November 19th: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Biscuits & Cookies

After receiving plenty of positive comments and subsequent requests from last weeks UK chocolate cookie 'Bits n Bobs' review, I this week treated my work colleagues to another selection of various chocolate biscuit products. Included in the 'Bits n Bobs' selection today we have offerings from Fox's, Kellogg's and Cadbury.

As always I encourage you all to share your opinions on these products if you have tried them, or have any views. Additionally if you would like to see any other products featured in 'Bits n Bobs' in the future please let me know.

Kellogg's Special K Mini Breaks Chocolate:

Kcal 99 Fat 2.5g Fat(sats) 1.0g Carbs 18.0g (per 24.0g)
'Chocolate flavoured crunchy multi-grain cereal bites'

I would like to claim that I purposely bought these to review in an attempt to counter balance all the Heavenly Cakes and biscuits you have seen featured on the site recently :D Truth be told for some reason my work office received a massive industrial sized box in which there were forty 24.0g individual serving bags. I'm not normally someone who buys in to all these Special K zero calorie products, but seeing the word chocolate on the wrapper I felt almost obliged to review them. To my pleasant surprise they were better than I thought they would be - far superior to the bland cardboard like experience I was expecting anyway. Taste wise they established a honey noted oaty set of flavours. The chocolate flavour hit was minor at best, but every once and while there was a note of cocoa powder amongst the cereal led taste. These weren't anything amazing, but as a lower calorie snacking alternative they weren't half bad.

7.0 out of 10



Fox's Chunkie Caramel Extremely Chocolatey Cookies:
Kcal 127 Fat 6.4g Fat(sats) 3.5g Carbs 9.2g (per biscuit)
'Chocolate chip cookies with caramel pieces, coated in milk chocolate'

Right ... on to the more serious of biscuits :D I bought these in my local Tesco priced on introductory offer of £1.00. Just over a month ago, ChocolateMission reader Phil brought my attention to the Fox's Chunkie Cookie range when he asked me to review the Fruit & Nut variant (See HERE). Having enjoyed them, I was very tempted by these Caramel cookies when I saw them - the packaging especially caught my eye with it's vivid yellow colours and flashy 'NEW' branding decorating the top corner. Opening opening the packet, the cookies looked and smelt terrific with various sweet caramel scents wafting over my senses. When it came to the taste test, I am pleased to say they passed with flying colours, with seals of approval from all that tried them. The quality of the milk chocolate wasn't anything amazing, but it did the job establishing a chocolatey flavour base with every bite. The most enjoyable aspect about these biscuits however were the several bits of caramel that were plentifully portioned throughout the buttery tasting cookie base. These provided intermittent blasts of delicious toffee, aswell as an interesting chewyness to the crunchy cookie texture. I would happily recommend these to any cookie or biscuits fans.

8.1 out of 10



Cadbury Dairy Milk Biscuits:

Kcal 75 Fat 4.3g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 50.3g (per biscuit)
'Shortcake biscuits fulled covered in milk chocolate'

After the release of the Cadbury Crunchie, Caramel and Turkish biscuits earlier this year (See HERE), it was only a matter of time before I thought we would see a plain Dairy Milk biscuit product hit the shelves. Just as with the above Fox's cookies, I found these on sale in Tesco on a similar £1.00 introductory offer - it was hardly like I was going to miss them what with the iconic purple foil wrapper that was glinting at me from the shelves. From the very first moment I opened the foil wrapper I felt instantly at ease. The Cadbury scents were instantly recognisable, and of course ever so tempting. Aesthetically the biscuits looked attractive, with the outer chocolate coating appearing thick and appetising. There was of course only one way to eat these - letting the delicious, thick creamy chocolate melt away in the mouth before munching down on the biscuit - yep they were a delight! As much as I enjoyed these plain Dairy Milk biscuits, I think when it comes to Cadbury biscuits, I will in the future still be buying the Crunchie or Caramel variants in preference as they offer a little bit more variety to the party.

8.2 out of 10

November 18th: Zotter Coffee Plum with Caramelised Bacon

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

After my experience with my own bacon flavoured Chocri creation last month, you could probably understand my slight unease when this Zotter flavour turned up on my doorstep a few weeks ago. Although Mr Zotter and his team had proven themselves before with their chocolate and bacon combination skills (See Bacon Bits review HERE), my Chocri 'American Creation' (which included Soy Bacon) had ultimately left some mental scars. As much as I trusted Zotter with their bizarre, yet normally quite wonderful Handscooped bar varieties, this 'Dark chocolate filled with coffee-plum-cream abd bacon' was one I approached with caution.

This variety came in the standard Zotter Handscooped format with it's easily sliceable flat bar shape weighing 70.0g. I haven't understood the tongue in cheek humour behind a lot of the Zotter wrappers recently, though I did like the artistic expression of this particular one with the Plum fruit characters 'singing in all their glory' wrapped in streaky bacon coats :D Compared to the average darkly coloured Zotter filling, the lighter brown centre looked remarkable on the eye, and there appeared to be a plentiful amount of fruit and bacon pieces within.

Upon revealing this unique looking truffle centre, several different scents and smells swept over my senses with influences of fruit, chocolate and booze all making their presence felt. The exterior chocolate portion of this bar was exactly the thickness that I had experienced across previous Zotter dark chocolates previously, and the 70% cocoa recipe broke with a delightful fresh crispness when bitten in to. The initial dark chocolate flavours were rich and meaningful in their cocoa expression, and established a firm chocolatey flavour base for the creamier constituents within to build off. Speaking of which, the the plum cream filling sat below was an absolute treat. Despite lacking the promised coffee flavour influence, the centre tasted absolutely divine with the raisin like flavours of the plums noted with a minor suggestion of red wine which really brought a unique taste experience. The bacon constituents of this bar was thankfully an awful lot different to the experience I was dreading. There were no meaty flavours detectable whatsoever, just a pleasant saltyness that contrasted really quite expertly with the more sugar intensive fruity influences. This was a bar that I ate over the course of a few days and was one that I hated the thought of finishing.

