June 6th: Hotel Chocolat Lemon Cheesecake

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

Last week I gave you all your first ChocolateMission Hotel Chocolat Summer collection review looking at the fantastic Hotel Chocolat Knickbocker Glory Neapolitan Truffles. In the feedback from that review I heard from plenty of readers enquiring whether I would be checking out the new slabs that have been made for 2011. Well ask and you shall receive :D (eventually haha!!). As part of my summer sampling box I was sent the Peepster Summer Collection box (See HERE) which you may have worked out is a product containing mini slabs of the new summer flavours. As you will have gathered from the post title, the first slab to get it's place in the ChocolateMission spotlight is the Lemon Cheesecake flavour.

All of the flavours in this Peepster Summer Selection came in 100.0g slabs that presented the usual Hotel Chocolat conundrum. The presentation of the single slab was gloriously appetising and unique with it's sleek pattern work, however the thickness of it made it incredibly difficult to break into smaller pieces as there were no grooves on the underside to help break it apart. This is a particular bug bare for my mother, who adores Hotel Chocolat chocolate, yet it is often frustrated by this issue. Those gripes aside all of us taking part in the taste test agreed that the chocolate smelt nice with the fragrant dairy and lemon smells enticing one and all.

On the packet this chocolate came billed as 'lemon white chocolate with cocoa cookie pieces and shots of milk chocolate' - a fair proposition for the flavour promised upfront. With full family in close proximity (surprise, surprise!!), we all set upon the 100.0g slab, breaking off mouth sized chunks (with a little difficulty haha!). After a few rounds of tasting it became apparent that this was a chocolate that had created a divide - half liked it, half thought it was 'nothing special'. Unfortunately I sat in the latter camp, and wasn't all that inspired by what I tasted. Personally, I thought that the base white chocolate didn't have the crispness or milky freshness of other Hotel Chocolat white chocolates I had tried previously. I felt the lemon influence, although real tasting in it's fruity delivery, somewhat muffled the white chocolate. Additionally, whilst I enjoyed the integration of the milk chocolate and cocoa cookie pieces to the fold texturally, when it came to the taste I thought a ginger biscuit option would have been more appropriate for the cheesecake theme. Ultimately I thought this was a chocolate not lacking in flavour, but I still didn't get the greatest amount of satisfaction from it.

Overall my description above may sound a little on the negative side, but it is really worth keeping front of mind the alternative view expressed by both my mother and father, both of whom thought this was a tremendous white chocolate. For all the reasons expressed above, I personally thought this was one of the weaker white chocolates I have tasted from them, and I think it could have executed a little better with the suggestions stated. If I had my way I might have possibly of had the score a little lower for this one, though I was told by my fellow taste testers that I was taking the high quality chocolate for granted. Putting some thought in to that I see their point to a degree, however I also see the flip side of the argument which I present to you in the form of the Eton Mess slab (See HERE)! The Eton Mess is similar in proposition (white chocolate with an added fruit!) and I think it is a far superior offering. My conclusion on the matter!??? ... Its just a case of each to their own :D

7.8 out of 10

June 4th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 75 - Hotel Chocolat 'For My Daddy'

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

It should be a hot one this weekend so I'm going to keep this update short and sweet so we can all go play in the sun :D

The reviews all seemed to go down well this week - if you haven't checked out the reviews I suggest you head to the links supplied below:

Hotel Chocolat Knickerbocker Glory Neapolitan - See HERE
William Curley House Dark 70% / White - See HERE
Cadbury Flake Allure - See HERE

The Cadbury Flake Allure certainly attracted a lot of feedback and thoughts from you all :D If you haven't had your say be sure to stop by the review and leave your thoughts.

Reviews next week will include Hotel Chocolat, Bits n Bobs and hopefully Ritter Sport after they were delayed this week! I'm off now to enjoy the sun :D I suggest you do so to after getting your ChocolateMission fill of course!!

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

Get this date in the diaries! The 19th of June is Father's Day here in the UK and Hotel Chocolat have ensured I'm ready to arm all you loving and caring Sons and daughters with the finest chocolates available :D Indeed Hotel Chocolat thought it only right to send me a sample of their mini-selection box for Fathers Day this year - the Hotel Chocolat 'For My Daddy' collection. This small selection of eight chocolates is one of many Fathers Day offerings from Hotel Chocolat this year - I wont give you a full run down of what they have, but you can of course view everything they have to offer for 2011 by Clicking HERE.

