October 19th: Niederegger Marzipan Flavoured Selection

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

You must all be sick of me saying this already, but the holiday season is just around the corner so expect a deluge of seasonal chocolate treats being reviewed on this site up until the end of year. Of course one of the most common confectionery products consumed around Christmas time is marzipan, served on cakes, tarts, pies and of course chocolates. Up until a few years ago when I started running this site, I simply couldn't handle the stuff ... that was until I tried Niederegger marzipan of course :D In my not so subtle opinion, I think Niederegger is the best marzipan out there on the market bar none (previous reviews See HERE).

What for my love of Niederegger Marzipan, you can probably understand my great excitement when I came across this mini selection of their different marzipan flavours. Contained within this 100.0g box there were two mini sampling chocolates of their Pistachio, Orange, Pineapple and Espresso varieties. All of these different flavours were wrapped in cute foil wrappers, which I thought was a lovely way of presenting such a product. All of the different flavours were coated by an exterior layer of 50% dark chocolate. Like I have remarked upon in previous reviews, this bittersweet chocolate wasn't exactly the most flavoursome or best quality chocolate I have ever tasted, however it carried the marzipan fillings to a more than satisfactory level. Below are my thoughts and ratings on the different flavours:

Pistachio - This was certainly the most aesthetically striking with it's green coloured tinged centre and it was one I was most looking forward to trying. Despite including a healthy 3.1% pistachio content, the flavours of that particular nut failed to overcome the greater strength of the almonds which left me feeling a little disappointed. It was still very tasty, but didn't live up to my lofty expectations.

Orange - These pieces contained a minimal sounding 1.2% orange peel but the fruity flavours created were nicely forthcoming. What with the pieces being so small they were easily consumable in two mouthfuls, though in both the orange element came to the party with a refreshing, citrusy juiceyness. On the other hand this was the most generic flavour in the box in terms of innovation, and I'm not sure I would want a full bar of it. Lets not grumble though, like the pistachio flavour it was tasty option nonetheless.

Pineapple - As a common drink of pineapple juice I was looking forward to trying this one and it didn't disappoint. Despite the pineapple effect being created by 'pineapple natural flavourings', the sweet fruity flavours were still very 'real' tasting and proved to be a pleasant match with the doughy, almond flavours of the base marzipan. Compared to the orange variety the taste came across as a more exciting and unique experience. I would buy a bigger bar of this for sure.

Espresso - Previously reviewed, opinions consistent. See HERE.

Overall Niederegger certainly offer a wide range of different flavours that will obviously appeal to different people based on their own particular tastes. For me the real stand out variety from this small collection of four here was the pineapple. It was unlike anything I had tried previously, and I thought the flavour balance of the sweet fruit and almond driven marzipan was a fine synergy of ingredients. Whilst I love Niederegger for their marzipan competence I unfortunately can't gloss over the fact that their chocolate could still do with a bit of work. Some may argue that a stronger tasting chocolate may detract from the marzipan, however I'm more in the school of thought that the chocolate is mostly experienced before the marzipan comes in to action in the taste, so that argument is rather ill founded. In regards to this product I would suggest it as a wonderful way to sample some of Niederegger's flavour options. It's certainly worth a buy for any marzipan fan.

Pistachio - 7.4 out of 10
Orange - 7.8 out of 10
Pineapple - 8.6 out of 10
Espresso - 8.3 out of 10

October 18th: 'Bits n Bobs' Halloween Cake Bar Special

Today you get an extra special 'Bits n Bobs', New Product Monday, Halloween Cake Bar Selection post ... you lucky things :D

Somehow or other, Halloween seems to be creeping up on us all already, but hey we have probably all known that for a while now given that our supermarkets have been stocking Halloween products for the last two months :D Over the course of this time I have been trying out various Halloween Cake Bars that have been created by both Cadbury and McVitie's. As you will see from the wrappers I think the presentation points have to go to Cadbury for making slightly more of an effort than McVitie's this year. The Jaffa Cake bars were a little subdued with their Halloween efforts don't you think? Below are my thoughts on the Halloween offerings this year.

Cadbury Cake Bars Scary Orange

Kcal 120 Fat 4.7g Fat(sats) 2.7g Carbs 18.4g (per cake bar)
'Golden sponge with a red coloured orange flavour topping, covered with milk chocolate'

Someone at Cadbury must have put in an excessive order on the red food colouring for Halloween, you will see what I mean in the coming days - literally everything they are making this year contains the stuff!

