June 8th: Thorntons Continental Cappuccino Truffles / Classic Coffee Creams

As you may have guessed from the title I have a two-for-one Thorntons review for you today, with both the Thorntons Continental Cappucino Truffles and the Thorntons Classic Coffee Creams facing the ChocolateMission rating system. If you have been reading the site for any time whatsoever you will be well aware that coffee and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations - lets see which I rated better out of the two.

Thorntons Continental Cappuccino Truffles:


Kcal 68 Fat 4.5g Carbs 6.4g (per chocolate)

'white chocolate with a coffee mousse centre finished with a sprinkle of chocolate powder'

Who remembers me reviewing the Thorntons Continental Cappuccino Bar before?? If you do ... get out more :D ... See HERE! These truffles came in a 95.0g bag that I purchased for a mere £1.69. The plastic packet packaging was nothing too spectacular, but the truffles themselves certainly looked the more appetising out of the two of view today.

It isn't often you find that a chocolate that's description doesn't do it justice, but these truffles were a little more intricate than I was first led to believe. As expected the outer white chocolate was of a good standard and had a pleasant vanilla hinted taste that made for a creamy experience from the outset. Inside the mousse filling was soft in texture and had a fine coffee hinted taste that led nicely onwards from the white chocolate exterior. What the on-pack description failed to state, and what I was talking about earlier, was the fact that each truffle had a small disc of dark chocolate that sat under the mousse filling - it is just visible in the photo above! What this did nicely was ensure a pleasant unsweetened cocoa flavour hit to the latter stages of the melt of each truffle. It perhaps did overshadow the coffee flavours a little, but it was a nice touch to finish off each piece.

8.1 out of 10



Thorntons Classic Coffee Creams:

Kcal 61 Fat 2.9g Carbs 8.3g (per chocolate)

'Milk chocolates with white chocolate decoration and a creamy coffee centre'

If someone had presented me with both these packets of chocolates without telling me the price, I don't think I would have been alone in thinking that the above Continental truffles would have been the more expensive. Well I would have been wrong!! Seemingly we all have to pay a little extra for the 'Classics' as these Coffee Creams set me back £2.49 for a 109.0g bag.

My experience of Coffee Cream chocolates in the past have been limited to the coffee chocolates we used to get in Cadbury Roses tins, though now even they have been cruelly taken away from all us coffee lovers. If I had to describe the taste I would say that these were a lot less complicated in terms of flavours than the Continental Cappuccino truffles, and were certainly less progressive. Despite being made with 'real double cream' (as the packaging cared to tell me), the taste was a whole sweeter and more sugar routed than the creamier Continental chocolates. The outer milk chocolate was nice tasting with it's sweet cocoa taste, and it let nicely into a drier, whipped fondant like centre. The filling was very sugary, but the coffee note was detectable and made for a decent enough experience.

7.0 out of 10

Overall I wouldn't say either of these chocolates provided the killer coffee truffle I was really after, but both of them were fine for what they were. Taking the Coffee Creams first I would like to think that this sort of chocolate is more classic than just appearing in Roses Tins in the past. If they do have deeper history in British confectionery than I am giving them credit for then I guess someone else might get more nostalgic pleasure than I did from the sugary coffee chocolate experience that these offered. My favourite out of the two was obviously the Continental Cappuccino Truffles - they didn't have the espresso strength flavour dosage of coffee that I desired, but that was obviously never going to be on the table. If it is a mild and creamy flavoured coffee chocolate you want then they are a good option to look at.

YOU CAN BUY THORNTONS CHOCOLATES BY CLICKING HERE

June 7th: Hershey's Heath

Kcal 210 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 24.0g

As I reported a few weeks ago, my pals at Yankee Soda & Candy recently sent me package containing a whole variety of American sourced products for me to review for the site. One of the smaller, daintier products included in this selection was the Hershey's Heath, which came described as a 'milk chocolate English toffee bar'. In terms of comparator products, the Heath sits in a competitive part of the market, which is also inhabited by another Hershey's bar the SKOR (See HERE), and of course Kraft's Daim bar (See HERE). Having done some brief research via Google, and cutting a long story short - the Heath was first to market produced in 1921, with the SKOR coming in later in 1983. For a while the Heath bar directly competed with the SKOR, however in 1996 Hershey acquired a company called Leaf, which saw the integration of the Heath in to their portfolio.

History lessons now to one side, this bar in a 39.0g which is the same size as the SKOR, but significantly bigger than the average Daim bar we get here in the UK. In terms of the wrapper, I can see what Hershey are trying to do with the old school look, but personally I think the wrapper is teetering on looking dated rather than retro. US citizens may get more nostalgic pleasure from the design than us oblivious Brits!? - it would be good to hear some views from across the pond on this. Inside the bar cut a more appetising look, with the chocolate's clean, shiny complexion and the golden coloured inner toffee both looking nicely presented. Smell wise the bar didn't offer much aside from a standard set of sweet chocolate scents.

Apologies for constantly referring back to the SKOR and Daim bars, but comparisons were always going to be drawn given the similar propositions. In terms of the outer milk chocolate the layer was sweet and milky in taste, and melted at a decent pace and nice fluidity. Those of you wondering if there was any sense of the Hershey sour aftertaste lingering around, will feel comforted to know that there was nothing of the sort detectable, with the majority of the taste occupied by the generic sweet milk chocolate flavours. On the wrapper, the 'finest quality English toffee' was communicated as being on offer, but being an English lad I can tell you the centre was nothing like English toffee whatsoever. Toffee in the UK is normally more of a chewy, softer confection, but the lines between fudge, caramel and toffee are all so blurred nowadays I will resist a good old rant. Focusing more on what was, rather than what wasn't, the centre was actually pretty delicious so I can excuse the rather loose 'toffee' description. In comparison to the SKOR and Daim bars it had the same brittle texture, but was smoother to suck on, and had a more friendly, butter rooted caramel like set of flavours on offer. The less intense sweetness of these flavours, went nicely with the already quite sugary chocolate, which made consuming this bar in a single sitting a pretty easy and altogether satisfying task. As a little side note it was excellent after it had been left in the freezer for an hour or so - this made the toffee no more brittle, but the chocolate longer lasting in melt.

