April 20th: Cadbury Clusters

Kcal 175 Fat 8.2g Fat(sats) 5.1g Carbs 23.2g (per 37.0g)

When I first saw these announced a few weeks back (see HERE) I must admit I was really looking forward to seeing what Cadbury were going to deliver. These Cadbury Clusters are one of three new Cadbury snacking products, with Cadbury Raisins and Cadbury Peanuts being the other two (reviews coming soon!). On the packaging they came described as 'crunchy flakes and raisins tumbled in Cadbury milk chocolate'. 

I am aware that these are available in larger sized bags, though for the purpose of this review I picked up a 37.0g for the pricely sum of 65p. I liked the presentation of the outer wrapper which incorporated the same matted foil material that the standard Cadbury chocolate bar range is currently using. I personally thought that the red colour scheme worked well and I must admit it did make the product stand out on the shelf. What I didn't like about the presentation however was the product itself. The actual clusters were a lot smaller than I envisaged and the surface of all of them had a dusty appearance which suggested they weren't all that fresh. Despite the rough round the edges look the clusters had an enticing aroma that had a nice fruitiness about its chocolaty smell. 

The first thing I noticed when tasting these was that the chocolate seemed a little sweeter than traditional Cadbury milk chocolate. After looking at the ingredients list I decided to give myself a pat on the back as it stated that the chocolate only contained 14% cocoa and not the usual 20% that Dairy Milk contains. The chocolate was still pretty good but just didn't have the usual creaminess and relied a bit more on its sugary sweetness. The cereal element constituted of cornflakes, which whilst providing a nice crispy texture to proceedings failed to really bring a great deal to the taste aside from a mild saltiness. Although the cereal was disappointing the raisins brought a nice sweet fruit element to the taste and certainly brought a bit of interest. I ate the 37.0g bag in a single sitting; it wasn't the most fulfilling product ever but it did an adequate job in this regard. 

Overall these didn't really live up to my expectations though I guess this could be Cadbury suffering by their own normal high standards. At the heart of the matter the product was just a little unexciting. The chocolate was of a fair standard but lacked the usual Dairy Milk sparkle, the cereal was pretty bland and the raisins whilst quite flavoursome, were at the end of the day just raisins!! One thing that is bugging me is who are Cadbury trying to aim these at? With over 8.0g of fat they are hardly the healthiest product going .... with these your looking at the same nutritional intake that you do with a standard pack of Walkers crisps. So if it isn't the healthy part of the market they are going for, what part is it? These are hardly a ghastly product, yet at the same time are pretty mediocre and nothing too much to get excited about.

6.8 out of 10