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Kcal 195 Fat 10.4g Fat(sats) 6.1g Carbs 23.5g (per 1/2 bag)The 2010 Halloween reviews continue today with an offering from Cadbury that had managed to fly under my usually well tuned 'New product' radar. Somehow or other I managed to miss this Cadbury press release in The Grocer magazine last month See HERE, which foretold the release of two limited edition Cadbury products made especially for the Halloween season - Cadbury Screme Eggs and the Cadbury Dead Heads. Having stumbled across the latter in Tesco last week, I thought I would give them a quick ChocolateMission review. Described as 'mini milk chocolate heads with a red caramel centre', I was hoping that these were going to offer the same sort of experience as normal Cadbury Caramel Mini Eggs - if they managed to be half as good I could see there being very few problems :D
These Cadbury Dead Heads came in a 80.0g bag that contained 9 egg shaped pieces inside. I'm sure you are all aware of my own general disinterest in Halloween, but I have to admit I was pretty shocked at the presentation of these Dead Heads. I don't know if this is me just being sensitive, but I felt there was something just not right with the whole Dead Head concept? From a company that produces the fun loving Freddo character, the concept of Heads filled with red goo seemed a little ... well ... a little graphic and unnecessary for little kids (who these are obviously marketed at!). I go more in to my thoughts on this more below.
Putting these distractions to one side (it wasn't hard!), I was of course more interested by the product at hand. Piercing the foil bag I was met with some familiar sweet smelling Cadbury scents, though they weren't quite as welcoming and pungent as normal due to them being covered in an additional light foil wrap. Aesthetically I was initially a bit disturbed by the artificial looking red coloured filling, but these initial worries were soon lay to rest. Despite the outer bag not mentioning it being so, the exterior milk chocolate layer was in actual fact Dairy Milk so everything in regards to chocolate was very much to my liking. Just as expected, the initial creamy cocoa flavours melted with signature Dairy Milk thick melt, slowly revealing the softer caramel centres. Comparing like-for-like, the caramel filling in these Dead Heads offered pretty much an identical experience to normal Cadbury Caramel products. There were however minor differences, most notably the viscosity with the Dead Heads caramel feeling a touch lighter and more fluid in it's melt. Whilst the buttery toffee flavours of the caramel were still pretty consistent (and delicious!), I felt they weren't quite as long lasting in the mouth - it definitely melted away faster than normal Cadbury Caramel. Despite this, four 'Heads' at a time was still a more than sufficient snack, quite why Cadbury gave the nutritional information in a half pack quantity when there were 9 in the bag I still fail to understand mind you :D
Overall these were a relatively decent Halloween themed product from Cadbury, but I still have some reservations around the product concept. At the heart of matters the Cadbury milk chocolate and the inner caramel were just about the standard you expect, with very little differentiation from any normal Cadbury Caramel product. Whilst everything was in order in regards to taste, what I couldn't ignore were my feelings towards the 'Dead Heads' concept in general. You may think that I'm labouring the point, or even talking complete gibberish, but I genuinely don't think that the whole 'Dead Heads' concept really fits with the Cadbury brand at all. Take a step back and think about the Cadbury Caramel Bunny, Cadbury Freddo etc and you have to admit that a product this graphic isn't the sort of thing you would associate with Cadbury - can you imagine Nestle or Mars making such a product? Kids like gross things, but don't you think these are a step too far? Let me know your thoughts on the matter.
8.0 out of 10
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41 comments:
If they are just like normal caramel eggs I would still buy them if they were cheap enough. The red colouring doesn't do anything for me though, I think that makes them look a bit stupid if anything. Thanks for the review.
Errr I see what you mean about the 'Dead Heads' thing not being very child friendly, but I don't think it is going to bother the average person that much Jim.
It's not the most appropriate name they have ever given one of their products but I think if the media were going to cause a fuss about it they would have done already.
Rxxx
I had a bag of these yesterday and they were very nice. I thought they were just identical to the cadbury caramel mini eggs you can get around easter time. They aren't that exciting when you think about it but they are undeniably very tasty. I wasn't complaining about them put it that way :)
I had a bag of these yesterday and they were very nice. I thought they were just identical to the cadbury caramel mini eggs you can get around easter time. They aren't that exciting when you think about it but they are undeniably very tasty. I wasn't complaining about them put it that way :)
I see what you mean to some extent Jim but I don't think parents are that sensitive. I think the majority of the public will get the 'joke' that Cadburys are trying to make with these. Lol it isn't the funniest joke ever is it.
One question I do have is if they knew they were making a chocolate with a red filling, why didn't they make it strawberry or something?
Lol it's funny seeing how you think a cheapo Cadburys product beats a very similar Thorntons one all hands up.