Overall if I had to pick a favourite out of all three big brand offerings I would have to go for this Heath bar. I think out of all three, it's balance in relation to both flavours and textures are superior to the other two, and with a little smartening up of the packaging and presentation it could really be up there as one of the better mass produced chocolates from the US. In terms of superior textures, the melt of the chocolate was better paced and smoother compared to what I can remember about the SKOR bar, whilst the inner toffee brittle thankfully didn't have the same roughness as the Daim. In terms of chocolate quality, it has to be said I would be very hard pushed to pick a favourite between all three as all of them offer pretty much the same experience. However, when it comes to the toffee filling, for me the Heath bar does manage to stand a little apart from the others with it's taste more rooted in butter and cream rather than the startling burnt sugar flavours offered by the other two. If you are fan of either the SKOR or Daim and haven't yet tried a Heath yet, I recommend you do so in the near future. You could well have a new favourite on your hands.

7.6 out of 10

Head to Yankee Soda & Candy for all your American Candy needs - CLICK HERE

June 6th: Nestle Blue Riband Milk / Dark

As a kid I was always pretty set in my ways when in came to asking my parents for chocolate snacks for my packed lunchbox. As long as I had either a Kit Kat or Twix I was happy, to be honest Nestle's Blue Riband bar never really made it on the radar. What with the brand also sitting in the 'chocolate biscuits' part of the supermarket, I until recently never even contemplated giving it a review on the site. One thing I simply couldn't continue to ignore though is the raft of reader requests asking me to review the new 'Blue Riband Dark' which was launched a few months ago. Whilst I was at it I thought I might as well give you my thoughts on the original milk variety as well, so today you get two for the price of one :D For those wondering I bought both these variants in 9 bar multi packs in my local Tesco - both on £1 deals!

I guess one of the reasons I was never drawn to the Blue Riband brand as youngster was because of the packaging. If you look below at the photos of both the variants you will see that both have pretty generic looking wrappers, and it can't really be said that either stand out in the visual stakes. Don't get me wrong I don't think there is anything wrong with either variety aesthetically, but lets face it they hardly inspire any great excitement.

Nestle Blue Riband Milk


Kcal 99 Fat 4.9g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 12.9g (per bar)

'Crisp wafer biscuits covered in real milk chocolate'

This was the first of the two I tried, and I ate it like I did the dark with an afternoon cup of coffee. When handled the chocolate was noticeably quicker to melt my fingers and not surprisingly this was the case when it was in the mouth. In terms of taste both the chocolate and wafer offered exactly the experience I was expecting. The milk chocolate was thin in nature, but quickly established a sound typical Nestle, sugary, milky cocoa taste. Below, the wafer was crisp in texture and mild in terms of it's wheaty, brown sugar flavours. The layers of creme between the wafer didn't offer much in relation to the taste, however they provided a much needed moistness to the dry wafer constituents. The 99 calorie bar was reasonably satisfying for what it was.

7.0 out of 10



Nestle Blue Riband Dark

Kcal 99 Fat 5.2g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 11.8g (per bar)

'Crisp wafer biscuits covered in dark chocolate'

To honest I could pretty much cut and paste a lot of what I wrote above to cover off the majority of what this bar offered. Focusing more on that actual differences, like I aforementioned the dark chocolate was slower paced in melt, which I personally preferred as it added a touch of longevity to the flavours in the mouth. The flavours themselves were again pretty much like I expected them to be for a mass produced 'dark chocolate' offering. The chocolate wasn't particularly ramped up in terms of it's cocoa emphasis, but it was noticeably less sweet. The lesser emphasis placed on the sugar from the chocolate was actually beneficial to wafer and inner creme constituents, as it allowed them to have more of an impact on the taste as they came through more strongly. On balance I felt the dark chocolate came across as cleaner and fresher, and just offered something a little different to the more generic tasting milk variant.

7.4 out of 10

Overall the feeling I got from the people that requested I review these bars was that the new dark variant was superior to the original - having now tasted both I would sign up to this consensus. As you will have gathered from my thoughts above the mains reasons I preferred the dark chocolate variant was because the wafer and dark chocolate complimented each other a little bit more, and the unsweetened chocolate flavours seemed to have better longevity than the milk chocolate did. To be totally straight with you, neither of these bars are going to be lighting up anyone's world, but for the price you pay they are pretty good for what they actually are. If you offered me either one of these or a Kit Kat, I would still pick the latter based on the fact the Kit Kat is visually more appealing, more exciting and plays the chocolate to wafer ratio a little better. If you do love your Blue Riband bars though and you haven't tried the dark chocolate variety yet, you should check it out - I would love to hear what you all think!

June 5th: Whittaker's Macadamia Block

My massive review backlog means you get another extra review this week - 7Days of Chocolate Reviews will definitely be back next week. Please feel free to share any chocolate news by leaving a comment though.

Head to ShopenZed to find Whittaker's chocolate that can be shipped all over the world - SEE HERE

Kcal 531 Fat 28.2g Fat(sats) 12.1g Carbs 60.3g (per 100.0g)

Looking back through all of my previous Whittaker's reviews, the brand has to be seen as one of the unsung heroes on ChocolateMission. Whittaker's products have averaged around 9.0 out of 10 on the scoring system, so it wont surprise you to hear that I requested more of their bars when Lesley at ShopenZed asked me what products I wanted sending from New Zealand. Fulfilling my request, Lesley sent me along this Whittaker's Macadamia Block, which I opened with great excitement given the 'macadamia nuts in creamy milk chocolate' billing. For those of you wanting to 'swot-up' on your knowledge of the Whittaker's brand, I suggest you head HERE.

Whittaker's make their chocolates in several sizes, from their smaller 40.0g blocks, to the larger 250.0g bars that Lesley so kindly provided me with today. In terms of the presentation of the wrapper I can't really say anything more than I have said on previous reviews, as it once again impressed with me with it's classical design and nice, clear branding. One thing that was slightly disappointing with this chocolate however, was the unrealistic on pack pictures, which gave the impression that the inner macadamias were going to be a whole lot bigger than they actually were. This was of course first noticeable when taking the chocolate out of the inner foil wrapper, and even my father who was assisting me with the photography exclaimed 'that wasn't quite what I was expecting'.

