April 26th: Twix Coconut

Kcal 250 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 25.0g

Frequent visitors to the site will be all to aware that the Twix bar is one of my all time favourite mass produced chocolate bars. Unfortunately, unlike in the United States, Mars UK have never been that kind when it has come to creating limited edition flavours or variants - the last bit of 'new news' for Twix in this country was the rather disappointing Twix Fino. Thankfully for me (though probably little comfort for my UK audience!) the guys over at Mars US have recognised the global spanning readership of my site, and were kind enough to send me across some samples of their latest Twix limited edition bar - the Russian made Coconut variant. This bar came as part of a groovy PR kit that contained a coconut shell and a Twix branded computer memory stick - Cheers guys :D

This limited edition came described as 'cookie bars coated in milk chocolate with a coconut caramel layer' and came in a bar that weighed in at 50.7g. The product presentation as a totality was pretty standard Twix fair - with the bar split in to two long finger pieces that contained equal amounts of caramel and biscuit, with the former being ever so slightly darker in colour versus the traditional Twix bar. The design of the wrapper was similar to other Twix variants I have tried in previous times, though I thought overall the design was very cool looking and I liked the integration and non-over elaboration communication of the coconut theme - it could have been easy to have created something really ghastly here I think! As impressive as the bar was aesthetically, the product also generated some nice alluring aromas once released from it's foil packet. The smells were mostly of sweet milk chocolate, though the first evidence of coconut came to light with some minor nutty scent offerings.

As with all Twixs I had great fun eating this bar, experimenting with several different ways of eating it - all three layers in one, caramel on its own, biscuit on its own etc etc. My preferred method ended up being the same as with the majority of all Twixs - letting the sweet milk chocolate melt away, before then munching away on the warmed soft caramel and crunchy biscuit - lovely! As always the milk chocolate was your standard Mars quality, with it's generic sweetened milky cocoa taste being more just passable rather than anything of true note. As with the chocolate, the biscuit base was also non-differentiated from the norm with it's buttery shortbread taste nicely finishing with a moreish hint of salt. The caramel layer was obviously the coconut flavour carrier here, and it did a sound job of what was intended. After my first few bites my initial reaction was that the coconut flavouring was perhaps a little on the artificial side (because it was haha!), though once I ate more of the bar I grew to increasingly like the creamy, buttery nuttiness more and more. The coconut element was maybe not the freshest or real tasting coconut experience I have tasted in a chocolate bar, however it added an interesting additional flavour depth and importantly didn't contribute any harsh, sugary sweetness that you sometimes get from other artificial flavours. I ate both sticks in the one sitting and I found them to be a very satisfying and fulfilling snack to accompany my mid-afternoon tea.

Overall I wouldn't rate this as the best limited edition the Twix brand has ever seen, however it was one that I increasingly enjoyed the more I ate it. Whilst not being the best flavoured coconut product I have ever tried, the actual integration of the flavouring into the caramel was done to a fairly good standard and delivered on the proposition that Mars intended. Before I tasted the bar I was somewhat questioning Mars's choice of a milk chocolate coating rather than a white chocolate one, as the former is more commonly found paired with coconut. Thankfully this ultimately proved to be a bit of a non-factor anyway, as it was the coconut that by and large steered the taste as soon as the caramel was uncovered. As I said above, the coconut wasn't optimally integrated but combined with the chocolate and biscuit elements its made for a nice variation on the original Twix. Given the lack of coconut options these days in the UK it would nice to see this bar makes its way to our shores some time in the future. It's not a 'must try', but its a good chocolate bar and I would suggest giving it a go if you get the opportunity.

8.2 out of 10