As I mentioned I was given one of these 'For My Daddy' selections, which I of course had to sample myself in order to make sure it was fit for purpose for my old man :D :D The mini-selection included four different chocolates that you will recognise from previous reviews - Crispy Praline (Standard - See HERE), Orange Praline (Very Good - See HERE), Billionaire Shortbread (Superb - See HERE) and Mousse au Chocolat (Standard - See HERE). From my own perspective I thought this mixture could probably have opitmised by subsituting one of the pralines for an alcohol filled option such as the Whiskey Hot Shots, but that small build aside I thought it was a nicely presented little package that I believe will go down well with many an appreciative Father. I just wish my own old man didn't do my Hotel Chocolat photography for me - if anything he just thinks its 'run of the mill' these days :D I'm sure 99.9% of the population wont be having this problem :D Recommended!

7.2 out of 10



CHOCOLATE NEWS

Visit the ChocolateMission news page for all the latest developments in the Chocolate market ... Click the banner below ....

June 3rd: Cadbury Flake Allure

Kcal 170 Fat 10.9g Fat(sats) 6.5g Carbs 15.2g

Apologies for changing the posting order this week but with the amount of people requesting this review it made sense to fast track it to the front of line. Behold Cadbury's latest new offering - the Cadbury Flake Allure bar. For the first time in a long while the Flake brand has been given a bit of attention - it feels like forever and a day since they last put some investment behind this part of their portfolio. Since the middle of May our taste buds have salivating at the promise of 'The much loved delicate and crumbly Flake chocolate, enrobed in smooth truffle and coated in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate' - trade article HERE. The addition of the Dairy Milk to the usual Cadbury secondary recipe chocolate that we are all used to with the original Flake sounded like a step forward for the brand - this week I got a chance to judge for myself.

The new Cadbury Flake Allure weighs 31.5g, a touch under the standard Flake bar which comes in at 32.0g. When I saw the initial press release I was impressed by the style of the wrapper and I was even more so when I had the bar in hand. Unlike the rest of the Cadbury Flake range this new Allure bar came presented in a swish looking matted foil wrapper (the same used on the Cadbury Dairy Milk range!!). This combined with the less feminine brown design pattern work made the bar feel stylish and modern - a tick in the box for Cadbury there! Out it's wrapper, the bar emanated the usual glorious Cadbury milk chocolate smells, though I couldn't help but notice it's slimness compared to the standard Cadbury Flake.

Studying the bar closer and in greater detail a few potential issues immediately became apparent. The first glaring issue was that this Cadbury Flake Allure was just as messy to eat as any other Flake product. Despite the supposed 'coating', I created a right old mess, crumbs of chocolate everywhere :D The next most apparent thing was that the descriptor stated above and on the wrapper appeared to be quite misleading. The promised dual layered combination of 'truffle and Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate' appeared to be just a single half coating of milk chocolate on the underside of the bar. This wasn't a massive issue by any means but I couldn't help feel somewhat mislead by what was described to me previously. Putting this all to one side I ate the damn thing and felt somewhat better about it all :D The distinct sweet tasting, creamy Cadbury milk chocolate flavours were all offered in abundance, and the textural interplay created the by the smooth outer coating and crumbly centre portion provided a compelling mouth feel. The entire bar wasn't exactly the most fulfilling thing I have ever eaten but it performed its role as a mid-afternoon snack to a sufficient level.

Overall this is a tough one to call! Half of me wants to appreciate the great tasting chocolate and nice looking snazzy wrapper etc, however the other half of me is wanting to let loose on one big rant about how we are being cheated by Cadbury with this supposed 'new' offering. Essentially you can look at this all from two different perspectives. On one hand we have a tasty, textured milk chocolate bar that comes in an attractive new wrapper. Looking at it from the other side it could be viewed that this new Cadbury Flake Allure bar is simply just the Cadbury Flake Dipped, with half the chocolate coating, in a smaller size (39.0g vs 31.5g) and being sold at the same or higher price (RRP for the Cadbury Allure is £0.60). I don't wan't to be a cynical so-&-so but I find it extremely hard to gloss over the facts I've just pointed out. From the Cadbury perspective I understand that margins are being constricted with the cost of cocoa rising etc, however I still think is no excuse for 'window dressing' the removal of the Cadbury Flake Dipped with the replacement of this cheaper to produce alternative. The ChocolateMission score may still be relatively high, but that is a measurement solely of it's attributes and not of it's morals.