Given the wealth of success I had experienced with Whittaker's previously I didn't let this perturb to me to any great extent, and thankfully the nutty hints detectable in the chocolatey aromas did somewhat raise my expectations again. Once I had broken the chocolate in to smaller blocks, it was noticeable that in some pieces the macadamia nuts were larger in size, though in general the nuts were mostly quite small and finely chopped. In regards to block size, each piece was just about right to eat in a single mouthful, and a sideways strip of five made for a decent sized serving which was quite handy. The milk chocolate was was of the same recipe used in my previous review of the Whittaker's Peanut Block, and it once again proved to be very fine in taste. It was majoritly dominated by sweet, double cream like dairy flavours, though there was a pleasant undercurrent of cocoa that grew in stature as the tick, soft melt progressed. My own preferred method of eating this, was to let the chocolate first melt away before then crunching down on the macadamia remnants. More often that not the leftover macadamia bits were substantial enough to generate the desired buttery savoury nut flavours, however at times the smallness at which they were chopped hampered their ability to do so. Generally this did seem like quite a rich and satisfying chocolate, but at times it did let itself down by the randomness at which the nut pieces were sized and dispersed.

Overall this was a very hard product to rate as at times it was a totally delicious, but at others it was more disappointing and not completely satisfactory. Again if I refer back to my Whittaker's Peanut Block review I remember that peanuts took up a very large constituency in the ingredients at 25%. Looking at the macadamia content of this bar it was only 13% would probably explain why the macadamias at times failed create the desired impact on the taste. Luckily for Whittaker's they had a very good milk chocolate at heart of this product, so it was hardly lacking in taste department even when the nuts failed to cut through. Thinking about it now, this chocolate was always going to have a hard time living up to the Hotel Chocolat Macadamias that I covered a few weeks back, so it is worth bearing in mind that this bar came up against a pretty hard comparator. This was a chocolate of a better than reasonable quality, but in my mind Whittaker's do some better ones so I would suggest you try some of them out first.

7.4 out of 10

June 4th: Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate

Kcal 559 Fat 36.0g Carbs 52.0g (per 100.0g)

Is it me or does it seem like years ago since I last reviewed a pure milk chocolate bar? Everything I review nowadays seems to be filled with some sort of flavour enhancing filling - bacon, caramel, nuts ... you name it I have covered it. One of the key perpetrators (for loss of a better word!) when it comes to adding flavours and extra ingredients to their chocolates has to be Ritter Sport. Those with outstanding memories may recall that at the front end of 2009 I took a look at their entire plain milk chocolate range, which included a Alpine Milk, Organic and Diet offering - See HERE. Since then Ritter Sport have provided endless amounts of limited edition flavours, but more recently they have taken the time to adapt their core milk chocolate offering and have released a new bar for 2010 which I will be looking at today.

This new milk chocolate bar was sent to me in the standard 100.0g size from my contacts at Ritter in Germany and I ate it across a few sittings over the last week. On the face of things the wrapper wasn't that different to previous Ritter milk chocolate variants, with the only obvious differences being the minor changes in the blue colouring and picture placement. On closer inspection, there was some additional communication around the reformulation of the chocolate, which I will go in to in more detail later. Opening the wrapper up, the chocolate inside cut a very clean cut look, and it must be said the surface looked sharper and more shiny compared to other Ritter bars I have tried previously. In relation to aromas, the dairy scents on offer weren't anything I would say were a step change from the norm, though they did a pleasant job nonetheless of setting the mood.

I really hope Google translate is going to do me justice here, but from what I can tell the new 35% cocoa recipe combines Ritter's traditionally sourced West African cocoa with a new type of cocoa hailing from Ecuador. I'm no cocoa buff, but from the on-pack blurb and Ritter's website this was supposed to be really high quality produce, so it was always going to be interesting if this translated through to the taste. As soon as I placed the first piece in my mouth there some immediate noticeable differences from the standard milk chocolate experience that Ritter Sport deliver. The most apparent difference was the quality and pacing of the melt, which was a touch slower and thicker in viscosity, which resultingly helped the development of the flavours in the mouth. In terms of the taste the strength of both the cocoa and cream flavours seemed dialled up and most importantly increased in volume as the melt progressed. In terms of sweetness, compared to what I was used to from Ritter Sport there was less of a generic sugar emphasis, with more room given for the development of both the cocoa and cream elements. What I especially liked about this chocolate was that at the real latter stages of the melt development, the taste ended with a strong note of natural tasting vanilla, which importantly gave the chocolate a very distinctive finish.

Overall I know I say this a lot, but this really was a product that pleasantly surprised me as to how good it was. You will have seen across my many Ritter Sport reviews in the past that I have always labelled their milk chocolate as being generic tasting, and good at doing a no frills standard job. This chocolate here is evidence that the brand is really moving away from this, and are really moving in the right direction in regards to taking their milk chocolate to a new level. The better quality delivery of both flavours and textures of this new recipe, far superseeded any milk chocolate offering I have tried from them before, and I can only hope that they take this chocolate and apply it across the rest of the milk chocolate bars in their range. Being a guy that has tried hundreds (yes hundreds!) of different milk chocolates, what I always look for are ones that stand out and are distinctive in taste. Cadbury, Milka, Galaxy, Hershey, Hotel Chocolat, Zotter etc all meet that criteria (with varying success admittedly!) whereas Ritter isn't a brand I would previously have included in that category. This new recipe has opened that door for Ritter, and they deserve credit for not just settling at being average in class.

8.5 out of 10

June 3rd: Hotel Chocolat The H-Box Just Desserts

Rounding off my summer sesaon of Hotel Chocolat reviews this year, I bring you my thoughts and photos of their 'The H-Box Just Desserts' selection. Hotel Chocolat describe this box of chocolates as a 'heavenly collection of classic summer desserts - perfect for a touch of summer hedonism' .... riiiight!

This selection box comprised of 8 different varieties, which you can see in my top-down photograph above. What you will also notice is that some of the pieces were portioned three times, whilst others only once - it didn't make much sense to me either!? That aside the packaging and presentation was first class as ever. The outer box was bright and vibrant, which was in keeping with the summer theme, whilst the inner menu was accurate and described each of the chocolate accurately.

The chocolate pieces on the whole looked very well crafted - I hope my cross-sections do them justice. On that note lets get down to business ... same scale as usual from Terrible to Superb.




Eton Mess - Need I say anything more about this chocolate than what I have done already HERE? No probably not. Yet again it was a deliciously creamy, fruity chocolate that was bursting with genuine red berry flavours. It is probably Hotel Chocolat's finest individual chocolate that they make - for that reason I can excuse it for being the piece portioned three times. Superb.