Overall I have to hand it to Zotter for crafting yet another bizarre, yet truly fantastic flavour combination. Ultimately this bar proved itself to be every bit as wonderful as it sounded unlikely to work - I mean who in their right mind would ever set out to create a chocolate combining coffee, fruit and bacon!? The answer to that is of course Mr Zotter and his team! Although they didn't quite deliver the coffee element of this chocolate (perhaps a little too ambitious!), the synergy of flavours created by the dark chocolate, creamy sweet plum and salted bacon, created the most fantastic and unique flavour experiences I have come across in a long time. I will happily admit that some of Zotter's weirdest creations in the past haven't always been to my liking, but its becoming apparent that more often than not these guys know what they are doing when it comes to their bizarre bars. If you are ever in a position to try this one for yourself I can give you a whole hearted recommendation to do so.

8.6 out of 10

November 17th: Green & Black's Almond / Hazelnut & Currant

I have always openly admitted that Green & Black's has never been a brand that has managed to stir a great deal of excitement inside me. In fact at one point in late 2009, after reviewing the Green & Black's Cherry bar I even went as far saying that I wouldn't ever buy one of their chocolates again. Well since that time I have slowly crept my way through the rest of the G&B range (all of the reviews can be found HERE). After doing a little back tracking through the archive, I last week noticed that I was in actual fact only missing two flavours to complete a full set of reviews .... so I guessed what I did!

Indeed today I bring you my thoughts regarding the Almond and Hazelnut & Currant flavours, both varieties of which I bought in their 100.0g forms. As you will see below, both bars I bought today were kitted out in the new style Green & Black's wrappers. Saying that you would have been hard pushed to tell that about the Almond variant, which looked unfortunately similar to the old style packaging with it's use of a ghastly brown colour. On a more positive note both chocolates looked very generously portioned in regards to their fruit and nut constituents. The Hazelnut & Currant bar especially stood out with it's vast quantities of light coloured nuts evident throughout the dark chocolate.

So how did did they taste?

Kcal 578 Fat 42.2g Carbs 37.7g (per 100.0g)

Green & Black's Almond - 'Milk chocolate with whole roasted almonds'. This bar proved a little difficult and messy to break into small pieces, though this was understandable given the large volume of chunky nuts (25% stated on the wrapper). Taste wise I found the 37% milk chocolate was fair in terms of flavour strength, however on the whole it was pretty unremarkable. I have commented in previous reviews about the lack of distinguishable or unique taste attributes that G&B milk chocolate has, this was all too apparent once again but luckily the almond nuts were at hand to add a much needed flavour dimension. The almond nuts were buttery in taste and provided just a little more excitement to sweeter, milkier cocoa flavours established by the chocolate. My only gripe with the almond nuts were that they weren't particularly crunchy, and at times I had parts of their outer skin getting caught in my teeth. Overall whilst this was passable, this wasn't a particularly great nut flavored chocolate and I know there are certainly better options out there.

6.8 out of 10



Kcal 558 Fat 36.7g Carbs 40.3g (per 100.0g)

Green & Black's Hazelnut & Currant - 'Dark chocolate with hazelnuts and currants'. Out of the two flavours I was trying out today this was admittedly the one I was more looking forward to trying out. Like the Almond flavour above this bar was similarly hard to break in to smaller blocks what with the considerable presence of the currants (12%) and hazelnuts (12%). Previous reviews have shown that I have tended to score G&B's dark chocolates higher than their milk chocolates but this 60% recipe managed to buck that trend. In contrast to the milk chocolate above, the taste was understandably less sweet with the cocoa more forthcoming in early stages of the flavour development. As the chocolate progressed in melt the taste seem to take more of a citrusy, acidic flavour edge which wasn't particularly to my liking. Had the chopped hazelnuts and sweetness of the currants come through a bit more strongly in taste, I'm sure they would have balanced this acidity. Despite their considerable portioning both the hazelnuts and currants came across as quite underpowered as both struggled to cut through the more dominant chocolate. Overall this chocolate may have looked and sounded the more appealing but it simply didn't reach standards I wanted it to in the taste test. I wouldn't buy this flavour again.

6.4 out of 10




So there you have it ChocolateMission fans - all Green & Black's flavours covered off with two more uninspiring varieties. Neither of these bars were the greatest, but at least I can know say I have full round perspective of what G&B have to offer.

November 16th: Heavenly Cakes Lemon Meringue With White Chocolate

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

After a four month absence, Heavenly Cakes are back on ChocolateMission and they return with several new offerings that I will be reviewing in the coming weeks. Indeed, since they last featured on the site they have been working away at developing several varities of new shortbread, flapjacks etc. You many also be inerested to hear that they have created gluten free alternatives for all the cakes in their existing portfolio - a special review of them will be coming soon! Kicking off my latest round of Heavenly Cakes posts, I today tried out their Lemon Meringue with White Chocolate. On the website they describe this as 'light meringue pieces coated in white chocolate, set on lemon curd and all-butter shortbread'.

I recieved this cake in a single serving form which in true Heavenly fashion was more than enough for two. Since I last reviewed some of their products Heavenly have slightly advanced their single serving packaging, and have made the wise decision of adding a cardboard business card to the underside of each cake to provide additional support (thumbs up!). As ever I hope my photos have done the cake justice - it looked fantastic. The sticky lemon curd and flaky meringue made it a somewhat messy experience to eat, however I was more preoccupied by the thickness of each of the layers which made the prospect more appetising than notable for it's messyness.

