September 27th: Milka Limited Editions 2010

Forget Hotel Chocolat Mondays - More recently it has been more like 'New Product Mondays'! Today I have another three for you to feast your eyes on. These Milka bars you see below were sent to me by ChocolateMission reader Franzi, who last week was kind enough to ship these three new 2010 Limited Edition flavours to me from Germany. Franzi has also reviewed these bars herself - See HERE.

Over the last seven days I (and my family & friends) have been sampling all three of the 100.0g bars. The packaging and presentation of all three new flavours was aligned with the rest of the standard Milka range with distinctive white on purple branding, and the flavour variety communicated with the use of on-pack pictures. Before anyone asks I have no clue what the significance of the cow pictures on the front of the wrappers is all about - hopefully Franzi will stop by the review and indulge us with this information.

Here are my thoughts on the three flavours - one thing that I can confirm was consistent across all three was the experience delivered by the Alpine milk chocolate which coated each all of the bars. As with every bar of it's kind, the Alpine milk chocolate established a familiar set of sweet cocoa, hazelnut noted flavours from the outset, and melted at a pleasant rate and with a kind smoothness. Milka chocolate is sweet, but I have always liked that it does have it's own uniqueness in it's flavours with small hint of nuttiness.

Milka Chocolate Creme and Mint

Kcal 590 Fat 41.5g Carbs 45.5g (per 100.0g)
'Alpine milk chocolate with a mint flavoured chocolate creme filling'

What with the hundreds of Milka flavours that have been created it is somewhat surprising that this was the first ever mint chocolate I had seen from them. Aesthetically the chocolate looked little different to many of the other Milka chocolate cream bars I had tried previously. The aromas emanating from the plastic sealed packet however did offer a mild note of peppermint, which suitably set expectations for the taste.

Sat the below the Alpine milk chocolate, the chocolate creme filling had an even softer textured feel, and it melted at a very hasty rate in the mouth. In terms of taste the chocolate cream wasn't really differentiated from the outer milk chocolate, and more just further went to build on the initial set of flavours established by the Alpine milk. To my surprise the integration of the mint wasn't as strong as expected, with only minor suggestions of peppermint on offer at intermittent times. When it comes to their flavourings, Milka are normally a lot bolder than they have been with this mint offering. It was in no way a bad tasting bar, but I think the mint deserved to be more prominent. This bar could of been better than it turned out, I think some chocolate mint fans might be left wanting a stronger minty taste.

7.4 out of 10



Milka Milk Cream & Pop Rocks

Kcal 560 Fat 34.5g Carbs 56.5g (per 100.0g)
'Alpine milk chocolate with a milk cream filling and popping candy'

The dreaded 'Knister' - that's 'Popping Candy' to us English speaking folk! You may recall that I have reviewed a few Milka products last year that contained this horrid stuff (See HERE & HERE). Like all of those previous products, this bar looked similarly innocent on the face of things, with the milk cream filling cutting a tempting looking appearance nestled between the milk chocolate exterior.

Given I knew I this flavour wasn't going to be to my own taste I enlisted the help of some work colleagues in order to give it a fair run out. Out of the four people that tried it, it was unanimously agreed that the the chocolate tasted nice, and there were several positive comments about the creaminess of the milk filling taking the dairy flavours of the chocolate a positive stage further. In regards to the crackly texture created by the copious amounts of popping candy, the panel was more split in it's views. Two of the four thought it was fun and liked it, whilst the other two were, well ... 'less inclined' to put it politely haha! From a personal point of view I just don't like the pop rocks sensation. On the other hand if you do like it then this will be a chocolate you will probably enjoy - it's as simple as that.

6.7 out of 10



Milka Milk Cream & Choco-Biscuits

Kcal 570 Fat 36.0g Carbs 54.0g (per 100.0g)
'Alpine milk chocolate with a milk cream filling and chocolate flavoured biscuit pieces'

Save the the best until last? Why of course I have :D Of all the three flavours Franzi so kindly sent my way, this was the one I had the highest expectations for. This Mika Milk Cream & Choco-Biscuits is Milka's attempt at producing an equivalent offering to Hershey's Cookies n' Chocolate bar (See HERE). From the outset I loved the look of the chocolate as it's gold tinged milk creme filling looked very appetising studded with a heavy portioning of cookie pieces.

Unlike the popping candy chocolate, this wasn't a bar I dished out amongst my work colleagues - I greedily ate it to myself over a few separate occasions. The main reason for this selfishness was because it was quite simply delicious. Like so many of the other Milka bars, the the milk creme filling did a fantastic job of building on on the existing sweet dairy flavours of the outer chocolate, and it added a fine dose of creamy goodness. Sat in the creme, the biscuits bits proved themselves to be a similarly fantastic addition to the overall experience and they came to the party at the end of each mouthful once the chocolate had melted away. Taste wise they added delicious buttery, chocolate biscuit flavours and retained a nice degree of crunchiness despite the moistness of the melting chocolate. Personally I thought this bar was easily the best out of the three latest limited edition offerings - I wish I knew what all these cows were about though :D

8.5 out of 10

September 25/26th: Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Everything Selection

'7Days of Chocolate Reviews' takes a break this week as I bring you an extra dose of Hotel Chocolat. If you guys have been checking out the Hotel Chocolat site recently you would have seen that they have added a number of new selection boxes to their existing range. Some of the highest scoring products ever to feature on this site have been their Dark and White Chocolate Sleekster Boxes (See HERE & HERE), so when I was sent a sample of this Everything Selection I had seriously high expectations.

