April 5th: McVitie's Caramel Shortcake Slices

Kcal 146 Fat 7.7g Fat(sats) 4.3g Carbs 17.8g (per 29.0g slice)

A little over a month ago you may remember that I reviewed Thornton's Mini Caramel Shortcakes to great success with them getting a score of 9.0. Well given how good they were and my love for millionaire shortbread I could hardly resist giving these McVitie's Caramel Shortcake Slices, especially when they were reduced to half price (75p) in my local OneStop shop. McVitie's here in the UK make some phenomenal biscuits (Hobnobs the best amongst many!!!) so I was pleased to see that they had brought their own little twist to the caramel shortbread concept as it constituted of 'McVitie's digestive biscuit shortcake topped with smooth caramel and milk chocolate'.

These Caramel Shortcake Slices came in a pack of 6 x 29.0g servings. I thought the presentation of the product on the whole was pretty good with the gold colour theme nicely supporting the actual product concept and the on pack pictures giving a fair idea of the slices inside. Contained within it was nice to see that each piece had it's own individual wrapper which meant that I could easily transport these to work without creating a mess in my bag. As I have referred to already the pieces looked exactly like they did on the packet with clear distinguished layers of biscuit, caramel and chocolate looking very enticing indeed. Aswell as looking pretty tempting the slices didn't smell half bad either and they a very familiar wheaty McVitie's biscuit aroma made itself immediately known as soon as I ripped open the plastic packets.

Everything up until this point was looking great but I unfortunately have to report that the taste didn't match the build up. As you probably expected it wasn't the biscuit base that let this product down but more the chocolate and caramel layers which were pretty lacklustre. The digestive biscuit base was very comforting and unsurprisingly tasted almost identical to McVitie's digestive biscuits with a strong sweet, salt hinted malty taste. As the biscuits obviously had to be crushed the base was a bit moister than your average digestive biscuit but that aside there it was very little different. Despite the ingredients list naming caramel as the dominating element the taste did very little to suggest this was the case. Both the caramel and milk chocolate lacked telling flavour influences, the caramel more so as it only contributed a very subtle brown sugar like influence on the taste of the shortcake. The milk chocolate was equally as mild and just really failed to exert itself into the taste whatsoever. I don't know about you but when I think of Caramel Shortcake I expect a very rich tasting experience but this just wasn't it, thus one slice was a calorific but not fulfilling snack.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with these given the pedigree of McVitie's for making biscuit products. Indeed they did produce a very nice tasting biscuit base for the product but I was never doubting that this wasn't going to be of a good quality anyway. What really let these slices down though was the abysmal quality of the caramel and milk chocolate which I would say were both verging on being near flavourless and were just bland. Because these elements were so poor it made eating these slices almost entirely pointless and I think I would have got more enjoyment from just tucking into a few digestive biscuits. If your a big fan of caramel shortcake like myself I would probably just stick to the Thornton's ones, or better yet head to your local bakery to get some freshly made real stuff. Who would I love to see a caramel shortcake product produced by? I think Cadbury could have a great go at it if they used their normal Dairy Milk and Caramel recipes. I wouldn't rule out this happening at some point in the future given they have just recently moved into making flapjacks and brownies!

5.7 out of 10

April 4th: Marks & Spencer Easter Sunday Special

Happy Easter to all my readers!!! Just to be a little different today I thought I would do a 'Bit n Bobs' style post of all the chocolate goodies I picked up in my favourite food retailer last week - Marks & Spencer. As you will see below these aren't full in depth reviews, but hey!? Who wants to get too serious on a day like today.


Marks & Spencer Chicks & Bunnies


Both of these mini chocolate varieties came foil wrappers, which were packaged in 65.0g nets. The 'Bunnies' were the simpler product out of the two, and were just 'rabbit shaped milk chocolate pieces'. The 'Chicks' you see on the left had a little more to them, and were described as 'milk chocolate with a soft chocolate centre'. Given their simplicity and smallness I couldn't see the point giving them each a score out of 10. Suffice to say they were both made with 'okish' standard chocolate - i.e. not great but passable. To give you some sort of gauge on the quality they were probably just a touch more creamy than the sugar filled rubbish you get with a lot of the big, hollow Easter eggs millions will be tucking in to today.


Marks & Spencer Bubbly Bunny

What a shame I picked this Bubbly Bunny up a few months late to be included in the 2010 Battle of the Bunnies (See HERE). This 23.0g choco-wabbit came described simply as a 'aerated milk chocolate bunny', and came packaged in a small film bag. Out of it's wrapper (that had no air holes in!!! How did it survive!???) the bunny shape was pretty intricate and I was impressed by the inner constituents which still looked pretty dense despite the large array of air pockets. In terms of chocolate quality the taste seemed a touch creamier than the smaller chocolates above, however it was still very sugary and probably only for people that enjoy their chocolate quite sweet. I wouldn't rank this bunny in the same league as the Cadbury Caramel or MaltEaster bunnies, but it holds it's own and I am sure not too many would turn their noses up at the prospect of tucking into one of these this Easter weekend.

7.6 out of 10

Marks & Spencer Gorgeously Gooey Egg

Out of everything on offer today this was the one that caught my eye right away. This M&S Gorgeously Gooey Egg constituted of a 'milk chocolate egg filled with a vanilla fondant centre' and weighed a respectable 33.0g. Now I have touched on the M&S milk chocolate enough already so lets cut right to the chase of the vanilla fondant filling. Unfortunately, whilst it looked appetising with it's viscous yellow coloured look, it neither smelt or tasted all that inspiring. The centre offered nothing in relation to any sort of vanilla flavouring, which was disappointing considering it was promised. In reality it tasted rather like the Cadbury Creme Egg fondant filling i.e. pure sugar. Now when you are Cadbury and have a more distinct, nostalgic tasting outer chocolate this is a little easier to get away with, but unfortunately the chocolate on offer here was neither of them. This wasn't an awful chocolate egg, but it was very much a case of sounding better than it was.