Lemon meringue pie isn't normally my dessert of choice but everything up until this point was certainly looking very promising. Aroma wise compared to some of the other Heavenly Cakes I had tried previously this cake wasn't the impactful in that regard, yet still offered a decent enough lemony set of smells. Biting in to the cake for the first time, the most immediate source of pleasure came from the interplay of the different textured layers. The light chocolate meringue topping yielded wonderfully into the gooey layer of lemon curd below, whilst the biscuit base was firm yet crumbly at it's centre. Whilst the mouth feel was glorious, the flavours on offer were similarly delightful. A mixture of white chocolate and meringue sounds like a path to a sugar coma, however seemingly no expense was spared on the quality of the white chocolate which was more notable for it's cream based flavours rather than it's sweetness. Sat below the topping, the binding lemon curd provided a sweet citrusy tang which complimented the buttery, salty flavours of the biscuit base quite expertly. The combination of all these layers was frankly delicious and actually lighter and less rich than I was expecting. Shared between two, the 'single serving' was a satisfying amount for afternoon tea.

Overall this was yet another tasty cake offering from the guys at Heavenly, and it was nice to see that their capabilities stretch further afield than I maybe first thought. This Lemon Meringue Pie cake was the first white chocolate offering of their's I had tried, and I have the delight of saying it was every bit as good as any of their milk chocolate cakes. Although I will forever have a preference to milk chocolate based products, I simply loved the white chocolate that they used for the topping here, and I think it worked beautifully with the meringue to produce a full on lemon meringue pie experience. Similarly the synergy created by the lemon curd and biscuit elements was just as wonderful, and made for a cake that was refreshlingy fruity, yet equally indulgent. If you like lemon meringue pie than I simply can't recommend this cake enough to you. A sweet tooth is required to fully enjoy this offering, but white chocolate fans should also seriously be considering this as a cake they need to try.

8.0 out of 10

November 15th: Ritter Sport Vanillekipferl

Kcal 572 Fat 38.3g Fat(sats) 22.9g Carbs 51.0g (per 100.0g)

I hope you are all paying attention today becuase there is a hidden question in todays review that if you answer correctly via leaving a comment, will entre in a prize draw for one of three of the Ritter Winter Kreation bars! Getting things started, I round off my reviews of this winter seasonal range from Ritter with my take on this Vanillekipferl flavour. For those of you wondering what the devil Vanillekipferl is please let my friend Wiki do the honours ... "Vanillekipferl are an Austrian, German and Hungarian small, crescent shaped biscuits. They are usually made with ground almonds or hazelnuts. They are flavored with vanilla or artificial flavouring and have a heavy dusting of powdered and superfine sugar" ... sounds great huh!? Ritter Sport's Vanillekipferl bar came described as 'milk chocolate with a vanilla cream filling with vanilla biscuit pieces' - come on now, this had to be great.

Competition time - I wont be stretching any brain cells here ... what size did this bar come do you think? :D Leave your answer in a comment please. Moving on, the packaging of this bar was like the other two Winter Kreations. It was very easy and passive on the eye, although at first both myself and some of my family members mistook the pictures of the biscuits for cashew nuts (that was before we consulted wikipedia!). Opening up the plastic fold everything was in fine Ritter Sport order, with the 4x4 sixteen block format no different to normal. When broken apart, a pleasant and forthcoming vanilla essence like aroma overcame senses, and further heightened my sky high anticipation in regards to the appetising plentiful look of the filling.

What more could I possibly say about Ritter Sport milk chocolate that I haven't in the past? Probably so I wont :D Suffice to say it did a sterling job again carrying the filling, and it once again provided a satisfying chocolate flavour hit without overshadowing the internal centre showpiece. The sweet milky taste of the chocolate flowed quite delightfully into the softer feeling centre, which was lined with small crunchy biscuit pieces. At first the cream rooted vanilla hinted flavours of the inner cream proved to be quite mild, however at the point of crunching on the small biscuit particles a stronger set of vanilla and slightly salted savoury nut flavours came to the party. The nature of the taste progressing from milky chocolate to sweet and salty vanilla and biscuit was quite frankly delicious and I couldn't stop myself reaching back for more.

Overall this was one of those bars that compelled me every time I put a piece in my mouth - it provided such a roller coaster of wonderful flavours. My whole family was in agreement that this was their favourite from the Winter Kreation range this year, and it was the flavour that got finished well before the other two when we all sat down to try them all. In terms of taste this was a pretty sweet chocolate offering, but even my father who much prefers dark chocolate found himself really enjoying the nuttyness of the vanilla biscuit creme centre. Despite never having eaten Vanillekipferl biscuits before I'm pretty certain than Ritter Sport have got this flavour spot on with what it should deliver. I remember last year lauding over the quality of the Ritter Sport Spekulatius, but this year they have done just as well with this Vanillekipferl offering. This bar is highly recommended - remember to enter the competition above :D

8.6 out of 10



Terms & Conditions:
1. Winner announced on the site Sunday 21st November
2. One Entry per person
3. Only available to UK participants.
4. My jurisdiction on any decisions/rule changes is final.

November 13/14th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 60

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

Believe it or not we have got through another week of chocolate reviews - if you missed any of them take a look below

* Ritter Sport Orangen-Marzipan - See HERE
* 'Bits n Bobs' UK Chocolate Chip Cookies - See HERE
* Kit Kat Dark Bitter (Japan) - See HERE
* Zotter Strong Coffee - See HERE
* Aero Dark Chocolate (UK) - See HERE

In case you missed this earlier in the week, I have been running a competition on Twitter for one of the elusive Marmite Very Peculiar Chocolate bars (Review HERE). In order to enter the prize draw all you have to do is start following the ChocolateMission Twitter feed and then 'Re-Tweet' one of my reviews from this week. I hope you have all entered - the winner will be announced on Sunday.

Coming up this week we have the long awaited return of Heavenly Cakes, the last Ritter Sport Winter-Kreation bar (with competition!!) and of course some more Christmas goodies from the likes of Hotel Chocolat.

I hope you all have great weeks - please feel free to contribute any news stories I have missed out on.