7.9 out of 10

June 1st: William Curley House White & Dark 70

Several of my UK readers have been clamouring after some more local UK chocolatiers to appear on the site, so it is with great pleasure that I bring you the ChocolateMission début of William Curley (Website HERE). Indeed over the course of the next few weeks I will be taking a look at a wide range of the William Curley collection - starting today with their House Dark 70 & their House White chocolate.

Before we launch into the taste tests let me first bring you all up to date with who and what William Curley are (credit: WIKI)

"William Curley is a UK based luxury Patissier Chocolatier with stores in both Richmond and Belgravia. The company is owned by William Curley and his wife Suzue Curley. William has won a variety of awards including ‘The Craft Guild Pastry Chef of the Year’, ‘The Caterer’s Acorn Award,’ ‘The Academy of Culinary Arts Award of Excellence’ and ‘British Dessert of the Year.’ Both William and Suzue have represented Scotland in international culinary events, winning Gold medals in Chicago and Basle, and at the Culinary Olympics in Germany in 2004. In 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 William Curley was named ‘Best British Chocolatier."

Those are all some pretty incredible achievements for such a young company/couple. Suffice to say expectations were sky high when they offered me the chance of a samples from their current collection.

As I alluded to above, today I will be showcasing their House White & House Dark 70 chocolates. Both bars came in a smallish 50.0g size and in some of the most beautiful packaging I have seen for a long time. Those of an eco-friendly disposition may want to divert their attention elsewhere for a minute, however I really must stress the beauty of the design work on the outer boxes - it made them look highly premium and only further fueled my excitement.

William Curley House White

We all know that white chocolate isn't my chocolate type of preference so I roped in a few fellow taste testers to help sample this with me. Aesthetically the bar looked terrific and I loved the way it broke with a definitive fresh snap and it's pleasant vanilla scents.

Buoyed by the promising signs being displayed by all alluded to before, its unfortunate for me to have to report that the taste test ultimately felt like a let down. Although far from being the horrible sugary messes that we get from most mass produced white chocolate nowadays, this white chocolate could be best described as lacking character. All three of us that tried the bar were surprised at the lack of flavour generated by the soft melt, and I think all round we were expecting a far stronger tasting chocolate. To say it was tasteless would be a massive over reaction, however the cream and vanilla tones on offer were terribly mild and for me not all that satisfying.

7.3 out of 10



William Curley House Dark 70

Back in my more comfortable area of dark chocolate I made sure I tried this one in what I deem my perfect dark chocolate tasting settings - mid afternoon with a freshly brewed black filter coffee.

Just like the white chocolate, this House Dark 70 broke with a terrific fresh snap and emanated some appetising cocoa scents that raised my expectations once again. Well what can I say about this dark chocolate!? ... I was almost tempted to cut and paste a few of the lines from the above white chocolate perspective. Indeed, unfortunately this was another chocolate lacking the desired flavour depth I was hoping for. The dark chocolate on offer here finished as it began - with little flavour development from the initial unsweetened mild cocoa flavours. Like the bar above a mild hint of vanilla was detectable in the finish of the melt, though that aside the layering of flavours was pretty limited. This bars stronger overall taste made it a more satisfying option than the white chocolate, however in the context of other higher end chocolates it did lack presence.

7.6 out of 10



Overall my first experiences with the William Curley range have to be described as somewhat underwhelming. With my expectations fueled by the historical awards, glorious packaging and recommendations from other bloggers, I guess these chocolates were facing a tough task from the outset in order to match up. Even when looking upon them from the generous point of view that they were better than OK standard chocolates, I still cannot hide my disappoint that I didn't think these were a little more special. Luckily for me these two are only the first few chocolates sent from William Curley so there is still plenty of opportunity for them to WOW me.

May 30th: Hotel Chocolat Knickerbocker Glory Neapolitan

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

One would naturally assume that the summer season would the quietest for the chocolate market given there are no holidays where chocolate is naturally gifted (Christmas/Easter etc!). Summer 2011 however is proving as hectic for me as ever, with the like of Thorntons, Ritter Sport and of course Hotel Chocolat all releasing some of their biggest summer ranges ever. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be taking you through a pretty extensive run through of Hotel Chocolat's summer line up - starting today with these Hotel Chocolat Knickerbocker Glory Neapolitan truffles. FYI, you can see all that they have to offer HERE - if you have any review requests please don't hesitate to get in contact.