This needn't be a long review as I pretty much said all I had to say about this particular product in my review of the Cadbury Jaffa Cake Bars back in January (See HERE). What with the market and 99%.0 of consumers already satisfied when it comes to Jaffa Cakes thanks to McVitie's, I personally think Cadbury needn't aswell bother. To be frank, the addition of the red food colouring did little change to my mind whatsoever from what I wrote in January. Compared to the unsweetened chocolate coating you get on the McVitie's Jaffa Cake Bars, the sweeter tasting milk chocolate simply didn't work as well. The orange flavoured filling was decent enough, but even that lacked the zingy, citrus flavour impact you get from the aforementioned competitor. Unless you really hate 'dark' chocolate I see little reason to buy these.

7.0 out of 10



McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Lemon & Slime Cake Bars

Kcal 95 Fat 3.5g Fat(sats) 1.8g Carbs 15.0g (per cake bar)
'Dark crackly chocolate and light sponge with a lemon and lime centre'

This time last year I remember posting a news link on '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' announcing the launch of these McVitie's Jaffa Cake Lemon & Slime bars. Unfortunately I never actually came across them in the shops, thus I never got the chance to give them a try. This year I'm glad to say I managed to track them down in Sainsbury's amongst all the other Halloween cakes.

Despite my failure in 2009 to try these, you may remember my review of the McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Lemon Cake Bars which I posted just a few months back in June (See HERE). In that review I made the controversial call that I liked the lemon filling better than the original Jaffa orange - believe me I copped it a bit from readers for having that opinion haha!. The lemon and lime flavoured filling here was very similar in terms of taste, though there was just an extra sharpness coming through from the lime which made them ever so slightly more acidic compared to the solus lemon bars. As I did with the previous I thought this fruity filling was very well balanced with the chocolate and the light sponge, it's such a shame that McVitie's don't make these lemon varieties a permanent part of their line up. Please note these are 'limited edition' again so be sure to grab some if you fancy trying them - if you like Jaffa Cakes I advise you do!

7.6 out of 10



Cadbury Trick or Treat Mini Rolls Blackcurrant & Vanilla

Kcal 125 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 2.8g Carbs 17.7g
'Golden sponge with blackcurrant jam and a vanilla flavour filling, covered with milk chocolate'.

If we were dishing out scored based on longest names ever then these Cadbury Trick or Treat Mini Rolls Blackcurrant & Vanilla would certainly give a lot of products a run for their money. I have to hold my hands up here, I really don't like jam of any sort and would never crucify a fine bit of toast by having that instead of my beloved marmite. When it comes to cakes I always find jam can make them taste to sweet for my own liking - this is probably why I have never bothered reviewing the original strawberry jam variant of Cadbury Mini Rolls.

Why did I review these then? Well truth be told I needed a third product to make up the numbers for this post - but boy am I glad I did buy them. Without doubt these are the nicest Cadbury Mini Rolls I think I have ever tried - in my opinion even better than the originals. I needn't remark about the chocolate or the sponge, you will all know the sweet milky cocoa treat they serve up. It was the combination of the genuine and real red berries flavours of the blackcurrant filling (which reminded me a lot of Ribena!) and the creamy vanilla centre that really made these special. Neither were too sweet or overly dominant in the taste, they were just nicely balanced and very surprisingly fresh tasting for a mass produced product. I liked these so much I've bought another pack already - easily the best out of the cake bar selection for this years Halloween.

8.2 out of 10

October 16/17th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 57

### JIM's Corner ###

Hi All,

It has been an extremely active week on the site with a record number of contributions from readers :D Keep it up please it is always great to hear from you.

Today '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' takes a slightly different form - starting off with my ramblings here, a bit of chocolate news, and then lastly a special look at a Hotel Chocolat Halloween special.

This week I had over 10.0 kg of chocolate produce arrive from several different companies .... it must be nearing Christmas time eh!? All I can say is be on the look out for more reviews from Hotel Chocolat, Ritter Sport, Kschocolat, Heavenly Cakes and more crazy Japanese chocolates all coming very soon.

I have come so over burdened with chocolate as of late I will be running yet another Twitter based competition for some free chocolate this week. Keep a close eye out for that - See my Twitter feed HERE.

Have great weeks and please keep on adding your opinions to the site. It makes it all the better if it's not just myself rating and talking about these products.

JIM


News from the chocolate market

* This Marmite chocolate story has certainly been receiving a lot of coverage ... See HERE

* If you like the Galaxy Bubbly you will be pleased to hear it is being made in a bigger size ... See HERE

* It's been chocolate week and I have failed to attend any sort of event ... See HERE

... luckily some of my twitter chums at Chocablog, ChocolateReviews, ChocolateEcstasyTours have all been doing the rounds at several of the events. Check out their sites for some amazing coverage.