7.2 out of 10

Marks & Spencer Rattle & Roll Egg

Who remembers the Kinnerton Shake 'ems egg I reviewed back in February!? Well some bright spark at M&S thought it would be a good idea to have a comparable product on offer in their range this year. The proposition of 'a milk chocolate egg filled with chocolate pearls' just so happened to be just as weak as Kinnerton's offering, though the milk chocolate was possibly just a touch less sugary on balance. Similarly to what I found in the Kinnerton egg the inner candy pieces simply sucked big time! I know this is a product aimed for kids, but surely even they are going to want mum and dad to buy them a Cadbury Creme Egg rather than one of these bad boys. If you happen to come in to one of the possession of these in the next few days I would try playing a sneaky bit of swapsies with your family or friends :D

5.8 out of 10

Well this wasn't the best selection of chocolates to showcase to you all on Easter Sunday but they were all at least good looking, harmless Easter offerings. Hopefully by the time you have read this post today you will be ill at the thought of eating anymore of the chocolate egg you got given this weekend :D ... let me know what you got and what you gifted.

HAPPY EASTER

JIM

April 3rd: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 38

Hi All,

The logo above is a blast from the past isn't it :D I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend. If you would like to get familiar with some of the products you may be receiving this weekend I suggest you check out my reviews of popular Easter products ...

Easter 2008 Reviews ... HERE
Easter 2009 Reviews ... HERE
Easter 2010 Reviews ... HERE

Have I really been doing this three years now!? I need a new hobby huh :D

Question of the week of course has to be ... 'What have you been giving or receiving this Easter?' ... be sure to drop me a note with what you get/give.

There are a great few weeks coming up on the site ... more Ritter Sport, Galler, Hotel Chocolat, Cadbury and Galaxy products all coming in the next few days.

Thanks for all your continued support and comments. Have a great Easter holiday.

JIM


News from the Chocolate Market:

* This weekend the average child will eat over 2.5kg of chocolate - love it :D ... See HERE

* Never read anything like this before - chocolate is good for us :D ... See HERE

* And again ... See HERE .... and again ... See HERE

* Cadbury, Nestle, Hershey and Mars are being sued for price fixing in the US ... See HERE

* In the UK it seems our Easter eggs have got smaller but our consumption has gone up ... See HERE

* An interesting article sent to me by ChocolateMission reader Thea - who won in Yahoo's battle of the Easter eggs??? ... See HERE


Post from other Blogs I enjoyed this week:

* YumYucky - I am not the only one to have been checking out cereal bars this week. Josie tried out Quaker's latest offering in the US ... See HERE

* ImpulsiveBuy - Only in the US would you find a product that combines Cracker + Pretzels + Butter. It sounds good to me but Kelley at IB didn't think they were great ... See HERE

* GiGiReviews - Gi has been posting some fascinating Easter food alternatives this week. These Potato Pancakes chaught my eye ... See HERE

* Foodstufffinds - Cin found the latest Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade flavour 'Fairly Nuts' GEDDITT!??? ... See HERE

* The Bewildered Brit - If I see another bloody Peep I am going to cry!? Why do we not have Peeps in the UK!? They seem as icnonic as our Cadbury Creme Egg in the US. Great post on all things Peeps ... See HERE


*** Updated Posts of Old ***

I am still busy updating my old reviews with new pictures, and punctuation better than your average six year old :D - check them out and tell me what you think of the updates.

* Cadbury Twisted - See HERE
* Cadbury Starbar - See HERE
* Nestle Milkybar - See HERE
* Toffee Crisp - See HERE
* Nestle Yorkie Original - See HERE

April 2nd: 'Bits n Bobs' - Cereal Bars

Over the last few months I have managed to accumulate a number of different chocolate cereal bars. Rather than drag them out over four separate reviews, I thought it would be wiser to do four micro ones - in the style of the 'Bits n Bobs' format that I debuted for the first time last month.

These reviews are short, sharp snapshots ... I hope you can keep up :D


Weetabix Oaty Bars White Chocolate

Kcal 67 Fat 1.4g Fat(sats) 0.6g Carbs 11.9g (per 23.0g bar)

'White chocolate flavoured mixed cereal bar drizzled with a yogurt flavoured coating'

I love having Weetabix from time-to-time in the mornings so I had been looking forward to trying this new Weetabix branded cereal bar. Unfortunately I was really disappointed with it - not only was it tiny in size and thus totally unfulfilling, but it was also very bland and I couldn't detect any additional white chocolate or yogurt flavour influences aside from a small sugar blast on top of the mild mannered oat flavours. The base oat cereal bar wasn't at all horrible but it was still pretty disappointing and not something I would recommend.

6.2 out of 10


Weetabix Weetos

Kcal 88 Fat 2.9g Fat(sats) 1.3g Carbs 14.2g (per 20.0g bar)

'Chocolate flavour wheat hoop bar with a milk chocolate base'

I haven't ever had Weetos cereal (I was never allowed chocolate cereal as a kid!) but I was expecting a chocolate flavoured Cheerios type experience. This bar actually exceeded my expectations, and despite it's light catch weight it actually made for a relatively satisfying snack. I found the cereal constituents to be more syrupy, and sweet tasting than it was chocolatey, however the milk chocolate base gave a fair chocolate flavour hit for each bite. Not the best cereal bar ever, but you could do far worse.