Key Lime Pie - The lime fruit delivery wasn't quite as strong as some of the other fruit influences in the other chocolates, however it was still very flavoursome and the the combination of the crunchy base and creamy ganache topping was delightful texture wise. If the citrus flavours were dialled up a bit more this could be a really special chocolate. Good.

Summer Pudding - This piece looked beautiful when bitten in to, and it was very nice to see all the different wildberry bits amongst the inner cream filling. With the outer white chocolate being as thick as it was, the main stay of the taste was cream based, but as the filling melted on the tongue there were strong red fruit influences in the form of some very refreshing raspberry, strawberry and blueberry notes. Very Good.

Mango & Peach Cheesecake - If the Eton Mess chocolate is the best individual chocolate Hotel Chocolat do, then this piece seriously isn't far off. This was an absolutely delicious chocolate, which dealt out lashings of peach and cream flavours as soon as it was bit in to. The crunchy caramel base provided a delightful sweetness with its delicate crisp crunchiness, whilst the dried mango on top provided a fitting sweet fruity finish ... very, very good ... Superb even :D

Banana Creme Caramel - I have reviewed this piece in previous reviews, and my thoughts were very similar in regards to it's plus points and it's limitations. The milk chocolate and inner sticky toffee were nothing less than first class. The sticky toffee filling was especially delicious with its buttery, burnt sugar flavours. Unfortunately the strength of the banana influence still wasn't as strong as I desired it to be, which just stops it being in the same league as the likes of the Eton Mess. Very Good.

Orange Torte - This piece comprised of a classic combination, with orange hinted praline coated with a dark chocolate shell. As I was expecting the dark chocolate was fuller flavoured and richer than some of the white chocolates, and set the tone nicely for the sweeter innards which was similarly full of flavour. The praline filling was lacking in nutty flavours, however the grittier texture meant the orange flavours had greater longevity in the mouth, which made for a very refreshing finish. Very Good.

Chocolate Brownie - This was probably the least exciting looking piece on the menu, but it was actually one of the richest chocolates in the box. The outer chocolate layer was extremely thick, though it held a very viscous filling within. The reason for the dense filling was that it contained cocoa nibs and small bits of pecan nuts, both of which didn't add much to the rich chocolatey taste, but spruced up the feel of the filling no end. Very Good.

Chocolate Mousse - The inclusion of this piece was a little puzzling to me as it quite simply tasted liked a toned down version of the above chocolate brownie. The 40% milk chocolate shell was obviosuly pleasant enough, but the promised hazelnut influence in the inner filling (as billed in the menu!) just didn't come through in the taste which was somewhat disappointing. Standard.

Overall this selection box wasn't quite as perfect as some of the other Hotel Chocolat collections I have reviewed in the past, but there were still some stand out pieces. I probably needn't tell you about how amazing the Eton Mess chocolate is again - I have lauded about it many a time in reviews in the past, but it is so good that I think it deserves to be heralded once more. The Peach & Mango Cheesecake was another delicious chocolate that can at least claim to be in the same league as the Eton. The combination of the fruit and cream flavours and contrasting textures are really out of this world - you have to taste one to understand how great they are. As for some of the others, the only truly disappointing piece was the Chocolate Mousse, which I personally feel could have been left out altogether. Hotel Chocolat put together a fine mixture of different fruit flavoured dessert chocolate to capture the summer vibe nicely here, but I think they should possibly have gone for another solely nut based chocolate to add just a little bit more variety. Minor nit-picking aside this was another accomplished collection of chocolates - just make sure you get to the Eton Mess and Cheesecake pieces before others realise how amazing they are.

8.1 out of 10

Want to try these for yourself? Head to Hotel Chocolat - CLICK HERE

June 2nd: Galler Ballotin of Pralines

If we are talking about newly discovered brands making an impression on ChocolateMission this year, Galler (See website HERE) have to be considered as standing out from the crowd when it comes to the higher end of the chocolate market. Previous reviews of chocolates like their Piemontais bar have proven that sometimes quality really is worth paying that little bit extra for, so you can imagine my excitement when they my contact at Galler informed me that she was sending me a Ballotin of Pralines.

Of course the first thing I did when I read that was Google the word 'Ballontin', at which point I learnt that it meant 'traditional packaging for fresh chocolate assortments. The concept and the name are Belgian in origin'. When my special delivery arrived the name sure lived up to it's Ballontin description, and the outer box was beautifully decorated with bows and classy looking branded material.

Upon opening the box and discarding of the copious amounts of inner padding, a delightful array of fresh cocoa and nut scents emerged. Inside a wonderful assortment of thirteen different chocolates were included - all of which were easily identifiable by a very neat looking inner menu. Below are some brief thoughts on each of the chocolates, ratings are given from Terrible to Superb, working from left to right in the pictures.

Mazagran (Dark Chocolate Heart) - This chocolate combined an outer shell of dark chocolate with a disappointingly weak flavoured coffee caramel centre. The piece was hardly lacking flavour due to the richness of the cocoa heavy chocolate, but the filling was disappointingly lacking depth in terms of it's coffee delivery. Standard.

Palet Blanc (White Chocolate Square) - This was one of the finest tasting white chocolates I have ever had in my life. The outer white chocolate shell was delightfully cream based in taste and left a strong note of vanilla on the tongue when melting. The inner milk chocolate ganache was similarly creamy and soft melting. Superb.

Gianduja (Gold Foil Wrapped) - This was the only piece in the collection that came in a wrapper and the reason why became evident as soon as it entered the mouth. The chocolate melted with the softest of melts very rapidly, and released a sudden burst of buttery almond flavours which were a nice change up from the traditional hazelnut Gianduja experience. Very Good.


Nappe (Milk Chocolate Rectangle) - This piece combined a milk chocolate exterior with a caramel flavoured ganache. The outer milk chocolate created a high level of cream based cocoa flavours in the mouth, though the caramel element didn't come through quite as powerfully in the quick melting ganache as I would have hoped. Good.

Chiba (Dark Chocolate Diamond) - This was a very fine tasting dark chocolate almond praline. The outer dark chocolate created great impact with it's unsweetened cocoa taste, though it didn't upset the delivery of the inner buttery nut flavours of the slightly rough inner praline. One of my favourites from this selection. Superb.

Oasienne (Milk Chocolate Cube) - Again this was another scintillating chocolate that combined a milk chocolate exterior with an orange flavoured almond praline centre. The milk chocolate was swift in it's creamy flavour delivery, but led nicely into the stronger tasting almond nut centre. The orange element didn't come through until the very last few seconds of the melt, but it created a lovely fruity impression. Very Good.