Described as a 'balanced collection with a little bit of everything, so there's something for absolutely everyone to love' I of course couldn't do the rest of my family the injustice of not sharing it with them. Hopefully my photos will do the presentation of the box and truffles justice - everything was superb looking and the chocolates terrifically crafted and detailed. What with there being 14 different pieces in the selection it's probably best we get down to business ...

Amarena Cherry - This piece was large in size but had a soft filling centre that yielded with a real elegance under the crisp outer shell. The flavours of this piece were wonderfully progressive with the sweet cocoa flavours of the outer milk chocolate taking on a grander creaminess from the buttercream filling before leaving a well balanced note of red berry liquor. Very Good.

Going Nuts - Formed of a milk chocolate coated praline with crunchy hazelnuts this was a very accomplished nut chocolate that combined smooth and crispy textures well. The milk chocolate let the nut constituents do most of the talking, but this sat very well with myself and I very much enjoyed the woody flavours contributed by both the different nut elements. Very Good.

Amaretto - Hotel Chocolat liqueur flavoured chocolates are always too strong are they not!? Well if this chocolate was anything to go by that statement would be very wrong. The crisp outer chocolate constituents were terrifically complimented by an outstanding buttercream filling that by my estimation was perfect in it's strength of boozie almond flavours. Superb.

Crispy Praline - This was a somewhat odd piece that combined an inner praline filling with small crunchy pieces of 'crispy pancake'. Whilst the pancake bits didn't detract from the creamy hazelnut flavours, the impression they created texture wise was not to my liking in the slightest - it was almost as if it was like dreaded popping candy *shivers*. Standard.

Within this selection box there were also several pieces that I had come across in other Hotel Chocolate reviews (or chocolates extremely similar to them!). If you are interested in my views on (from left-to-right/front-to-back) the Caramel Melter, Mousse au Chocolat, Billionaire's Shortbread, Brownie, Orange Praline and Orange Liqueur Melter - please click on the name of the piece to be redirected to those reviews.

Milk House Praline - This was pretty simple piece that combined a hazelnut praline centre with a milk chocolate exterior. Whilst it was undoubtedly very tasty I almost felt like it was a bit of a generic choice of chocolate to be included in the selection. I was told by the rest of my family that I was just being overly critical - they loved it. Very Good.

Praline Cup - This again was very similar to the praline truffle above, however had a base of dark chocolate. The dark chocolate provided a somewhat less sweet introduction flowing in to the praline, however I think it could of done with a full coating of dark as opposed to the suggestion provided at the bottom. Again it is hard to rate this anything other than Very Good despite it being very alike other pieces.

Butterscotch Ganache - Now if the two chocolates above were a little similar to each each other this truffle was one that very much stood out as offering something a little different. The outer milk chocolate was a perfect foil for the inner toffee flavoured ganache and established a creamy caramel noted flavour sensation. The shortbread biscuit piece on top capped off a truly exquisite truffle. Superb.

Isabelle - We get to end with yet another phenomenal chocolate. This was yet another piece that had a praline centre, but this one really was all about the florentine on top. In addition to the hazelnut and sweet cocoa flavours already on offer, the florentine biscuit brought additional hints of honey, caramel and almond to the party, all within it's delightful crispy chewy texture. Superb.

Overall this has been a very difficult Selection Box to rate as it could easily be argued that it could be deserving of a better or worse rating. On one hand this was a delicious collection of chocolates that contained no 'duff ones' and had some real stand out pieces like the Isabelle, Butterscotch Ganache and Amaretto. However, on the flip side, it could also be noted that for a selection that was meant to contain 'Everything' the actual variety was a little limited. As a lover of praline chocolates I actually fancied every single piece in the box. Unfortunately though my sister (who doesn't really like nuts!) felt very limited, with only the three fruit options really taking her fancy. With this in mind when it came to the scoring of this box I couldn't quite give it the highest marks like I did Dark or White Sleeksters. Saying that, if I was gifting this box to a person who I knew loved pralines, I would feel very happy with my choice - this box contains many of them, and they are all delicious.

8.4 out of 10

September 24th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cereal Bars & Biscuits # 6

I have really been enjoying doing these 'Bits n Bobs' posts over the last few months, so today I have obliged with a few more reader requests which came out of some of the previous B&B features. Starting off with a yet another offering from Kellogg's vast range of cereal bars, I then move on to another little heard of offering by Cadbury, before then finishing off with a request from ChocolateMission reader Phil.

Kcal 82 Fat 2.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 15.0g

Kellogg's Coco Pop Coco Rocks - 'Chocolate maize and rice cereal bar with milk chocolate chunks and chocolate drizzle'

After my review of the original Coco Pops Cereal Bar, ChocolateMission readers Rachel and David suggest I give these Coco Pops Coco Rocks (trying saying that fast!) bars a try. After a little searching I found them in Sainsbury's supermarket priced at £1.67 for six bars, and I ate across the course of a working week. Presentation wise the packaging was all very similar to the rest of Kellogg's cereal bar offerings, though I thought the bars themselves looked visually impressive with plenty of chocolate chunks lining the top of each cereal bar. Despite the base of the product constituting of mostly light airy rice cereal, the syrup and chocolate drizzle that acted as the bind gave a nice bit of viscosity and denseness to each bite. The pieces placed on the top of the bar didn't create the greatest flavour impact, however the overall combination of the cereal, drizzle and chocolate chunks provided a relatively satisfying chocolate snack, especially for a cereal bar product. Those interested in 'lighter' chocolate offerings will certainly want to have a look out for these.