7.1 out of 10

Kellogg's Fibre Plus Dark Chocolate & Almond

Kcal 116 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 15.0g (per 28.0g bar)

'High fibre mixed cereal bar with almonds and a chocolate drizzle, dipped in a smooth dark chocolate'.

Who remembers my review of the Kellogg's Fibre Plus Milk Chocolate variant last month (See HERE). Well that milk chocolate variety was pretty tasty, but this one was even better. Some of the other bars featured today may appeal more due to them being lighter on the calories and fat content, but this bar was by far and away the most satisfying out of them all. Much like you would think the fibre cereal was a little bland tasting, though the unsweetened cocoa flavours and the buttery almonds brought a little bit of life to each and every bite. The chocolate quality isn't the greatest but it delivers a decent chocolate flavour hit for a cereal bar. I would recommend this as the best of the bunch.

8.2 out of 10

Weetabix Alpen Fruit & Nut Milk Chocolate

Kcal 125 Fat 3.9g Fat(sats) 1.7g Carbs 20.2g (per 29.0g bar)

'Mixed cereal bar with fruit & nut, dipped and drizzled with milk chocolate'

ChocolateMission reader Alan suggested I review this bar a while back, and I was more than willing due to my love of Alpen museli. Considering this bar was slightly larger than the Kellogg's Fibre Plus bars I was a little surprised I didn't find it quite as fulfilling, though I still thought it did a relatively good job tieing over my mid-afternoon munchies. Although the milk chocolate had very small cut through in the taste, I still really liked the additional fruit and nut influences from the raisins and chopped hazelnuts and almonds. I wouldn't say it was the greatest tasting cereal bar I have ever had but I would probably have another if offered given the variation that the fruit and nut brings to the cereal base.

7.4 out of 10

I am generally a little unenthused by cereal bars, but I would say the Kellogg's Fibre Plus and Alpen bars are worth a look at if you are after a chocolate option. Do you guys have a favourite cereal based chocolate snack?

April 1st: Nestle Chokito

Kcal 280 Fat 10.7g Fat(sats) 7.3g Carbs 41.9g

As I informed you all the other day, a very lucky friend of mine recently went travelling to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and being the kind soul they are they were nice enough to buy some samples of their favourite local confectionery. One of his favourite bars from SA was the Nestle Tex (reviewed a few days ago - See HERE), and it was another Nestle product that he couldn't get enough of in Australia - the Chokito. Looking on the wrapper this bar came described as 'choc-coated caramel fudge with rice crisp' and promised 'new creamier chocolate'. My friend told me that it was like a man-sized Cadbury Fudge which sounded like a damn good prospect to me.

When my friend told this was man-sized they really weren't kidding - this bar came in a huge 60.0g format that felt very large and heavy in hand. In regards to presentation I thought the wrapper was pretty generic Nestle stuff - the branding was very good and stood out well but the brown and orange colours didn't make for the most exciting looking thing ever. Inside the bar was very long and would of possibly have been better coming as two seperate smaller bars. There was no doubting that it looked appetising when cross-sectioned though and whatsmore the bar radiated a lovely sweet, toffee like smell when opened from it's foil fresh seal.

With only one thing left to do I didn't waste another second before taking my first bite. Upon doing this the first thing that really made me take notice was the lovely variance in textures offered with outer chocolate coating breaking with a nice snap, the inner rice cereal crunchy and the fudge centre proving to be wonderfully thick and viscous to the bite. Whilst all these different elements provided a nice variance in the textures, most of them also contributed well to the taste, with the chocolate coating and rice establishing a pleasant milk based sweet chocolate taste in the mouth from the outset. Whilst the coating delivered a fair standard chocolate hit, by far and away the dominant flavour influence was one of sweet condensed milk and this was only eventually superseded in the overall taste by the flavours of the fudge layer that sat below. To be honest the caramel fudge layer was a heck of a lot better than I expected. I was sure it was going to be a dry, sugary lumpy filling but it in fact it was pretty much the opposite. It was dense in texture, yet it had a good moistness to it and displayed a fine array of buttery, salt hints in an amongst all the brown sugar flavours. In addition to tasting pretty damn good I also felt this bar was extremely satisfying and I felt very fulfilled after eating it.

Overall colour me impressed, this was fantastic chocolate bar that exceeded all my expectations. After the average, run-of-the-mill offering of the Nestle Tex the other day I have to be honest and admit that I was expecting pretty much the same thing here. Luckily for me I was really surprised by this Nestle Chokito and it surpassed all preconceptions that I had made before eating it. Now when my friend told me that it was like a 'man-sized Cadbury Fudge' I have to say they really weren't far off the mark. Indeed I didn't enjoy the chocolate quite as much as the average Cadbury product (this is where personal preference comes in!) but it was still of standard Neslte quality and it did the job of covering the inner caramel fudge layer to a more than reasonable standard. Speaking of the caramel fudge centre itself I would of had great difficulty telling it apart from the stuff offered up in the Cadbury Fudge bar - it was every bit as tasty but portioned in a 60.0g format which obviously made it a lot more satisfying as a stand alone product. I always like to gauge how good a product is by asking myself question 'would I have it again?' ... my answer in regards to the Chokito would be a 'HELL YES'. This is a product really worth tracking down if you are a fan of this sort of bar.