Secret (Milk Chocolate Heart) - This piece looked like it was going to be an innocently soft flavoured ganache due to it's shape, but inside the milk chocolate shell there was a rough layer of delicious hazelnut praline. The hazelnut filling stayed with me a long time after the melt - nothing short of divine. Superb.

Extreme (Dark Chocolate Square) - This was the richest tasting chocolate in the selection which was surprising given that it's rapid melt didn't last all that long. Combining an outer shell of 70% dark chocolate with an inner dark chocolate ganache the unsweetened roasted cocoa flavour delivery was sharp, yet long lasting. Very Good.

The Noir (Dark Chocolate Rectanlge) - This was the first chocolate I picked out from the box, and it admittedly wasn't one of my favourites. This piece constituted of an outer layer of tasty dark chocolate with a very floral noted Earl Grey tea ganache. The herby nature of the filling just didn't work with the dark chocolate for me. Poor.


Balazane (White Chocolate Rectangle) - I really wish they had put more white chocolates in this box because this was another delicious chocolate. The exterior white chocolate layer created a delicious cream flavour base and it's soft melt wonderfully revealed a finely grounded almond praline centre. The textures were really something to savour. Very Good.

Cote D'Ivoire (Dark Chocolate Cube Front) - This was yet another stand out piece which constituted of a hazelnut praline centre, coated with a layer of dark chocolate made from Ivory Coast beans. In relation to the other dark chocolate pieces the cocoa had a noticeable fruity hint amongst it's flavour generation. The hazelnut praline centre was wonderfully forthcoming bringing woody nut influence to the taste. Superb.

Carre (Milk Chocolate Cube Back) - This was a very dark looking milk chocolate that held a praline flavoured ganache at it's centre. In comparison to the pure praline pieces in the selection, the nut flavours were very short lasting in longevity and didn't cut through the creaminess of the outer chocolate as well. Standard.

Amazone (Milk Chocolate Diamond) - This was a very well crafted piece that had a dual layer of praline at it's centre. The creamy chocolate flavours provided a pleasant starting point for the taste, though it soon became all about the praline. The nut flavours had great cut through, whilst the distinction between the two layers with one being soft and the other slightly rougher, was a great playful touch. Very Good.


Overall this was a delicious collection of chocolates with some really stand out pieces. Getting the only minor negatives out the way first, you will see from my ratings above I wasn't all that enamoured by some of the flavoured ganache pieces because of their short flavour longevity, and the Earl Grey tea chocolate just wasn't to my taste. Putting those to one side, the rest of the chocolates were very fine indeed, and I would go as far saying that some were amongst the best chocolates I have ever tasted. Picking my favourites amongst each chocolate type - for the white chocolate I would say the Palet Blanc, milk chocolate I would go for the Secret and finally the dark chocolate I would pick the Chiba. If you know someone that is mad about pralines I would strongly suggest this as a great gift if you are willing to part with a pretty reasonable sounding £8.50. By my reckoning both the taste and the presentation more than account for the expense.

8.4 out of 10

June 1st: McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Lemon Cake Bars

Kcal 128 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 18.3g (per cake bar)

It seems like years ago that I read this press release statement in The Grocer magazine (See HERE) announcing the arrival of these McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Lemon Cake Bars, but I finally managed to track them down after months of looking. Whilst I am not a big lover of the whole cake bar format, I am partial to the odd Jaffa (aren't we all!), and they are one of the more common products that make an appearance in our office tea area. Usually I don't like seeing manufacturers trying to fix something that isn't broken, but I thought it was going to be interesting to see how these lemon jam centres measured up to the iconic orange flavoured ones.

After a much prolonged period of searching, I finally found these in my local Tesco at an introductory price of £1 for 5 individually wrapped bars. In terms of packaging and presentation everything largely remained consistent from the original Jaffa Cake Bars, though there was of course the inevitable changing of the branding and lemon fruit pictures placed on the front both the inner and outer wrappers. In similar fashion the actual cake bars looked no different in size or composition to the originals, though on closer inspection the lemon jelly layer was noticeably more yellow tinted in colour.

Amongst all these minor differences, the first thing that really stood out to me about these cakes were extra citrusy smells that were released once the wrappers were undone. The lemon scents really set expectations of the taste nicely - I always like it when things taste as they smell, its always reassuring. In my review of the original Jaffa Cake bars you will read about my discontent at the chocolate to cake ratio i.e. the chocolate being too thin, leading to the cake being over dominant in the taste. This very issue was of course still present with these due to them fundamentally being the same product at the base of things, however there was better news in regards to the lemon filling. In comparison to the orange originals I thought the lemon cut through the over portioned cake element better, and the zesty, citric flavours created a greater and longer lasting impression on the taste in comparison. As the bars were the same size I didn't find them any more satisfying - as an afternoon snack they still did a more than competent job.

Overall I wouldn't ever advise the original orange Jaffa Cake filling be replaced by a lemon based alternative, but in regards to these cake bars the lemon flavour actually worked better. What with the proportions of the format (man this is sounding geekier than it needs to be!!) being more heavily weighted on the cake side of things, the filling benefited from being edgier in terms of taste, and the lemon flavours had a greater impact on the overall experience. Conversely, if this lemon filling was to be placed in the normal sized Jaffas I'm not sure it would work as well, as the acidity of lemon might just be a bit too much for the normal Jaffa size. As far these Cake Bars go though the lemon filling is spot on, and I think it is a real shame that these will only be around for a limited time. If you are after a second opinion I suggest you take a look at the Foodstufffinds review (See HERE), they similarly thought these were a nice addition to the Jaffa Cake range. You Jaffa nutters should give these a try!

7.7 out of 10

May 31st: Hotel Chocolat Banoffee

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Not only is it the last day of the month, but it is also the last of my reviews from Hotel Chocolat's Summer Peepster Selection. Having covered off the Tutti Fruitti last year (See HERE), and Cookie Creme and Eton Mess slabs over the last few weeks, the last remaining slab left to try was this Banoffee one. Having heard good things from other review sites and my readers (namely Lottie and Richard) I was really looking forward to seeing how this 'milk and caramel chocolate, with crushed cookies and banana slices' would fair on the rating system. What with my mother being a bit of a chocolate banana connoisseur there was no way I was going to be able to sneak a review up on the site without her noticing - watch out for here candid opinions.

