August 7th: Dove Cinnamon & Orange

Kcal 208 Fat 12.0g Carbs 22.5g

Once again I have to start off yet again by thanking ChocolateMission reader Alan who so kindly sent me this for a review. Whilst scouring his local pound shop Alan found this Dove (Galaxy) bar which had made its way all the way from Poland. With a little help from Google Translate I finally determined that this was a 'cinnamon & orange' flavoured milk chocolate product. Remembering back to my reviews during Christmas I remember this combination being particularly popular in the sample boxes that were sent my way from Germany. With the Milka and Lindt bars springing to mind as fine examples, I was hoping this bar could show similar results.

The product came in a 40.0g size much like the standard Galaxy bars we get here in the UK. One area that this product particularly impressed me was the packaging. It was formed of the same material as UK Cadbury bars use nowadays - the matted material with the foil innards. I felt it gave the bar a very suave look and was only further impressed when I saw the actual chocolate. The blocks were split into well sized chunks and had a small truffle like layer running through the middle. Whilst I thought this looked appetising I was not quite as impressed by the aroma which had a quite odd floral sweet smell - it really wasn't what I was expecting.

Lets not mess around here ... by Galaxy (Dove) usual high standards the taste was pretty poor. The outer chocolate was pretty in-line with what you would expect from the brand and supplied the usual smooth tasting creamy chocolate experience that can be found with most Galaxy bars. As soon as my the centre filling came in to play though a rather different story began to be told. At first it wasn't all that bad ... well for the first few seconds anyway. The orange element was the first to come into play and as I said it initially wasn't so bad as it provided a strong juicy orange influence. Once the taste calmed down a little it got a whole lot weirder as the orange creme soon became so sickeningly sweet it was as if I could taste the raw sugar. This sugar based taste was only trumped by the musty cinnamon flavours that lingered in the aftertaste. The cinnamon just didn't seem quite right and neither brought the spiciness or the distinctiveness that I desired. It almost seemed as if the cinnamon was an after thought and not carefully implemented into the product. The taste neither left me feeling satisfied or particularly wanting more - I would much rather have snacked on something else.

Overall this simply wasn't up to the usual high standards from the Galaxy/Dove brand. Personally I don't think half as much care was taken in forming this bar as the combination just didn't seem to work and I think that it is plain to see for anyone trying it. As expected the actual milk chocolate was pretty good and what you would expect from a product from this brand. The true failing though came in the implementation of the orange and cinnamon into the filling. The orange was ridiculously sweet, whilst the cinnamon was pretty much non-descript. Having said that I did like the idea of the softer liquid filling and would like to see this implemented across other bars from this range in the future. In regards to this particular product though I would best advise you to try it with low expectations.

6.7 out of 10