* Green & Black's have made their mini bar selection even bigger - See HERE

* Thanks to CM reader Thea for this one ... the V&A museum in London has a chocolate themed exhibition on ... See HERE

* Thorntons own brand stores are starting to struggle, this is what happens when you spread yourselves too thinly chaps ... See HERE ... let's just hope their Christmas range delivers the goods ... See HERE

* Here is an interesting report by Datamonitor which documents the rising sales of chocolate in the recession ... See HERE

* Please tell me this is a joke ... Cadbury already talking about their 2011 Easter range ... See HERE

* If you like chocolate truffles this will tickle your fancy ... See HERE

* Lastly .... Chocolate is good for us ... the latest story from the Daily Mail ... See HERE


JIM's HALLOWEEN RECOMMENDED

You may have noticed that my Halloween reviews started earlier this week with my review of the Hotel Chocolat Little Box of Horrors (See HERE). Well given the wide range of Hotel Chocolat's Halloween this range this year I wouldn't possibly have the chance to give each them a full separate review, so over the coming weeks I will quickly showcase the ones I think are most deserving of your consideration this year on the end of my weekly '7Days...' posts.

This weekend I've picked these Hotel Chocolate Boo! White Chocolates. These were pretty much identical to the original milk chocolate BOO! I featured in 2008 (See HERE), though with the obvious adaptation of being made of white chocolate. The Boo! package weighed in at 180.0g and contained 16 'ghoulish pieces' including Bewitching Bats, Scrummy Skills and Tasty Tombstones. The shapes were not only fun looking and well crafted, but the 31% milk solids chocolate was also about as delicious as white chocolate comes. With the taste heavily rooted in a rich creamy milkyness, there were additional notes of honey and bourbon vanilla which made for a naturally progressive and incredibly moreish overall experience. Hotel Chocolat simply know what they are doing when it comes to white chocolate, so if you want your fill this Halloween I highly recommend these. Just please don't go wasting them on pesky tricky or treaters.

8.4 out of 10

BUY YOUR HALLOWEEN CHOCOLATES HERE

October 15th: Terry's Chocolate Orange White Chocolate Smasher

Kcal 132 Fat 7.2g Fat(sats) 4.3g Carbs 14.5g (per 25.0g - 3 segments)

It's still a good nine weeks until Christmas, but kicking off my Christmas 2011 reviews this year we have a limited edition offering from one of the true British classics - Terry's Chocolate Orange. The supermarket shelves adourning the Christmas chocolates, biscuits and nuts have been stacked for weeks now, and sitting right in amongst everything at Tesco I found this 'White Chocolate Smasher' variety. Last year you may remember that I took a look at Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowball and awarded it a semi decent 7.9 out of 10, classing it as a 'surprisingly good quality mass produced white chocolate'. This 'Smasher' version came billed as pretty much the same product, however with the addition of 'colourful crystal pieces'.

Like all Terry's Chocolate Oranges, this variety came in a 170.0g form that was split in to 20 individual segments. The presentation was .... well colourful to say the least. The outer cardboard box was decorated with some puzzling symbols and icons including boxing gloves, love hearts and butterflies (not too sure what that was all about), but it looked pleasant on the eye nonetheless. Unwaravelled from it's foil wrapper the traditional chocolate orange segmentation was further decorated by the promised 'colourful crystals'. On one hand I thought they looked interesting, but on another I also didn't quite feel like they fitted with the cult classic Terry's look.

Most the time white chocolate doesn't really smell of too much so it was unsurprising that it was just a mild set of orange smells emanating from the chocolate. It's pretty likely that the majority of my loyal readers will already know what I'm going to say about this particular chocolate. Yes indeed my conclusion was that the crystal candy pieces were an uncessary addition, but let me take you through the experience anyway :D . Upon placing the first piece in my mouth I was met with a sweet orangey, milky set of flavours that developed a pleasant vanilla note once the smooth melt had picked up pace. As the chocolate melted the crystal pieces came in to play, roughing up the texture before being left as remanants once the surrounding chocolate had disappeared. Crunching down on the remaining candy pieces, a rush of sweet flavours left a rather generic sugary taste in the mouth. Given the sweetness of the chocolate already, I didn't find this a welcome addition to the taste at all. Resultingly this wasn't a chocolate I felt like I could eat in any great quantity.

Overall I was disappointed, yet not overly surprised with what I thought about this seasonal offering my Terry's. Last year when I tried the Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowball I was fully expecting to find the white chocolate to be cheap tasting, overly sugar laden, mass produced rubbish (not mentioning any names *ahem* Cadbury Dream *ahem*). As you will have read that, chocolate by all means exceeded my expectations - it wasn't the best white chocolate I have ever tasted, but it did well to compliment the fruitiness of the orange. The only hope I held out for this 'White Chocolate Smasher' variety was that it was going to add bit of colour to the affair, whilst not detracting either taste or texture. Unfortunately by my accounts I thought it hampered both, making the aftertaste searingly sugary, and ruining the feel of the soft melting chocolate with it's jagged, sharp edges. Unless you are buying this for sugar hungry kids I wouldn't recommend it.