Quelle surprise this slab also came in 100.0g form and it lasted around a day in our household with us all snapping bits off to eat every now and then. In fitting with the rest of the varieties from this summer selection box, the slab looked very appetising and the dried banana pieces were a nice decorative touch to the already grand looking two tone chocolate swirl pattern. Something that is probably worth mentioning about these 100.0g slabs is the difficulty that I had breaking them apart. As I have written about previously, its not often that I can fault Hotel Chocolat slabs aesthetically, but they can sometimes prove a little hard to break up into smaller bits. This minor observation was immediately put to to one side up as I broke the plastic packet seal. Upon doing so a plethora of sweet smelling fruit and toffee scents invaded my senses - this had all the hallmarks of a great chocolate.

Reading the spiel on the wrapper it was comforting to know that a good proportion of this slab constituted of Hotel Chocolat's 40% milk chocolate recipe, and it proved to be just as good as ever but with an additional banana twist. Indeed, the chocolate maintained all of it's standard cream based cocoa flavours, but had a lovely note of very real tasting banana which came through strongly in latter stages of the thick melt. Although my mother was especially loving the banana chocolate, I personally thought that the bites where both the caramel chocolate and the banana flavoured milk chocolate were swirled together were the best. In these mouthfuls the buttery, salted toffee influences of the caramel further enhanced the depth of the flavours making the resulting taste even more varied and enjoyable. The cookie pieces that lined the bottom of the slab failed to create much of an impact on the taste, however the same can't be said of the banana chips which further went to reinforce the banana flavours. Although in the context of the taste the cookie bits didn't add much, they did at least bring a a decent crunchyness texture wise, which contrasted nicely from the soft melting chocolate.

Overall this was another very well executed flavour combination from Hotel Chocolat and it certainly met all my expectations. It would have been easy to have forgotten about the caramel element to Banoffee Pie and just focused on the banana flavours, but it was great to see Hotel Chocolat recognise the importance of both and combine them to such great effect. Being the big banana chocolate fan that is she is, I knew that this chocolate was going to be good when my Mother did the honours eating the first bit and then exclaiming it was 'the best ever'. Personally I don't think this is the best chocolate I have ever tasted, but believe me when I say that is very good indeed. If you have little interest in bananas then I don't think this will be your sort of chocolate, but on the other hand if you have just the smallest urge to try this chocolate I very much recommend you do so. This is definitely one for you banana lovers and has proved to be a fitting end to my reviews from this delicious Summer Peepster Selection.

8.7 out of 10

Fancy trying this for yourself? See more great Hotel Chocolat offers - Click HERE

May 30th: 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp

Kcal 170 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 20.0g (per double finger bar)

Following on from my Oreo Brownie review last week, I have great pleasure in bringing you another American product review courtesy of my pals at Yankee Soda & Candy. One of the first ever American products I reviewed on this site was Mars' 3 Musketeers bar, which I wrote about way back in Fenruary 2008. To this day it still remains at number three on the ChocolateMission leaderboard, and is a bar that I sometimes go out of my way to import in to the UK from time-to-time. This long winded introduction leads me nicely on to the focus of todays review - the 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp. Available in the US and Canada, this bar is positioned as a lighter option to the nougat heavy original, and comes described as 'whipped-up chocolate truffle on a crisp layer enrobed in milk chocolate'.

This bar came in a 31.2g size that was split in to two separate fingers. On the packaging the bar brought attention to that fact that it contained only 85 calories per finger, but made little reference to it containing 6.0g of saturated fat within it's light-weight constituents. I'm not complaining that this was overly high, however I was surprised to see that it was more than the original 3 Musketeers given that it gives the impression it is a lighter alternative. Boring nutritional details aside, I was still very impressed by the quality of the packaging, and I liked the standout of the silver foil and non-cluttered nature of the branding and on-pack visuals. Inside the finger pieces were similarly impressive, with the bottom crisp and upper truffle layers very pronounced in their distinction.

Having been kept in a nice foil packet the malty chocolate smells that emerged were pleasantly forthcoming and reminded me of hot cocoa powder. Snapping one of the fingers in half I was a little surprised at the consistency of the lower crisp layer, which appeared to break apart like a cross breed between a wafer and rice cereal base. When bit into the base broke with a satisfying crunch, whilst the upper truffle layer conversely yielded far more easily providing a nice bit of variance texture wise. In regards to the taste test the outer milk chocolate did the fair standard job I was expecting it to, with the taste heavily rooted in sweet condensed milk like flavours. Out of the truffle and base crisp layers the truffle element was the first to contribute flavour wise, and it added a further raft of cream and minor vanilla fudge like hints to the taste. The lower crisp layer provided a fitting end to each bite, and brought strong notes of malt and honeycomb, which went nicely with the creamier chocolate and truffle components. For such a light weight bar the satisfaction it delivered was brilliant, and it was a fantastic size and amount for an afternoon snack.

Overall my love affair with the 3 Musketeers brand continues to roll on - this was a product that I savoured from beginning to end. What I really appreciated about this bar, was that despite it being an altogether different proposition to the standard 3 Musketeers bar, it still managed to remain some of the originals qualities. Just like the normal 3 Musketeers offering, the variance in textures from outer milk chocolate, inner filling and crisp base were nicely differentiated, whilst the taste still played off the decent combination of cream based chocolate and malt. Here in the UK I think this bar would be tremendously successful, and would appeal to Malteser and MaltEaster lovers especially. Looking across other review sites it appears I'm not the only blogger to rate this bar - take a look at GiGi's review HERE and Jess's review from Foodette Reviews HERE. I really wish that Mars UK would get off their backsides and treat us to the 3 Musketeers bar here in the UK - I'm sure it would go down a storm.

8.7 out of 10

Fancy trying this bar for yourself? Head over to Yankee Soda & Candy - CLICK HERE

May 29th: Cadbury Old Gold Dark Chocolate Toffee Crunch

Kcal 494 Fat 27.7g Fat(sats) 17.5g Carbs 54.7g (per 100.0g)

As I told you guys all last Saturday, the reviews are really starting to mount up in terms of my backlog, so this week you are getting another bonus Saturday review. Over the past month or so packages have been flying in from all corners of the globe: from the US, Canada, Germany and most recently from New Zealand. It has been a while since I last reviewed something sent to me by friends from ShopenZed (a Southern Hemisphere sourcing food exporter - Website HERE), but since last year a number of new products have appeared on their market. The main contributor to all this new product development is Cadbury, and today I bring you the first of many upcoming reviews - the Cadbury Old Gold Toffee Crunch.

