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Kcal 208 Fat 11.2g Carbs 24.0g (per bar)
The week may be drawing to a close but I still have one last new limited edition product for you guys to take a look at. This Quality Street My Purple Bar was announced back in July (See HERE) with the Nestle spokesperson bodly stating the follwoing:
“With the launch of My Purple Bar, Nestlé Confectionery is giving retailers the chance to benefit from one of the most innovative launches of 2011. Scoring extremely highly when tested with consumers, this new and exciting chocolate single comes from the mega brand Quality Street.” I wasn't sure about the 'most innovative' comment, though when I put my mind to it I couldn't think of a mass produced bar currently on the UK marketplace combining these three ingredients (surprising huh!?).
This bar weighed at a catch-weight 40.0g and came in an easily divisible 4 block format. My photograph above probably hasn't done this all justice but this was one really well presented product. I was very impressed with the wrapper especially - it was simple, yet did what it needed to do superbly. The branding was prominent and had nice stand-out with it's swish font style, whilst the purple foil material did a dual job of looking aesthetically relevant and also keeping the contents fresh. Big thumbs up to Nestle for this here.
For those unaware the 'Purple one' in traditional Quality Street refers to a milk chocolate that contains caramel and hazelnut - this was exactly what was on offer here. Pre-empting free flowing oozing caramel I first chilled the bar in the refrigerator to ensure that such circumstances were avoided. Breaking the bar into it's four pieces, I liked the way it had been constructed as it carried through a sense of familiarity with the shape of the blocks. Normally in a case like this I would de-construct the taste by it's three different components. Unfortunately I have the displeasure of just being able to summarise them all by saying the collectively made for a very heavy sugar led taste that had a disappointing level of mild nuttiness to it. The milk chocolate shells were noticeably lacking chocolatey flavours and the caramel innards were almost devoid of any of the desired butter and toffee notes. The hazelnut pieces inside weren't exactly sparsely portioned, but as stated already they were lacking in flavour and didn't bring to the party what they should of.
Overall this bar just simply didn't fulfil the needs I wanted it to, and ultimately I was left feeling disappointed by it. As I aforementioned there wasn't one single constituent that let this bar down especially, it was just the fact that all three of the milk chocolate, caramel and hazelnuts weren't half as flavoursome or contributive as they should have been. Being an old bugger :D all I could think about when trying this bar was how much so Cadbury need to bring back the Cadbury Nuts about Caramel bar that they used to produce (See HERE). That bar there was one that I never understood why Cadbury took out of their portfolio - I would be interested to hear from anyone of you if you would similarly like to see it's return. Back to the matter at hand, at £0.65 you aren't going to break the bank giving this one a try. I unfortunately have to close with the conclusion that I wouldn't recommend it based on taste though.
6.4 out of 10
Posts
62 comments:
I think as long as you go in to trying this with your eyes wide open you wont be disappointed by it. Everyone knows that Quality Street aren't the best chocolates ever. As long as you know that before trying im sure it wont as a surprise that neither the chocolate or caramel are as tasty as some of the other bars out there.
Ack. No nuts thank you. They should have made a sharing pack of caramel swirls.
I like the idea of QS being introduced to bars like this. My only comment would be that it would have been super cool if they had a few different chocolates in one instead of just focusing on the single flavour. Wouldn't it be uber cool to have a bar that has the toffee, praline, orange and purple one all in the single bar. Sounds good don't you think?
We should all be taking more pride in some of these old brands we have. Thorntons 100 years and Quality Street 75 years, I never knew that they were both so rich in heritage. It would be cool to see what quality street first looked like when it came about. Its probably non recogniseable now.
Well we all know one place this would be popular and thats in Germany lol. They stick hazelnuts in anything.
I love all the exclusive reviews this week Jim. You've topped up my list of chocolate bars that I need to be trying. Lol not that it really needed topping up that is. It's so long now I wont possibly be able to eat them all. I don't know how you do it.
I think you are right about the wrapper. For a quality street chocolate it does look the business. Personally I don't think Nestle do bad wrapper designs at all. They seem to constantly update them so they look nice and modern. Its pretty amazing how just slight changes to say the fonts can make something look a lot better than it did before.
Jim why are you saying this is limited edition? It doesn't say anything about that on the wrapper or anything.
