May 13th: UAE Chocolate Superpost Part # 2

Today we have Part # 2 of my UAE Chocolate Superpost, where I will be looking at the remaining chocolates sent to me by ChocolateMission reader Fiona Nesbitt. If you happened to miss Part # 1 I would suggest a quick wander HERE to get familiar with the unfortunate themes that were appeaing from my first experiences with the UAE chocolate. After you have done that you will be all set for checking out todays reviews which cover some familiar offerings from both Cadbury and Galaxy.

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Galaxy

We will beging today by looking at the two remaining variants in four flavour 'mini' bar pouch I showed you all in Part #1.

Galaxy Roasted Caramelised Hazelnuts UK -Review (See HERE)
Kcal 249 Fat 14.5g Carbs 26.7g (per 47.0g bar)
Ingredients - Sugar, Cocoa Ingredients (Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass), Skimmed Milk Powder, Hazelnuts, Milk Fat, Demineralised Whey Powder, Lactose, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Flavouring.

Galaxy Hazelnuts (UAE)
Kcal ??? Fat ??? Carbs ???
Manufactured - Mars, Dubai, UAE
Ingredients - Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Skimmed Milk Powder, Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, Glycerol, Water, Milk Fat, Hazelnuts, Emulsifier, Dextrose, Thickener, Flavouring (artifical ethyl vanillin). Milk Chocolate Contains Milk Solids 14% Minimum and Cocoa Solids 25% Minimum.

Comments: Any hope of the UAE milk chocolate being improved by the presence of the hazelnuts was all to quickly lost when I saw how they had been implemented in to the bar. The hazelnut element had neither cut through in taste or flavours due to the pieces being so tiny. Whats more some of the fragments were quite sharp and thus roughned up the the already horrid feeling waxy texture. To be honest with you I didn't bother eating most of these ones. There just wasn't enough to keep me wanting to come back for more.

6.0 out of 10


Galaxy Caramel UK -Review (See HERE)
Kcal 232 Fat 11.6g Carbs 29.6g (per 48.0g bar)
Ingredients - Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Cocoa Butter, Skimmed Milk Powder, Milk Fat, Cocoa Mass, Lactose, Whey Powder, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Salt, Flavouring, Milk Chocolate contains Milk Solids 14% minimum

Galaxy Caramel (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:This was essentially the best of a bad bunch, but even this caramel variant wasn't a patch on the UK equivalent bar. Like I found across all three other variants, the milk chocolate was poor in not only a UK comparator context, but essentially as a milk chocolate. The caramel filling was thankfully nicer in mouth feel and taste, however it was still mostly just sugar rooted in taste and lacked the prestige and buttery, salted flavour depths of it's UK equivalent. The caramel did at least have a nice soft, chewy feel compared to the waxy slimey chocolate.

6.7 out of 10


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Cadbury Dairy Milk
Cadbury Dairy Milk UK -Review (See HERE)
Kcal 255 Fat 14.6g Fat(sats) 9.0g Carbs 27.7g (per 49.0g bar)
Ingredients - Milk, Sugar Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers (E442, E476), Flavourings.

Cadbury Dairy Milk (UAE)
Kcal 233 Fat 12.1g Fat(sats) 6.8g Carbs 27.5g (per 45.0g)
Manufactured - Eygpt, Cadbury Eygpt Group
Ingredients - Sugar, Full Cream, Milk Powder, Cocoa butter, Cocoa Mass, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers, Flavours, Milk Colids 20%, Cocoa Solids 20%

Comments: Being a Brit this was always going to be the most interesting of comparisons given that Dairy Milk is probably the most famous chocolate recipe we have here in the UK. In terms of aesthetics and presentation there were no immediate differences of note in regards to the wrapper or blocked nature of the bar. What was noticeable however was how 'Un-Cadbury-like' the smells were that emanated from the wrapper, and how more generic the scents seemed in their sweetness. When it came to the taste and texture, the initial suspicons raised by the aromas were unfortunately lived out - this was not Dairy Milk as I knew it. Essentially the usual cream based tasted came across as watered down in both taste and mouth feel, which I felt was every bit as bad as the waxy, bland Galaxy. I don't think any Cadbury fan alive would say it was even close to many other countries Dairy Milk offerings.