This bar came in a 200.0g format and came described as 'Old Gold Dark chocolate with toffee crunch pieces'. Given the large size of the bar, I shared it along with some work colleagues who were very excited to try an exotic Cadbury chocolate they had never seen before. I think one of the main drivers of the excitement was the outer cardboard box, which got many complimentary mentions for it's very premium look. The gold colours and sophisticated looking fonts struck a note with a number of my colleagues, and brought about comments like 'this looks very posh for a Cadburys product' etc. Maintaining the high quality from the exterior packaging, the inner chocolate was similarly pleasant on the eye, with the toffee pieces visually dispersed well throughout the very dark looking chocolate.

Up until breaking the chocolate in to pieces I can't say that I detected any forthcoming aromas, though upon doing so an enticing array of chocolate and sweet caramel scents overcame my senses. In terms of foretelling the taste these smells did a pretty decent job, and thankfully I can say that the Australian Old Gold dark chocolate was superior to our UK Cadbury Bournville. Long time ChocolateMission readers will be aware that I am no fan of Bournville chocolate, as I think it is bland in taste and has a poor lazy melt. in comparison I found the Old Gold to be more forthcoming with it's cocoa flavours, and I thought it had more depth with a pleasant coffee like note in it's aftertaste. Just as many mass produced dark chocolates are, this was more of a mass consumer friendly unsweetened chocolate as opposed to a full bodied dark chocolate experience. What with this being the case, I have to say it wasn't the finest of dark chocolates I have ever tasted, but it nicely complimented the toffee crunch element. Speaking of the toffee pieces, I waited until the chocolate had melted away before crunching down on them once they were left on my tongue. As soon as they were chewed on, a plethora of sweet caramel flavours were detectable, and they contrasted very nicely with the more bitter notes left by the melted chocolate. On the whole this was a richer flavour experience than your average milk chocolate, and I would say a decent sized serving (30-40g) was a more than satisfying amount.

Overall I wouldn't like to give the impression that this Old Gold is high quality dark chocolate (it isn't!), but compared to some other mass produced dark chocolates it certainly puts up a good case as being one of the better I have tried. If I was to eat this Old Gold chocolate in isolation from any flavour enhancing ingredient, I'm not sure I would have been quite so complimentary, but paired with this Toffee Crunch element it was certainly a good combination. The contrast of the unsweetened chocolate and the very sweet tasting toffee pieces worked very well, and the balance it created was probably far superior to what would have been had the toffee been paired with a sweeter chocolate like Dairy Milk. As I said in my opening paragraph this is only one of the many new Cadbury products to hit the market in Australia and New Zealand, and thanks to Shopenzed you will see many of them appearing here on the site in the near future. This Cadbury Old Gold Toffee Crunch was a great start - I hope the rest are just as good.

8.3 out of 10

You can buy this product from ShopenZed - SEE HERE

May 28th: Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Macadamias

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Hiding amongst all the seasonal summer chocolates sent to me in my last sampling package, Hotel Chocolat were also kind enough to include a pack of these Chocolate Macadamias. If you have read any of my reviews of macadamia chocolates before, you will have seen that I more often than not end my write ups by pondering the question 'why don't manufactures use macadamias more often?'. I wouldn't in any way want to infer that I had anything to do with the creation of this product, but Hotel Chocolat seem to have answered my call with these 'whole roasted macadamia nuts panned in milk chocolate'. For those unaware the 'panned' bit refers to a process where the nuts are rolled around in large heated copper pans to apply the chocolate coating.

These nuts came in a 125.0g packet that I ate intermittently over the course of a week. As you will see from the photograph above the outer packaging was straight out the book of the rest of Hotel Chocolat 'little bits' range - think the Gemstones and Puddles products etc. Like I have said in the past, the combination of the sticker and the transparent packaging isn't the classiest thing ever, however the chocolates tend to do the talking for themselves. Indeed, both the size of the nuts and the gorgeous nutty smells that were offered were more than impressive enough to detract attention - I hope my photo above has done enough to give you some sort of idea how giant the nuts were.

Before I started this rather extensive mission to find the best chocolate bar in the world I wasn't the biggest fans of nuts, but as time has passed I have really grown to appreciate the better quality offerings that some brands have to offer. Despite what some sceptics may think - nuts aren't just nuts, they can really vary in quality depending largely on their age and freshness. If Hotel Chocolat were aiming to deliver fresh, flavoursome macadamias like I think they most probably were, then they were really on the money here. Like I foretold above the nuts were huge in size, so they needed biting in to as they weren't edible in a single mouthful. Upon doing so the outer chocolate shell broke with a lovely fresh cracking, and the combination of the outer cocoa powder and creamy tasting 40% milk chocolate did a fine job of quickly establishing a rich, sweet cocoa flavour hit. The nuts that sat below similarly yielded with a clean breaking snap sound, which along with the flavoursome salted butter flavours were a strong indicator that these nuts were as fresh as they come. Personally I found they were most enjoyable eating a few at a time alongside a coffee, and were perfect as just a little chocolate treat.

Overall I don't think it was ever really in any doubt, but having tasted these I can 100% assure you that macadamia and chocolate combinations don't get much better than this. As soon as I read that these nuts were coated in the Hotel Chocolat's 40% milk chocolate I knew there was never going to any doubt whether the chocolate was high quality - I think the hundred or so other Hotel Chocolat milk chocolates reviews were assurance enough. Indeed, the real determinant of this product was always going to be the nuts and as you can tell from my previous paragraph they were very classy. Just as I wished they were packed full of delicious savoury butter flavours and they cracked in the mouth with infinite ease. If you are nuts about macadamias (groan!!!), then I can't suggest these enough to you. These are chocolate macadamias at their finest.

8.8 out of 10

Want to try these for yourself? CLICK HERE

May 27th: Ritter Sport Summer 2010

Some of my longer standing readership may remember that around twelve months ago I published my reviews of Ritter's Summer Sorte 2009. This was a range that comprised of three flavoured yoghurt bars made especially for the summer season - Raspberry Yoghurt, Peach & Passionfruit Yoghurt and the Wildberry Yoghurt.

