May 2nd: Cadbury Tokke

Kcal 115 Fat 6.0g Carbs 14.1g (per 23.5g finger)

Last month you may recall me telling you all that I went on holiday for a short period. Indeed mid March I took a five day vacation to Alicante in Spain where I had a glorious few days in the sun during Easter. Of course being the dedicated guy I am, I couldn't help myself but look at some of the local chocolate goodies on the Spanish market. In fact if you look at the archives you will seen that today will mark the first ever review for a product from Spain (pretty surprising huh!?) and it will be this Cadbury Tokke bar taking centre stage. Produced by Cadbury Espana, the Tokke came billed as 'crispy milk chocolate wafers', though you may want to treat that translation with an aire of caution as it has been a long while since GCSE Spanish lessons :D

The Cadbury Tokke came in a 47.0g form that was split in to 2 separate finger bars. In regards to the packaging the Cadbury branding took a back seat to the Tokke logo, which I guess is some sort of indication that the Cadbury masterbrand isn't as strong in Spain as it is in other countries. Interesting observations aside both the wrapper and inner chocolate bars looked impressive, and I thought the red foil packet was both eye catching and exciting to look at. Inside both of the wafer fingers were kept in immaculate condition, and the foil fresh material ensured that a strong waft of sweet chocolatey scents emerged when the seal of the packet was broken.

Breaking apart the first finger piece I straight away noticed how defined each of the different layers were. The outer chocolate layer was pretty thick all the way round, though there was an larger helping on the top on the bar where rice cereal pieces were also incorporated. Underneath there were several layers of wafer and chocolate creme, which broke away with a fresh sounding crunch when snapped apart. Taking my first bite into the piece was really overwhelmed at just how different the chocolate tasted compared to any Cadbury product in the UK. Although I wouldn't say it was as creamy as the Dairy Milk recipe, I would say that it was less sugary and packed more of a cocoa flavour hit with every bite. Similarly the wafer, cereal and inner chocolate creme elements packed more flavour than the UK's comparable Cadbury Timeout bar, with each respectively bringing further doses of cocoa and wheaty, biscuit flavours to the party. Considering this was predominantly a wafer based product I was surprised at just how satisfying this bar was. I ate the total thing in one sitting but 230 calories hardly felt like a sin for the sense of hunger fulfilment it gave me.

Overall I have to give Cadbury Espana a big thumbs up for their first appearance on ChocolateMission. As concepts go, a milk chocolate wafer product is hardly going to win innovation of the year 2010, but for what this bar was, it was actually very good. If we compare it to the highly comparable Cadbury Timeout we have in the UK there is a clear winner and it our Amigos en Espana who take the plaudits! Essentially the milk chocolate used here wasn't as distinctive in taste as the UK Dairy Milk, however it was of a good quality for a mass produced chocolate product and I wasn't surprised to read that it contained more cocoa (29% cocoa solids) which is higher than most standard Cadbury products in the UK. It would be very silly for me to tell you guys that this is a 'must try' product because it simply isn't. What it is though, is a very good milk chocolate wafer bar, and I will certainly be entertaining the idea of grabbing another when I am in Spain later this year - well worth a try!

8.3 out of 10