February 25th: Terry's Twilight

Kcal 132 Fat 7.7g Fat(sats) 4.6g Carbs 15.0g (per 4 pieces)

I don't know if anyone else picked up on this but Christmas last gone it seemed like all out warfare in the after dinner chocolate mint sector with the likes of After Eight, Green & Black's, Elizabeth Shaw and Bendick's to name a few thrashing it out in our local supermarkets. The selection was massive and almost seemed to double over night with the emergence of the Christmas aisles that started appearing last September. Seemingly this abundance of chocolate mint offerings was just a little too much for the UK market as the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's are now flogging off their surplus stock at next to nothing. With these tempting deals on offer I couldn't help myself from picking up these Terry's Twilight chocolates which came billed as 'dark chocolate with a crisp mint centre and crisp sugar pieces'. This wasn't the first time that I had seen the Terry's brand used on a mint flavoured chocolate but for me it still didn't seem very fitting.

These chocolates came in a 150.0g box that contained around 30 or so individually wrapped pieces. Looking at the box the colour scheme was hardly original with the green and gold colours but I thought it looked pretty respectable nonetheless and did the job adequately. Inside I was more impressed with what was on offer and I thought that the plastic sleeved chocolates smelt fresh and minty though perhaps a little boring in terms of looks. These Terry's Twilight possibly didn't quite measure up to the classically designed Nestle After Eight but on the other hand they weren't horrible presented either.

With the aesthetic proposition being a little on the average side the ultimate determent was going to be the standard of the actual chocolates. To save beating around the bush these tasted similarly average, neither surpassing or falling below expectations offering a sound experience of flavours. Starting with the dark chocolate it was very much what I was expecting with the 40% cocoa solids min outer layer providing more of an unsweetened milk chocolate taste rather than one that was amplified in terms of it's cocoa flavours. The dark chocolate was pretty smooth in melt and nicely transcended in to the drier middle layer of mint fondant when simply left to melt on the tongue. In terms of taste the mint fondant perhaps was a bit of a halfway house between the extremely strong flavoured Bendick's and the more sugar focused After Eight Mints and but had a fresh, cooling peppermint kick. Like I find with most of these offering these Twilight chocolates were not ones that I wanted to consume on mass but more rather in their intended time of after meals, with coffees etc.

Overall without being anything spectacular these were yet another solid offering from the dark chocolate and mint part of the market and though I wouldn't say they matched up to competitors like Nestle After Eight for looks they certainly competed in the taste department. I wouldn't necessarily say that the chocolate on offer here would be enjoyed by dark chocolate connoisseurs but it was at least average with it's unsweetened tasted negating the usual onslaught of sugar that is synonymous with most Terry's milk chocolate offerings. I have only just realised that the mint centre lacked the 'crisp sugar pieces' promised on the packaging though I personally wouldn't say this was a bad thing as I felt the balance of mint to sugar was just about right. Whereas I would personally choose a classier looking after dinner mint product like the Bendick's chocolates if you see these on an offer you could do worse rolling these out after a dinner party.

7.4 out of 10