Trust them to pick one of the only Quality Street I don't like lol. I always got the impression that the purple wrapper ones were one of the least popular. Maybe thats just my family!? They are always one of those annoying flavours that are left in the tin when we get them in at Christmas.
What a shame. Allergic to nuts so irellevant for me today. I hate it when we get these days on JCM. If you started recording whether they are nut allergen friendly that would be so great if you started doing that.
If we were giving out marks based purely on the photos this quality street one wouldn't of done bad if your asking me. That caramel looks scrummy and I like that you can see the hazelnut poking out the other bit.
Omg Jim why did you do this to yourself lol Rating nestle lower than the other two new things this week is just asking for trouble from those idiots. I respect you write what you think but I feel sorry for you knowing that inevitably those idiots are going to complain. I swear Nestle have spies looking at blogs that look out for negative reviews of their products.
No offence Jim but I hate Quality Street. I gave my mum such an ear bashing when she bought one of their tins last xmas. Lol the poor soul I think she only bought them because it was half price.
Dx
Where can you buy these? I've not ever seen one before.
Great review Jim. Lol we all know we can rely on you to bring us a view on the latest and greateset. On something unrelated are you going to be reviewing the Cadburys mascots soon? I found them selling in wilko for 55p each.
There isn't anything to complain about with them but I know you will be complaining about them just being reshaped wispas when you review them lol. I know how your mind works you see :P
Its hardly innovation gone wild but fair play to them for trying something they haven't done before.
Does that sticker in the top right say '75 years of Quality Street?'. Im surprised by that. I thought they would have been older if you asked me. I thought they were some of the oldest chocs going in the UK.
I do like these but I wouldn't but it instead of a galaxy caramel. The chocolate in the galaxy is just ten times better than the crappy stuff you get in quality street choc.
Why do you think they chose the purples ones to make into a bar and not any of the others?
Im not too sure its the most popular but I think its a lot to do with what Jim said about there being not many alternatives. Thereisn't another bar occupying this hazelnut/caramel slot at the moment. The same can't be said about a load of the Quality Street
The cadburys caramel with nuts used to be my most favourite bar of chocolate ever and then they stopped making it for no reason whatsoever. Do you remember that famous advert with the cadbury bunny?
I found it on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc4NRwxc1Fw&feature=related
God you must have been a busy bee with all these new chocolates lately. You're doing a brill job Jim keep it going. I do appreciate seeing the new things so fast.
Dear Nestle,
Please make a bar all with all orange cremes in.
loves
Emx
How annoying I could have said another 5 or so different quality street chocs I would have rather been given it's own bar before these ones. I don't think I will be bothering trying this out I'm afraid. I already know what they taste like I see little point in trying it just for the sake of it.
That wrapper is tres cool. It looks too classy to be Quality Street I think.
Hey hun. Its just typical they choose one of the few ones that I don't like in QS tins isn't it. Oh well, I shouldn't have expected anything more. If they start releasing bags of their toffee pennies that would be so brilliant. What would be even better would be if they did a mixed bag of the pennies with the long toffee ones with the choc on the outside.
Rxxx
Your'e very fussy with your caramels aren't you Jimbob. I can never tell that there is that much diff between them all personally. I will eat whatever if it just says caramel on the wrapper (lol within reason of course)
Nestle getting the lowest score of the week. Now theres a surprise. Sort your life out the snidey hate campaign is wearing very thin.
Thanks for the reviews this week J. Impeccable as always lad. I have no idea how you get all these chocolates faster than the rest of us but you never fail bringing us the reviews of all the new bars first. Keep it up choccie dude.
They could of had themselves a nice tidy bar here if they just tightened up the quality a bit. I can imagine that just with some half decent tasting hazelnuts this would have been ten times better. Its a shame when you think about it. They could have got themselves a nice little niche to play in.
Well I wasn't expecting anything more from these. Everyone knows QS aren't exactly chocolate experts. As long as the price is right I can't see this bar doing too badly. With you on the Cadbury TN though Jim. That bar was magic in its time. It does get me wondering why they got rid of it in the first place.
A hat trick of new ones! Well done Jim its all very exciting seeing these.
I can safely say I will be giving this particular one a miss. Hazelnuts are yuck. Its all about the mars for me this week.
Personally I think they should relaunch quality stree and give the whole lot a makeover. I look at them now and they are just the same boring chocolates they were 20 years ago. The only thing they've done is add and remove the odd one or two. They've never seriously rehauled them to make them fresh or offer something different.