6.4 out of 10


Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut UK -Review (See HERE)
Kcal 255 Fat 15.0g Carbs 27.7g (per 50.0g bar)
Ingredients - Milk, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers (E442, E476), Flavouring], Dusted Raisins (16%) (Raisins, Cocoa), Almonds (7%).

Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut (UAE)
Kcal 233 Fat 12.1g Fat(sats) 6.8g Carbs 27.5g (per 45.0g)
Manufactured - Eygpt, Cadbury Eygpt Group
Ingredients - Sugar, Full Cream, Milk Powder, Raisins (11%) Cocoa butter, Cocoa Mass, Almonds (3%) Vegetable Fat, Emulsifiers, Flavours, Milk Colids 20%, Cocoa Solids 20%

Comments: So did the addition of some Fruit & Nut prove to beneficial? ... no not really I'm afraid. If you take a look at the photos for both the UK bar, and this UAE bar, you will instantly see that both the raisins and almonds were a lot smaller in the UAE variant. When it came to taste, both elements failed to spicen things up, the only additional flavour influence being a minor sweet, fruit one from the raisins. Out of both enhancers, it was the almonds that were most upsetting though. The small fragments were at times quite sharp and irritated the top of my mouth as I let the chocolate melt. I thought this bar was worse than with the Dairy Milk just on it's own.

6.4 out of 10


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Galaxy

Galaxy Smooth Dark UK -Review (See HERE)
Kcal 521 Fat 32.6g Fat(sats) Carbs 48.0g (per 100.0g bar)
Ingredients - Cocoa Ingredients (Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter), Sugar, Milk Fat, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithin, E442), Flavouring, Chocolate contains Cocoa Solids 50% minimum

Galaxy Smooth Dark (UAE)
Kcal 227 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 7.5g Carbs 18.0g
Manufactured - Mars, Dubai, UAE
Ingredients - Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Milk Fat, Emulsifiers, Artifical Flavours, Natural Flavours (Vanilla)

Comments: So was absolutely everything I tried from the UAE horrible? Thankfully not! Out of everything I tried this Galazy Smooth Dark was by far the best. If you have seen my review of the UK's Galaxy Smooth Dark you will be aware that I rate it very, very highly as a mass produced dark chocolate so if anything this bar should of had a tougher time to meet standards than some of the others. To my delight I was pleasantly surprised by it, and it turned out to be far better than I was expecting. In comparison to the rest of the Galaxy bars I tried from the UAE, this chocoalte was far superior in both taste and texture departments. For a mass produced dark chocolate, the taste was actually quite layered and progressed from it's begginning unsweetned cocoa taste to bring hints of citrus fruits and vanilla to the fore. The melt was also far better than any of the other Eastern chocolates I tried, with the chocolate transitioning from solid to liquid at a nice rate and smoothness. From the limited selection I tried, this Galaxy Smooth Dark would seem to be the way forward if your are looking for a semi-decent chocolate in the UAE.

8.0 out of 10

May 11th: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Biscuit Stick Superpost

These chocolate stick products are always some of the most requested reviews here on ChocolateMission so this post today will hopefully please an awful lot of you. Below you will find mini reviews of the newest market offerings from Mikado, Pocky and Fran. The Mikado flavours are both available here in the UK, but if you are after the other two I suggest you head on over to J-List. I hope you enjoy the post - your views and opinions are always welcome ...