These Knickerbocker Glory chocolates are just one of the new truffle ranges for 2011 and today I (along with a few helpers!!) had the delight of trying the Neapolitan flavour. The 110.0g package contained ten individual truffles, which came described as 'strawberry ganache in milk and white chocolate, decorated with white chocolate'. In a few reviews recently I have remarked that the standard of some Hotel Chocolat ranges might be slipping. This was not such the case here, and I would say this Knickerbocker range demonstrates a fine return to form. Hopefully from my photos above you can see just how much effort they have put into the outer cardboard sleeve. In my opinion the design work is fantastic and I think it finely communicates the summer feel good spirit as well as the correct Neapolitan flavour theme.


Taking the truffles out of the inner transparent packet, I was met with a chocolatey set of scents that offered just a minor hint of sweet strawberry. Up until this point the truffles looked like a lot of other Hotel Chocolat individual truffles I had tasted before, however biting in to one soon revealed that they were truly beautifully crafted. Again I hope you can see by my photo above that each chocolate had three very distinct layers - a milk chocolate outer shell, a white chocolate ganache inner ring and then a strawberry flavoured ganache centre. This three layer craftsmanship made for a fantastic flavour and textural journey with the starter milk chocolate outer portion creating a familiar creamy cocoa taste with it's fresh snapping yield. Next to the party the white chocolate creme provided a softer feeling, milkier taste that led beautifully into the strawberry centres. Despite the ganache fillings disappearing rapidly with their butter like mouth feel melt, they left a glorious impression of real tasting red fruit flavours in the mouth for a long time after. Suffice to say these were loved by all that tried them.

Overall these Hotel Chocolat Knickerbocker Glory Neapolitan truffles have got the summer 2011Hotel Chocolat reviews off to a cracking start and they deserve some serious praise. You can never go far wrong with Hotel Chocolat truffles of any sort whether they be praline, caramels or liqueur, but fruit flavoured ganache ones seem to really be where their talents lie. Personally I don't think there are many brands out there that can be said to be so consistent with the quality of their fruit truffles. I don't know how they do it, but they manage to always create the fruit flavourings without making them too sweet or artificial - these strawberry truffles were as good as any in terms of how real tasting the fruit came through in the taste. If you then factor in the quality of the other milk and white chocolate layers I'm sure you can all start to imagine just how good these really were. ChocolateMission recommended!? You bet ya!!

8.7 out of 10

May 28th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 74 - Suntory Sparkling Chocolate Soda

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

So another week passes on ChocolateMission and I hope you lot were pleased with the reviews you got this week.

Following on from the packages I got from Hotel Chocolat etc the week previous, I this week managed to lay my hands on some goodies from Ritter Sport, American Soda and Thorntons. I don't want to spoil the review, but the Thorntons Liqueur chocolate provided a rather humorous evening ... that stuff is way, way to easy to drink :D :D

Apart from celebrating Manchester United's 19th Premier League title (sorry I had to drop that in there!!) it has been a relatively quiet week for me. Good luck to the United lads versus Barcelona tomorrow - lets hope we are toasting victory with pints of Thorntons Liqueur chocolate (the thought of that makes me feel queasy haha).

Want to know what to expect for this Bank Holiday week? Well Monday will see the return of Hotel Chocolat, Wednesday will see the ChocolateMission debut of a well known UK chocolatier, and lastly Friday you should be getting my low down on the latest Ritter Sport offering.

Have a top Bank Holiday weekend - Please take a look over to the newspage for the latest Chocolate covered news :D

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 weekKcal 49 Fat 0.0g (per 100ml)

Well isn't this all a bit clever eh!? I've flipped the tables on yesterdays drink flavoured chocolates, with the 'Snack of the Week - a chocolate flavoured drink :D A stroke of genius come on :D Taking the limelight in '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' Edition 74 I present to you the Suntory Sparkling Chocolate Soda.

A few days ago I gratefully received 6 bottles from my pal Peter at J-list who insisted I try out these 'cool new sodas' that he was selling on the site. Now we all know I normally don't review drinks, however I sort of broke those rules with my Hot Chocolate reviews earlier in the year. After a short duration in the fridge I cracked open one of these and poured the contents into a glass as pictured above. I don't like my fizzy drinks too highly carbonated - this Suntory offering was just about right and I was pleased with the level of fizz. Taste wise the drink had a strong vanilla led flavour set (very much like cream soda), however there was definitely a suggestion of chocolateyness left in the mouth once it had slipped down.