8.5 out of 10

March 31st: Galler Piemontais

Kcal 571 Fat 38.3g Fat(sats) 20.5g Carbs 47.8g (per 100.0g)

You guys should know by now that if you ask for something ... I deliver ... albeit eventually some may say :D Indeed, for months now several readers have been contacting me both by e-mail and on the requests page (HERE) asking me to review some chocolates made by Galler. For those who are unsure who Galler are, I can tell you that they were founded in 1976 by a man called Jean Galler, who originated from Liege in Belguim. The brand is positioned with a premium proposition and they market their chocolate as 'all-natural and high quality', for more information I would suggest taking a look at their website (See HERE).

After dropping the kind people at Galler an e-mail recently, their PR team kindly sent me along some samples to try. Included in the box they sent me was this Piemontais chocolate bar, which came in a 70.0g ingot like form. On the packaging this bar was described as 'milk chocolate filled with a crispy filling nut centre' which sounded like a sensible way for me to introduce myself to their range. Looking at the presentation, I thought the wrapping did a very good job at getting across the premium nature of the brand with the outer layer establishing sense of sophistication with it's simplicity. Inside the inner gold foil went on to only reaffirm it's sense of classiness, and the cross-section looked very tempting with a clear distinction between the chocolate and inner filling.

Creating a chocolate that looks good and talks a good game is one thing, but making one that tastes just as good is a different matter altogether. Luckily for me (and Galler obviously!!), this chocolate didn't pull any punches when it came to the taste test and I can thankfully confirm that it very much backed up all that had gone before. Taking in the aromas of the chocolate before eating it, it was quite clear that this was going to be a creamy milk chocolate, and that was very much what came through in the taste. The outer milk chocolate broke with a delightful snap when bitten in to and it melted with a wonderful smooth, velvety texture on the tongue. In terms of flavours it was very similar to Lindt's Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate in that it was a taste heavily rooted in cream, but with a sweet edge that grew stronger in terms of cocoa volume as the melt developed in the mouth. Sitting below the milk chocolate, the filling was similarly delicious, and it delivered both the hazelnut and cereal elements to the party with great conviction. The filling was well textured due to the crispness of the rice cereal, whilst the hazelnuts really brought an extra flavour dimension with a really fresh tasting woody nut influence. This was a bar that was split into four large size blocks which I have to say wasn't ideal. I personally would have preferred smaller bite sized pieces as biting in to each block wasn't too kind on the teeth due to their firmness.

Overall my first experience with Galler chocolate has been an overwhelmingly positive one. This Piemontais bar delivered on everything I had come to expect about the Galler brand having had so many readers contact me saying how wonderful it is. The presentation was classy and the chocolate delivered the goods when it came to the taste - of course that is always a good start for any chocolate product. Judging from what I have experienced today, on the face of things Galler seem to have a lot of consistencies with Hotel Chocolat. They are high end brand that don't market their chocolate in an over the top or pretentious manner, and they use high quality ingredients to make chocolate that tastes fresh and mostly importantly great. This bar in particular should be one that praline and hazelnut fans should take note of. It might perhaps be a little stretching to say it is best in class, but I tell you what it isn't that far off. Thankfully I can say that there is more Galler coming very soon to a ChocolateMission near you!

8.5 out of 10

March 30th: Ritter Sport Bourbon Vanille

Kcal 578 Fat 39.g Carbs 51.0g (100.0g)

Over the course of the last two years I have managed to review over 40 different varieties of Ritter chocolates. The last few months I have had to rely on some of my loyal readers to provide me with the latest Ritter varieties (thanks Susie, Susanne and Fran!!) what with the demise of my old pals at Dean-German-Grocery. Luckily for me now Ritter Sport themselves have discovered ChocolateMission, and have started sending me samples of the latest flavours to hit the market. Over the coming weeks I will be reviewing Ritter's latest Spring varieties, starting today with this Bourbon Vanille offering.

Anyone experienced with Ritter chocolates will know that it is very unusual for Ritter to stray away from their 100.g formant, so it wont surprise you to hear that the new Spring collection sticks to this very size. Packaging and presentation wise the wrapper struck me as very fresh feeling, and I liked how the vanilla flavouring was communicated through the simplicity of the small vanilla pod picture and yellow pastel colouring. When the resealable packet was first unzipped a prominent sweet floral smell wafted out, though it grew noticeably weaker by the day when it was left to air between sittings. Out the packet the chocolate itself looked relatively appetising with the pale yellow filling taking a nice proportion of the cross-section.

I am a huge fan of all things vanilla - so much so that when offered a choice between things like chocolate or vanilla flavoured milkshakes or ice cream, I would always go with the latter. With this knowledge in tow you can probably understand that I was massively looking forward to try this chocolate, especially when Ritter Sport have proven themselves to be good at a wide variety of different filled chocolates. The sound of 'milk chocolate with a bourbon-vanilla creme' literally had me drooling in anticipation, but I have the bad news of informing you that it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was going to be. The milk chocolate was everything you would expect from Ritter Sport and was it's usual unspectacular self. It was relatively forthcoming in cocoa flavours with a undercurrent of milk tones that made for a smooth, but average milk chocolate experience. Whilst that sounds a little uninspiring it was the vanilla filling that let it down for me, which is something I wasn't expecting to have to write. The creme initially had a strong vanilla essence impact in the mouth, but it was soon dominated by an overbearing level sweetness that made it redundant. The levels of sugar in the taste made this a chocolate that wasn't particularly nice eating in large quantities, and though I did finish the entirety of the bar eventually, it took me over 4 sittings to do so.

