December 28th: Milka Tender Lime / Black Forest Cake

To tide us over review wise until the new year I today once again got stuck in to the batch of goodies sent to me by ChocolateMission reader Susie. Included in the box of treats were a selection of Milka Tender cakes and I reviewed the Original and Tiramisu variants just a few weeks back.

Over the past few days I have further investigated the Tender range by trying out these Lime & Black Forest Cake variants, both of which came in 5 bar multi-packs. Looking at the outer packaging both flavours looked like your standard supermarket multi-pack cake treats, though I was pleased to see inside that both flavours were coated with the same thick foil wrappers which kept the inner mini rolls in really top condition and both smelling wonderfully fresh.

Below are my thoughts on each variant:

Milka Tender Lime:

Kcal 156 Fat 7.8g Fat(sats) 4.6g Carbs 19.5g (per roll)

These came described as 'sponge cake with a lime creme filling, covered in Alpine Milk Chocolate' and I was surprised to see they were the more calorific of the two flavours, containing no less than 23% of the GDA of saturated fat - gulp!

These were always going to have a tough time living up to the wonderful Tiramisu flavour I reviewed last month but I have to admit I was a little disappointed at what I got here. Just like the Milk & Tiramisu variants the milk chocolate was again spread rather thinly and only compromised 28% of the actual product. Just as I found before the chocolate was tasty in its milky sweet flavours, however it was soon dominated the stodgier cake which also held the disappointing creme. With lime normally being quite a strong flavour I was surprised to see it had little say on the overall experience as it failed to cut through the cake element and establish a say on the taste. Judging by the three bars I ate myself I would say this was predominantly because the creme wasn't portioned as much as it should of been and it was also noticeable in the texture as the creme didn't provide the moistness to the extent that it did in the other variants.

6.4 out of 10



Milka Tender Black Forest Cake:

Kcal 147 Fat 6.4g Fat(sats) 3.5g Carbs 20.5g (per bar)

Before I had to translate the word 'Schwarzwalder' I had no idea that Black Forest Cake was such a popular product in Germany. Described as a 'sponge roll with a milk creme and cherry jam filling, covered in dark chocolate' it sounded the more unique out of the two variants of show today.

Despite the chocolate being billed as 'dark' the chocolate was more unsweetened when it came to the taste and was still as disappointingly portioned again compromising 28% of the final product. Despite its thinness the chocolate still had a relatively strong say in the taste as its flavours were only further enhanced by the chocolate cake that lay below, which was noticeably more flavoursome than the lighter coloured sponge used in the Lime variant above. Inside the mixture of the two types of fillings was glorious with the cherry coming through the stronger of the two delivering some tart, red fruit influences on the overall taste. Unlike the lime creme in the creme and jam elements were portioned pretty generously giving a much needed moist density to the drier cake.

8.0 out of 10


Overall the Black Forest Cake variant was easily my favourite out of the two though I wouldn't say it quite got to the same level of the Tiramisu flavour I reviewed before. Just like found in my first review of this range a few weeks ago, one of the failings of both these products were that the outer chocolate was not portioned generously enough, and should have been at least 1.5 times the thickness that it was. As a total range I would say that Milka Tender does in fact triumph over the Cadbury Mini Rolls, however not all of the variants were as good with the Lime flavour noticeably lacklustre when placed in the context of the others. The Milka Tender range is certainly worth a try if you get the chance.