April 8th: Marks & Spencer Milk Chocolate Coconut Bar

Kcal 245 Fat 12.5g Fat(sats) 7.5g Carbs 30.0g

I have received some e-mails recently saying that I am not harsh enough on some products. My response to them is that this is mostly because it is extremely rare that I actually come across bars that are truly worthy of a real laying into. Well brace yourselves as today I found a product that does in fact deserve a full on rant, so please sit back and enjoy whilst I take apart everything that was wrong about M&S's attempt at replicating the fantastic Bounty.

This bar came in a 55.0g form that I unwittingly completely devoured for an afternoon snack. Much like with the M&S version of the Snickers I was pretty unimpressed with the packaging the product came in. The shade of blue/grey just didn't strike me as all that pleasing on the eye, though I guess the small picture of the bar cross-sectioned had a relative appeal. As enticing as the small picture was, the reality was somewhat a little different. When I split one of the small bars I observed that unlike the appetising white coloured coconut pictured on pack, the actual constituents were a rather off putting grey colour. Just to really cap off what was a completely uninspiring appearance, the smell really lacked any forthcoming attributes, and with the most minor of sweet scents aside, the product failed to register any aroma worth mentioning.

Remembering back to my first experience of the Bounty I can clearly recall the fantastic way in which the lovely thick chocolate melted into what was a delicious moist coconut centre. This bar did little to evoke such memories, and more reminded me of the truly quite terrible Quality Street Coconut Eclairs that I unfortunately sampled as part of my review of that selection box - just this bar came in a much larger form of course. The milk chocolate was thin and melted away all to easily leaving the quite frankly horrible tasting desiccated coconut in its wake. Why was the coconut so horrible you ask!? Well it lacked two fundamental things - one being taste and the other a nice texture. Aside from being amazingly bland, the coconut delivered a dry, sawdust like texture that just felt horrible in the mouth. Its flavours were neither longing or memorable, which made this a truly unsatisfying product.

Overall this was a seriously poor imitation product by M&S, which never even got close to having anything like the appeal of the Bounty. The coconut element delivered none of the milky, nutty flavours of its comparator, and rather just brought a bland, lifeless and boring dominance into the overall taste. Up until I reviewed the Bounty I believed I didn't like coconut products, a fact that has been further disproved by other fantasic coconut offerings such as the Ferrero Rafaello, Lindt Excellence Cocos etc. This product however gives coconut bars a bad name, and unless your a sadist for bad chocolate bars I strongly recommend you avoid this one.

3.6 out of 10