Overall it was a unique tasting soda that was on the whole enjoyable and thirst quenching. Would it replace my normal choice of fizzy drink? ... the almighty Pepsi Max? Probably not, but I would see it as a more than viable option if I did fancy something a little different.

7.2 out of 10

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May 27th: Kit Kat Lemonade & Cola

Kcal 100 Fat 5.8g Carbs 11.3g (per 18.0g Kit Kat)

The hot summer time in Japan is coming about again soon so if you are thinking of putting in a J-list order soon I would get on it rather sharpish. In an attempt to remind you all of the crazy confections they have going on over there, my pal Peter @J-List has sent along another batch of goodies for me to review on the site. I almost take it as a given these days, that when I receive any package from these guys, there will no doubt be the latest flavour Kit Kat somewhere amongst it - I wasn't wrong! The flavour (or flavours I should say!)on offer this time was this double pack of Lemonade & Cola. This was a limited edition released a few months ago, and was the first dual flavoured Japanese Kit Kat package I had come across.

The total pack was divided into two separate two-finger bars that each weighed 18.0g each (your standard two-finger supermarket Kit Kat size!!). Both variants came presented in a rather groovy looking box that did a highly efficient job of indicating the Lemonade & Cola flavour with it's bright branding and use of on-pack pictures. Inside the bars were easily identifiable by the colour of their foil wrappers - Lemon of course the yellow one, and the cola unsurprisingly the red. Opening both up it soon became apparent that these were not going to be the Kit Kats notable for their 'real' or true tasting credentials - they smelt particularly sweet with strong suggestions of both lemon and cola.
Taking my least favoured flavour first I initially started with the Lemonade flavour, though it was long before I was experimenting trying little bits of each at the same time :D The reason I have chosen not to rate these flavours individually is because they would have been given the same scores each, as they delivered exactly the same sort of flavour experience. Both bars had a grounding of milky sweetness from the outer white chocolate, which I thought worked well for each variant. In both bars, the wafer in the middle of each bar acted as a nice savoury counter-balance to the very overt kiddie sweet like flavourings of both the cola and lemonade. Indeed, both the lemonade and cola influences were very reminiscent of other sweets - the cola bottles from Haribo Starmix and Bassetts Lemon Sherbets should give you some sort of idea what the flavour delivery was like. As you can imagine the delivery of the flavours in this manner was highly sugar based, so I can see how a four finger version of one of these flavours might have proven to be very monotonous and sickly. The idea of having two different flavoured smaller bars proved to be a good one - there was just about enough differentiation between the two to keep my tastebuds from being affected from the cola/sugar and lemonade/sugar overload, and I ultimately enjoyed the whole experience.

Overall I think this is going to be one of those flavours of Kit Kat that really splits opinion. Being someone that loved sweets like Haribo when I was younger I found these to be a nice little nostalgia kick and I enjoyed the cola bottle and lemon sherbet like experiences dished out by both the different bars. I wouldn't say these were flavours you would like to eat everyday, far from it, but as a one-off occurrence I was more than happy with what these bars delivered. Some will think that both the cola and lemonade influences are very artificial tasting, and I wouldn't dare argue with them as they are certainly right in that respect. If expectations are suitably set at enjoying the kids sweets like experience though, I see little reason why these wouldn't be Kit Kats you would really enjoy. Like so many of the Japanese products these were a real pleasure to try if only for the experience rather than any grandioso taste pleasure.

8.2 out of 10

May 25th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cadbury Biscuits, Cakes, Cookies & Chocos 2011

Cadbury have been pumping out so many new products this year it's almost been hard for me to keep up to date with them all. In an attempt to get somewhat close to covering them all off on the site I have today lumped some of the latest ones in to a single 'Bits n Bobs' post. If you guys have any opinions on any of the products being featured today I would encourage you to add your thoughts via the comments functionality.