7.4 out of 10



Kcal 110 Fat 5.1g Fat(sats) 2.2g Carbs 6.8g

Cadbury BrunchBreaks Granola, Hazelnbut & Raisins - 'Baked whole-grain slices, dipped and drizzled with Cadbury milk chocolate'

Whilst Kellogg's have a very standard set in stone range of cereal bars, Cadbury happen to have quite the opposite - their range is one of the most muddles and over complicated ones out there. Over the last few years I have cast my eye over the Cadbury Brunchbars, Cadbury Snack Cereal Bars etc etc but even I hadn't heard of these Cadbury BrunchBreaks before I came across them in Tesco. Priced at £1.69 for six, 23.0g slices I again ate these over the course of a week with my mid afternoon coffees. Aesthetically the product looked no different whatsoever to the Brunchbars they sat next to on the shelf, however taken out their plastic packets the slices looked relatively appetising on the eye. Taste wise the bases had a digestive biscuit like taste that was nicely enhanced by the thin layer of milk chocolate that acted as an undercoating. Placed on top, the nuts failed to add much to the taste due to their small, chopped nature, though that said they provided a nice crunchy element against the softer yielding raisins. Unlike the nuts, the raisins did cut through the milk chocolate and biscuit constituents adding a decent fruity flavour contribution. I'm not too sure I would buy these again, but they are perhaps worth trying if you see them on a dirt cheap offer - these slices are better than the Cadbury Brunchbars.

7.3 out of 10



Kcal 130 Fat 6.9g Fat(sats) 3.4g Carbs 15.6g (per cookie)

Fox's Chunkie Fruit & Nut Extremely Chocolatey Cookies - 'Milk & dark chocolate cookies with chocolate chips, whole hazelnuts and raisins'

This review was requested by ChocolateMission reader Phil who said he often purchased these during his weekly shopping in Morrisons. Unfortunately I don't happen to have a Mozza's located anywhere near me, but I was able to track some of these down in my local Tesco on a £1 offer. These cookies came in a 200.0g packet that included around 8 very large, yes indeed chunky, sized cookies. As you can see in my photograph above, the fruit and nut pieces were plentifully portioned, and both were very forthcoming in the delicious smells that emanated from the packet. What you wont be able to see in my photo are the milk chocolate bases that coated the underside of each cookie. I have to say for a product that described itself as 'extremely chocolatey', I would have liked this coating to have been both thicker and more generously portioned. That said it wasn't like the chocolate flavour hit was lacking in any bite, as the dark chocolate chips that were spread throughout the buttery tasting wheaty biscuits, did a fine job at holding up that end of the bargain. Sitting alongside these chocolate chips pieces, the whole hazelnuts and plump raisins brought the fruit and nut element to life quite splendidly. Both were flavoursome and fresh tasting, with the hazelnuts bringing a wonderful woody set of flavours, and the raisins a sugary flavour influence to the mix. I'm not sure I would want a cookie so full on as these every time I reach in to the biscuit tin, however I would be more than prepared to buy them again if I fancied an extra special tea time treat to share with others.

7.8 out of 10

September 23rd: Galler Cafe Liegeois / Praline Lait

Another day, another two Galler products to review :D One thing I have to commend Galler for is there willingness to listen to what ChocolateMission readers want to see. The two Galler flavours I am reviewing today are both bars that were requested by readers over the last few weeks, I just really hope you all aren't growing tired of the Galler reviews, believe it or not there are still a few bars that I have in my stash to write about.

After receiving some recent *ahem* 'feedback' about the amount of coffee flavoured chocolates appearing on the site in the last few weeks, I decided I couldn't possibly post another one without combining it with something else, so today you get two Galler reviews for the price of one. The products stealing the ChocolateMission limelight today are these Cafe Liegeois and Praline Lait 70.0g offerings, which you will find on the Galler website priced at £2.60 each (got the pricing information in for you there Richard haha!).

Both these bars are yet more variations from Galler's small filled bars range, so it wont surprise you to see the packaging aligned to many of the other fabulous looking Galler products recently featured on the site. The oversized blocks aside, I hope you will agree that both looked wonderfully tempting, with the fillings of each appearing plentifully portioned and nicely differentiated in colour from their outer chocolate portions. Below are my thoughts on each.

Cafe Liegeois - Kcal 474 Fat 27.3g Fat(sats) 16.9g Carbs 51.5g (per 100.0g)

As you will have guessed from the name and in most likelihood in the photograph this was the coffee flavoured chocolate I made reference to above. This particular bar may look exactly from the Galler Cafe Noir (See HERE) but it came described as a slightly different 'dark chocolate with milk coffee filling' proposition.

There probably isn't any more I can say about Galler's 60% dark chocolate recipe without repeating myself so I suggest you head to previous Galler reviews if you wish to read my extended thoughts on it's rich and flavoursome cocoa led taste. Focusing more on the filling, I was never that confident I was going to enjoy it more than Cafe Noir as Im sure guys are all aware of I prefer my coffee strong. These expectations were subsequently proven correct with the taste proving to have a far sweeter flavour stance than the Cafe Noir. The coffee flavouring was still forthcoming and very detectable, however underlying fruity notes gave the taste a somewhat intriguing sweetness. This may sound a little odd, but on reflection I thought the fruity sweetness was far preferable to a sugar derived alternative.

Overall given the choice I would personally go for the richer tasting Cafe Noir bar - I'm sure that wont be surprising news to anyone. However, whilst that is my preference it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that those who like sweeter coffees may find this Cafe Liegeois a far more suitable proposition.