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Glico Mikado Dark Chocolate
Kcal 10 Fat 0.4g Fat(sats) 0.2g Carbs 1.5g (per stick)

These Mikado Dark Chocolate came described as 'biscuits coated in dark chocolate' and came in a 75.0g box. If you look back to my review of the Mikado White Chocolate you will see that the milk chocolate variety was to my preference when it came to the taste. I can tell you now that having tasted these dark chocolate ones, that the milk chocolate variant is still my favourite, however there is a slight caveat that makes these a more than worthy alternative. In terms of the core taste, in my opinion the dark chocolate didn't quite reach the levels of the Mikado Milk Chocolate, as it came across as more of a 'mass consumer friendly' tasting chocolate, and not as differentiated as it could have been. Whilst it was richer and less sweet, it lacked the definitivness of the creamy flavours of the milk chocolate, and it didn't raise the cocoa volume enough to compensate this. The redeeming issue of all this, was that in comparison to the milk chocolate variety, these dark chocolate Mikado were a little more satisfying as the chocolate flavours left a greater lasting impression in the mouth. Worth checking out if you like the originals but want something a little different.

8.3 out of 10



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Glico Mikado Totally (Hazel)Nuts
Kcal 11 Fat 0.5 Carbs 1.5g (per stick)

You may be able to tell that I wrote that review on the Mikado Dark Chocolate a little while ago. Since then these Mikado Totally (Hazel)Nuts have been released here in the UK and they come described as 'Biscuits coated with milk chocolate and hazelnut pieces'. My initial thoughts about these were that it was going to be terribly difficult to integrate nuts into Mikado considering how thin they are. Looking at the sticks it was immediatedly apparent that Glico had gone about this by implementing tiny hazelnut fragments into the milk chocolate coating. Addmiteddly I was sceptical to how much of a hazelnut nut influence these minimal sized pieces were going to create, however I was surprised by what I tasted. Amazingly these (Hazel)Nuts sticks retained all the creamy milk chocolate biscuit flavours of the originals, yet also managed to layer a strong ... yes strong note of woody fresh nuts in the latter stages of the taste. Your own enjoyment of these will be dependent on your own liking of hazelnuts. It sounds silly to say that but I genuinely believed these were going to struggle get the nut element involved so thats a good thing for me to be able to write.

8.4 out of 10



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Glico Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate Creamy
Kcal 86 Fat 4.7 Carbs 9.8g (per 16.0g packet)

As good as the Mikado offerings are here in the UK, when it comes to biscuit sticks we all know that the Japanese are the kings! Thankfully for me (and you guys of course!!) J-List are at always at hand, allowing me to try all the latest new Pocky flavours. Having tried so many different Pocky, Fran, Toppo etc products in the last three years, my most common complaint is that they are never satisfying or fulfilling enough to be an all round great snack. Well it seems that the people at Glico towers have answered my wishes with these new Glico Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate Creamy as they included 70.0% more chocolate on each stick! Hopeully in my photos you can see the two different chocolate layers and how they were layered to create a far thicker chocolate coating on the biscuit below. A little disappointingly these two different chocolates didn't produce much in the way of differentiated flavours, though the sweet milky taste was still very tasty when matched with the buttery flavours of the wheat biscuit sticks. I would love to see Glico make more of their more interesting variants this substantial - it's another ChocolateMission thumbs up for Pocky here.

8.4 out of 10


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Meiji Fran Premium Hard Chocolate/Strawberry & Bitter
Chocolate & Bitter - Kcal 94 Fat 5.4g Carbs 9.8g (per 17.0g packet)
Strawberry & Bitter - Kcal 88 Fat 5.1g Carbs 9.3g (per 16.0g packet)

As well all know Mikado and Pocky aren't the only ones who make these chocolate stick products. Indeed there are vast amount of alternative offerings in Japan, and Meiji's Fran brand is probably another that can claim to be obscenely popular. By the looks of things, Meiji didn't want to 'miss the boat' offering consumers a more up-market version of their original Fran product line, so like Glico with the Pocky Chocolate-on-Chocolate, they have also just released a premium tier product line of Fran. Both of these Premuim Hard flavours came in stylish looking matted cardboard boxes and both contained four individual serving packs that contained three thick looking sticks in each. The blue flavour you see on the left was the original 'Chocolate & Bitter' flavour, whilst the one on the right was a 'Strawberry & Bitter' variant. Out of the two, the original chocolate was by far my favourite, and I felt that the flavour journey going from an unsweetned outer chocolate to a creamier, sweeter one below was really rather good. The strawberry sticks on the other hand didn't sit so well with me, as not only did the sticks smell artifical, but they unfortunately tasted rather like this to which came to me as a great disappointment. The blander tasting biscuit make these a less appetising product than the Pocky equivalents, though I would offer the original Chocolate & Bitter flavour as a worthy ballpark competitor.