Overall I don't know if this was just a consequence of me expecting too much from this flavour, but I was massively disappointed with it. With all Ritter Sport varieties the chocolate is never meant to take centre stage so it is understandable that the average milk chocolate on offer acted just as a vehicle to carry the inner filling. As I stated above the real disappointment came in the execution of the vanilla filling, which for me was under par in comparison to most of the other Ritter Sport offerings that I have reviewed down the years. The bourbon vanilla was there in the first few moments of the filling being exposed, however it's longevity was cut short by the dominance of the sugar, which made it a relatively bland and one dimensional experience by Ritter Sport's standards. It would be interesting to hear what any of you readers thought of this bar, as perhaps this is me being harsh on something that I just had undeliverable expectations for. There are still two more flavours from the Spring collection to come - lets hope they are a little bit better than what was on offer here.

6.9 out of 10

March 29th: Hotel Chocolat White Scrambled Easter Egg

With our Easter holidays well in sight now, it is about time you guys got around to thinking about what you will be treating your nearest and dearest to this year. As you will have hopefully seen over the last few weeks I have already touched upon Hotel Chocolat's Eggs and Soldiers, Less Sweet Selection and their Tipsy Scrambled Easter Egg. Today I bring you another review from their Scrambled range in the form of this 'White' variant.

Just like the 'Tipsy' variant this 'White' offering can in a 220.0g package that included one 'white chocolate egg, served with a collection of praline chocolates'. In terms of presentation I personally think this product was aimed a younger, feminine consumer judging by the electric pink colours that lit up the cream coloured background and inner egg. I had no real problems with that myself and I thought the pink and orange swirl patterns incorporated on both the egg and truffle pieces added a well needed bit of interest to the predominantly white coloured chocolate and outer packaging.

According to the website this White Scrambled Egg is for 'fans of laid back dreamy textures with exciting flavours' ... lets take a look to see if I fell in that category :D

Anyone who has been reading this site for a decent amount of time will be aware that I would probably never choose white chocolate over a milk or dark one. That is not to say that I can't appreciate a good white chocolate when I taste one, in fact Hotel Chocolat' Praline White slab takes pride of place in third position on the leader board. With that in mind it wont surprise you to hear that this white chocolate egg was delicious. It was noticeably more sugary than their milk and dark chocoalte recipes, however it had a wonderful cream based, heavily vanilla noted taste that melted softly into a double cream like consistency in the mouth. It was sweet, but very enjoyable, and best eaten in smaller quantities than you would their dark or milk chocolates.

What I love about these Scrambled Eggs is that you get the small collection of truffles to go alongside the plain chocolate egg which I think brings a nice bit of variety. This White Scrambled Egg included six truffles - two chocolate brownie, two smooth praline and two orange praline. As you can see from the photo above all of them were formed of an outer thick layer of white chocolate with milk chocolate and praline centres. If I was to rate them on my famous Awful-to-Superb rating system I would go for Very Good for the smooth praline and Good for the chocolate brownie and orange praline pieces. My reasoning for this would be that the hazelnut flavours had far more cut through in the smooth praline than they did in the orange praline where I felt both the fruit and nut elements suffered to overcome the sweetness of the white chocolate exterior.

Overall given my preference for dark or milk chocolate this White Egg has managed to still score pretty well on the ChocolateMission rating system. If you can rely on one thing with Hotel Chocolat it is that you know they are always going to deliver a high quality packaged and presented product, and things were no different here. Everything from the cardboard box, egg and truffles cut both a suave and colourful look, which when you think about it isn't the easiest thing to achieve. In terms of white chocolate the standard was very good, and this was by and large due to the taste being more notable for it's creamy vanilla flavours than it's sweetness. The truffles weren't the greatest I have ever tasted from Hotel Chocolat, but they were still of a reasonably high quality and it is probably more that I have spoilt by too many incredible Hotel Chocolat truffles previously. If you know a white chocolate addict you would seriously do well looking at this an option for their Easter gift this year.

8.1 out of 10

Don't forget to use your ChocolateMision Gift voucher with Hotel Chocolat this year. Enter the code JIMEGG10 at the Checkout!

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

March 27th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 37

### Jim's Corner ###

Hi All,

Despite only taking a few days off I am still catching up with things on the site - I will endeavour to answer your remaining comments by tomorrow, please bare with me.

I know I say this every week but there is some good stuff coming up this week ... Galler's first appearance on the site, new Ritter Sport spring variant, more Hotel Chocolat Easter goodies and many more. I have also been updating more of my old reviews with new pictures and some major instances of rewriting.

Do remember you guys can get 10% off Hotel Chocolat using the code JIMEGG10.

Have great weeks in the build up to Easter.

JIM


News from the Chocolate Market:

* If you haven't seen them already Premier have launched several Easter themed cake products under the Cadbury, Mr Kipling etc brands ... See HERE

* Join the Lindt gold bunny hunt ... See HERE

* If you missed it there was a great BBC programme this week about cocoa farming and child labour - article version ... See HERE

* There is seemingly one of these a week - Chocolate is a superfood ... See HERE


Posts from other blogs I enjoyed this week:

* Ritter Sport - Not so much a post but just a heads up for a cool new desktop calendar application that my pals at Ritter Sport will be launching next week. Keep an eye on their facebook page ... See HERE

* GiGi Reviews - Gi got around to reviewing the Cadbury Picnic this week. Seemingly she liked it a little more than I did - a great review with awesome pics ... See HERE

* ImpulsiveBuy - Seemingly like myself, Marvo has been munching through some cereal bars this week. These chocolate peanut butter bars sound better than anything we get in this country ... See HERE

* Jen Ken's Kit Kat Blog - Jen got hold of some new fruity flavoured Kit Kats from guess where!??? Japan of course ... See HERE

* Foodstufffinds - Cin got hold of the new Magnum Gold this week in her local Waitrose. I really want to try one of these ... See HERE


***Updated Reviews***

You know the drill ... new pictures + a bit of spell checking ...