JIM


News from the ChocolateMarket

* Nestle have rolled out some price marked packs across many of their most popular bars - See HERE

* Thorntons have set out their plans for Christmas this year - See HERE

* Forget Christmas ... Nestle have annouced their plans for Spring - See HERE

* Expect to see Terry's Chocolate Orange back on a TV soon - See HERE

* Thanks to Ana for this story ... The price of our chocolate bars could well be on the rise in the coming years - See HERE

* It wouldn't be a week on ChocolateMission without one of these ... Chocolate is good for us :D - See HERE

Have I missed anything? Be sure to share it!


A cheeky little one ...

Morinaga Red Comet Wafer

Kcal 110 Fat 5.4g Carbs 13.3g (per 21.0g)

Just because I thought the weekend wouldn't be the same without something for you guys to have a look over, here is a cheeky little Japanese product review. As you will have probably guessed this was an item sent to me by my pals at J-List.

This Morinaga Red Comet Wafer is described on their website as a 'card pack including a large stick of chocolate cream sandwiched between alternating layers of crispy wafer'. To be quite honest with you guys I think the snack included in this product is a bit of an after thought - I think the hook is supposed to be the 'Principality of Zeon' trading card that is included ... or as J-List put it ... 'an added omake for this shokugan treat is a Gundam trading card' ... hmmm

All of that means nothing to me, but what I am more of an expert in is the quality of the snack. The wafer based product was ... well ... a wafer based snack. It was pleasant enough with it's sweet chocolate cream, but at the end of the day it was generic tasting, unsatisfying and essentially not remarkable in any sense. Unless you are Japanese trading card mad this is one snack you can forget about. Please feel free to fill us in if you are a Japanese anime/trading card guru :D

5.6 out of 10

November 12th: Aero Dark Chocolate (UK)

Kcal 185 Fat 12.2g Carbs 16.6g (per bar)

There's nothing like a cheeky limited edition chocolate sneaking up on us all is there? Without announcement or any advertising communication Nestle have indeed sneaked this Dark Chocolate variant under the noses of consumers here in the UK. Although it managed to make its way on to our shelves without my knowledge, Nestle weren't able to get this one past several ChocolateMission readers (namely Phil & Thea) who earlier this month informed me of it's distribution in Tesco. Looking across the rest of the trade, this Aero Dark Chocolate doesn't appear to have found it's way to any other of the major retailers so one would suspect that Nestle are using it as a customer exclusive for Tesco as part of a trade deal for shelf space etc.

After a few weeks of waiting this self described 'bubbly dark chocolate' bar did eventually make it's way in to my local Tesco store. Unlike most limited editions or new chocolate bars, Nestle appear to be promoting this Aero Dark Chocolate straight away, and I managed to buy 2 bars for only £0.70 (hence the double bar picture above!). At £0.35 for a near 40.0g bar I thought this was a very attractive price - suffice to say I don't think they will have many problems getting people to trial it. One thing I was slightly less impressed with was the wrapper, which I thought looked way to similar to the original Aero. If you ask me it should have been more clearly branded to communicate the dark chocolate limited edition theme, and certainly a darker shade of brown.

Although the idea of a dark chocolate Aero may be broadly new for the UK market, there has indeed been a 70% cocoa variant available in Canada for over a year now. I reviewed that bar back in June this year (See HERE), and I quote ... "the taste was far more complex and rich than I thought it would be and it was so much the better for it. There isn't much in the way of true innovation here, but if this 70% bar is price aligned with the rest of the Aero range I would suggest you give it a try". With that context I was hoping that this UK bar was going to deliver the same experience, but my hopes were dashed immediately upon learning that our UK bar had only 50% cocoa vs the 70% of the Canadian alternative. Given I was aware of this all before I ate the bar, I was very unsurprised with what I tasted. Fundamentally this was a pretty poor tasting, generic mass consumer friendly dark chocolate. Compared to a standard UK milk chocolate Aero, the sugary sweetness was a little less forthcoming, yet still very much there and present throughout the taste. The cocoa volume as I like to call it wasn't significantly raised above the norm, so the flavour depth felt somewhat lacking due to the milk flavours taking a more passive background role. The typical Aero bubbly mouth feel was its ever pleasant self, however the light texture certainly didn't help the longevity of the flavours which have to be said were poor at best.

Overall despite having relatively low level expectations, I was still ultimately disappointed with this bar. At the end of the day the product didn't deliver on the proposed dark chocolate experience, which is something that can only lead me to conclude that it isn't as good as the Aero varieties. I'm not saying for one minute that the quality of the chocolate used in the milk or mint Aeros is the best, but it can at least be said they deliver on the proposition they offer. Unfortunately this Dark Chocolate variant never did that, as it's cocoa flavour depth was forever kept under wraps by a shroud of unnecessary sweetness. As I said above, the way Nestle have priced this bar makes me think they wont have any problem getting people to try it. The issue they are going to face in my opinion, is that I can't see consumers repeat purchasing - the product simply isn't good enough. With this review now written all I have left to do is to figure out what I should do with the one remaining bar I have - any suggestions ??? :D

5.8 out of 10

November 11th: Zotter Strong Coffee

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

After a somewhat lengthy absence Zotter is now back on the ChocolateMission radar. My latest reviews will come in a timely manner for you all to hear the latest bunch of flavours being generated at Mr Zotter's Austrian madhouse in time for Christmas. The latest bunch of bars he has sent along aren't festive themed in the slightest, though I can imagine they would make great gifts given the bizarre flavour combinations that the brand continually comes up with. With that said, the Zotter Strong Coffee chocolate I tried today is probably one of the more sensible sounding offerings I have reviewed from them in a long time. Described as 'Noble bitter chocolate filled with strong coffee cream' it certainly had me licking my lips in anticipation.

Like the majority of Zotter's Handscooped bars this came in a 70.0g form that I consumed across a few different after dinner coffee sessions. Last time I checked the wrappers were supposed to communicate some sort of humour - unless I'm totally missing something this was more just an artsy looking deal. It has been mentioned in previous Zotter reviews that the bars often look a bit similar and unexciting. This darkly coloured truffle filled chocolate didn't exactly provide any counter evidence against this, however the rich coffee scents provided a more than appetising insight to taste which was nice distraction.