Chocolate & Bitter -8.1 out of 10
Strawberry & Bitter -6.3 out of 10

May 9th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss Truffle Bars

Whose been keeping an eye on the ChocolateMission NEWS PAGE then??? Well if you were last week than you would have seen the announcement of the these three new Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss Truffle Bars in the press. Following on from last years initial Bliss offering (Vanilla Truffle - See HERE), these new Bliss Truffle 110.0g bars are supposed to provide "a little pampering at home after a stressful day", with the new larger format designed for in-home consumption rather than "the smaller bars which are more suitable for on the go".

Just like the Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar of Plenty range release last year, this new line of bars features three different flavours straight from launch - Chocolate Truffle, Toffee Truffle & Hazelnut Truffle. All three came packaged in very cool looking cardboard boxes that contained 16 large sized blocks which could be consumed comfortably in two bites. My overall perceptions of the presentation were very positive, and the new cardboard sleeve design and product concept for that matter reminded me of the Milka Amavel range - some Kraft influence coming through perhaps?

Here are my brief thoughts on each of the three flavours:

Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss Chocolate Truffle
Kcal 125 Fat 8.2g Fat(sats) 4.6g Carbs 10.7g (per 2 chunks)

This was obviously the least interesting one to me out of all three what with it being just a dual textured Dairy Milk offering. As was the case across all the bars, the outer portion of the chocolate broke with a nice crispness and was just about the right thickness to provide a the familiar, thick sweet cream based Dairy Milk experience before revelation of the truffle layer below. As expected, with this particular variant the taste showed little to no progression with the exposure of the middle truffle, though that said the pace of the melt quickened with the softer textural feel. This bar reminded me a lot of the Galaxy Truffle bar I reviewed earlier this year in that it was a nice enough chocolate but not one that necessarilly needed making.

7.7 out of 10

Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss Hazelnut Truffle
Kcal 125 Fat 8.3g Fat(sats) 4.5g Carbs 10.5g (per 2 chunks)

Given the amount of praline chocolates I try nowadays from the likes of Hotel Chocolat I was a little concious that Cadbury might struggle to create a decent impression on me with their own attempt at a hazelnut truffle bar. In the ingredients list I was pleasantly surprised to read hazelnut paste, rather than hazelnut pieces - it sure would have been a dumb idea to upset the delightfully smooth mouth feel melt created by these truffle offerings. Speaking of the bar's textures, the feel of the middle filling was nicely differentiated, with it having more of a slower paced, drier feel compared to both the Toffee & Chocolate. For the record, this was no issue for me whatsoever - it just meant that the surprisingly strong hazelnut flavours gripped more in the mouth, and created a longer sustained savoury nut impression. This made for a very satisfying chocolate that was better than I was expecting.

8.4 out of 10

Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss Toffee Truffle
Kcal 125 Fat 7.8g Fat(sats) 4.5g Carbs 11.4g (per 2 chunks)

This flavour chaught my attention from the outset for two reasons. Firstly the choice of colour for the packaging made it look exactly like the old Cadbury Dairy Milk Apricot Crumble that they got rid only just over a year ago - perhaps a little confusing for less well informed folk maybe!? Secondly the bar smelt exceedingly sweet when I released it from it's foil confines - a strong set of burnt sugar notes had me a little worried this was going to be a sugary abyss given how sweet Dairy Milk is already these days. Well I shouldn't have been so concerned - this bar tasted wonderful, and the toffee truffle centre exceeded expectations. Unlike the aromas it generated the smells suggested, the truffle was more notable for it's buttery caramel flavours rather than merely just progression the sugar authoritiveness. The Toffee flavours created weren't long lasting, but they were incredibly moreish and the delightful butterscotch taste left me coming back for more time and time again.