What your saying is that a gimmicky cadbury thing is better than Thorntons' serious caramel filled chocolates. I know which I will be buying after seeing your reviews ;)
The caramel looks so weird. Can you try the screme egg please.
It does seem a little silly us all talking about Halloween when there is well over a week to go still.
But If you insist .... ;) I would be more than happy buying these if they are just like normal caramel. It's hard to believe that they wont taste a little different now that they messed around with the colour and stuff. Its a bit disconcerting.
what I couldn't ignore were my feelings towards the 'Dead Heads' concept in general. You may think that I'm labouring the point, or even talking complete gibberish, but I genuinely don't think that the whole 'Dead Heads' concept really fits with the Cadbury brand at all.
Normally Cadbury have just made chocolate shapes with their milk chocolate and not done anything like these. I think it is nice they have tried to make something a bit more special, but yeah Dead Heads wasn't the most sensible product they have ever made I don't think.
These looks gross. I don't care about what they are called but the red food colouring bit puts me off alot. It just gives me the thought that they are filled with evil ingredients. Not nice.
Thanks for the review Jim I've been awaiting your thoughts on these.
Since they are just like normal cadbury eggs I will buy them because I love caramel. I do however see the point you are making about them being suitable for kids. Lol I think you make the point well when you compare them to freddo and caramel bunny. These couldn't be further from that kiddie world if they tried. Its very odd isn't it.
Thanks for the review. I did have the feeling that these are simply mini caramel eggs with red food colouring and coming out of a Halloween themed mould. ;-)
I don't think they are too graphic at all! I actually think the witch on the bag looks quite cute. *g* The head you have photographed doesn't look too cruesome either. It is of course a bit different to the cute bunny, but it IS a Halloween themed sweet so I think it is quite fitting and I am sure a lot of kids (especially boys) love the shapes.
And yes, portion sizes are usually rediculous. For a 500 g joghurt I buy, the portion size is 150 g. What do you do with the remaining 50 g? It wouldn't have killed Cadbury to put 10 heads into the bag, even if that would have made the weight of the bag 88,8 g. You Brits have some strange porduct sizes anyway. ;-)
I'm not going to waste my time with rubbish chocolates like these this year. I've just bought a few things off Hotel Chocolat to eat on Halloween Sunday as a treat and I'm leaving it at that. I've never been one to gorge on lots of chocolate at Halloween time but it's nice just to have a small little something. You might as well make it something decent rather than something cheap like these.
Lol I think you have gone a bit OTT here Jim. I honestly don't think most people will even notice what these are called. They will probably sell by the bucketload still.
For once im in total disagreement with you :) I dont think theres anything wrong with them being named dead heads at all. I think it is just meant to be a bit fun.
One thing you can say in there defence is at least they went to the effort to make the product a little different. They could have just made normal coloured caramel eggs and most people wouldnt have batted an eyelid.
ewwwwwwww these look so wrong. The caramel looks so nasty in the picture. I like the idea of them making chocolates with jam in. Why didn't they do that rather than filling them with fake looking caramel :(
Dx
I like dairy milk and caramel so much I'm not going to let the look of them put me off :) does anyone know where they are selling these so I can buy them?
I saw the other day that people were saying the screme eggs are only on sale in Tesco. Thats a shame I fancy a creme egg today.
If I get the chance I will buy these to see what they are like. I was sorta expecting something a bit more than just coloured caramel though. Had I not known they weren't going to be different beforehand I think I would of been a bit annoyed they weren't anything new. Now I know I will likely be less bothered by all that.
If Nestle had just made a red coloured Kit Kat caramel you would have crucified them. Just because cadbury made these you have let them off.
These are so gimmicky its plain for everyone to see. It's a crap idea for a new product.
Fill ya boots peoples.
Tesco £1.09
Asda £1
Sainsburys £1
Waitrose £1.09
That is pretty cheap for the amount you get. I think I will be stocking up on these this weekend. Thanks for the review Jim.
Are you going to be running a halloween competition like you did last year? I think it would be a very good idea if you did btw lol ;)
I don't think you are talking gibberish at all Jim. I don't think they are appropriate at all for small children.
These are pretty horrid when you think about it. If I had a child I wouldn't buy them, there are plenty of other chocolate alternatives its hardly like there is just a small selection.
I bought some blackcurrant mini rolls last night. I'm yet to have eat one yet but I will tell you what I think later on.
I thought these were well nice. I didn't notice that they tasted any different from normal cadburys caramel at all. If anything I thought they just tasted exactly the same, maybe I was just wasn't paying close attention.
Forget the name Jim ive been put off these by the red colouring. It looks so unnatural I cant get my head around it. I think I will give these a miss.
God I'm not sure about that red caramel. It doesn't look that appealing in the slightest.
I think if I bought a bag of these I would have to eat them whole so I wouldn't see what colour the insides were. I don't think this is the best idea that cadburys have ever come up with. Far from it infact.