If you look back in the archives at my previous reviews of coffee flavoured chocolates you will see that the sentence 'this could have been better if the coffee element was stronger' is a line that is very commonly featured. What with Zotter promising me Strong Coffee in the name of the product I was never going to settle for anything less - another weakly flavoured bar would not only have been disappointing, but it would also have been a total lie. Thankfully the rather meagre sounding 2% coffee powder stood up to the test and managed to establish itself on the taste quite prominently despite the strength of the 70% cocoa dark chocolate. The flavour path of this bar went through three main stages, with the bar establishing a fruity, cocoa led taste from the outset. Upon uncovering the soft feeling truffle below, the bar then progressed flavour wise with a rich set of fresh roasted coffee taking over. As the last of the chocolate melted away the initial fruityness returned and left a minor note of sweet whiskey in the mouth. Despite the sweetness being greater than I expected, I still felt like this was a very rich tasting chocolate and I was more than happy just consuming the bar in small portions each sitting.

Overall this Zotter Strong Coffee bar wasn't my favourite coffee flavoured chocolate I have ever tried before, but it was decent attempt at the combination and like most Zotter chocolates it certainly deviated from what I expected. The raisin like fruit flavours established were a surprise addition to the taste, so the level of sweetness was considerably higher than I thought they were going to be. In hindsight I can see the sense in producing the bar like this as I'm pretty sure that the average person may have found the experience excessively bitter without it. Reflecting back on this bar, although it has still deservedly scored very well on the rating system, I'm unsure as to whether I would buy it again given that I'm aware of better alternatives out there. At least I didn't have to write yet another review complaining about the underpowered coffee taste.

8.3 out of 10

November 10th: Kit Kat Dark Bitter (Japan)

Kcal 95 Fat 5.8g Carbs 9.7g (per 17.0g double finger)

As I announced last week, J-List have just recently replenished their chocolate stocks and my pal Peter has sent me a nice sampling package containing some of the latest Japanese chocolate snacks. Of course whenever we talk about Japanese chocolate snacks the words 'Kit Kat' are never far behind. Indeed, in this latest package Peter included the last hot property flavour available on the Japanese market - the 'Dark Bitter' variety. You may have noticed that this flavour has been in the top selling J-List snack chart for a fair few weeks, which is little surprise given that like most Kit Kat flavours in Japan it is only around as a limited edition.

This Kit Kat variety came in a box containing two 17.0g double finger serving sizes that I ate in a single sitting as an afternoon snack. The Japanese Kit Kats always have tendency for being immacutaly presented but this variety looked particularly classy with the box finished with a matted feel material and sparkling gold coloured fonts. As per usual the Kit Kat fingers inside were wrapped in foil wrappers and were kept in a lovely fresh condition emanating some delightful chocolatey scents when ripped open.

I have to admit I perhaps wasn't quite as intrigued about this variety as I had been with more some of the more unusual flavours I had sourced from Japan in the past. In the UK we obviously have a dark chocolate Kit Kat readily available to us all - this was a bar I reviewed back in September 2008 in which I concluded: 'I wouldn't say it was better than the standard Kit Kat, though nor would I say it was worse'. My grand hope for this Japanese variety was that it was going to take the dark chocolate flavour experience a stage further than our 'mass consumer friendly' dark chocolate offering. Unfortunately when it came to the taste test I pretty much came to the same conclusion about this Japanese bar than I did the UK one. The 'dark' chocolate coating in reality was what I like to call a 'mass consumer friendly' unsweetned chocolate. It was fair in it's flavour contribution and noticeably less sweet, however the cocoa volume was hardly turned up in the taste. The only real difference I percieved from the UK bar was that the texture of the chocolate melt was a little grittier and rougher in this Japanese version. This wasn't so much an annoyance or particularly noticceable, but it certainly wasn't to my preference. On a positive note the four finger portion was at least decent size for a mid-afternoon snack, and did me right in that sense.

Overall although I was a tiny weenie bit disappointed that this Japense Kit Kat Dark Bitter didn't provide a step change experience from our UK offering, at the end of the day it was still a very nice chocolate bar. Given the sweetness of a lot of the other Kit Kat varities I have tried from the Far East in the past it was probably a little naive of me hoping for a 70% Lindt dark chocolate experience. I'm not saying The dark chocolate coating on offer was bad in any way shape or form (it wasn't!), but I would absolutely love to try a Kit Kat one day that has a serious dark chocolate exterior - I guess one can dream. On the basis that our UK Kit Kat Dark is so similar, I can't go recommending this bar as a 'must try now' for all you readers. You still might want to keep your eyes on the J-List website however, as Peter has informed me there is due to be an influx of all new flavours very soon.

8.1 out of 10

November 9th: 'Bits n Bobs' UK Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the most commonlly requested products that I have been asked to review time and time again on this site are Maryland Cookies. Ever since I started doing these 'Bits n Bobs' posts this year, I heard several times from different readers asking that I give them a long overdue ChocolateMission review. As ever I was more than happy to oblige for what my readers asking for, though I thought I would include two other UK made cookie products to draw some comparisons.

If you have your own views on these cookies please be sure to share them ...

McVitie's Mini Cookies Choc Chip:

Kcal 196 Fat 9.2g Fat(sats) 4.7g Carbs 26.0g
'Mini Cookies packed with chocolate chips'

These McVitie's Mini Cookies Choc Chip came in a 40.0g snack bag that I bought for 59p from my local convenience store (OneStop). For the information of my international readers it is worth saying that these cookies are pretty widely distributed across the UK, and can be found in most grocery stores, snacking vending machines etc.

Presentation wise I thought the product was reasonably well presented, though I would perhaps have chosen a more vibrant colour instead of the browney purple. The cookie pieces looked fresh enough outside the packet and emanated a fair set of biscuity smells when first unsealed. When it came to taste and texture I have to report I was a little underwhelmed. The cookies were light in texture and melted within seconds of being in the mouth. This meant there was very little flavour development from the sweet wheaty flavours that were first established, and it was rarity that any chocolatey flavours of note were forthcoming at any time. I felt the 40.0g pack was pretty unsubstantial.