Cadbury Fudge ... See HERE
Kinder Bueno White ... See HERE
Reese's Pieces ... See HERE
Reese's Nutrageous (US) ... See HERE
Mars Delight / Galaxy Senzi ... See HERE
Cadbury Picnic ... See HERE

March 26th: Cadbury Dairy Milk with Crunchie Bits

Kcal 500 Fat 24.6g Fat(sats) 15.3g Carbs 64.0g (per 100.0g)

Well its taken me long enough to get around to this one hasn't it!? Despite trying bars from as far away as New Zealand and Japan this Cadbury Dairy Milk with Crunchie Bits has managed to escape my attention for over two years and has dodged the bullet many a time when it has come to receiving its all important ChocolateMission review. To be honest I really don't know why it hasn't been done before today - the Cadbury Crunchie is one of my favourite bars of all time and I remember as a kid I used to eat a very similar version of this bar all the time (who can name that bar?? Cadbury Blast was it!?). Anyway, this bar could elude me no more and I today got around to finally rating this bar on the ChocolateMission rating system.

In the UK this bar is only available in its 230.0g format ... no don't worry this isn't going to be one of those reviews where I start ranting about how we have been cheated out of 20.0g of chocolate :) What with all the different bars I have to review this was again another product I brought into my work office, though I managed to tuck into my fair share during its short lived life once it was opened. Do I have to comment on Cadbury packaging again!? Probably not but I will ... I personally love it. The matted appearance gave it a nice shiny, premium look whilst also maintaining the chocolate below in fine condition. Cadbury packaging is designed to be anything over elaborate but you have to love it for the strength of its branding which is reassuring of quality but over the top or in your face. The chocolate itself also looked pretty stunning with the blocks a sensible size to be consumed in one mouthful each. I needn't probably tell you how great the chocolate smelt as I opened the packaging - it was stunning with its usual chocolaty scents mixed with just the slightest bit of extra sweetness emanating from the golden honeycomb pieces that glistened in each block.

The Cadbury Crunchie was one of the first ever products I reviewed on this site and it is still one of my favourite products that I have every now and then on days when I am not reviewing anything else. Personally I think the one minor flaw with the original Crunchie is the thickness of the outer chocolate - I think it could be just a touch thicker. With this product the roles were obviously reversed with the chocolate far outweighing the inner honeycomb pieces (16.0%) and I have to say it was still every bit as good as the original bar. The Cadbury Dairy Milk was its usual wonderful self - thick and smooth in melt and with a level of creamy, cocoa flavours to die for ... utterly fantastic. What I liked so much about this chocolate was that the eating experience involved two stages. The first - letting the chocolate melt away on the tongue which led nicely on to stage two - the remainder honeycomb pieces. Crunching and chewing the honeycomb made for a nice change up in textures and brought lovely sweet, caramel like honey bursts to the taste that was in a word delicious. Like most Cadbury Dairy Milk products just a few blocks made for a wonderfully satisfying treat that I savoured from the very first piece to the very last.

Overall this is yet another Cadbury product that gets two thumbs up from me, though I am still undecided as to whether I would prefer it to a normal Crunchie. On reflection I guess the comparison is a little silly ... you would have the Cadbury Crunchie if you were 'on the go', whilst you would probably choose this bar in the instance of a sharing occasion or in home consumption. Is it as good as the Cadbury Dairy Milk Honeycomb Crisp from Ireland!? There is such little between them they are probably just as good as each other, though I would probably choose the Irish bar as the thicker melting chocolate made the flavours last just that little bit longer in the mouth and the honeycomb was just a little bit softer. Whatever lets stopping comparing this chocolate to other things as by its own merits its a great tasting bar that I immensely enjoyed - yet another tick in the box for Cadbury.

8.7 out of 10

March 25th: Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Egg Box Selection - Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of this review I suggest you scroll down to yesterdays post before you spoil the surprise of the final score big reveal.

Today I firstly bring you my thoughts on the last five flavours from this selection box - as yesterday working left to right, and using the Awful-to-Superb scoring system. At the end I will sum up my thoughts and give you the overall score.


Orange Truffle Egg - This egg was formed of a white chocolate outer coating with a Valencia orange essential oil centre that had a splash of Cointreau. Woops .. when I say a splash I really mean a throat burning shot! The white chocolate was creamy and sweet, and the orange element was suitably juicey and natraul tasting. Unfortunately this solid foundation was somewhat spoilt by the overwhelming alcohol hit - I would have much preferred it without. Poor.

Caramel Egg - This without question was my favourite from the entire selection. This egg was amazing in every sense - everything from the super creamy outer milk chocolate, to the runny salted caramel centre was nothing short of phenomenal. You see those Cadbury and Galaxy bars on the leader board!? Well they should be quaking in their boots if Hotel Chocolat finally pull their fingers out and make a box full of these. Super-Duper Superb.

Zesty Praline Egg - This is egg was pretty much the same as the white chocolate orange truffle above, but obviously with a dark chocolate coating and thankfully no Cointreau kick. The combination was simply superb - the chocolate was rich tasting and full of cocoa flavour, whilst the centre had a delightful juicy orange fruit taste. Both my mother and sister really loved this one. Very Good.