7.7 out of 10




Praline Lait - Kcal 567 Fat 37.1g Fat(sats) 20.4g Carbs 52.3g (per 100.0g)

Unfortunately I wont be giving away prizes for guessing what this particular flavour consituted of - 'milk chocolate with praline filling'. This review was requested by readers after my review of the Praline Blanc back in August. That bar scored a very decent 8.3 out of 10 on the ChocolateMission rating system (See HERE) and is one well worth checking out if you are a fan of white chocolate.

Shifting focus on todays bar, this particular variation was formed of the very same praline filling but with the obvious adaptation of an exterior 30% cocoa recipe milk chocolate. In regards to the taste I thought this particular combination worked every bit as well as it did for the Praline Blanc and even a little bit better. The taste established at the start of each mouthful was full of cream and sweet cocoa flavours which left a long lasting, pleasurable chocolate flavour impression in the mouth. Despite the milk chocolate melting with an infinite smoothness, it was upstaged by the luxurious feeling praline filling below which felt like silk on the tongue. Like I said in the Praline Blanc review, the praline wasn't perhaps the 'best in class', but the cream rooted, woody hazelnut flavours were still simply delicious.

Overall I know this must be tiresome to hear but I again can only send praise in the direction of Galler for crafting an absolutely superb praline offering. As much as I loved the Praline Blanc this Praline Lait was better suited to my own taste - the milk chocolate coating was simply a phenomenal pairing with the great tasting praline centre. A must try for praline fans.

8.5 out of 10

September 22nd: Godiva Handpicked Fresh Truffle Selection

Despite receiving several requests down the years, for some reason or other I have never made my way around to trying any Godiva products. This was a revelation that came to the massive surprise of my new American work colleague Rose, who when I revealed the theme of my website exclaimed, and I quote ... "Godiva must be a the top of the list, it is the best chocolate ever". After somewhat embarrassingly telling her that this was a brand I hadn't managed to feature once over the last three years, Rose took it upon herself to set that right and kindly bought me a handpicked selection box of some of her favourite truffles from one of Godvia's flagship stores in London.

Before indulging myself in the truffles I made a point of doing a little background research courtesy of Wiki ... "Godiva (guh-DY-vuh) was founded in 1926 in Brussels, Belgium, by Joseph Draps. Godiva now owns and operates more than 450 retail boutiques and shops in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia and is available via over 10,000 speciality retailers". Quite how I have managed to not review such a well distributed manufacture of chocolates I do not know.

Well anyway thanks to Rose I got my hands on six of their fresh truffle range. The presentation of the produce I got to sample today can only be be described as beautiful. Everything from the golden coloured box, dainty ribbon, branded inner padding, to the chocolates themselves, just looked stunning and radiated the sense that this brand offered a high end chocolate experience.

What with this selection being handpicked from a Godiva chocolate counter, there was unfortunately no menu to identify the pieces you see below. With the assistance of the Godiva wesbite I have been able to determine the names of the chocolates, though for the majority I was tasting them blind, not knowing what to expect.

Creme Fraiche Pistache - The pistachio flavoured fresh cream at the centre of this piece meant I had to consume these chocolates within 3 days of receiving them - as if I really needed any more encouragement :D Encased by an intricately crafted double layered milk and white chocolate shell, a delicious creamy cocoa taste was established from the outset. The mouth feel created by biting in to the crisp shell and then in to the soft cream centre was out of this world, but the pistachio element didn't really come through in the compounding cream flavours. A beautiful truffle, but yet again it could been even better. Good.

Noix Macadamia - This was one of my favourites from the selection and combined an outer shell of milk chocolate with a praline nougatine filling and a single macadamia piece. The milk chocolate was creamy and flavoursome, and slowly revealed a drier, rougher feeling praline below. The nutty flavours of the praline were forthcoming and sweet, though it was the salty, buttery macadamia piece that made this truffle really stand out. Very classy indeed. Superb.

Praline Blanc - This was a simple hazelnut praline chocolate that was coated in a thickish layer of Godiva white chocolate. Just as I commented on with the other white chocolate pieces, the outer portion was decent with it's creamy, sweet flavour delivery and it proved a nice foil for the praline below. The praline centre didn't offer the grandest set of woody hazelnut flavours ever, but it did have a very desirable salty note within it's nuttiness that contrasted quite wonderfully with the sweeter tasting chocolate. Very Good.

Molleux Caramel Chocolat - This was one of the simpler chocolates from the selection and constituted of an outer shell of dark chocolate, with a caramel ganache centre. The dark chocolate outer portion provided a rich, unsweetened cocoa context from the outset and it melted at a slow pace to reveal a very chewy, soft centre. Texture wise the caramel centre was like a soft a version of a riesen chocolate, and it offered a subtle buttery set of toffee flavours. On the whole it was very tasty, however I think it could have been improved further by a dash of salt. Good.


Signature Blanc Cafe - Being a coffee lover this was obviously one piece I was really looking forward to trying (I did find this one on the Godiva site!). The white chocolate exterior provided a sugary, cream rooted flavour base to the initial melt, and it pleasantly softly flowed into the darker coloured ganache filling. This centre provided a more intensive cocoa experience, but I unfortunately found the coffee influence very mild and not the strength I hoped it would be. It was a nice truffle but it was disappointing due to it's lacking coffee kick. Standard.

Croustine - Despite its small size, this was a very intricately made piece that had several different constituents to it. The outer white chocolate established a cream based taste that was further compounded by the delicious praline nougatine inside. Placed within the praline, small bits of shortbread biscuit provided very unique crunchy, buttery flavours bursts, which added to the sugar hazelnut pieces on top made for a truffle that provided an extremely exciting flavour journey. Superb.

