&f=Calibri-Bold&ts=14&tc=d4d4cc&it=gif&c=round&bgt=gradient&bgc=ad6807&ebgc=d98807&be=on&w=125&h=30){kind=small}
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Nestle Kit Kat
Kit Kat UK - Review (See HERE)
Kcal 107 Fat 5.4g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 10.6g (per 20.5g bar)
Ingredients - Milk Chocolate (66%) (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Skimmed Milk, Cocoa Mass, Whey Powder, Butterfat, Vegetable Fat, Lactose, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin, E476), Flavouring), Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Mass, Yeast, Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Calcium Sulphate, Flavouring.
Kit Kat UAE
Kcal 102 Fat 5.1g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 12.6g (per 21.0g bar)
Manufactured - Nestle Dubai, L.L.C. Dubai - UAE.
Ingredients - Sugar, Wheat Flour, Milk Powder, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Hydrogenated Palm Kern Oil, Whey Powder, Milk Fat, Vegetable Oils, Reduced Fat Cocoa Powder, Invert Sugar Syrup, Emulsifier, Salt, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Raising Agent
Comments:In my photo above you will see that I have pictured both the two finger and chunky Kit Kat milk chocolate bars sent to me by Fiona. On the surface of things both appeared no different whatsoever from the bars we get in the UK. Closer inspection of the wrapper actually showed that the Chunky they get in the UAE is manufactured in the UK and imported over - quelle surprise I could taste no differences whatsoever. The two finger bar however, was a totally different story. This bar had been manufactured at the new Nestle factory in Dubai, and boy there some glaring disparities from the Kit Kats im used to. Indeed, compared to our UK Kit Kat the chocolate was waxy in both melt and mouth feel, and the wafer component was equally bad, lacking it's usual crispness with its limp yield. In addition to the textural issues, the overall taste also felt lacklustre. The chocolate tasted less creamy and less cocoa focused, and seemed to rely more on it's sugar flavours. The wafer also lacked just a little of it's usual malt and wheat flavour cut through. These differences were not only evident because I was looking for them, I genuinely feel like anyone would have observed them.
6.4 out of 10
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Nestle Lion
Nestle Lion (UK) - Review (See HERE)
Kcal 269 Fat 12.7g Carbs 35.3g (per 55.5g bar)
Ingredients - Sugar, Glucose-fructose Syrup, Flour (Wheat, Rice), Skimmed Milk Powder, Cocoa Butter, Lactose, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Mass, Butterfat, Whey Powder, Humectant (Glycerol), Salt, Emulsifiers (E322 from Soya, E476, E471), Flavourings, Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Magnesium Carbonate), Yeast, Barley Malt Extract.
Nestle Lion (Poland)
Kcal 309 Fat 13.8g Fat(sats) 9.9g Carbs 43.2g (per 65.0g bar)
Manufactured - Nestle Polska, Oddzial w Kargowej
Ingredients - Compound mass (41.9%)(sugar, hydrogenated vegetable fat, whey powder, fat reduced cocoa powder, emulsifier, milk flavour), Glucose Syrup, Rice Flakes (9.7%), Sweetened Condensed Milk, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Stabilizer, Salt, Raising Agents, Thickener
Comments: What is a Polish bar doing in a 'UAE Superpost' I hear you ask!? Well like the Nestle Chunky Kit Kat, the Lion is another bar that Nestle import in to UAE from a different country, which in this case is Poland.The keenest of the keen ChocolateMission readers will be aware that I have done a like-for-like comparison of the UK and Polish Lion Bars before (See HERE). The King Size bars that Fiona sent me were highly comparable in terms of the conclusions I made in that comparison. The milk chocolate and caramel were less flavoursome, and texturally things were also a little off, with the chocolate again feeling waxy and the wafer not as crisp. It must however be noted that these differences were not quite as stark as the Kit Kat above.
7.9 out of 10
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Galaxy
Lastly today I will be focusing on the first two variants of Galaxy chocolates that I recieved as part of this four flavour 'mini' bar pouch.
Galaxy Milk Chocolate UK -Review (See HERE)Kcal 250 Fat 14.9g Carbs 25.5g (per 49.0g bar)
Ingredients - Sugar, Cocoa Ingredients (Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass), Skimmed Milk Powder, Milk Fat, Lactose, Demineralised Whey Powder, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithin, E442), Flavouring. Milk Chocolate Contains Milk Solids 14% Minimum and Cocoa Solids 25% Minimum.
