August 12th: Berggold Streusel Kugeln

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

Today saw another ChocolateMission first with me trying out my first ever Berggold product which again came to me direct from Germany thanks to Dean-German-Grocery. If their website is to be believed Berggold were first founded in 1876 - that sounded like a bloody long time to be making chocolates to me so I hoping that these would prove to be rather good. I am not entirely sure what the direct translation for Streusel Kugeln is, but Dean-German-Grocery had these billed as 'chocolate flavoured rum balls'. Generally I find liqueur flavoured chocolates to be a bit hit or miss so I had my fingers crossed that I would like these.

I received these chocolates in a 200.0g pack that included about twenty or so individual pieces. The packaging was a little on the basic side with the chocolates left to randomly roll round in the gold coloured plastic tray. Although they were only protected by a single plastic film layer this still managed to maintain a quite strong, curious sweet floral like smell that became quite apparent when the packet was opened. I guess on the whole I wasn't altogether that enthused by either the presentation of the outer packaging or the smell but I thought the look of the actual chocolates themselves was a little more exciting with the outer chocolate sprinkles nicely hiding the inner contents of each piece.

As you can tell up to this point I was intrigued to what lay below the outer shell of these chocolates - having now eaten them I probably would have been better off keeping my curiosity as I wasn't all that impressed. As you will see from the pictures above each chocolate had a coating of chocolate sprinkles. Although I was none to impressed by the quality of the chocolate flavour hit the sprinkles delivered there was just something about the sugary, crunchiness that brought back some nice nostalgic memories of having them on ice cream when I was younger. Where on the one hand the chocolate sprinkles were enjoyable to some extent, what lay below was simply pretty bad. The centre of each piece was formed of a sugar based fondant that contributed only a raw burst of sickly, sugary flavours. When in the mouth the taste was majoritly dominated by the sugar, though the aftertaste was noted with an odd fruity, rum tinge that seemed out of context given their lateness to the party. I have to say I got nowhere near finishing my pack of these - a few was enough before I decided I had better products in need of reviewing and I left them to be devoured by the rest of my family.

Overall most products at least manage to scrap a score of 7.0 on this site so if your hitting the lower 5.0s like this Berggold offering you know it has to be one I didn't like. My enjoyment of this product started and ended with the chocolate sprinkles; indeed they are a bit of a trashy ingredient but for me they had a nostalgic appeal despite their sickly nature. Personally I found the dry nature of the inner texture and shockingly sweet, monotonous taste just a bit on the boring side. It wasn't that these tasted all that terrible, it was just that given the amount of different products I get to try they were probably nearer the lower end of the scale in terms of chocolates that I actually enjoyed. I guess the truly telling thing was that after one I wasn't really wanting to have another and was yearning for something that was going to deliver me a true chocolate fix. Even for those that enjoy their rum flavoured chocolates I wouldn't recommend these as I think there are better options out there for you (Look HERE).

5.2 out of 10

Head to Dean-German-Grocery for all your German Chocolate & Candy Needs