Caramel Praline Egg - This egg combined hazelnut praline and caramel for the inner truffle filling and just as I expected it was delicious. I perhaps would have liked the outer chocolate to have been dark, but there was still no denying that the milk chocolate did more than adequate job. The praline and caramel played off each other nicely with the nut element coming through the stronger out of the two. This egg wasn't as good as the praline or caramel eggs separately but it was still extremely tasty. Very Good.

Amaretto Truffle Egg - Out of all the liqueur egg truffles this was the best out of the three. The milk chocolate again did it's job nicely melting smoothly into the soft ganache that lay below. Compared with the other liqueur truffles the hit of the alcohol was far less jolting and this allowed the taste to maintain it's soothing nature. Whilst this was of course favourable, again the Amaretto spirit flavour wasn't that obvious and it could of really been billed as any liqueur as it was quite a generic alcohol taste. Standard.


Overall if you look across the two days of this review, I think you will understand my reasoning for giving this selection such high marks. Starting with the 'gimmes' that come with the majority of Hotel Chocolat products the presentation and concept was first class. The idea of using eggs as the theme isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it was well executed and the eggs were well crafted and were a great size to consume in two bites. Selection wise, like many selection boxes that have gone before the variety wasn't perfect, but it offered a great amount of assortment and all four members of my family had their favourite flavours represented. The real standout chocolate for me from this collection was the Caramel Egg, but there must be notable mentions for the Milk/Dark Praline, plus the Berry Mousse flavours. If you are looking for a box of chocolates that has a varied and great tasting selection, I would suggest these as a terrific option for you this Easter. Hotel Chocolat are quickly establishing themselves as kings of the selection box sector.

8.9 out of 10

Fancy trying this Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Egg Box Selection for yourself? Click HERE.

March 24th: Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Egg Box Selection - Part 1

It wouldn't be a proper holiday season without a Hotel Chocolat Sleekster selection box would it now? This Easter Hotel Chocolat are offering us this Egg box, which offers us all 'a cracking collection of irresistible filled mini eggs'. I have to admit that doing the photography for the review like this is a real pain in the backside with all the different pieces that need photos done. Although it is a little painstaking, previous evidence from the White, Dark and Valentines Sleekster collections would suggest that the effort is well worth, so I shan't grumble too much :)

This Egg Box selection included ten different flavoured eggs, each of which were portioned three times. As I have come to expect from Hotel Chocolat Sleekster collections, the quality of the packaging and presentation was first class. The outer box looked very cool indeed and didn't go over the top with it's Easter connotations, whilst the inner eggs were easily identifiable thanks to the menu road map and well crafted egg pieces.

Due to there being so many flavours I decided to space the review over two days. Below are my brief thoughts on the first five pieces based on the usual Awful-to-Superb rating scale. I shared these with my family so they have added their input where necessary. Below I will be working from left to right.

Milk Egg Praline - This egg was formed of a 40% outer coating and smooth hazelnut praline centre. This seemed like a chocolate I had tasted many times before from Hotel Chocolat, but that was very much a good thing. The outer chocolate was creamy and melted like a dream in the mouth to reveal the slightly grittier praline centre. The hazelnut came through superbly in the taste making for a delightful woody finish. Superb.

Banana Split Egg - This was hard one to rate as the 40% outer milk chocolate again melted gloriously to reveal a caramel like centre that was simply outstanding. The inner centre was amazingly buttery and provided an amazing toffee taste that I couldn't get enough. Unfortunately the banana element in all three truffles was AWOL, which was massively disappointing for my banana mad mum. For that reason I have to downgrade it. Very Good.

Advocaat Truffle Egg - Whenever Christmas comes round in my family we are always pretty partial to a few 'Snowballs', so we actually fought over who was going to try this one. The milk chocolate casing was of a great standard and the centre was suitably soft in the mouth. Despite the alcohol hit being favourably more mild than previous experiences with Hotel Chocolat truffles, I would have struggled to have placed the liqueur as Advocaat, thus it didn't quite deliver the experience I hoped for. Standard.

Dark Praline Egg - This piece was pretty much the same as the milk praline egg above, however it had the obvious difference that it had an outer shell of 70% dark chocolate. For dark chocolate lovers this was nothing short of a dream - the chocolate was rich in taste and inflated in cocoa volume, whilst the hazelnut still had great cut through in the taste providing an even longer presence in the mouth. Superb.

Berry Mousse Egg - This egg was formed of white chocolate with a strawberry and raspberry flavoured mousse centre. Both my mum and my sister demanded I give this a superb and I needed very little convincing. The white chocolate was amazingly sweet and creamy, whilst the centre was tremendously forthcoming in red fruit flavours which were delivered with a strong, natural tasting tartness that contrasted wonderfully with the sweeter chocolate. Superb.

A pretty good start for this Hotel Chocolate The Sleekster Egg Box Selection huh!? Be sure to check the site out tomorrow to see how the other flavours get on, and of course the all important scoring chart.

March 23rd: Oreo Cakesters Peanut Butter

Kcal 110 Fat 4.5g Fat(sats) 1.0g Carbs 15.0g (per 1 cake)

It is a matter of fact that ... I love Oreos, I love Peanut Butter and I love Oreo Cakesters (See HERE). Suffice to say when I first heard about this flavour of Cakesters I literally couldn't wait to try them, and despite reading some disappointing reviews from the likes of Marvo at the Impulsive Buy I was extremelly excited when a friend of mine managed to bring some back from a recent trip to the US. Reading the on-pack description of chocolate cake and peanut butter filling I was sure these Oreo Cakesters Peanut Butter were going to be a match made in heaven!? Seriously what could be better than combining two of my favourite junk food ingredients in one single product ... read on and find out!