5.8 out of 10



Maryland Bite Size Choc Chip Cookies:

Kcal 201 Fat 10.2g Fat(sats) 5.1g Carbs 25.0g
'Mini cookies containing chocolate chips'

The long overdue Maryland Cookies review is finally here :D Like the McVitie's Mini Cookies above I bought this in a snack bag form which also weighed 40.0g. Similarly to the McVitie's these are also available in the same sort of distribution channels, and can be found occupying the shelves of most convenience retailers.

The presentation of the product was a pretty mixed bag. The exterior bag was attractive on the eye with it's eye-catching bright red and gold branding - I though it just looked very welcoming. Unfortunately the inner cookies appeared far less impressive and were scuffed and dusty (I have had this with several bags!!). When it came to the taste test I unfortunately also found the cookies pretty disappointing, and like above I was extremely disapointed by the length of time (or lack of!) they lasted when in the mouth. The only flavours developed were almost purely of brown sugar, with little establishment of any of the biscuity or chocolate elements I desired. Resultingly the entire packet left me feeling totally unsatisfied and still craving a decent chocolatey snack.

5.6 out of 10



McVitie's Boasters Chocolate Chunks & Hazelnuts:

Kcal 89 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 2.4g Carbs 8.8g (per cookie)
'Cookies with chocolate chunks and Hazelnuts'

I have to admit these were a pretty random purchase that I made to take in for the tea room at work i.e. I hadn't planned on reviewing them :D I found them in my local Tesco Supermarket on one of their famous £1 deals so I thought I would give them a try. The pack I bought contained ten standard sized cookies, which in totality weighed 165.0g.

I will say upfront that I think the extent to which comparisons can be drawn with the two 'on-the-go' products above are limited given the nature of the 'in-home' comsumption expected of these cookies. Packaging and presentation wise everything was indeed a little more impressive - especially the wrapper which I thought had a nice premuim feel to it. The cookies themselves looked and smelt pretty delicious, with a forthcoming set of nutty scents compounding the appetising look of the hazelnuts evident in each biscuit. Taste wise these cookies were far more to my liking than either of the above, and there was little coincedence that they felt more substantial with their denser feeling viscocity. Throughout the taste, the cookies had a pleasant undercurrant of butter that underpinned the wheaty flavours of the biscuit nicely. The hazelnuts were not the strongest tasting nuts ever, however the Belgian chocolate was far more forthcoming in comparison to the options reviewed above, and provided an adequete chocolate flavour hit. They weren't the best cookies ever, but I would contemplate buying them again if I saw them on the cheap.

7.4 out of 10

November 8th: Ritter Sport Orangen-Marzipan

Kcal 495 Fat 26.3g Fat(sats) 11.0g Carbs 56.2g (per 100.0g)

Today I bring you the second of my three Ritter Sport 2010 Winter-Kreation bar reviews, showcasing this Oragen-Marzipan variant. Last week I kicked off my latest series of Ritter Sport posts by sharing my thoughts on the Nuss in Nugatcreme bar (if you missed it See HERE). This second helping of Ritter winter goodness sounded a little more exciting in terms of it's proposition, and came described as 'milk chocolate with orange marzipan (44.0%)'. As ever the rest of my family were keen as mustard trying out a new Ritter Sport flavour. My father's passion for anything containing marzipan only further made their opinions for this review an inevitability.

Nicking this line directly from my review last week 'All three of these new Winter-Kreation flavours come up in the standard 100.0g size aswell as the mini block format for those that prefer their chocolate in more manageable sizes' (I told you I would just cut and paste haha!!). As you can see the packaging was also broadly consistent, though had the obvious adaptation of the secondary orange colour scheme and relevant marzipan pictures. When unsealed the plastic packet released an appetising set of fruity orange smells that mixed well with the more familiar Ritter milk chocolate scents. As expected the the marzipan filling looked well portioned sandwiched between layers of exterior chocolate layers.

Before tasting this bar both my father and I expressed our surprise that Ritter had chosen to use a milk chocolate coating as opposed to the usual dark chocolate that coats their standard marzipan offering. Given that this is probably my thirtieth Ritter Sport review that has used the same milk chocolate, I wont go full on in to the micro detail of the taste, but I can say that our preconceived concerns about the pairing of milk chocolate and marzipan were ill founded. Ultimately the chocolate was nothing more, nothing less than it's sweet, generic milky self. The word 'generic' may sound bad, but as ever this wasn't such a bad thing for this Ritter bar, as it allowed greater expression of the inner filling which was frankly very good. Texture wise it was just about right in terms of moistness and viscosity, and importantly avoided that dry, grainy cloying mouth feel that can be associated with cheaper quality marzipan. Flavour wise it was equally as enjoyable, with the juicy, orange influence coming straight to the party amongst the more subtle almond nut taste. Four chunks of this chocolate was a more than satisfying amount to eat at one time - I'm not sure that having any more than that in a sitting it would be quite as enjoyable.

Overall although this wasn't the best ever Ritter Sport flavour I think it is one that is well suited to the time of year, and it will certainly please many a consumer this Christmas time. It would have been interesting to see whether the filling would have been better matched with an outer portion of dark chocolate, but ultimately the milk chocolate did a more than satisfactory job, and despite initial concerns it carried the fruity flavoured marzipan with the same efficiency that it has done for other Ritter flavours. Whilst it may not be have been perfection by Ritter, this was still a very competent flavoured offering and the orange twist proved to be a very welcome bit of flavour development on the already very competent marzipan. Like I always do, I have left the 'best until last' for my reviews of this Ritter Sport Winter-Kreation range. This Orangen-Marzipan was great, but expect even better things to come next week when I review the last bar in this years winter collection.