Galaxy Milk Chocolate (UAE)
Kcal ??? Fat ??? Carbs ???
Manufactured - Mars, Dubai, UAE
Ingredients - Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Skimmed Milk Powder, Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, Glycerol, Water, Milk Fat, Emulsifier, Dextrose, Thickener, Flavouring (artifical ethyl vanillin). Milk Chocolate Contains Milk Solids 14% Minimum and Cocoa Solids 25% Minimum.
Comments: You must already be getting sick of my saying this but the melt of this chocolate was again incredibly poor in mouth feel and had a disgusting waxyness to it. For me, the most appealing aspect of the Galaxy chocolate we get in the UK is the way the sillky soft melt slowly releases the crispy, creamy sweet cocoa flavours. The taste may not be the most prestigous, but compared to this UAE Galaxy chocolate the UK bar is far superior in terms of quality and cut through of its flavours. The taste here felt laboured and didn't create the impact in terms of it's cream rooted flavour base.
6.2 out of 10
Galaxy Crispy (UAE)Kcal ??? Fat ??? Carbs ???
Manufactured - Mars, Dubai, UAE
Ingredients - Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Skimmed Milk Powder, Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, Glycerol, Water, Milk Fat, Rice Flour, Barley Syrup, Rapeseed Oil, Barley Malt, Emulsifier, Dextrose, Thickener, Flavouring (artifical ethyl vanillin). Milk Chocolate Contains Milk Solids 14% Minimum and Cocoa Solids 25% Minimum.
Comments: This was the flavour in the pack that didn't have a UK equivalent bar, so I was looking in the direction of this Crispy bar to give me the opportunity to say something nice about the UAE chocolates for once :D Unfortunately the base chocolate was of course just as disappointing as above, and the cereal rice did very little to help. Whilst it had a positive effect bringing some nice variation to the waxy texture, it broke up the already rather mild flavours even more, making the bar even more passive and lightweight in taste. Oh dear!
6.0 out of 10
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What can I say!??? Not a great start for the UAE chocolates. Be sure to check back soon for Part # 2 where I will be checking out more Galaxy and the Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.
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51 comments:
EVERYONE
Anyone trying to add comments please be aware that I can see them but Blogger is currently not allowing me to verify them (I keep getting a funny error).
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Thanks
JIM
I'm feeling for those in the UAE, hopefully they can still get some enjoyment out of their bars by not knowing what they're missing.
Oh shame the chocolate wasn't as palatable as the Uk counterparts!
I would be really interested to know whether they adjust the UAE chocolate to "local preference" or if European chocolate is considered better, taste/qualitywise, even by those in the UAE. I have this theory that chocolate in typically hot countries (e.g. India like I'm used to) is generally substandard and perceptibly so, probably because of all the non-melt additives, but then again it might just be my personal taste.
This is such a great post Jim its so interesting to see how all of these compare to each other.
I don't think I will be making a beeline for any chocolate from the uae any time soon. It looks and sounds like it isn't as nice as any of ours.
How and why would they mess with the texture of galaxy chocolate? Lol imo it's the only thing it has going for it that makes it stand out as a better than average chocolate. If it lost that I would just consider it among the likes of the nestle and normal mars crappyness.
Rxxx
Remind me never to move to the UAE lol. Some of this chocolate sounds horrendous. I expect the people who live there must just think it is normal so it wont effect them too much. If you had to move there though it sounds like this would all be v noticeable. Top review Jim.
Have you noticed that they are still using all the old style wrappers for their Galaxy bars?
Lol don't they look so old fashioned now. They look like they were designed in the 90s or something.
Wicked review mate. I do love it when you do these comparison posts they always make for an interesting read. We all take this chocolate stuff very seriously, it would be a idea to test it out on someone who doesn't care about chocolate as much to see if they could tell if there was any differences.
The kit kat comparison sounds so one sided with ours being better. We should take pity on them and send them the real stuff lol.
Great reviews Jim. I looked at all the photos before I read it all first. I thought you had gone a bit bonkers and had reviewed all these things again for the hell of it. LOL then I bothered reading the UAE intro and it all made sense :-) Great work again.
Great comparisosn Jim, I would love to hear from someone who lives over there who had tried both our uk stuff and for them what would be the originals. I think we might be all surprised to find that they would think it is our chocolate that is 'wrong' and that their stuff is 'normal'.