If you look to the photo above you will see that one year on, the line-up for 2010 isn't much different, apart from the substitution of the Raspberry variety for a new Stracciatella variant. Below are photographs (courtesy of my father - great work old man!!) of the updated 2010 wrappers for both the Passionfruit and Wildberry variants. These aesthetic touch-ups aside, I can confirm that they didn't change from last year, and were still every bit as tasty - check out the links below the photographs for the reviews.

Ritter Sport Wildberry Yoghurt - See Review HERE

Ritter Sport Peach & Passionfruit Yoghurt - See Review HERE

As aforementioned, replacing the Raspberry Yoghurt for 2010 we have this Stracciatella bar, which came billed as 'milk chocolate with a milk cream filling with crunchy milk chocolate pieces'. As well as coming in the usual 100.0g form, this new flavour is also available in the mini-squares format (photo also taken by my father) ...see below.

Ritter Sport Stracciatella

Kcal 571 Fat 38.0g Carbs 51.0g (per 100.0g)

In terms of the quality of the packaging and presentation it wont surprise you to hear I thought everything was of the usual high Ritter standards. The wrapper was modern in design, whilst the inner bar looked very appealing with the cream filling generously sandwiched between the two fresh looking branded milk chocolate layers. Aroma wise the smells were noticeably sweeter than other milk chocolate based Ritter offerings - a nice smelling vanilla essence type hint helped to further my intrigue.

After some of the shortcomings that I experienced with some of the 2010 spring limited editions I was hoping Ritter Sport weren't going to let us down with this flavour, as Lindt had previously proven how tasty Stracciatella could be when done right. From the very first piece it became evident that this chocolate was pretty much everything I had hoped for from the Spring Vanilla Bourbon flavour, and was perhaps just a little bit better. The milk chocolate as always did a sterling job of carrying the inner filling, and provided the standard no frills chocolate flavour hit for each block. The nature of the chocolate allowed plenty of room for the expression of flavours from the milk cream centre, which melted with a slightly softer texture than the outer chocolate. The flavours were predominantly sweet and creamy, almost like condensed milk and finished with a delicious real tasting vanilla note. The difference between the quality of the vanilla influence from this bar and the Vanilla Bourbon spring bar was night and day - the vanilla in this Stracciatella chocolate tasted far more genuine and fresh. Whilst the vanilla flavours were the ones left lingering in the mouth at the latter stages of the melt, the small remnants of crunchy cocoa pieces further compounded the chocolatey flavours established by the outer coating. On reflection this wasn't the richest chocolate I have ever tasted due to the quickness at which it melted, but it was as satisfying as your average chocolate bar when eaten in a 50.0g portion.

Overall Ritter deserve a pat on the back for not only making a very fine Stracciatela chocolate, but also making a good decision when it came to their range. Considering I scored the Raspberry bar the lowest out of the three summer offerings last year, it was great to see Ritter chose that flavour as the one to make way for the new variant for 2010. I guess that shows that the average consumer must have also thought it was the weakest ... aren't I just brilliant :D Somewhat more importantly I guess, having picked the right one to replace, it was also going to be of up most importance that the new bar coming in was going to have to be even better. Those at Ritter Sport HQ can now take another bow, as this Stracciatella chocolate was one of the better bars I have had from them for a while. Just as the wrapper suggested, the filling delivered a chocolate chip, vanilla ice cream experience that was far superior to the disappointing Vanilla Bourbon of the season before. This summer 2010 range is one very much worth looking at and there is no better place to start than with this Stracciatella bar.

8.4 out of 10

May 26th: Zotter Labooko Nicaragua 60% / Peru 40%

In previous Zotter reviews I have brought you all my views on some of their weirdest and wacky flavour combinations. From their Bacon Bits bar to their Walnuts & Cheese offering, I have covered a decent amount of ground when it comes to their 'Handscooped' range, but up until today I hadn't touched upon any of the other parts of their portfolio. This leads me up nicely to introducing you to the first of their Labooko bars that I will be featuring on the website in the coming weeks.

These Labooko bars are described on the Zotter website as being 'two pure "bean to bar" chocolates in one pack, and today I was trying out a milk chocolate duo. As you can see from the photo above, both came packaged in a single paper wrapper, but were segregated by thick layers of branded gold foil. I can't say I have managed to make the link between the characters on the wrapper and the actual chocolates (hmm!?), but I thought the arty design of the wrapper combined with the delicate pattern work on both the chocolates ensured the Zotter premium brand feel carried through from the Handscooped range.

Nicaragua 60% - According to Wiki Nicaeagua is the largest country in Central America (knowledge eh!?). I hadn't heard of many 60% cocoa milk chocolates before, but according to the wrapper this bar was billed as exactly that. If you look at the photograph above you will be unsurprised to hear that this bar was the darker of the two you can see, and it was not only more imposing in this sense, but also in regards to smell as it had a more pungent cocoa fragrance. When it came to the taste the flavours were very smooth, but the cocoa flavours were stronger and more forthcoming than your standard milk chocolate. During the latter stages of the soft melt suggestions of red fruit came through, which did bring a decent bit of variance to the overall taste. In a perfect world it would of been nice for the melt to have been a little bit slower in the pace so the flavours could of been enjoyed just a little bit longer.

8.2 out of 10

Peru 40% - According to the on-pack blurb this chocolate was formed of beans hailing from the South American country Peru, which has a population of over 29 million people (ok ok I will stop with the wikipedia now :D ) This was the lighter coloured of the two bars and was a little more subtle when it came to aroma and taste. In comparison to the Nicaragua I did find this chocolate a touch less flavoursome, and although the more dairy rooted flavours were just as smooth flowing, they didn't quite have the same depth. In terms of melt the chocolate was similarly soft and easy melting in the mouth, but I felt again that it could of done with a touch more grip, which would have made the total flavour experience that little bit richer.

7.9 out of 10


Overall these both fulfilled my expectations and were some very fine tasting chocolates. As you will have read in my previous Zotter reviews, whilst I have sometimes doubted some of their flavour combinations, I have never been able to fault their core chocolate, so it was no surprise that I found both of these bars as pleasant as I did. Out of the two, I found the Nicaragua bar more flavoursome as it had a bit more depth and variance in it's taste, though this was purely down to personal preference. I'm sure other people who like creamier, sweeter chocolates will more prefer the Peru chocolate with its more milk based taste - it really is down to what you want from a chocolate as to where your preference will lie. This has been a good start for the Labooko range on ChocolateMission - bring on the next few double acts!