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Cadbury BiscBits Orange Crunch
Kcal 120 Fat 5.4g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 16.5g (per 7 biscuits)

After a none to impressive first look at the Cadbury BiscBits range I don't know what quite compelled me to give this Orange Crunch variety a try (See Caramel Crisp review HERE). It must have been the faint hope of these being far superior to them, and the ever apparent 'New' labelling placed on the packaging that convinced me, as I indeed part with my single pound coin for a 110.0g bag. Described as 'orange flavoured chocolate biscuits covered in milk chocolate', these looked more appealing than the previous Caramel Crisp biscuits did as they lacked the scuffed, worn natured look of that product previous. Unfortunately taste wise they proved to be just as poor and it wasn't long before I realised these were just another cheap, cheerful Cadbury product that had recieved little or no thought put in to it. In line with expectations the chocolate was sweet and sugary in taste, though the overriding flavour influence came from the orange flavouring which had the most generic of tastes imagineable. It was neither zesty, refreshing or real tasting - just a real run of the mill sweet tasting dull orange flavouring. I'm sure the sheer blandness wont go as far as offending anyone, but I personally wouldn't recommend these.

6.2 out of 10


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Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocos
Kcal 250 Fat 14.1g Carbs 27.0g (per roll)

Unlike some of the products being featured today these were given some exposure time in the press before they released in order to create some hype (See HERE). As referred to in the article these aren't exactly a 'New' idea from Cadbury as similar products have been on sale in the likes of Finland and Australia for a fair while now. To my knowledge though, this is the first time they have appeared in the UK and I'm glad to say they are a welcome addition to the Cadbury portfolio. As unexciting as this sounds the roll pack simply contained 11 Dairy Milk chocolate pieces that were no bigger or smaller than Rolos. Being this size meant they were the perfect for just popping out the packet and placing on the tongue for a quick, sharp burst of creamy Dairy Milk lovelyness. The roll pack format is an incredibly convenient way of getting your chocolate fix whilst 'on-the-move' (wanky term I know :D ) and I'm happy to say that the Dairy Milk chocolate experience isn't altered in any manner from the switch from bar to 'choco'. These aren't the most exciting of new products but you will be more than happy with what you get here.

8.2 out of 10


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Cadbury Chunky Cookies Milk, Dark & White
Kcal 115 Fat 6.3g Fat(sats) 3.4g Carbs 12.7g (per cookie)

Can Cadbury make cookies? Well of course they can ... well they could try anyway :D If you have peeked at the taste score you will probably have been surprised by another average rating sitting in the region of 7.0 out of 10. How could it be that these Cadbury cookies scored lower than average!? For me there were two fundamental problems I had with these. Firstly, like the aromas suggested, the actual taste wasn't Cadbury like at all. The butter, wheat and brown sugar noted biscuit bases were delightfully tasty with the added raft of sweet chocolate flavours, but to my experienced Cadbury taste buds the chocolate taste wasn't half as creamy as is typical with the brand. My second real issue was the billing of white, milk and dark chocolate all in one. This simply wasn't delivered on, and there was no evidence of any differentiation in impact the taste from the white chocolate or dark chocolate chunks. Overlook all this negativity and I will concede that a single cookie made a nice afternoon snack paired with a coffee but unfortunately the negative aspects did outweight the good ones.

7.3 out of 10


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Cadbury Chocolate Mallows
Kcal 55 Fat 2.2g Fat(sats) 1.2g Carbs 8.1g (per mallow)

'20 mallow teacakes covered with milk chocolate' - is there anything these guys wont try now? Burton's Foods have certainly expanded the breadth of Cadbury's portfolio over the last few years and this has included putting the Cadbury name to these mallow teacake biscuits. When I was lad, Tunnocks Teacakes (See HERE) were the only ones that I ever ate - I never thought any of the supermarket or even Marks & Spencer offerings could compare. The weakness of the Tunnocks ones however I always believed to be the chocolate, so there was at least a part of me open to seeing how good these Cadbury ones were. What I realised upon eating these were that whilst the chocolate standard was a step up from Tunnocks, the inner marshmallow and biscuit bases were far, far poorer. The mallow had a dense, foamy feel in the mouth and lacked any sort of definitive flavours as did the chalky biscuit base below. Whilst the chocolate was superior it could not make up for the poorness of the other two constituents, as it was so thinly portioned it mostly got lost within the bland mallow anyway. Unless you are looking for cheap fodder for sharing occasions like kids parties I suggest you keep clear of these. Cadbury might want to start consider some of the products they are putting their name to.