8.1 out of 10

Overall if you have read the reviews it isn't exactly rocket science to work out which of these three I suggest you get acqauinted with. Cutting the long story short, the Chocolate Truffle was what it was - a plainer offering for those who either don't like nuts or caramel. Although that bar was a little unexciting the other two offerings were anything but. The Toffee Truffle exceeded expectations with it's smooth, moreish caramel truffle tones, and the Hazelnut Truffle was just as good (if not better!) with it's surprisingly accomplished rounded hazelnut taste. The sensible RRP price of £1.39 I think make these a rather decent offering for those looking for a more luxurious Cadbury offering. It's nice to see one of our chocolate producers focusing on heightening their quality for once rather than the more obvoius 'cheaper alternatives' route given the economic situation. Give them a try and let me know what you think.

May 7th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 72 - McVitie's Twix Caramel Slices

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

What an amazing stretch of bank holidays and royal weddings we just had huh!?

I'm sure you will all be glad to know that the usual posting schedule will return this week with reviews on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I know I always say this but I have some genuinely exciting things in store for you all including a whole new range of bars from Cadbury, some more crazyness from Japan and then whatever I fancy ending the week on :D

Looking below you will see that 'Snack of the Week' was more like 'Disappointment of the Week' - Have any of you sampled the delights (tongue in cheek here!) of McVitie's new (term used loosely) Twix Caramel Slices?

You guys might want to check out Hotel Chocolat this weekend - there are further reductions on their Easter chocolates and they are starting to get their summer lines added to the website to. Let me know if you spot anything you want reviewed.

Right I'm off to update the News Page with the non-existent news articles on chocolate this week. At least we can always bank on a few laughs from Thorntons' explaining their shortcomings for the umpteenth time.

Have great weekends

JIM

SNACK OF THE WEEK ..... a new part of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which will feature any manner of snacking product I have been products munching on in the week

Kcal 142 Fat 7.8g Fat(sats) 4.3g Carbs 16.6g (Per Slice)

A few weeks ago I read with great excitement about these Twix Caramel Slices in 'The Grocer Magazine' - See HERE. Being a fan of the original Twix bar, and of course a lover of Millionaire Shortbread cakes, I kept a keen eye out for them in my local supermarkets and I found them just last weekend in Tesco priced on a £1 introductory deal. Packaging wise I was impressed with the outer and inner wrappers and I liked the consistency brought over from other Twix products. Upon revelation of the slices however, an unnerving sense of familiarity came across me. McVitie's couldn't possibly have done this?? Could they?? ... Yes ... unfortunately they had!! Anyone remember these - McVitie's Caramel Shortcake See HERE??? Well welcome to the all new repackaged version! Indeed these were every bit as poor as those used to be - some might say even poorer due to their slightly smaller size. If you want my more in depth analysis I suggest heading to that old review - I refuse to waste all your time on such cheeky use of branding. To say I was disappointed with these is an understatement.

5.7 out of 10



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May 5th: 'Bits n Bobs' Japenese Oreo Superpost

Until recently, whenever I thought of Oreo cookies I would immediatedly think of America. Over the last few months however, it seems that the Japanese have really taken to the brand like they have done with the Western orginating Kit Kat. Indeed Oreos seem to be very much 'on-trend' in Japan at moment, and in true Japanese style they have released a number of new flavour variants recently including several green tea flavour prodcuts. Thanks to J-List, I have been able to try out several of these products - see below for my thoughts on them.