8.1 out of 10

November 6/7th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 59

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

Another week has passed on the ChocolateMission and to recap we learnt the following ... Ritter Sport love making chocolates with hazelnut in (See HERE), Hotel Chocolat make so damn good chocolate covered fruits (See HERE), Unilever's Marmite flavoured chocolate needs a bit of work (See HERE) and lastly J-List is back on the ChocolateMission map and they have all new Pocky (See HERE).

Thanks for all the comments and inputs this week - they were all as interesting and welcome as ever, please keep them coming. For the '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' post today I haven't had the greatest amount of time to compile all the news stories together. If I have missed anything please be sure to share it. Additionally if you have any product requests for any new or existing products you have seen recently then please feel free to drop me a note.

Next week we have more Ritter Sport, Hotel Chocolat and the return on 'Bits n Bobs' - apologies for the lack of BnB post this week (the Marmite Chocolate skipped the review line!).

Thanks everyone. Have a great weekend and enjoy the firework displays - stay safe ;D

JIM


News from the Chocolate Market

* Brace yourselves for the launch of Go*Do Chocolate coming soon to the UK ... See HERE

* There's some more information on the Thorntons dessert range ... See HERE

* Organic food company, Feeding Your Imagination has launched a new range of chocolate bars ... See HERE

* Chocolate and chips anyone? ... See HERE

* Aero is getting a new £1 million marketing push ... See HERE

* Thorntons has appointed Caffé Nero managing director Jonathan Hart as its new chief executive ... See HERE

* Mars this week have showcased their M&M's line up for Christmas this year ... See HERE ... I've already got around to buying a bag of their Christmas coloured M&M's Peanut ... see below

November 5th: Oreo Choc Milk

Kcal 113 Fat 5.7g Fat(sats) 3.3g Carbs 14.0g (per Oreo)

Before I start off todays review I must first take the time to thank ChocolateMission reader Ria who very kindly included these in a package with some Cadbury Screme Eggs last week. If you all cast your minds back to Christmas time last year, you might remember that one of the best scoring festive products were the white chocolate covered Oreos that were released in our supermarkets as a limited edition (See HERE). Ever since then I have been constantly on the look out for these Oreo Choc Milk, which you may well have guessed are milk chocolate coated Oreo biscuits. Having had no luck searching for myself for a long while, you can imagine my delight when Ria sent these to me - thanks again :D

I have no idea where Ria managed to obtain these from here in the UK, but the packaging stated that they had been produced in Spain (I've actually had them a few times out there before!). The 264.0g box included 6 individual snack packs, each containing two cookies which I thought was a very sensible portion size. Contained within foil wrappers the cookies were maintained in tip-top condition and looked very appealing on the eye with very thick coatings of milk chocolate. In addition to looking impressive, they all smelt particularly nice and emanated a wealth of chocolatey scents to further entice me.

As previously mentioned this wasn't my first experience with these cookies, so my latest foray with them was more of a reminder of tasty they were rather than a totally new experience. I ate the three snack packs during my mid afternoon coffee breaks at work and was the envy of many of my colleagues who cast me many jealous looks whilst they dipped their boring rich tea biscuits haha! My favourite method of eating these was to dip them quickly in my coffee in order to let the chocolate coating melt slightly. It was best doing this because the exterior chocolate had a somewhat waxy texture that took a while to warm in the mouth and initiate flavour release. Once this was achieved I could have no complaints, it was generically sweet in it's milk based cocoa flavours, but it delivered a substantial chocolate flavour hit even before the lower biscuit and creme elements had been encountered. Like I found with the white chocolate covered Oreo last year, the sweetness of the outer chocolate was simply wonderful when met by the saltiness of the sandwich biscuits below. Further harmonising the delightful textures on offer, the inner creme added moistness to the drier biscuit, whilst also bringing yet another twist to the taste with it's vanilla noted sugary creaminess.

Overall these milk chocolate covered Oreos were every bit as good I remembered them to be, and my only disappointment with them came when I finished my last one. Unfortunately for me now normal Oreo cookies are probably going to taste like they are missing something, as I felt the chocolate coating really added something to the experience despite it being far from the best quality chocolate in the world. Biscuits and cookies can often be very similar and 'samey' here in the UK, but I can genuinely say there aren't any cookies on the market here that offer the same type of experience that these Oreo Choc Milk do. I only hope that Kraft/Nabisco or whoever has the ability to make the decision, make these far better distributed throughout the UK - I know for one that they would be frequently ending up in my shopping basket. I would be really interested to hear from any ChocolateMission readers who have tried these - did you like them as much as I did?

8.6 out of 10

November 4th: Glico Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate

If you were cool enough (yes cool enough haha!) to check out the site this weekend you will have seen that a few Japanese sourced products had made their way in to my 'Bits n Bobs' Halloween Superpost. Indeed, after a long, sweltering Japanese summer, J-List have finally replenished their chocolate stocks so it's time for more reviews. My friend Peter at J-List was kind enough to send me a batch of goodies containing some of the newest products the Japanese products, includeing a new range of Pocky called 'Chocolate-on-Chocolate'.

Both these two flavour variants came in 60.0g boxes that contained 4 x 15.1g smaller packets within. Judging by the packaging of this new 'Chocolate-on-Chocolate' range I think it is safe to say that Glico are targeting a more upmarket consumer as the glossy cardboard box and less cartoony graphics gave a more premium and sophisticated sense as opposed to the norm. Portioned in packets of three, the Pocky sticks were about four times the thickness of your standard Mikado and normal Pocky lines. Both looked attractive on the eye, yet neither really grabbed my attention with any compelling aromas of note.