6.9 out of 10

October 14th: Chocri 'Jim's Coffee Creation'

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

I'm sure you will have seen several sites on the chocolate blogosphere featuring these guys before, but if are yet to come across the Germany company Chocri please allow me to introduce them to you (website See HERE). Chocri are a German company founded in 2008 and they have recently expanded their operations in to the US & UK in 2010. The idea behind Chocri chocolate is simple - you log on to their website and construct your very own chocolate bar choosing from a wide variety of different chocolate bases and additional ingredients. The possibilities and combinations you can make are quite simply endless, you can literally create any bar you desire. Over a year ago I was contacted by Chocri in Germany, however only recently took them up on their kind offer of letting me create some of my own bars. Today I'm showcasing you 'Jim's Coffee Creation' ... come on it wasn't like I was ever going to make a chocolate bar without coffee being involved somewhere :D

'Jim's Coffee Creation' consisted of a dark chocolate base with 'bourbon vanilla, mini biscuits, coffee beans, cappuccino chocolate drops and macadamia nuts' and came in a bar that I would guess weighed in at around the 100.0g mark. All three of my creations (yes another review to follow!) came in a single parcel from Germany that included a decent amount of padding and wrapping to ensure everything arrived in tip top condition. Presentation wise I was pretty impressed with the chocolate at hand. The exterior generic packaging was decorated with it's own 'Jim's Coffee Creation' label, which included details of the ingredients and a handy code for reordering. The bar itself was similarly impressive, with the constituents well dispersed throughout the chocolate as well as some blocked grooves on the underside to aid breaking it apart.

Taking the chocolate out of it's plastic sleeve it was nice to met with a promising set of fresh smelling chocolate and coffee scents that set my expectations of the taste to follow really quite high. As you will have seen above I chose a dark chocolate base for this particular 'Jim creation' and I learnt on the back of the packaging that this was a 64% cocoa recipe. In terms of quality the dark chocolate was of a fair to decent standard that I would say was most comparable to that of Moser Roth. I wouldn't say it had the depth of flavour of the likes of Lindt's 70% recipe or any of Hotel Chocolat's dark chocolates, but the unsweetened cocoa flavours were flavoursome enough and had undertones of acidic fruitiness. Just as the smells suggested the coffee element was pretty soundly implemented, with the beans and chocolate drops bringing intermittent bursts of mild coffee flavours to the party. The whole macadamia nuts and biscuit constituents were similarly well dispersed throughout, though both were more notable for the differentiation they brought texture wise rather than the strength of the minor nutty and buttery offerings they added to the taste. My only real mistake with this bar was my choice of the vanilla ingredient, which generated an unnecessary artificial sweetness to the aftertaste. This was extra silly of me given the inclusion of vanilla in the chocolate base already - woops!!

Overall my first impressions of Chocri are that the potential and possibilities they offer are just slightly ahead of the end quality they deliver. The idea of creating your own chocolate bar is almost like a dream for any chocoholic and judging from this bar alone they try to create that dream using ingredients of a more than fair standard. Speaking from the experience of having tried several other brands, I wouldn't say the dark chocolate they offered here was of the highest standard, though in a way the laid back flavours of the chocolate were well suited given that it was the flavours of my added ingredients that I wanted to come to the fore. The vanilla aside I was pretty happy with my choice of additives. None of them particularly sparkled in my eyes, but the coffee taste generated was decent enough and the biscuit and nuts were pleasant if just a little passive flavour wise. Looking at the Chocri website, had I purchased this 100.0g bar myself it would have cost me £5.50 before postage - a hefty price tag. The novelty of creating my own chocolate bar was fantastic, but had this been a bar of chocolate I bought from a shelf I would probably have been disappointed for the price. There are a few more Chocri 'Jim Creations' to follow - I wonder if they will fair any better?

7.4 out of 10

October 13th: Lindt Swiss Luxury Selection

With the holiday season just coming round the corner I thought I better pack in as many chocolate selection box reviews this year as possible - after all is there any better gift than a quality box of chocolates?

Being showcased today we have this Lindt Swiss Luxury Selection, which is a box you can find on sale in most decent UK retailers. The Swiss Luxury Selection comes in a number of different sizes including a larger 250.0g box - I decided to plump for the smaller 145.0g collection which included an impressive eight varieties. As ever with Lindt presentation was not an after thought. The box looked glorious with it's clever use of stylish fonts and gold colours, whilst I'm sure you will agree that the pieces below all looked wonderfully crafted. Below are my thoughts on each of the different chocolates included in this 'selection of finest milk, dark and white chocolates'.

Dragon Noir - An outer shell of dark chocolate, filled with hazelnut gianduja. The mouth feel of this chocolate was absolutely exquisite and the crisp snap of the outer shell perfectly contrasted with the softer centered gianduja. As delicious as it was the strength of the dark chocolate dominated any sort of nutty flavours coming through - I think a better pairing would have been with milk chocolate. Good.

