March 28th: Ferrero Duplo

Kcal 53 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 5.6g Carbs 9.8 (per 18.2g bar)

Back in July 2009 I posted my review of Ferrero's Duplo bar ... or so I thought! Indeed, up until some readers commented on that review it was unbeknown to myself that Ferrero make two variations of the Duplo bar - quite why they use the same branding for two fundamentally different products I do not know! Of course upon hearing that there was a second variation I simply had to get hold of one to see which was better and this was where ChocolateMission reader Susie stepped in kindly sending me a bar across from Germany. On the wrapper this bar came described as milk chocolate with a wafer and hazelnut creme filling which sounded only a little different to the other Duplo which had a cocoa creme centre and wholenut piece.

Despite weighing only 18.2g a single Duplo finger complimented a mid-morning coffee nicely and was almost the perfect amount to tie over a bout of the mid-morning munchies. Looking at the packaging it looked almost no different to the other Duplo with even the Duplo branding looking exactly the same aside from being a different colour. The differentiation between the two came in the look of the inner product itself with the bar in the line of fire today having a flatter, thinner appearance. Although it might have not looked as spectacular the product was fundamentally easier to eat and had some appetising chocolate and hazelnut scents.

One thing I have always criticised Ferrero for is that amount of chocolate they use on their products is often under portioned but this is something I couldn't levy at this Duplo bar. In comparison to say the Kinder Bueno the milk chocolate coating for this bar was a lot thicker and thus had far more relevance in the taste. As you would expect from Ferrero milk chocolate the taste was quite sweet with strong tones of milk making for a smooth, friendly taste. As enjoyable as the chocolate was the constituents that I enjoyed most about this Duplo were the wafer and hazelnut creme layers. These two elements complimented each other wonderfully and were implemented similarly to what you would find in a Kit Kat with several layers sandwiched together. Although the wafers added little more than a minor note of malt to the taste they had a wonderful crispness and allowed the hazelnut flavours to come through nicely. The creme itself wasn't portioned overly generously but the amount was still enough to provide a delicious creamy taste that had a real nutty edge which cut through the chocolate and wafers flavours nicely.

Overall I think we are all aware by now that Ferrero are pretty competent when it comes to milk chocolate, hazelnut and wafer combinations and this was yet another fine example of how they do it so well. Despite being smaller than many of their other products the thicker milk chocolate coating made it seem like more of a fulfilling product and although I could have easily eaten two I was more than happy with just the one as a light snack. Now although I have managed to give both variants a review I am still a little confused as to why we have two products with the same name!? Can any reader please give some clarity on this!? Although we still have this area of confusion one thing I can be sure of this is that you can add this to the ever growing list of Ferrero products that are worthy of trying if you are a fan of their range.

8.1 out of 10