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Nabisco Oreo Green Tea Sticks
Kcal 52 Fat 2.0g Carbs 8.9g (per pack - 3 Stix)

A few months ago you may recall me reviewing the original Nabisco Oreo Sticks (See HERE) where I settled on describing them as a 'tasty, yet non-substantial snack'. These Green Tea Sticks (Yes they have rid away with the silly 'Stix' spelling :D ) offered a largelly similar experience, though their non-substantiality (new word!) was made even greater due to them being rationed in even smaller sized packs. Indeed, there were noticeable differences from the orginals from the outset - the sticks were portioned in three packs as opposed to two, and the green tea aromas were forthcoming and a little curious. Taste wise the lack of flavour from the wafer constituents meant that it was the green tea element that took over the majority of the taste, with the grassy, herby flavours creating a great impression as soon as they were crunched in the mouth. Although I understand that smaller packs might be suitable as 'taster' portions, as actual snacks they will be non-sufficent for even the smallest of tummy rumbles. If you fancy a smaller option to try a green tea flavoured product out these are a viable option - otherwise I would urge you to look for bigger pack sizes.

6.6 out of 10


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Nabisco Oreo Chocolate Bar Green Tea Mini
Kcal 46 Fat 2.7g Carbs 4.9g (per 8.5g Mini)

I had previously reviewed this bar in it's large form so I would urge you to take a look at that review (See HERE) to get my extensive thoughts and ChocolateMission rating.

What I like about these Nabisco Oreo Chocolate Bar Green Tea Mini is that they are the perfect size for trying out a green tea flavour variant for anyone that is a little cautious about trying it. The 8.5g provide fantastic bitesized soundbites of what the flavouring offers and I would say are highly suitable for sharing amongst a group of people. I would recommend them on those two basis.

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Nabisco Oreo Bits Sandiwiches Green Tea Mini
Kcal 295 Fat 12.6g Carbs 41.6g (per 60.0g Mini)

Whereas the first two products featured were most suitable for sharing or just sampling the green tea flavouring out, these Nabisco Oreo Bits Sandiwiches Green Tea Mini were a far more substantial 60.0g product offering. Quite simply these Bits Sandwiches were mini sized Oreos that really chaught the eye with their bright green coloured creme fillings. As you might expect the initial stages of the taste experience were largelly consistent with any oreo experience with the chocolate cookie portion providing a sweet, chocolatey wheat crunchy context. The green tea element however was soon the focus of the taste, with the grassy, herby elements coming through strongly as soon the creme was uncovered. Unlike with the Sticks, the more substantial sweet flavours from the cookie portions provied to be a better counterbalance for the minor bitterness created by the tea. As a flavour experience I would summarise all these green tea products as more interesting than necessarilly tasty. If you fancy a more substantial Oreo green tea product snack this is definitely the one.

7.5 out of 10



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Nabisco Oreo Chocolate Bar Apple
Kcal 202 Fat 12.0g Carbs 21.0g (per 36.5g bar)

It's not all freaky green tea :D The last Oreo product I'm featuring today is this Nabisco Oreo Chocolate Bar Apple. Before trying this apple variant I had reviewed several different flavours before with varying success - Caramel Coffee, Dark Bitter, Original etc. My initial impressions of this flavour were none to impressed - the fruit smells emanating from the wrapper came across as artifical, even to the extent that they were hard to identify as apple. I was also a little unimpressed by the lack of the communication of the apple variant on the wrapper - as a non-Japanese speaker it would have been impossible to tell what flavour this bar was without prior knowledge. Thankfully my grumbles can end there, as this bar tasted fantastic. As with so many of the other aforementioned flavours, the chocolate coating and inner creme icing were a delightful combination, and they created the Oreo experience in a substantial chocolate bar form. As a lover of dried fruit, I was absolutely delighted to see that the apple flavouring was integrated through small freeze dried apple pieces. They created a remarkable texture, and unlike the smells suggested, the sweet apple fruit flavours came across as very 'real' tasting. Apple flavoured chocolates are extremelly rare but this is one certainly to check out if you are a fan of the combination. I would certainly have this bar again in the future - it's one to look out for.