Caramelita - Double-layered caramel with a rich bitter-sweet chocolate. Once again the textures created by the different creme and gooey caramel layers was exquisite and created a sensational feeling melt. The chocolate shell was perhaps a little thin for my liking, whilst both caramels were a little floral and honey like for my taste. I'm being overly critical again :D Good.

Pointe de Chocolate - A chocolate filling coated with dark and light milk chocolate. This didn't sound the most compelling in the selection but it actually turned out to be one of my favourites. The textural differentiation from the outer to inner layers created a delightful truffle experience, whilst the creamy flavours of the lighter milk chocolate led perfectly into the richer cocoa taste of the dark. Very Good.

Carre de Stracciatella - Cocoa bits and cookie chunks, coated in white and dark chocolate. Without doubt this was the best in the box (annoyingly only portioned once!). The creamy flavours of the outer white chocolate were somehow made even creamier by the Stracciatella filling which also contributed strong tones of vanilla. The crunchy cookie pieces were subtle yet hugely flavour enhancing with their additional bursts of cocoa flavours. Superb.

Amande Croquante - An almond piece embedded in almond creme, coated in milk chocolate. Both the milk chocolate and almond cream filling were deliciously creamy and brought strong notes of milk and butter to the party. My only disappointment with this piece was that there was no whole almond piece in sight - instead there were smaller fragments of almond placed in the centre creme. It was still very tasty. Very Good.

Couer a l'Orange - Orange caramel ontop of a dark chocolate ganache, covered in dark chocolate. This was one for you fruit chocolate lovers out there, this was sublime! The dark chocolate was well balanced in in terms of it's strength and brought an unsweetened cocoa taste to the fore before the orange caramel came out of hiding tucked inside. The caramel was very sweet but had a zesty, real tasting orange fruitiness to it that lingered long in mouth for a good deal of time afterwards. Very Good.
Perle de Cacao - A smooth fine-grade cocoa filling, with cocoa flakes, coated in milk and dark chocolate, topped with a chocolate pearl. This piece looked and sounded sensational and it didn't let iself down. The outer milk chocolate was crisp when bitten into, and the feel of the inner chocolate truffle melting was near perfection. The combination of all the different constituents meant the cocoa volume increased with every second the chocolate was in the mouth. The chocolate pearl was a delicate touch. Superb.

Macchiato - A milk chocolate cup, filled with coffee cream and topped with white chocolate. The coffee element was of course not as strong as I desired, however this didn't stop this chocolate being another outstanding truffle. The cream based cocoa flavours of the exterior milk chocolate were further compounded by both the white chocolate and milky coffee flavoured centre. Again it was the textural feel of the truffle that made it seem like a very high quality chocolate. Very good.


Overall I wouldn't go as far saying this was the 'perfect' box of chocolates, but for a mass produced offering these were very, very good. Considering these can be found in most UK supermarkets for under £5 I was very impressed by the quality of the presentation, variety and ingredients - all of which I think matched many 'high end' brands I have tried before. When it came to the actual chocolates the thing that really stood to out to me was how each of them provided a luxurious set of textures. Each piece seemed to be so carefully constructed to combine different textural elements such as soft caramels, cremes, ganaches, giandujas, crunchy cocoa flakes etc. Most importantly each of these different filling formats created different mouth feel sensations, ensuring each piece brought a progressive flavour and texture experience. My only minor gripes with the box were that a few of the varieties which were only portioned once, and the choice of chocolate coatings weren't always best matched to the fillings. Those insignificant things cast away this was a very enjoyable box of chocolates that I would be happy to recommend.

8.5 out of 10

October 12th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cereal, Cakes, Flapjacks & Biscuit Chocolates Bars # 8

It seems like ages since I last posted a 'Bits n Bobs' post up on the site ... :D it must be what ... a whole matter of days haha! The reader requests have been coming thick and fast, so I have wasted little time getting together a few more of the chocolatey products that readers have been suggest I try over the last few weeks. Featuring today we have a newish line of biscuits from McVitie's, some flapjacks from the 'Fabulous Baking Boys', some Smarties Mini Bites cakes, and lastly another cereal bar from our pals at Weetabix.

McVitie's Mini Shorties

Kcal 210 Fat 11.3g Fat(sats) 6.1g Carbs 24.5g (per pack)
'Milk chocolate fully coated shortcake'

You may have noticed that when it comes to anything with the word shortbread in, I'm always game to try it. Given a biscuit type of choice I would always plump for a good bit of shortbread over anything else you could offer me, though I guess I could be tempted by the odd Hobnob :D These McVitie's Mini Shorties appeared on our shelves around early 2010, though until last week I hadn't seem them sold in anything other than an inconvenient large sized pouch. Somewhat by chance I saw this 40.0g snack bag on sale in my local newsagents priced a reasonable sounding 55p - I decided to give them a chance.

