seemed to be a strong cocoa background flavour which made the chocolate seem to last all that much longer providing a very satisfying experience. The 'Mistletoe' shapes were nicely formed, and provided around two plentiful mouthfuls per piece. In my opinion this gave them the edge over the BOO Halloween chocolates as some of the shapes from that selection were awkward to eat and thin in places - the textures were far more consistent in this 'Mistletoe' form.

Overall as to be expected these delivered milk chocolate in some of its finest form. For a more seasonal and fun themed version of the original 40% house slab you can go little wrong here.

8.8 out of 10

Hotel Chocolat Little Angels:

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

I must say when I saw these in the selection sent to me I was particularly excited. Good memories of the Hotel Chocolat 'Caramellow' and 'Praline White' came flooding back to me - thankfully these 'Little Angels' certainly lived up to expectations.

I started by eating the white chocolate pieces. They had a fantastic melt that felt ever so soft and very smooth. The milky flavours had a nice progressive nature that seemed to get creamier and creamier as the melt progressed. The aftertaste was noted strongly with vanilla, culminating in one massively moreish overall taste. A fantastic white chocolate - possibly the best I have tasted so far on ChocolateMission! Someone get me a slab of this stuff pronto!!

Next up were the caramel chocolate pieces. The melt with these was slightly slower than with the white chocolate and the milk chocolate, though it was equally as smooth. The caramel chocolate pieces were noticeably slower at releasing their flavours, though once the taste was evident it was multi-dimensional with different cocoa and sweet, buttery, toffee like flavours mixing into one delicious taste. The caramel angels did not leave the same flavour longevity in the mouth, though were equally as moreish as the white angels.

Overall both these different flavours are devilishly addictive and were chocolate of the highest quality. The only slight drawback with this product was the annoyance of the angel design, they were thicker in some places than others and were simply just an awkward shape to eat. In the grand scheme of things though the taste of both the white and caramel chocolates more than made up for this slight negative. Be warned if you are buying these chocolates to share ... don't expect them to last long.

8.8 out of 10

Not a bad start for the Christmas 2008 reviews eh!? Then again did we really expect anything less from Hotel Chocolat? If there are any Christmas products you especially want to see reviewed before you buy them for your lucky loved ones or even yourselves ... please just leave a request.

October 19th: Ritter Sport Joghurt

Kcal 517 Fat 38.1g Fat(sats) 22.7g Carbs 48.4g (per 100g)

My relentless assault on the Ritter Sport range continued today with me sampling the Ritter Sport Joghurt... that's Yogurt to us non-German speaking ... as if you didn't know that ... well I hope you did :D .... So milk chocolate with a skimmed milk yogurt cream filling - I know across Europe that Milka and Lindt have similar bars, but for us Brits this is quite the unique proposition.

Now we all know my admiration for the Ritter Sport packaging, so lets not go into that again, one thing I will remark on though is the lack of nutritional information supplied, something that is of particular annoyance given you have to traipse all the way onto the website to get the required information ... I do a lot for you guys ;) Splitting the bar up I was pretty astounded by the size of the filling, as you will see above it had a fair old thickness and looked remarkably prominent and well portioned (45% in actual fact!!). The product didn't have the most outstanding of aromas, it offered a sweet chocolaty dairy scent, though it was nothing out the ordinary or anything indicative of the flavour of the bar.

Having reviewed so many Ritter Sport bars recently it seems a little like groundhog day when describing Ritter Sport milk chocolate. It had a nicely balanced taste, more milky than cocoa weighted. The melt was smooth and nicely paced, however it still lacked a real uniqueness that other brands have. In the context of this bar the soft melting chocolate nicely revealed the slightly denser creamy filling. The sweetness of the chocolate contrasted nicely against the more sharply flavoured centre. The yogurt cream had initial milky, creamy flavours that progressed nicely into a more impactful tangy dairy taste. The edgy nature to the end of the taste made the flavours last a little bit longer in the mouth; 50g of this bar at a time provided a more than satisfying serving size.

Overall Ritter Sport just keep delivering the goods with yet another fantastic flavour variation. The milk chocolate is of course of a better than mediocre standard, and in this bar in particular it played nicely against the sharper, ever so mildly soured centre. Given the extremely generous portioning it was lucky the filling was as well executed as it was. It had a smooth creamy appeal that benefited greatly from it's differentiated tangy finish - it seemed to make all the difference in that the flavours just seemed to last that little bit longer. I once again highly recommend this Ritter Sport bar, another real treat from a range that just keeps on serving up great quality flavour variants ... long may it continue.

8.4 out of 10

Fancy trying the Ritter Sport Yogurt for yourself!? Fancy any another Ritter Sport / Milka / Lindt / Storck or German Grocery ... head over to Dean-German-Grocery!!

October 18th: Snickers Flapjack

Kcal 308 Fat 17.9g Carbs 31.4g

Having reviewed the Cadbury Dairy Milk flapjack last week I thought it only fair I give this Snickers flapjack a chance on the Chocolate Mission rating system. Described as 'a delicious flapjack with roasted peanuts and caramel, topped with milk chocolate', I was pretty hopeful of its chances given the original bars prestige. 

The flapjack came in a 60.0g serving, it was a sufficient snack though I was expecting more from such a product. I was disappointed by the appearance, the outer wrapping was pretty good looking, though the flapjack itself was poorly put together. The base of the flapjack simply didn't fuse together well enough, it was mushy and too soft, which meant it all too easily fell apart. The product as a whole just didn't look all that impressive, it looked particularly weedy in comparison to the Cadbury alternative. One thing I did enjoy was the smell of the flapjack, it smelt wonderfully nutty, which made up somewhat for the poor aesthetics.

As the appearance suggested the base of the flapjack was overly soft and crumbly. This gave the flapjack a real lack of substantially, as well as making it a real inconvenience to it. The peanuts that interspersed the soft base added a nice distinctive nutty element to the mild buttery oat flavours, the base on the whole though still largely lacked a really impactful flavour. I was pretty disappointed by the level of chocolate included, it was a very thin layer that lined the top of the flapjack and it really struggled to stamp its authority in the overall taste. The peanuts aside, none of the other ingredients really managed to leave a lasting impact, I can only wonder as to the whereabouts of the caramel in the scheme of things. 

Overall the lasting feeling I was left with after eating this flapjack was one of disappointment. Given the absolutely brilliant standard of the original Snickers bar I was expecting a product that was at least impactful in terms of its flavours ... unfortunately this was not the case. The limpness of the flapjack base was disappointing, though its lack of flavour more so. The milk chocolate was lacking in its presence and really needed to be far more plentiful in its portioning. The roasted peanuts at least provided a nice nutty element to the taste, though given the rest of the bland ingredients it still didn't make up for the lack of flavours. I personally wouldn't recommend this unless your a real Snickers fan, this was a product with great potential but was by and large disappointing. 

6.6 out of 10