Overall I normally don't like rating or reviewing chocolates that I get given as gifts, however I feel more than comfortable in expressing the enjoyment I got from this truffle selection. Before I go overboard I should say that these weren't necessarily Hotel Chocolat or Galler beaters, but to say they belong in the same sort of league should give you some idea of how highly I thought of them. The standout pieces for me here were definitely the Croustine and the Noix Macadamia - both of which were nothing other than totally delectable. The rest of the chocolates were similarly high quality, however some of them didn't quite deliver the same flavour experiences that the other two aforementioned pieces did. The beauty of this review is that I have barely scratched the surface of what Godiva have to offer. I really look forward to my next experience with the brand - I can't envisage it will be all that long until that time. Thanks again Rose.

8.3 out of 10

September 21st: Nestle Black Magic Classic Favourites

Kcal 144 Fat 6.5g Fat(sats) 3.3g Carbs 20.1g (per 3 sweets)

After trying my luck with the dismal scoring Nestle Dairy Box last month (See HERE), a number of ChocolateMission readers suggested that Nestle's Black Magic Classic Favourites might be a little more to my liking. Despite having never tried this selection box before, a little research (notably from the Nestle website HERE), revealed that it was first produced back in 1933 and the product gained such a loyal fan base that there was high demand for it's return when it got taken out of distribution during the early 2000's. A full history of the product can be read HERE if you are interested - for the sake of the length of the review I will move on to the more important matters at hand.

This selection box cost me £3.75 from my local Tesco and contained 18 chocolate pieces split by six varieties, including a 'selection of caramels, wholenuts and fruit cremes'. The outer packaging was ... well ... sensible given the name of the product, which is more than can be said for the relaunch of the product during the mid 2000's when Nestle chose to do so with a white coloured box!? What were they thinking!? Inside a clear menu showcased the chocolates, which have to be said looked reasonably differentiated from one another.

Summing up the chocolates below wont take me long for reasons that will soon become apparent. One thing I can say, which was applicable to all of them was the terrible quality of the chocolate. To be frank it was bland, tasteless and devoid of flavour. Now I'm fully used to mass produced 'dark chocolates' not being as fully flavoured, or renowned for their high quality ingredients versus higher end market offerings, but this dark chocolate was simply awful. It smelt of little, tasted of less and was basically just unsatisfactory .... I bet you can tell these ratings below are going to be great :D


Raspberry Parafait - We might as well start off with the worst of the lot. Unless I'm forgetting something anything obvious, this is the worst individual chocolate I have ever tasted in my life. In addition to the awful chocolate, the raspberry fondant was disgustingly fake and artificial tasting, and had no 'real' sense of raspberry flavouring about it. Awful.

Almond Crunch - This piece wasn't helped by the fact that it was mostly constituted of the dark chocolate. The almond pieces were so small they failed to generate and sense of nutty flavours of note, which altogether just made this a bland tasting, rough textured chocolate. Very Poor.

Orange Sensation - This wasn't a particularly great tasting chocolate, but it was far nicer than the inedible raspberry fondant piece. Compared to the Fry's Orange bar the fruity flavours weren't quite as juicy and the chocolate was even poorer quality. That said it was one of the passable ones of a bad selection. Standard.


Whole Hazelnut Praline - Seriously someone has to look into how these manufactures are getting away with their labelling of praline! The softer filled centre was just as flavourless as the chocolate that surrounded it, though this chocolate had one redeeming feature in it's whole hazelnut that sat in the middle. The nut flavours generated were still minimal but compared to some of the others this was at least palatable. Poor.

Dreamy Fudge - The best of a bad selection! The chocolate surrounding this piece was thankfully at it's thinnest so the fudge was the main focus of the taste. It wasn't the best quality fudge I have ever tasted, but it was fair and the buttery, cream hinted taste created was the nicest thing about the whole selection. Standard.

Caramel Caress - I have tried many great caramel flavoured chocolates in my lifetime but this certainly wasn't one of them. The caramel felt adequately soft and runny in the mouth, but it offered very little taste wise aside from a sharp burst of sugary flavours. It had no butter or salt flavours to offer, which in my book made it more of a syrup than it did a caramel. Very Poor.


Overall this review isn't going to be help me out dispelling the myth that I'm secretly anti-Nestle, but I have to tell it like it is, and this was nothing other than an extremely poor box of chocolates. Perhaps I'm just living on a completely different planet to the loyal fan base, but from what I tasted this was simply just a collection of poorly flavoured pieces that had some seriously bad dark chocolate coating them. The one piece that really stood out to me was the Raspberry Parafait - I can't see how anyone alive (or dead!) could get any sort of enjoyment from such a fowl, artificial tasting fondant. I don't want to write too much more because I would rather spend time writing reviews about products that I enjoy. If you have your own views on the Nestle Black Magic Classic Favourites I would love to hear them - don't be afraid to argue your point if you think differently.

4.6 out of 10

September 20th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss

Kcal 220 Fat 13.9g Fat(sats) 8.3g Carbs 21.4g

Only a few weeks after reading the original press release I today got the opportunity to try the new Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss thanks to being a sent a sample by one of Cadbury's PR agencies. If you missed the articles I posted in my last two '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' news roundups you can see the statements that Cadbury released to the trade HERE. In those articles they make reference to a '£2.2m marketing campaign', as well as a partnership with Nails. Inc (oh joy! Haha). Suffice to say, it would appear that Cadbury are taking this new launch pretty seriously. After the disappointment of some of their latest 'innovations' (I'm thinking Cadbury Wishes and Cadbury Spots V Stripes) I had a little more confidence that this 'Dairy Milk milk chocolate with a vanilla centre' proposition may well prove to be a little bit more to my liking.