Despite their foil enclosure, there was nothing about the biscuits that suggested they were fresh in any sense and upon opening the bag I was confronted with a disappointing lack of fresh biscuity aromas and some rather dusty, scuffed looking biscuit pieces. 'Never judge a book by it's cover' right!? Well in this circumstance yes, I should of. These biscuits simply weren't up to par with what I would expect from McVities. The chocolate was waxy and relatively flavourless in both melt and taste, whilst the shortbread biscuit below was similarly lacklustre in any sort of forthcoming flavours. In fact the minor brown sugar notes aside, the biscuits were entirely lacking anything of substance - no butter, no salt, no nothing. I found the bag of these totally underwhelming, I can say with a measure of confidence that I wont be going back for another anytime soon.

5.6 out of 10



Nestle Smarties Mini Bites

Kcal 118 Fat 6.9g Fat(sats)3.1g Carbs 13.3g (per cake)
'Truffle base cakes made with chocolate cake crumb, with mini smarties covered in milk chocolate'

You may recall I didn't think all that much of either the Toffee Crisp and Munchies Mini Bites. For this very reason I was hardly overwhelmed with excitement when I saw these Nestle Smarties Mini Bites on sale in my local Sainsbury's, but at just £1 a pack I hardly felt like I was pushing the boat out giving them a try.

Cutting the long story short I was really surprised at just how much I liked these. Taking you through the course of the taste, the outer layer of milk chocolate was first to have it's say in proceedings and to be honest it did no more than establish a very average sugary, milky taste. The real treat with these Mini Bites was the inner cake, which was delightfully flavoursome and extremely chocolatey. It was moist, rich and variable with it's dense texture that was broken up by the small crunchy fragments of Smartie shells. For cakes that are mass produced, they tasted oddly fresh and not at all synthetic like so many of the cake bar products you get nowadays. I would certainly have these again as they are a great option for sharing amongst a few people over a cup of afternoon tea. Easily the best in Nestle Mini Bites range.

8.4 out of 10



Weetos Chocolate Cereal Bar

Kcal 88 Fat 2.9g Carbs 14.4g (per bar)
'Chocolate flavour wheat hoop bar with a milk chocolate base'

Having once said that I wouldn't ever review cereal bars on ChocolateMission, I believe today we are left in the position where I have pretty much covered all bases in this sector of the market. To take us to what I believe is 'full-circle' today you get my view point on this Weetos Chocolate Cereal Bar, which is a product manufactured by Weetabix here in the UK. These Weetos cereal bars are most commonly found in the supermarkets occupying a £1.00-£1.50 price band for a multipack of 5 bars, I picked some up from my local Sainsbury's.

Aesthetically the bar looked relatively appealing with base milk chocolate layer looking decently portioned. I've said before that chocolate flavoured cereal is something I never normally eat so this was in actual fact my first encounter with Weetos as a cereal. My impressions after tasting it were that it must be pretty bland given that it was the syrup bind that controlled the majority of the flavour experience. Amongst the sugary, syrupy flavours there was an underlying taste of weak cocoa powder, however it never managed to really create any chocolatey taste of note. The milk chocolate was similarly lacking flavour, had a waxy melt to it that wasn't altogether that favourable - quite simply there was no real chocolate flavour hit on offer. Although this was only 88 calories in it's entire constituents I still felt there was little point in it's consumption. There are better (and worse!) cereal bars out there.

5.1 out of 10



The Fabulous Bakin' Boys Choco Flapjacks

Kcal 131 Fat 6.2g Fat(sats) 3.4g Carbs 16.5g (per 28.0g finger)
'Milk chocolate flavoured flapjack fingers'

I bought this pack of flapjacks on my last trip to Sainsbury's where I found them on a half price deal of 65p for 6 individually wrapped finger pieces (28.0g each). I have to say I wasn't all that impressed by the packaging or the flapjack fingers. I thought both looked a bit plain looking and uninspired compared to some of the other more aesthetically exciting options in the cake aisle (French Fancies anyone).

Despite lacking inspiration in terms of their looks, I'm glad to report I was more than happy with how they tasted. The oaty base was bonded by golden syrup, which featured heavily in the grand scheme of the taste. In addition to these sweet, cereal base flavours I could detect intermittent notes of brown sugar, butter and of course chocolate. The chocolate flavour hit wasn't quite there in terms of it's desired impact, registering just minor hints of sweet milky cocoa flavours, but on the whole the overall taste was very pleasant. I think the obvious addition of a milk chocolate coating would go a long way to improve the product drastically, though this would of course depend on the quality of the chocolate on offer. For the promotional price you can more than justify giving these a try.