If they didn't want to change them to much they could release a new version of Quality Street, like a luxury type or something like that.
Are you going to give us a clue as to what snack of the week is Jim? More american chocolates or food Im guessing?
How are the nuts put in there? Are they whole nuts or tiddly little ones? From what I can tell by the pics it looks like they are whole which is a good thing.
One thing I want to question is how you are supposed to know what the hell a 'my purple bar' has in it if you don' know your quality street chocolates. My family have been buying them for years so I was fully aware.
The name isn't exactly helpful for someone who has no clue about whats in there. I would expect someone guessing what a 'purple one' is to probs think it was something to do with Turkish delight or something random like that.
We should consider this quite a breakthrough for a brand that hasn't done anything aside from boxes and tins since time began. I hope this is just the start of them turning over a new leaf at Nestle Hq.
Jim same question as Ian above. How do you know its a limited edition?
Quality street should change how their box looks so it reflects the style of this wrapper, I think it looks well smart. I think the way things are presented in their packaging goes a long way to shaping peoples expectations.
Take Terry's Chocolate Orange for example. I have always thought the packaging of that looks so cheap and crappy, it comes as a nice surprise when the chocolate tastes so good. On the flipside you have Guylian seashells which look incredible but taste average. This sounds disgusting but my point is you can shine a turd and sell it lol.
That idea someones suggested about the chocolates being random ones from the tin is a bad idea. Imagine how crap it would be if you opened it up and then realised you had 4 of those crappy coconut exclairs. Lol for me that would be a nightmare.
Why are people so surprised the wrapper is good. The lion bar, smarties, milkybar ones are all great. Even their simpler ones like the Crunch aren't bad at all, and as for the new Aero ones! They look terrific.
Someone try name me a bad one!????
This is such a fab idea.
Normally we always buy Roses chocolates when we get tins in at Christmas and stuff but I do appreciate the odd quality street. The purple ones are always the first few kinds to get eaten when we do have them.
A mixture of different quality street chocolates would have been ace but I'm more than happy to settle with just the purple ones.
Do you have any insider info on whether they are planning to make more of them Jim?
I've never understood why they have never sold the toffee pennies on their own. I they would be well popular if they did. The only ones I think would do really bad are the coconut eclairs lol. They are so bad I have no idea why they still have them.
Thats mental. I genuinely cannot think of a single mass made chocolate that has just chocolate, hazelnut and caramel in it. Quality Street may just luck out here. The bar might not be the best for taste but it's not exactly there is anything directly comparable to measure it up against.
One wonders how long it will take cadburys to respond with the inevitable return of the CDM with caramel and nuts.
@Nick that would be neat, like a Quality Street Sky bar. I'd like to try this for the novelty factor, though some of the Quality Street chocolates disappoint me with sugar overload. I've never had a sectioned bar like this, it looks like they used their regular chocolate mold and then stuck them all together, plus the appealing photo is swaying my judgment, I guess it is worth 1,000 words lol.
PS I'm starting to think it's the pro-Nestle commenters who have an agenda :D I never paid much attention to who made what before but Nestle seems to get the most defending. If Nestle are reading this, it would be neat to get a response. And I would like to request just like a little more salt.
I was very surprised by the look of tghis wrapper, I was expecting the current design biut I imagine its part of the 75th anniversary celebrations. Ive not seen any yet though lol
@ Steven f /Golden Touch.. youd be amazed to find the design on the wrappers is actually the original 1930's Quality Street logo! lol doesnt it look nice compared to the garish one of today! Its interesting everyone thinks its a new look :)
You might like to see some tins from down the years, as you can see theyre all pretty recognisable, one of the earliest is at the bottom, with the above logo on it. Personally I think they shouldnt have ditched the soldier and lady in the early 2000's, much more interesting than chocolate wrappers scattered about lol
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1249657@N22/pool/
Hi All,
Hands up if you are looking forward to the weekend!????
The sun looks like it's going to be out in the UK. I think we best make the most of it as it's sure to be turning nasty very soon.
I'm so pleased that everyone has been enjoying seeing these new products this week. I think we have been waiting a while to see a few of them so it was good luck to come across them all in such little time.
It's the England game tonight (Groan!!!) but I will be watching it with friends so I best be snappy with my replies. Thanks for contributing again. Lets hope Nestle continue to pump out the NPD like this.