Looking forward to part two already mate. It will be fun to see if there are any that you think are worthwhile.
You can tell we aren't missing out on the crispy version of galaxy. I didn't think it even sounded that nice anyway.
What a cool comparison to be able to do. Thanks to fiona and jim for making such a terrific post. I hope you sent friona some chocolate in return for her to try jim. If you did make sure you tell us what she said in response to your own post. Has she ever said what she thinks of the chocolate they get over there.
I was expecting you to be posting about some British chocolates today what with the royal wedding coming up :-) Are you not excited about it at all?
Please tell me you have something ghastly to review like a chocolate mould of kate and will. Lol that would have me in stitches.
Those polish lion bars seem to get sold all over the place. If you look in the pound shops in this country you can often find them being flogged off on the cheap. You are right though, you can tell they aren't as good.
The description of those KKs reminds me of the cheap knock off copies you get in the supermarkets.
My mum tried passing us off with sainsburys own make 'biscuit fingers' once and I demanded she go back to buying KKs. They just weren't the same at all.
Hey J
You must have been over the moon with that result for Man U the other day. If you beat Arsenal now you should be well on your way to winning the title for sure. I must say your lot are looking a little unstoppable at the moment, you must fancy your chances of the double now.
I've not been on holiday or ever seen any chocolate from this sort of region before but from what you say it isn't like I want to go changing that any time soon. At least they are rich enough over there to buy in the genuine real deal if they ever feel the need, saying that they probably aren't even aware that the stuff we produce is better. The poor arabs.
Cheers
N
I hate to think what their finer chocolates are like if they can't even replicate cadburys or mars.
God i can't believe how old school that galaxy packaging looks now. The new ones make it look so much more modern than all that horrible colouring ever did. The Cadburys comparison is going to be awesome to see I look forward to it. Thanks Jim.
At least they still get a decent kit kat chunky. The chunky is ten times better than getting one of those fiddly little two fingers bars anyways.
Waxy chocolate? Well thats no good at all is it.
It sounds like they need to go back to the drawing board in the uae. It can't be that difficult copying a bloody chocolate can it?
Well I've learnt from this one that British choc > Polish choc > Arab choc
Does anyone know if this factory in Poland is like some uber big one or something. They are always selling off polish lions in the market that happens in my town at the weekends. They sometimes have the white chocolate ones but they aren't very good.
This might sound stupid but you can kinda tell there is something up with that kit kat. It just doesn't look right.
I hope for the sake of the people living in the UAE that they are just having teething problems if that is a new factory. I would hate to think they are going to get sucky versions of our chocolates forever. They will get a bad perception of what we can actually make which wont be cool.
Lesson learnt from this post ..... don't buy chocolate from U.A.E LOL. I wont make the mistake of bringing people back chocolate if I ever go to Dubai lol. Just fake designer sunglasses.
Do they have any bars that are unique to that country out there or are they just poor imitations of our own lot?
The differences you noticed could be attributable for many reasons but I think they have to adapt the recipe of their chocolate so it can survive the blazing hot conditions. I can't think of any other reason why they would change it, the only thing that looks different in the ingrdients is that that they use hydrogenated palm kern oil. I think that might just be another terminology for vegetable fat though.
It's remarkable how the makeup of the bars is so different if you look at the Galaxy chocolate. The Ingridients list is very different if you compare one with the other, no wonder you noticed such stark differences between ours and theirs.
Dx
Oh wat a surprise. The english bloke thinks that the english chocolates are better. No one would ever have predicted this now would they. What a pointless post.
'not a great start for the UAE chocolates' that made me laugh. Understatement of the century much? These all look and sound horrible. I hope they aren't giving us a rep for making poor chocolate over there. It would be such a shame for them to think that galaxy and kit kats are rubbish just because their factories aren't good enough to produce them properly.
Jim whats the worst chocolate you've ever been sent? Have you ever felt like you have had to say something was nice because you felt guilty for taking it off them? You don't hold back on things here lol.
What is it with Poland and their bloomin Lion bars? They pop up in the most unlikely of places all the time. I've seen them in both the UK and France before, and now you say they sell the same ones in the UAE!? Do you think there is a reason they always come up from Poland if other countries buy them in? It must be the cheapest place to make them or something like that.