The new Bliss bar comes in a 41.0g size and with an RRP of £0.53. My first impressions of the wrapper were that it was remarkably similar to the Cadbury Dairy Milk Apricot Crumble (See HERE). Had it not been for the Bliss branding and on-pack vanilla flower and pod pictures, it would have been almost impossible to tell the two apart. Although I think it would have been wiser for them to have made the packaging a little different, I altogether still thought it was pleasing on the eye. The chocolate inside came in a different style of Cadbury block than I have seen before, with the bar devised into six nicely sized chunks that had smooth edges. When cut in to, the filling looked nice and plentiful, with small specs of black vanilla pod evident throughout the cream colour centre.

Taking in the aromas on offer from the chocolate, the smells were distinctly Cadbury with the usual milk and sweet chocolate scents seemingly unaffected by the large proportion of vanilla flavoured filling. As soon as I placed the first block in my mouth, the outer Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate began it's well paced caressing melt and fast established it's delicious cream based, sweet cocoa flavours. As much as I enjoyed the Dairy Milk chocolate, my overall perceptions were obviously going to be determined by the quality of the vanilla filling, and I'm delighted to tell you that I thought it was very tasty. To be honest I was fearing an overly sweet, artificial tasting gloop, but in actual fact what I tasted was a very well balanced filling. The cream and vanilla flavours delivered weren't the strongest, but the mild suggestion of both worked nicely in tandem with the chocolate and progressed the taste with a pleasant elegance. Texture wise the filling had a slightly drier feel, which did well in prolonging it's longevity in the mouth and thus added aided it's mild flavour impact. Eating the whole bar in a single sitting was by no means a problem for me. If anything I think it could have done with being a little bigger given the lightly flavoured filling.

Overall after the last two disappointments we have had with Cadbury's latest innovations it is nice to see them return to some sort of form with this Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss offering. I'm not sure if Kraft had any sort of hand in the concept generation or manufacturing of this product, but I did get a sense when I was eating this bar, that it was highly reminiscent of some previous chocolates I have tried from Milka. Given my liking of Dairy Milk chocolate I was never concerned about the quality of that part of the product - it was always going to be all about the vanilla flavoured centre. To my delight it exceeded all my prior expectations, and actually reminded me a lot of the Ritter Sport Stracciatella that I lauded earlier this summer. The vanilla element was genuine tasting and just about the right strength to enhance the chocolate rather than try and overpower it. If we think about some of Cadbury's innovations I have reviewed over the last few years (even months) I haven't always been so confident about them sticking around on our shelves for long. In my opinion the Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss has a better chance of passing the test of time than several of the last few offerings. If you fancy the sound of the Bliss it is certainly worth giving a trying - I would love to hear your opinions.

8.2 out of 10

September 18/19th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 55

SEPTEMBER 18th: Cadbury Wishes

'Milk chocolate star with textured milk chocolate and truffle centre'
Kcal 165 Fat 9.9g Fat(sats) 5.8g Carbs 17.2g

Just like last week I'm going to disrupt the usual style of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' with a mini post about these new Cadbury Wishes. Last weekend I couldn't quite believe it when my eyes became fixated on a set of shelves bearing Christmas products in Tesco. Just one week into September and the supermarkets are already three months ahead of the rest of us - unbelievable huh!? Nestled in and amongst all the standard fair Cadbury Roses and Nestle Quality Street tins, these new Cadbury Wishes were shouting out for me to give them a try. You may recall earlier this year that I posted an article in a previous '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which told the PR story behind the concept of the product.

To keep this review short and succinct I can straight off the bat tell you that these Cadbury Wishes are quite simply Cadbury Wispas moulded in to the shape of stars. Is this a bad thing!? Well no, not really! The packaging looked very smart and there was obviously no expense spared with the thick gold foil wrapping material which gave the product exceptional stand out. The inner chocolate star was pretty awkward to eat given it's large size and crumbly contents, however I couldn't really begrudge this given the concept of the product.

When it came to taste it served up exactly the experience I was expecting. Being Cadbury milk chocolate it was sweet and milky in taste and delivered all the usual Cadbury chocolate pleasantries - there was no differentiation between the taste of the outer chocolate and 'truffle centre which came described on the packaging'. Compared to a Wispa bar the inner aerated texture half wasn't quite as well implemented given the thinness at which it melted. The bubbly sensation created was apparent, yet just not quite as profound and ultimately pretty short lived.

Overall I don't think I will be stocking up on these for myself during the run up to Christmas, but at the same time I would be more than happy with the thought of gifting them as a small present for a friend. A dosage of Cadbury Caramel or some sort of nut praline would probably have livened up the 'truffle' portion of this Cadbury Wishes quite nicely, though I guess this would add to the complexity of the production and significantly lower the contribution they could make to charity. It's not a must try product for it's quality but at least you can feel happy in the knowledge that a portion of your monies is going to a good cause.