PHILLIP - You sum it up perfectly ... almost :D
NICK - That is a fine idea. As someone has mentioned though it would be a real shame if you ended up with a pack of all chocolates you didn't like.
IAN - It says so in the PR article I posted in the review.
DAISY - Your poor mum :D I feel sorry for her.
ANON - Try your local independent stores.
ASHLEY - You got think they just did some research and it was the purple flavour one that got the nod as peoples favourite. I'm a little surprised too they didn't for for a plain caramel myself but hey, I think a company like Nestle would have done their research.
TERRY - I do remember that advert. Good find on Youtube chap.
RACHEL - I do like their toffee pennies as well. I'm certainly a fan.
BEN - Do you copy and paste what you write from Nestle review to Nestle review? Change the record chap.
NATHAN - I have no idea why they got rid of it. I'm guessing it was a ranging decision so they could bring something else in.
HENRY - What would they call luxury Quality Street then!? Extra Quality Street :D
ERIC - They are whole implemented.
MARK - That's a good point though I think that a lot of people would give it a good guess that it was caramel at least. I can see why you would relate it to Turkish Delight mind.
CHRIS - See Ian response.
ANON - I don't think Cadbury will bring back the Totally Nuts. It would have been included in the latest batch of new products if they were interested in doing so.
THEA - There's nothing a clever photo can't do eh!? I see what some of you guys are saying about the caramel looking good. It looks all golden and nice but it was really more of a mid to low grade caramel. Pro Nestle commentors? Hmm we could do with some Pro-Jim ones haha! Only joking, I get way too much praise from you guys already.
ALAN - Top work there chap. Interesting stuff with the tins down the years isn't it. I wish we could see exactly what chocolates they had and when the new/old ones came out and in. I wonder if there is one that has stood the whole 75 years!?
Thanks for the comments everyone! Get out there in the sun and lap up the last of summer now.
JIM
This hazelnut purple flavour wouldn't of been my flavour of choice to do this with but for every one person saying thats saying this sort of thing there will have to be another five saying the opposite if they have done their research right. It would be fascinating to see a poll of what everyones favourite quality street chocolate is. I think either one of the toffee or the caramels would win out but I guess you can never be 100% sure unless you see the genuine results. You should do your own poll Jim.
Thats a real shame about the 'my big' ones if what that person is saying is true about them being not produced anymore.
I went through a time when I used to buy the caramel dome one all the time. I didn't think it was that bad. I hope they haven't just replaced it with this bar. I don't like nuts :( I can't be the only one thinking that.
As long as this is the first of many I think these Quality Street bars are a great idea. The caramel swirls or the praline ones blatantly have to be the next port of call. They are mad if they do any of the others before them. They are tried and tested favourites.
The best quality street always have and always will be the strawberry ones and the toffee coins.
I know Quality street aren't the most loved brand of chocolates ever but I think they are better than roses.
Whats unfortunate for both of them now though is that we can all get celebrations which are just so much better than both of them anyway. The great quality street vs roses battle is a little insignificant now isn't it lol.
Your photos are so good today. I love the look of the caramel in the choc.
The day they bring back the cadbury caramel with nuts is going to be a glorious day :) How they can justify having a bubbly bar aswell as the wispa and not have that caramel with nuts is beyond me. I hope they see sense soon and sort that out.
I think these bars are going to be a cool idea if they do some different flavours ones. I can't see them just leaving it at this purple one bar. It would be well random if they did.
I the caramel and chocolate bit of the market not saturated enough as it is? Using one of their fruit cremes like the orange one would have made a lot more sense. Apart from Frys and Terrys there aren't exactly many chocolate oranges doing the rounds at the min.
Your photo does look a bit lush there. Im such a sucka for any photo with caramel in.
I think the reason they stopped making the NUuts About Caramel was that it didnt fit into their new 'Dairy Milk with...' line up back in 2005, as happened with the Wispa. The name wouldnt have fitted and the shape of the bar wouldnt either as it was quite deep. I always liked it as a bar, same with Fuses, another casualty!
Another article bashing Nestle and as usual giving ridiculous bias towards Cadbury...boring.
I was really disappointed. The Purple one was always my fav. There is far too much chocolate and not enough caramel in this bar format. The packaging may be trying to be reminiscent of their past but unfortunately I find it now looks like a cheap import choc rather than 'quality'. An opportunity missed I fear. Also, calories per 1/2 bar on the front - yeah right!!
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