October 24th: Nestle Toffee Crisp Mini Bites

Kcal 62 Fat 3.1g Fat(sats) 1.6g Carbs 7.9g (per bite)

Last month in Edition 14 of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' I brought you all the news that Nestle were releasing two new 'Mini Bites' tub products (See HERE). One of these new products is from the Munchies brand, whilst the other, which just so happens to be the focus of todays review uses Nestle's Toffee Crisp branding. I found both of these new products in Tesco on an introductory offer price of £2.00 a pack which is a 33.0% discount offer on the standard £2.99 rrp. On pack these Nestle Toffee Crisp Bites came described as 'crisped rice and caramel bites in milk chocolate' which sounded a great proposition to me - the idea just had to be executed correctly.

There was no catch weight on the box though it did say that 15 mini bite pieces were included inside. Personally I thought the outer packaging was pretty good. It wasn't too large in terms of size meaning it could be stored in the fridge with ease, whilst the graphic work was also fairly decent incorporating the bright orange Toffee Crisp colour theme with a realistic looking picture of the actual product. Admittedly I was more disappointed with the lack inner packaging as the mini bites simply rolled around loosely inside the box with no plastic packet or film covering. The lacking of an airtight seal meant that the pieces had a scuffed, dusty looking surface which meant they didn't look all that fresh or appetising on the eye. Despite the lack of inner wrapping the chocolates still had a detectable sweet, chocolaty smell but I couldn't help but feel that it would have been stronger had the pieces not been so exposed.

I think we are all aware by now that Nestle milk chocolate is not the best tasting in the world, yet at the same time it always manages to do it job with very little fuss. I could probably cut and paste my thoughts on the Nestle's milk chocolate from another review if I wanted as it delivered the same experience as it always does. It was relatively well paced in melt with a taste that was quite sweet with a dried milk like focus which managed to deliver a fair standard chocolate base taste with each bite. Sat under the average standard milk chocolate coating was the Toffee Crisp filling which I sadly have to report was a bit lacklustre. Unlike the standard Toffee Crisp bar these Mini Bites did not include a distinctive caramel layer in addition to the chocolate flavoured rice cereal. Conversely these bites tried to combine the two which resulted in a golden coloured rice centre which offered minimal amounts of flavour aside from a golden syrup type influence. The combination of the sweet cereal centre and outer chocolate wasn't necessarily bad in anyway but at the same time it didn't offer much in the way of satisfaction and left me feeling a little sold short in terms of my expectations.

Overall had this been my first experience of the Toffee Crisp brand I wouldn't be feeling all that positive towards it. I guess with this product I was expecting a pretty high standard given how much I liked the standard Toffee Crisp bar and also the Toffee Crisp Clusters that I both reviewed HERE with great success's. I think where both those succeeded where these failed was where they tried to combine the usually separate caramel and cereal elements in to one caramel flavoured cereal centre. This neither allowed for either to express the different flavours and texture they could bring to the product and ultimately just resulted in there being one mish-mash of a centre that wasn't necessarily bad in anyway but at the same time was far from exciting or worthy of being associated as being in the same league as the standard Toffee Crisp. In my opinion these weren't worth the hefty price tag - one can only imagine the profit margin they are making with a less complicated product at four times the price!

6.6 out of 10