7.6 out of 10

May 3rd: Hershey's Miniatures

Before I dive in to the review today I must first thank the suppliers of today's product of focus AmericanSoda whose online shop can be found HERE. These guys are big fans of the site and provide an American food importing service from here in the UK.

The first product sent in my direction by AmericanSoda were these Hershey's Miniatures - a selection pack of Hershey's chocolates that promise 'a little something for everyone'. The 150.0g pack included twenty mini bars of some of Hershey's most popular bars - their milk chocolate, Mr Goodbar, Krackel and their Special Dark offering.

All the chocolates came in a bright yellow plastic packet and were each wrapped in a combination of foil and paper sleeves. Presentation wise, everything was all pretty spot on and I additionally liked the size of the bars which were a comfortable fit for either a single mouthful, or a more refined two bite approach. Below are my thoughts on each of the variants.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate (Full Review HERE) - What more can I say about this chocolate that I haven't said already!? It's a chocolate that mostly divides opinion, though I like to sit firmly on the fence as one of those people who is neither repulsed or overly in love with it. Like many, I'm really not a fan of the either the yoghurty aftertaste or the 'offish' milk aromas it's emanates, however for me it's not as catastrophic as I know some other feels. Truth be told it's just a fair standard milk chocolate, and I would defend it by saying its at least unique compared to the other more generic mass market offerings we get from the likes of Nestle and Mars. Standard.

Hershey's Mr Goodbar (Full Review HERE) - The Mr Goodbar is pretty simple in construct and is fundamentally just the original Hershey's milk chocolate with added peanuts. Whilst this may sound unexciting and very basic in proposition, I actually find it to be a much tastier experience. Although not implemented as well as in the original bar (the peanut particles are much larger in the normal size!), they still brought an additional level of flavour depth with their salty, roasted nutty flavours. These were easily my favourite of all four flavours. Good.

Hershey's Krackel - This was the one I was most looking forward to trying as a little check on Wikipedia told me that this was an original creation by the Hershey's founder, and that it could only now be found in this 'mini' format (i.e. the larger bar no longer exists). The Krackel has the same proposition as the Nestle Crunch and is a chocolate that contains crisped rice. Crisped rice has never been one of my favourite chocolate enhancers ever, but this bar took things to new levels ... bad, bad levels!!! Indeed, the crisped rice felt like nothing more than complete filler, and did little for me either texturally or taste wise. The chocolate tasted blander, and each piece was totally unfulfilling - this was the definition of a waste calories. Thank god they removed the big bar - I threw three out of the five away here. Awful.

Hershey's Special Dark - For reasons unknown this wasn't a chocolate I had previously tried from Hershey so I was looking forward to seeing what I would make of their dark chocolate recipe. Suspicions of the validity of the 'dark chocolate' experience were raised from the outset what with the communication on the wrapper 'Special Dark - Mildly Sweet Chocolate'. Despite it's Special Dark name, this just wasn't dark chocolate at all and place it as a figurehead of my group of dark chocolates that I like to dub 'mass consumer friendly dark chocolate'. The totality of the sweet cocoa flavours wasn't necessarily poor, but the chocolate just came across as a slightly more acidic, lighter of the original milk chocolate recipe. As a chocolate it wasn't particularly bad, but as a dark chocolate it was Poor.

Overall Hershey's chocolate are always going to divide opinion and although I have given this product a pretty low score here, I would still say that all of these chocolates are at least worth trying in some form if only for the experience. Your enjoyment of the pack as a totality will largely be driven by your opinion on the original Hershey's milk chocolate recipe, though I fail to see how anyone who likes nuts could possibly like the Mr Goodbar since it is the nuts which 90.0% control the taste. I'm of the opinion that both the Special Dark and Krackel chocolates are both really rather poor offerings, though I will reserve being too harsh on the 'Special Dark' as it is hardly uncommon for a mass produced chocolate brand to hold back on making a serious dark chocolate. No matter what you make of Hershey's one thing you have to say is that their chocolate is at least unique - thats a commendable quality to have in its self.

5.8 out of 10