7.0 out of 10

October 11th: Hotel Chocolat The Little Box of Horrors

Hotel Chocolat Mondays return, and this week I kick off the first of my 2010 Halloween reviews. Those of you who have followed the site for the last year will be aware that Halloween is far from my favourite holiday season. As much as I don't like the day itself, I have to admit I have always been more than willing to review some of the offerings from the likes of Hotel Chocolat etc (See past reviews HERE). My look at the 2010 range starts today with me taking a look at the 'Little Box of Horrors' selection, which came described as a 'hair-raising collection of horrific Halloween chocolate figures, lollies, and spine-chilling caramels'.

Generally speaking, the presentation of the entire package was fantastic. My photos wont be doing it justice, but the box was beautifully presented with the all the inner constituents remarkably crafted in to some very cool looking Halloween designs. Below are my brief thoughts and ratings on the different bits and pieces.

Skull Chocolate Licks - For something that looked so gruesome these were some very tasty chocolate lollies which came in Hotel Chocolat's standard milk and white chocolate varieties. With each weighing 35.0g they proved to be a decent sized snack, although I did sort of defeat the object of them by removing the sticks at the first given opportunity. Kids will love these. Very Good.

Yikes Milk Chocolate Pieces - These were simply three milk chocolate Halloween Shapes that had been lifted straight from the Hotel Chocolat Boo! Selection. The chocolate moulds looked aesthetically interesting, and the 40% milk chocolate was it's usual top quality generating a finely balanced sweet cocoa taste that had a healthy creamyness to it. A little boring, but hey you can't complain when the chocolate is that decent. Very Good.

Milk Chocolate Figure Slabs - One thing you can certainly say about this box is that you get value for money. These 60.0g milk chocolate slabs came in different three different varieties - Terrifying Tombstone (plain milk chocolate), Fiendish Finger (with shortbread pieces), and lastly Ghoulish Ghost (with popping candy). I could have done without the popping candy slab (I gave that one away haha!), but both the biscuit and the shortbread slabs were delicious as you would expect. Very Good.

Vampire's Eyes Caramel Truffles - These looked so, so gross when I was photographing them :D I was at first a little put off by the artificial looking red caramel centres, but I was a little reassured by the 'naturally coloured' billing. In terms of taste I wouldn't have chosen to pair white and caramel together (sugar rush!), however these still proved themselves to be very tasty and the creamy, vanilla flavours of the white chocolate, and the buttery, toffee flavoured caramel seemed largely unaffected by the odd colourings. Very Good.


Overall this was a fine collection of different chocolate treats with every single piece well worthy of it's Very Good rating. With pretty much all of the different constituents comprising of their house milk and white chocolate recipes, I was never afraid of what the standard of the chocolate might offer - everything was simply delicious and I was happy eating each and every one of them. When you couple the tastiness of all the pieces with the fantastic standard of presentation and value for money, then you have a pretty special Halloween option at hand. If I was being overly critical I would suggest they leave the popping candy slab out and substitute it for a white chocolate slab to be consistent with everything else in the box. That said I can see younger chocolate lovers being keen on that slab as well as the lolly pieces so my views probably aren't entirely representative. If you are looking for an 'all-in-one' Halloween selection you should check this Little Box of Horrors collection out.

8.6 out of 10

October 9/10th: 'Bits n Bobs' Miscellaneous German Selection

7Days of Chocolate Reviews takes another rest this week as I would like the opportunity to publish some product reviews that have been hanging around in my posting queue for way to long. The 'Bits n Bobs' assortment today includes a selection of products hailing from Germany - I hope you enjoy these mini reviews and photographs.

Have a view on one of these products? Please leave me a comment with your thoughts ...



Wiebold Confiserie Choconova Truffelpralinen-Mischung - Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Wiebold are a German chocolate manufacture who are based in Hamburg and who were founded in 1968. They are chiefly known for their handmade praline truffles and thanks to ChocolateMission reader Susie I today got a chance to try some of them.

Below are my thoughts on the three different truffles ...

Milk Chocolate Kaffee Marocchino - (Top Picture) - This piece my second favourite in the selection. The milk chocolate that coated the inner truffle was nicely flavoured and established a friendly milk based. Once the crisp outer shell was bitten in to the smooth yet viscous truffle centre was revealed upon where the volume of the cocoa was turned up with just a small hint of coffee. If I had my own way I would have made the coffee come through stronger. Very Good.

Dark Chocolate Toffee - (Middle Picture) - Without doubt this was the finest of the lot and I would go as far as saying it was one of the best truffles I have ever had. The dark chocolate that coated the piece was pretty good and established a decent unsweetened cocoa taste but it was really the toffee layer that sat between the outer chocolate and inner truffle that really made this so special. This layer of toffee delivered sweet buttery caramel flavours to the taste, whilst the inner truffle further reaffirmed the cocoa flavours of the outer chocolate. Superb.