What sort of products have cadburys normally made for Halloween in the past? I can't remember them ever doing making an effort like this before.
Do you think they have given some extra focus to Halloween this year because of their new american influence?
I love cadburys caramel but I haven't had it in any form for ages now. The last thing I can remember having is one of those caramel bunnies that they made at Easter time. I miss them they were so cute. These look so nasty compared to them. I'm sure little snotty nosed boys will think they are fun though =]
Jimbo have you seen the Cadburys Screme Eggs yet? I dont think you will want to review them because they are just normal Creme Eggs but I would love to see your artistic take onthem. Take some pictures for us to drool over mate.
I saw these in the newsagent but didnt buy them as the packet seemed small for what is essentially just cadbury caramel eggs. If they were strawberry flavoured, I'd be more interested.
As for the product being gross, I see what you mean but they seem to be monster heads rather than anything resembling a human. There's been sweets like this out before, such as those insect jellies with a gooey centre (yuk!)
I'm not a parent so I can't really comment though.
I was quite shocked when I first saw these in Sainsburys! They are quite gruesome I have to say. The actual chocolates don't bother me so much but the name is abit graphic. But then perhaps it's an age issue? By that i mean kids today (and parents it seems) appear far less bothered by anything like this than our parents (and us in turn) might be. Which is wrong I personally think.
I was reading an article about a childrens author whose horror novel had been banned because it was very graphic, but he said 'oh kids love horror. they love being scared. The parents are the ones who don't like it. its just fun, a part of growing up...' or something ridiculous like that. It seems the way of the world now unfortunately.
Tried these the other night, th red centre was interesting. I didn't really notice a difference in taste but I did think the caramel melted all too quickly for my liking. Also glad to see that 9 seems the standard number, I was tying to work out if I was missing an egg or had got an extra one when I seen the nutrition info.
As for the concept, I can see your point when comparing it to their other kids friendly things eg Freddo but I don't think it's that bad. Those Hotel Chocolat Eyes looked far freakier to me. Thanks again for the review.
While I wouldn't buy these for little ones if it were up to me, I do think there are a lot of kids that love gross/graphic things nowadays, I'm guessing these will sell like hot cakes. (Those HC eyes last week were the grossest though :S) I would love to see Cadbury's do something like chocolate pumpkins, sort of Terry's orange style. btw I've heard that Halloween in the UK is more focused on the dark/dead angle, i.e. ghoul/witch/zombie/skeleton costumes rather than fanciful/superhero/anything goes, I'm curious if that's true?
I think these fit with freddos and the like quite well. They look playful to me, not scary or grotesque in th least.
People are becoming more open-minded as society evolves, which can only be a good thing. Parents today probably don't care because it's a Halloween chocolate - nothing more, and I'm surprised at people being so sensitive about this.
Kids won't literally think it's a dead person's head, nor will they think about the literal idea of 'decapitated heads' and have it scar them. It's a bit of harmless fun and it's only an issue if people make it an issue.
Anyway, love the site and love the reviews!
They do look horrid don't they. I never bother with hallowen so I shan't be wasting my money on these. I think I will just stay with the more traditional Cadbury Caramel if thats ok.
So let me get this straight you have no issue with caramel eyes but you do with caramel dead heads? You are so inconsistent.
Hi All,
Thanks for all of the opinions being banded about today. I was sort of fearing this post coming up as I didn't know whether I was being overly senstive with the whole kids thing. Lets see what you guys had to say :D ....
David / Paul / Graeme - Re: red food colouring
The red food colouring didn't effect the caramel that much from the norm. it was more what it represented that bothered me a little.
Rachel / Katie / Steven / Anon / Justin / Nigel / Estelle / Rodzilla / Thea / Ria / Michael - Re: Dead Heads Concept
This was the hopt topic of today it seems :D I love it when not everyone agrees with each other, it's far more entertaining to have a debate rather than us all share the same opinion.
Personally I just felt that the whole eating the bloody contents of someones head is just a little odd and gross for the target market these are aimed at. There are a million and one shapes/moulds that Cadbury could have come out with that are Halloween themed, I just think it was a little odd of them to choose something this graphic to bring to market. Again I will reiterate that this is just my own opinion, I don't think it is any more worthwhile that anyone elses.
Golden / Daisy - Re: 'why didn't they make it strawberry jam or something?'
As much as I love Cadbury Caramel I agree it would have possibly have been nice for them to have tried like a fruit fondant filling to make them a little different.
Tony - Re:'it's funny seeing how you think a cheapo Cadburys product beats a very similar Thorntons one all hands up.
I didn't intend the caramel products to come one after another but now you mention it is a pretty stark comparison.
Anon / Ganesh - Re:'Can you try the screme egg please'
Thanks to a certain ChocolateMission reader this will hopefully become a reality.