Glico Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate Praline:

Kcal 82 Fat 4.5g Carbs 9.2g (per 15.1 packet)

Normally I liked to start off my reviews by giving you the manufacturers description, though that would be a little impossible for me to do without taking a few lesson in Japanese reading and writing :D Propositionally these did look the more interesting out of the two and it was no surprise to find this was reality when it came to the taste. Starting with the biscuit bases they were your typical Pocky sticks, and were fresh and crunchy offering brown sugar noted wheaty flavours. The coating on top delivered the dual chocolate experience to reasonably good effect, with the lower coated sweeter chocolate enhanced progressively by the ever so slightly more cocoa led flavours of the 63% chocolate on top. Although not particularly prominent in the main stay of the tasting experience, a interjection of buttery almond flavours did make their way into the aftertaste. The upshot of this was that this praline flavour was very tasty, but in the grand scheme of things the nut element needed to stronger.

7.8 out of 10



Glico Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate Mild:

Kcal 81 Fat 4.4g Carbs 9.3g (per 15.1 packet)

I needn't take as long describing my experience with this 'Mild' variant as I did with the 'Praline' above because fundamentally these were exactly the same product but without the inclusion of the 1.4% almond powder. Given that fact you wont be at all surprised to hear that they tasted almost exactly the same, but just with the obvious exclusion of the nutty aftertaste. On reflection I think it would have been good if Glico had tried differentiating this flavour a bit more - perhaps by changing the strength of the dark chocolate part of the coating? The 63% dark chocolate was fair in terms of it's heightened cocoa emphasis, however it didn't venture past the usual mass consumer friendly dark chocolate experience. Although I still got that unsatisfied hunger Pocky feeling after eating these, I was more than happy with how they tasted.

7.4 out of 10


Overall I wouldn't like to lie to anyone by saying this new Chocolate-on-Chocolate range is anything particularly special, but I know for a matter of fact that most Pocky fans will still really love them. Personally I would have liked to have seen Glico be a little bolder with the flavour varieties they chose with these - a stronger, nuttier praline would have great, whilst a more intense dark chocolate would have definitely livened up the somewhat placcid 'Mild' flavours. Like I said, Pocky fans will love these but for the people who are not so fussed I think there are more interesting Japanese products out there. If either of these tickle your fancy I suggest you head HERE to the J-List website.

November 3rd: Marmite Very Peculiar Milk Chocolate

Kcal 540 Fat 32.1g Fat(sats) 20.2g Carbs 54.9g (per 100.0g)

In what must be one of the most requested ChocolateMission reviews of all time, I today have the grand pleasure of bringing you all my candid views on the much publicised Marmite Very Peculiar Milk Chocolate. Having read reviews on websites such as Chocablog (See HERE) and by pal Liz at Foodstufffinds (See HERE), I finally managed to get hold of this much sought after chocolate to try for myself. First things first, Unilever have to be congratulated for the 'buzz' they have created about this chocolate. This Marmite flavoured bar has received wide recognition across the press, with everything from the initial trade articles (See HERE), to the national press generating a great deal of consumer interest (for evidence of that all you need to see is my e-mail inbox filled with requests!!).

I bought this bar from BHS for the price of £2.99 for a 100.0g tablet. On the exterior packaging the product came described as 'The milk chocolate bar by Marmite - Marmite flavour milk chocolate bar', 'Peculiar' sounding indeed, but at the same time very intriguing. In my opinion, Unilever did a pretty decent job with the wrapper. I can't imagine for one minute that this was completely top of mind when putting together their marketing mix for this product, fundamentally I think the people who are willing to try the chocolate in the first place aren't going to be put off with a non-snazzy box in any case. With that in mind I wasn't overly fussed by the non-decorative pattern work on the bar, to be honest my mind was preoccupied with the chocolatey scents emanating from the foil packet, as they offered a much stronger suggestion of Marmite than I was first expecting.

If you are a reader based outside of the UK you may want to catch up with the backstory behind Marmite before trying to understand the detail of the taste test I'm about to describe ... See HERE - thanks Wiki. Now everyone is up to speed it is worth me flagging to you all that I firmly sit in the 'Love It' camp when it comes to my views on this wonderful yeast based spread - suffice to say there aren't many mornings that pass without me indulging in a spot of toast laden with Marmite.

So being a Marmite 'Lover', what did I make of Marmite's Very Peculiar Milk Chocolate??? Well it was an experience to say the least. At the basis of the product there was fair to decent standard milk chocolate that established a decent milky sweet cocoa taste in the initial few seconds of each mouthful. In my first few blocks the Marmite influence was very, very minor and only raised the slightest of salty suggestions towards the back end of the aftertaste. As I made my way closer to the centre of the bar, the texture of the chocolate changed somewhat with what felt like small little crystallised balls roughening the melt of the free flowing chocolate. As the grittier texture became increasingly detectable, unsurprisingly so did the Marmite element, and in some blocks the flavours were really quite intense. Mixed with sweet chocolate, the Marmite element tasted contrastingly spice like, and delivered what I can only describe as an awkward oniony, herby taste in the mouth. Frankly it was pretty horrible, and far from the salty flavour experience that I desired - it certainly didn't leave me wanting to reach back in to the packet for more.

Overall I could probably talk about why this Marmite Chocolate should of, yet didn't work for an endless amount of time, but at the end of things I would always come to the same conclusion that this chocolate wasn't that nice. Looking at the ingredients list it appears Unilever chose to use Marmite flavouring as opposed to real deal Marmite - a somewhat puzzling decision, however it does explain the spiced notes of garlic and onion that I detected in the taste as both were included in the flavouring in powder form. Although I was excited about trying this chocolate I can't say I was all that disappointed by it, as my expectations were realistic in that it was going to be something to taste for an 'experience' rather than one to compete with the iconic Hotel Chocolat 85% dark chocolate. For that reason I would probably still buy it for friends who like Marmite and hadn't tasted it before, but I would probably warn them that it isn't that nice. Unilever have created a chocolate that wont be renowned for it's chocolate tasting prestige, but one that is worth trying 'just to see what it's like' and I would recommend you do on that basis alone. I can't promise you guys will like this chocolate, but I can promise you will be glad to have at least given it a go and laid your mind to rest to what Marmite flavoured chocolate would actually taste like :D

6.0 out of 10