7.4 out of 10



News from the Chocolate Market

* As reported a few weeks ago there is further news on Mars cutting the levels of saturated fat in their products ... See HERE

* House of Dorchester (errr who!?) are launching a new range of mini slabs into Sainsbury's ... See HERE

* La Maison du Chocolat are launching a new range of chocolates in time for Chocolate Week coming up ... See HERE

* Great news - the lemon flavoured Jaffa Cakes are coming back for a limited period ... See HERE

* Behold .... the worlds biggest chocolate bar ... See HERE

* Incase you missed it - Cadbury are launching a new bar called Cadbury Bliss ... See HERE


Posts from other blogs I enjoyed this week

* GiGiReviews - I hadn't see a review of a new Hershey's Kisses flavour for months. Gi put that right with her views on the new Caramel Apple flavour ... See HERE

* Foodstufffinds - The guys/gals at FFF managed to pull an all nighter to see in the launch of Halo Reach this week. They needed the help of a very curious looking energy drink to do so mind you ... See HERE

* It's all about limited edition - Franzi took a first look at some of the new flavours of Milka to be seen out in Germany. She was even kind enough to send me some :D reviews soon! ... See HERE

* Japanese Snack Reviews - Hmmmm if you don't like the look of little dead dried fish mixed in with almonds I suggest you stay well away. These do not look appetising ... See HERE

* ImpulsiveBuy - French toast and sausage in the same breakfast? I don't know whether this is greed or genius!? Marvo didn't seem to think to much of the idea mind you ... See HERE

* Candyblog - Cybele has been taking photos of fruit this week ..... haha candied fruit that is :D ... See HERE

September 17th: GU Brownies

Kcal 178 Fat 10.7g Fat(sats) 5.7g Carbs 20.0g (per brownie)

After receiving dozens of reader requests asking me to look at GU's desserts range I finally decided to oblige, and I today bring you my review of these GU Brownies. I found these brownies in the unusual location of the fresh desserts chiller cabinet during my weekly shopping trip to Sainsbury's. I don't know if GU have come to some corporate arrangement with Sainsbury's, but the entire contents of these shelves were dominated by GU products apart from the Sainsbury's own brand fresh cakes - before anyone asks I'm pretty sure these can also be bought in the likes of Tesco etc. On the box these came described as 'chocolate brownies made with 50% cocoa chocolate and pecan nuts'.

I'm not altogether sure of the weight of the box, but inside there were 8 individually wrapped brownies. In terms of price, I have to admit that the £4 I payed for these did seem pretty hefty at the time - suffice to say it noticeably added a fair wedge on my final store receipt. Presentation wise I was altogether pretty impressed. The dome shaped box was no doubt a pain in the backside to photograph :D , but I thought it looked cool nonetheless and it was very easy to store in my fridge. The brownies themselves also looked appetising on the eye, though I wasn't particularly impressed by the aromas that were released from their plastic packets. The chocolate cake smells on offer weren't at all unappealing (far from it!), but I was expecting them to be far stronger for products that were supposedly 'fresh'.

What with these brownies being 'freshly made' they had a relatively short 'best before' date of one week, so I took these into work to share with my ever grateful work colleagues. To make sure we had all bases covered we of course tried these brownies in a number of different ways - straight from the fridge, heated, and lastly, and most indulgently, with some Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. Despite trying them all these different ways the experience they delivered was pretty similar each time, and there were obvious positives and negatives. Speaking about the good stuff first, these brownies were more than adequately satisfying and they established a rich chocolate experience from the very first bite. The taste was laden with unsweetened cocoa flavours that built with every chew, and additionally there were minor nutty offerings from the pecans. Moving on to the not so positive feedback from some of my colleagues, they felt that the brownies were a little one dimensional with their dense, viscous texture. A lot of them remarked that good brownies have crisp, light outer portions and then soft gooey centres - these were simply just slabs of dense brownie cake. A more personal gripe of my own was that the pecans could have been better implemented had they been larger in size. I think the flavour impact would have greater had they been bigger, and they would have brought a crunchy element to the one dimensional texture problem. Out of all these methods the situation where these brownies shone were when they were heated with the ice cream - believe me this made for one devilishly rich dessert.

Overall these were some very tasty brownies but there are some glaring areas where I think they could be fractionally improved. One thing that I can have no complaints about whatsoever was the quality of the dark chocolate used, it was exceedingly rich tasting and flavoursome for just a 50% cocoa recipe. People who suffer from nut allergies obviously wont agree with me here, but the pecan nuts were also a fantastic inclusion, though as I mentioned above they could have been even more genius had they been larger in size and not chopped so finely. It may sound like I am being overly critical here but you have to remember I am always comparing these to the truly superb Heavenly Cakes Milk Chocolate Brownie which I once described as "the best plain brownie I think I have ever had the delight of eating". If we put Heavenly Cakes aside for just being in a class of their own, these GU Brownies are at least worth taking a look at if brownies are your thing. They are a little expensive and by no means perfect, but they are still some very tasty cakes indeed - more GU cakes coming soon.

7.6 out of 10

September 16th: Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Brazils / Macadamias

You may have noticed recently that I have been reviewing some of Hotel Chocolat's more obscure products (covered fruit offerings - Sultanas, Mango Strips etc) and have been experimenting with parts of their range other than their standard chocolate offerings. Two more products sent my way recently by Hotel Chocolate HQ were these Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Brazils & Chocolate Macadamias. Had you asked me a few years or so ago whether I would be that keen on trying these, I would have probably declined as nuts were never something that stirred great excitement inside of me. Having tasted just how tasty some chocolate nut products can be over the past three years, my views have of course changed somewhat so I was of course very keen to give them both a try.

Both of these variants came in 125.0g bags that contained around 20 or so nut pieces in each. I have commented at length previously about the plastic bag presentation before so I needn't probably go in to much detail again - suffice to say I think it is an area that Hotel Chocolat could improve in presenting some of their products, I don't think it quite meets the premium brand perception that their products command. With the said the both the types of nuts looked fantastically authentic when bitten in to. My photos probably wont do them justice, but both the brazils and the macadamias looked terrifically golden and ripe in colour sat below the thick outer shells of milk chocolate. The cocoa powder dusted on each nut type was a nice touch, however it did take away some degree of practicality to eating them outside the home.

Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Brazils - 'Whole roasted Brazil nuts panned in milk chocolate and cocoa powder'. These nuts were slightly longer in shape compared to the fatter macadamias though the chocolate was still equally as thick. The 40% milk chocolate delivered it's usual cream rooted sweet cocoa flavours, though it was of course the nuts which mostly dictated the taste. The Brazils broke with a delightful crisp freshness and with a nice crunch in the mouth. The flavours generated by the nuts weren't the strongest but there were tones of butter and nice earthyness which established a pleasant savoury flavour contrast to the sweeter chocolate.

Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Macadamias - 'Whole roasted macadamia nuts panned in milk chocolate and cocoa powder'. I could literally cut and paste my thoughts on the impression created by the milk chocolate from above - it did exactly the same job here. The differentiation was obviously bought about by the nuts at the heart of each piece. In contrast to the Brazils, the macadamias were sweeter in taste and had a fuller bodied, richer butteryness then left a slightly longer lasting flavour impression in the mouth. Like the Brazils these broke with a very fresh crunchy sensation - the textures of both nuts were fantastic.

Overall both these Chocolate Brazil and Macadamia products proved themselves to be decent offerings without ever providing the wow factor that comes with so many other Hotel Chocolat products. Everything from the packaging, presentation and subsequent taste of both varieties was decent enough and on the whole up to standard, but given some of the other really special things that Hotel Chocolat offer they understandably didn't prove themselves to be anything out of this world. If you were to ask me which of the two nut types I prefer I would probably settle for the macadamias as I found them to be the richer tasting out of the two. With that said I would be more than happy to settle for the Brazils, as they were equally as tasty, just not perhaps as fulfilling. Whilst I wont be recommending these as a 'must try' Hotel Chocolat product I would feel more than happy gifting them or picking them up myself for a tasty daily grazing snack.

Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Brazils - 7.3 out of 10
Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Macadamias - 7.5 out of 10

September 15th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cakes & Chocolate Biscuits # 5

You must all know the drill by now when it comes to my 'Bits n Bobs' posts - multiple products and snapshot reviews. Today three products take centre stage, two of which are 'biscuit' bar versions of some Nestle's best selling chocolate bars. The other is a first ever appearance for Kellogg's Pop Tarts.


Nestle Toffee Crisp - Kcal 99 Fat 5.2g Fat(sats) 3.4g Carbs 9.2g (per bar)

These bars come described as 'biscuit pieces, crisped cereal and caramel, covered in milk chocolate'. Those of you who have never read my original Nestle Toffee Crisp review will want to take a look HERE. The Toffee Crisp has always been a bit of favourite of mine (hence the 8.5 out of 10 rating!), though reasons unbeknown to myself I had never tried these biscuit bars. In stature they were around a quarter of the size of an original bar but the only difference I noticed visually (apart from scale!) were the small bits of biscuit amongst the rice cereal centre. I would love to say that the biscuit pieces had a massive impact on the taste, but to be honest it was still the chocolate and toffee caramel elements that dominated each bite. Just like the normal sized bars these were still a little unsubstantial due to the light airy centres. More importantly though they were still every bit as delicious with their mixture of sweet caramel and chocolate flavours, and the variety of textures were still as varied and glorious. I would buy them again for our tea room - they are just great for just a little chocolaty snack.

7.7 out of 10




Nestle Yorkie Biscuit Bar - Kcal 123 Fat 6.2g Fat(sats) 3.6g Carbs 10.3g

Having just reviewed a biscuit bar version of one of my favourite Nestle products, I now move on to one of my lesser favoured offerings of theirs. Looking back at my review of the Nestle Yorkie Original (See HERE) I must have been in a good mood as think my score of 7.8 out of 10 was probably a little generous - it is only just a bar of average tasting milk chocolate after all. Anyway the notorious £1 deals in my local Tesco persuaded me to give these Yorkie biscuit bars a try and they came billed as 'bourbon biscuits covered with milk chocolate'. To my surprise I actually enjoyed these a whole lot more than I thought I would. My views on the quality of the chocolate haven't changed (a fair standard, cheap recipe sugary milk chocolate), but the biscuit just gave a little bit extra to the total Yorkie experience. It was crunchy and buttery in taste and offered a minor suggestion of salt - it quite simply provided a normal chocolate biscuit experience but with an added dose of average tasting milk chocolate which resultingly made it a little more substantial snack wise. I would be more than happy to buy them again.

7.8 out of 10




Kellogg's Pop Tarts Chocotastic - Kcal 198 Fat 6.0g Fat(Sats) 2.5g Carbs 17.0g (per tart)

After a few reader requests I finally caved in and gave these Kellogg's Pop Tarts a try. If you look on the several American food importer websites, Pop Tarts are big business in America and the seem to offer an never ending number of different flavours. In the UK it appears we only have the two - including of course this 'Chocotastic' variety. On the box they came described as 'chocolate flavour filling in a frosted pastry', the nutritional information and ingredients list revealed that each tart mainly consisted of sugar! To test drive these out I replaced my usual bowl of breakfast cereal with two of these toasted Pop Tarts. In terms of taste the outer portions of each tart were quite nice and I thought the chocolate pastry, although a tad dry, was pleasant when washed down with milk. At first I also found the centre bit reasonably tasty with it's chocolate syrup flavours, but it wasn't long before I found it overbearing in terms of it's sweetness and I couldn't stomach over half of the second tart. Personally I don't think I will be replacing my usual cereal with these anytime soon. They might be nice as the odd treat but I just can't imagine anyone being able to eat them everyday! They get a very, very generous score of 7 out of 10 for taste.

6.7 out of 10