Robert - Re:'It does seem a little silly us all talking about Halloween when there is well over a week to go still'
The shops have been selling Halloween chocolates for months now :D you are lucky I didn't start my reviews before.
Anne - Re:'You Brits have some strange porduct sizes anyway'
Haha in what sense? It always makes me laugh when they make confectionery and try and make the nutritional gubbins look all the more appealing by stating them by 'one chunk'. Cadbury do this quite a lot on several of their bars. You don't have to stick to the portion sizes they tell you :D
Henry - Re:'You might as well make it something decent rather than something cheap like these'
Personally I think these are just as good as some of the higher end products you are going to be able to buy this year. I haven't even looked at the Thorntons Halloween range yet.
Kim - Re: Where to buy
These on sale all over the place! They are much easier to find than the screme eggs.
Mark - Re:'If Nestle had just made a red coloured Kit Kat caramel you would have crucified them. Just because cadbury made these you have let them off.'
You have totally lost me chap. I have no idea what you are talking about.
Richard - Re: Price
Thank you for the pricing :D We can now save 9p by shops in Asda and JS haha.
Michael - Re: Competition
No Halloween competition I'm afraid. Just a load of Christmas themed ones coming from Ritter and Hotel Chocolat soon :D
Jamie - Re:'Do you think they have given some extra focus to Halloween this year because of their new american influence?'
I seriously doubt Kraft had anything to do with the Halloween products this year.
Phil - Re: 'I saw these in the newsagent but didnt buy them as the packet seemed small for what is essentially just cadbury caramel eggs. If they were strawberry flavoured, I'd be more interested.'
When I first saw them I was wondering whether they were going to be appealing enough to hook in consumers that aren't that fussed by Cadbury Caramel. Because I'm such a lover of it I would have tried it anyway, but to the average person I was wondering whether they would be that fussed by them ... from what you say obviously not :D
Alan - Re:'I was quite shocked when I first saw these in Sainsburys! They are quite gruesome I have to say. The actual chocolates don't bother me so much but the name is abit graphic. But then perhaps it's an age issue?
As I said chap I just think it's unlike Cadbury who normally position themselves as a big time family brand. I'm blatantly thinking about this all way too much, but as a person that works in marketing I wouldn't have advised a brand like Cadbury to go to market with this concept.
Ria - Re:'Also glad to see that 9 seems the standard number'
They pulled a clanger with the nutritional info for these didn't they ... half a bag but 9 eggs ... ridiculous mistake when you think about it. Not handy at all for people who care about that sort of thing.
Ria / Thea / Alex - Re: Hotel Chocolat Caramel Eyes
The reason I felt less strongly about the eyes (although I still thought they were uncessarilly gross!) was because the target market and end consumers are totally different. Cadbury aim their products at a younger audience - I can't imagine too many five year olds a) having the pocket money to buy from Hotel Chocolat or b) having the chance to be exposed to the Hotel Chocolat product.
I think Thea's example of Cadbury Caramel filled pumpkins would have been one hundred times more appropriate for the target market that Cadbury had in mind here.
Thea - I have no idea about the Halloween festival here in the UK so I can't comment on what the main focus is. To be honest I don't think the majority of people even know what the holiday is about, it's just a chance for people to have a little bit of fun I think.
Michael Harwood - Re: Your Comment
That is a well argued point there chap I think you sum everything up quite nicely. I'm probably taking the whole Dead Head thing at face value too much and looking in to the detail way more than the average person. Like you say it is probably just more a refelection on our society now. Thanks for the comment, I hope you make a point of returning soon :D
Alex - Re:'You are so inconsistent'
Yep ... I'm totally rubbish aren't I. Thank heavens I have you coming back everyday to remind me just how bad I am :D
Thanks for sharing your views today everyone, it was interesting hearing all your opinions on this product today. I will have my next Halloween product featuring as part of the '7Days of Chocolate Reviews at the weekend'. Give me a shout if you can thing of any last minute products you want to see reviewed.
JIM
@Alex just in case you construed that from my comment, that's not what I meant at all...I think different things gross out different people. Like I wouldn't eat those eyes if they were the last chocolate on earth lol but the heads I might because they are more cartoonish than realistic...on the other hand they are meant to be human and the eyes are imaginary monster...what about you, would you eat either? It would be great to hear your own opinion, on the chocolate :)
The illustrations on the bag look very cartoonish to me. So I think that if watching cartoons like Tales from the Cryptkeeper doesn't scare kids, then neither will the illustrations on these bags.
The actual "heads"... well, they don't even look much like human heads to me, they look more like chocolate eggs with some cartoonish eyes and a nose scratched on the surface. And I actually like how the cross-section looks. I generally like gooey caramel (well, as long as it doesn't get too sweet) and the colour doesn't bother me much.
I think they are scary looking but I'm just a wimp.
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