My friend gave me two packs of 75.0g Cakesters which both included three individual Cakesters inside. Just as I have thought with the other Oreo Cakesters packaging I thought the presentation was very good and I liked the combination of the foil fresh wrapper and inner cardboard tray which kept everything in very good condition. If you look at the picture above I hope you will agree that the Cakesters themselves looked very appetising and I especially thought the orangey creme filling looked particularly tempting sandwiched between the cake pieces.

Having finished admiring the appearance of the Cakesters one thing I did pick up on was the lack of a differentiated smell for these Peanut Butter Cakesters vs the Original ones I reviewed almost a year back. The sweet cookie like smell that emanated was by no means horrible but at the same time I was wary at the lacking nut influence. Unfortunately these early signs were much indicative of the actual taste and my greatest fears were soon realised upon biting into the first Cakester. Indeed just the smell suggested these Cakesters retained some very familiar Oreo like flavours in the taste of the outer cake pieces but disappointingly the centre filling was almost completely devoid of a peanut influence. There were minor notes of nut buried below the dominant sugar flavours, however the overall taste was more like a peanut fondant rather than a peanut butter filling ... sigh ... what a shame - these sucked!

Overall I can't recall having been as disappointed with a product in long than I was with these Oreo Cakesters Peanut Butter. If you have read the paragraph above it doesn't take a genius to work out what my fundamental problem with the product was and 100% of the blame lies with the idiot who decided to make the peanut butter filling so ridiculously weak in it's peanut flavours. Annoyingly the packaging doesn't actually state what percentage of the product is made up by actual peanuts but I would hazard guess at it being substantially low. With the products such as this I always think that the taste has so outweigh the sin (these are pretty high calorie/fat wise!), and these Oreo Cakesters Peanut Butter just don't do that in any manner. As much as I would have loved to I just can't recommend these on any basis. Someone send me the address of the guy who screwed these up ... he deserves to hear how much these blow :)

5.8 out of 10

March 22nd: Cadbury Turkish Biscuits

Kcal 70 Fat 3.3g Fat(sats) 1.9g Carbs 10.2g (per biscuit)

For some reason unbeknown to myself and the rest of civilisation, for the first few weeks of their launch these Cadbury Turkish Biscuits could not be found for love nor money (distribution issues perhaps?). Just a few weeks later after tracking down the Caramel and Crunchie variants though, I did eventually stumble across a pack in my local Tesco at their full wack price. In my endeavour to get you all clued up as soon as possible, I shelled out just under £3 (£2.94 if we are being precise!) to buy myself two packs to take into my work office. On the front of the wrapper these were described as 'Cadbury milk chocolate biscuits with a turkish delight flavoured jam filling' - any one wanting to get themselves familiar with my thoughts on the original Cadbury Dairy Milk Turkish Delight bar will want to look HERE.

These Turkish biscuits came in the same 130.0g size pack as both the Caramel and Crunchie variants, and comprised of 8 separate pieces. Much like I thought of the aforementioned variants I similarly thought the packaging and presentation was pretty damn good. The pink colours of the original Turkish bar were nicely carried over and I thought they gave the wrapper good stand out - especially with the shiny nature of the foil material. The biscuits themselves at first glance looked no different to the Caramel variety, however the sweet fruity smell and red jam colouring that became apparent when they were bitten in to soon revealed they were a completely different prospect altogether.

If we first deal with the chocolate coating it will not surprise you to hear that it was nothing out of the ordinary and delivered the same old Cadbury experience that I am sure all of us in the UK have experienced countless times. It had a sharp sweetness to it's milky taste and provided a chocolate flavour hit that was more than acceptable. It is a shame that Cadbury decided not to treat consumers to the full effect creaminess of their Dairy Milk recipe but lets not get our knickers in a twist about that yet again :D The shortcake bases were no different to what I experienced with the Caramel variety - buttery with a burst of brown sugar, but lacking a touch of salt to classify as top quality shortbread. The most prominent aspect in the taste was of course the all important Turkish Delight flavoured jam, which I have to unfortunately announce wasn't as good as I hoped it to be. The jam substance was terribly sticky and the most dominating flavour influence it brought to the party was disappointingly one of raw sugar. The rosewater element was very much in the background of the experience and had very little say in the resulting taste. On reflection the jam filling wasn't horrible, but the Turkish experience wasn't completely delivered as well as it could of been. With the biscuits being so sweet I never felt comfortable consuming more than one in a single sitting, however this didn't seem to stop most my colleagues demolishing both packs in a single afternoon.

Overall whilst it is worth noting that there was nothing horrible about these biscuits whatsoever, I have to admit there was nothing about them that left me wanting to either buy or consume more. When put in the context of both Caramel and the Crunchie variants, they are both light years ahead of these Turkish Biscuits as the fillings just worked so much better the sweet milk chocolate and inner shortbread constituents. The jam filling in these Turkish biscuits was just a tad on the sugary side for my liking, and whilst it didn't bring that horrible burning sensation to the back of my throat, at times it was verging on it, and it was disappointing that the Turkish Delight rosewater flavours were lost in culmination of the chocolate, biscuit and jam constituents. Unless you are a real Cadbury nutjob I wouldn't recommend these as being worthy of pennies given that there are far more accomplished flavours out there on the market already. Cadbury hit the nail on the head with their Caramel and Crunchie variants but these were a little flawed in their execution. They aren't bad by any means but they certainly aren't a 'must try'.

7.3 out of 10