White Chocolate Vanilla - (Bottom Picture) - Of the pack consisting of eight chocolates this was the flavour that was unfortunately portioned twice. Inconsistent probably sounds like an odd word to describe a truffle but the two truffles simply didn't taste the same. One was packed full of cream and bourbon flavours, whilst the other was pretty much flavourless. Suffice to say I enjoyed one immensely, the other not so much. Standard.

Overall I have to say I was pretty impressed with my first encounter with the Wiebold Confiserie brand. As I have alluded to in the above paragraphs I still think they have several of part of their marketing mix they can improve - the packaging would really be a good place to start! In regards to the actual chocolate they produce I have very little to moan about - especially when it comes to their Toffee and Kaffee Marocchino truffles. Minor issues aside these were a very accomplished set of truffles; I will definitely look to try more Wiebold products in the future.

8.0 out of 10



Moser Roth Mini Pralinen Kugeln - Kcal 35 Fat 2.3g Fat(sats) 1.4g Carbs 3.3g (per chocolate)

As Moser Roth have proved in the past, good quality, cheap chocolate can be found if your looking in the right places so today I decided to take a look at their Mini Pralinen Kugeln chocolates which came described as 'milk chocolate filled with chocolate mousse and vanilla-bourbon truffle filling'. The outer packaging to me looked pretty damn good and I thought it managed to look pretty premium with its glossy finish and not not overly garish use of gold colours and fonts. inside the bag contained about 20 or so chocolates, each of which were tightly wrapped in their own branded plastic wrappers. As you can see above when split in half the chocolates looked pretty cool with the distinction between the mousse filled half and the vanilla filled half pretty evident.

The half filled with chocolate mousse was pretty delightful and just like my previous experiences with Moser Roth chocolate I enjoyed the sweet creamy taste of the outer milk chocolate which lead nicely into the finer, stronger cocoa rooted flavours of the inner mousse. On the flip side however the half which contained the paler vanilla filling was quite frankly horrible and tasted just as bad as it smelt. Unfortunately for me I felt the taste was artificially derived with the filling tasting horribly sweet and sugary with no real cut through in terms of actual vanilla. With the vanilla portion tasting so poor I can't say I found myself reaching back into the bag all that quickly. These were far from awful but I wouldn't overly recommend them.

6.6 out of 10

Leibniz Pick Up! - Kcal 141 Fat 7.2g Carbs 17.0g (per biscuit)

Following on from my review of the Prinzen Rolle last year, over the last five days I have been tucking into these Leibniz Pick Up! In regards to proposition these varied very little from the aforementioned in that they constituted of two biscuit pieces sandwiching a chocolate cream layer.

My main gripes with the Prinzen Rolle the last year came two fold; firstly that I couldn't separate the biscuits pieces from the filling and secondly because the biscuits laked a little in the flavour department. In summary these Leibniz cured one out of two of these problems and had a similarly nice tasting chocolate cream at the centre. Where these Leibniz did appear superior was in the strength of the taste I got from the outer biscuits. Just like the Rolle the Leibniz biscuit had a predominantly buttery taste but with stronger malt and wheat flavours. As the biscuit was chewed more in the mouth I also noticed an extra dash of brown sugar that just gave the whole biscuit a longer sustained presence in the mouth. The chocolate cream was pretty much almost identical to Rolle and this was no bad thing. It was smooth and soft in the mouth and gave the desired chocolate flavour hit with its milky cocoa flavours. As I have said above this bar only ticked one of the boxes where the Rolle failed ... so where did it go wrong!? ... yep ... I still couldn't separate the biscuit pieces from the inner chocolate cream. I'm sure biscuit fans will agree this is a very serious issue :D We can't be having this!

7.9 out of 10

Toggenburger Kagi-Coconut - Kcal 582 Fat 38.0g Carbs 54.0g (per 100.0g)

A few months ago I was kindly sent a little packet of goodies from a dedicated ChocolateMission reader called Franzi who lives in Germany. Amongst the selection there were several chocolates from the likes of Ritter Sport, Milka and Lindt etc, but also included was this Toggenburger Kagi-Coconut - a bar described as 'wafer filled with coconut cream, covered partially in milk chocolate'.

I have to admit I was really, really surprised about how much I enjoyed this bar. The actual separate constituents of this bar weren't of this highest quality but together they made for a fantastically variable taste experience and I was very much won over by the this product by the time I had devoured it. I enjoyed both the wafer and milk chocolate elements, but the real stand out part of this bar was the coconut cream which sat right in the middle of each stick. The coconut cream layer brought some fresh tasting creamy nut elements to the taste and delivered them with a fantastic cooling moistness - it was utterly delicious. I wouldn't necessarily say this was a must try but if you ever come across this Toggenburger Kagi-Coconut I can say with great confidence that you wont feel let down.

8.2 out of 10