Poor old Galaxy, it looks terribly neglected with it's 1999 wrappers lol.
Jimbo give us a clue which other brands you got sent. I'm quite excited to hear about whether some of the others are better or worse.
@FIONA NESBITT
If you ever want to send me some free chocolate I would be more than happy to take it off your hands :-)
Do you realise how lucky you are Jim? Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine anyone ever being considered such an 'expert' that I would be happy to send them some chocolate just to get their views on it. It's like you have a fan club or something.
How long ago did you write these reviews? If you have any left over I will happily give a second opinion on all of these :) Any excuse to eat some chocolate lol.
Ewwww I find the prospect of them messing around with the textures extremelly off putting. It might be a case of you just getting used to it if you were to eat it everyday though. People don't like these things when they get changed or are different from what they normally expect.
Are these all just your opinions or did you get others to check with you? I don't doubt your judgement for one minute but it would just have been nice to get a sense of what some other people thought about these.
This is such a wicked post thanks Jim.
The variations of their wrappers look more like they are from the US than they do as if they are from the UK. We really do need someone who lives in the UAE (you mention someone sent these to you!!???) to do exactly the same experiement to see if they agree with you.
I'm not saying you are home biased but I wouldn't be surprised if you preferred ours just because it was more familiar to you.
Part two of this is going to be v interesting to see because I can't believe for one minute that all of their chocolate is going to be inferior to our own.
I remember seeing a blogger write about how bad Indian cadbury chocolate is compared to ours a while ago and they blamed it all on the fact that the milk they used wasn't what he was used to. Lol with dairy milk thats probably going to be quiet a big issue .
Do they have things like Mars bars and milkyways over there? How do they match up against what we have.
Oh dear it sounds like they have made a right mess of a fair few of these. Is the Galaxy really that bad? I don't think I could move to a country that had crappy galaxy. I think I would have to import it over from the UK, I couldn't survive without my fave normal choc.
Are my comments working grrrrrrrr
I've never seen such detailed analysis of a chocolate bar before :-) do you genuinely think your average person is going to be able tell these differences or are they just more explicit to you because you were looking for them?
Blind testing is the only way forward for circumstances like this I think.
This is the best post you have done comparing one countries chocolates with another well done J.
Have you got any more like this planned or are you seeing this as just a one off?
Personally I think these types of posts are very bit as interesting as seeing chocolates that are coming out now in this country. It's all well and good seeing the new stuff reviewed and all that but it's also good to see what the classics are like in the other countries.
It's a bit crappy these haven't proved to be as good as you hoped but its not like you haven't lucked out before trying stuff like the dairy milk ifrom ireland. Thats the closest I have ever come to being able to do something like this.
The dairy milk comparison is going to be v v interesting to see if it ends up being anything like these. They don't sound like they even come close to being as good as what we get here. I wonder if these chocolates are still the most popular or whether people just don't like them as much as we do over here in the UK. You would think with all the money in dubai that people just buy the best of the best all the time anyways and don't have time for crappy things like cadburys.
Do they get any different types of flavoured Kit Kat or are they just all the same as the ones we get. If they have their own factory now you would of thought they could make some of their own types of bars like some of the other countries do. The Germans make the white chocolate one for instance.
Why aren't my comments coming up :( :( :(
I've absolutely no desire whatsoever for us to get a 'crispy' version of the galaxy. The last 'truffle' bar I had from them was a big enough waste of time as it is. A crispy one might potentially prove to be every bit as rubbish.
Thanks for the reviews though mate. I'm loving seeing these type of comparison, I hope you can do a few more maybe getting some bars from south africa or something (thats where im from originally).
@David - but theyre the current wrappers? They look exactly the same as the wrappers we have at the moment in the UK lol (as far as possible obviously)
None of these sound very nice I have to say lol I think it must just be they have to be made differently to withstand the heat.
Sorry.. I really agree with Jim about these reviews. I am not native to the UAE.. Ozzie of Brit origin, so cannot say that this is 'normal' for the region so far as taste preference goes. My theory is that the taste is a combination of ingredients to reduce melting ( a guess and no scientific basis) and maybe also pricing? A standard local Mars Bar is less than 20p equiv here..
Thanks J for doing the review.. It confirms that I am not just fussy when it comes to even basic chocolate..
I will continue to bring in choc from Oz/UK in my suitcase on every trip out of the UAE!!
Fiona ...
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