5.8 out of 10

May 23rd: Thorntons Dark Chocolate with Rose

Kcal 556 Fat 38.1g Fat(sats) 23.1g Carbs 40.9g (per 100.0g)

'New Product Mondays' have been a common occurrence for us here in May 2011 and the trend doesn't stop today. Kicking us off this week we have a limited edition bar from Thorntons - the Dark Chocolate with Rose. This is the first of three chocolates being released this year to commemorate the '100 years' of Thorntons, with the other two following later on in 2011 (I've tried the other two aswell and boy are they great!!). All three of these chocolates will be being released in the Thorntons Chocolate Blocks Collection and are based on classic British flavours. Whilst I could understand the symbolism of the 'British Rose' I wasn't quite so sure most of us Brits would have Rose as classic flavouring in our food!? I'll let you debate that one.

Like all the limited edition Thorntons Chocolate Blocks this one came in the slightly smaller 80.0g bar form. Although I have questioned the colouring of some of the previous chocolate block flavours in the past, I thought the use of a light pink option was suitable for this particular rose variety. I feel I must also give acknowledgement to the fact that Thorntons have resisted going overboard in the celebrations of their 100 years of trading - the sticker you see on the top right of the box was the only reference aside from the on pack blurb. Inside the box the chocolate was kept in a layer of bright silver foil and was sectioned into the usual block sizes and with the same moulded markings providing decoration. Unsealed, the bar emanated some pleasant cocoa scents with detectable sweeter, fruity hints detectable every so often.

This bar came described as '64% Peruvian dark chocolate with crystallised rose petals' - an interesting and unique concept at least. I don't know if any of you girls or girls remember the last time I tried some flower flavoured chocolates, but it was the Zotter Labooko Ein BlumenstrauB (See HERE) and they turned out to be rather fine. Hoping that this rose chocolate could create a similar impression I went in to the taste test with an open frame of mind and I'm pleased to report that this was an enjoyable chocolate. The 64% dark was of a better than average quality and liked the way the initial cocoa flavours were built upon by tones of red wine and citrus fruits to create a nice edgy flavoured chocolate. The crystallised rose pieces were at times a little infrequent in number, but where present they tempered the sharpness of the chocolate with a fruitiness that had influences of sweet raspberry and cherries. The culmination of these bitter and sweet taste tangents created an interestingly flavoured chocolate, though one can't deny that the chewing of the crystallised rose pieces was an unwelcome textural drawback.

Overall one may question the choice of 'rose' to represent a traditional British food flavouring but we can at least feel solitude in the fact that the actual chocolate delivered was pretty decent. The blend of the dark chocolate and sweet rose influence is a combination that works, and I'm glad that Thorntons were able to create a decent enough synergy with the two. As I said above the only drawback for me was the nature in which the rose was implemented in it's crystalised form. Given that dark chocolate is most pleasantly consumed when left to simply melt on the tongue it might have made better sense to integrate the flavour using some sort of rose flavoured oil. That criticism aside there really isn't anything to dislike here if you are a fan of flavoured dark chocolates. Out of the three bars being released to celebrate the 100 years of Thorntons this might possibly be the weakest, but that is more a reflection of just how grand the other two are - reviews coming soon.

7.7 out of 10

May 21st: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 73 - Nabisco Nutter Butter

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

I'm glad that you guys finally got a full quota of chocolate reviews this week after the Easter holidays and technical issues previous. To be honest with you guys there isn't much to report at the moment - things my side of the fence are ticking along nicely. You may have noticed that I have got reviews of some of the latest new products to hit the chocolate market up pretty sharpish in the last few weeks - you can expect a whole lot more coming soon as I will be sharing my thoughts on certain Thorntons and Cadbury NPDs in the next week or so.

Whilst on the topic of Thorntons you might want to take a look back at my review of the Thorntons Mini Caramel Shortcakes (See HERE) - I recently just updated the photographs on that review. Another one I have recently updated is my review of Montezuma's Culture Shock bar (See HERE).
I'm sure you will all be pleased to hear that Hotel Chocolat delivered a box full of their summer chocolate range this week - like the new products above those reviews will be along very shortly.

Be sure to check out the news page for all the latest goings on in the chocolate market. As ever I can only encourage you guys to leave any stories you find yourselves or any requests you have for product reviews.

Enjoy your 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 130 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 19.0g (per 2 cookies)

I know It's been a week of cookie and biscuit based products here on ChocolateMission and you are probably tiring of them all, but I just couldn't help but feature these Nabisco Nutter Butter cookies as 'Snack of The Week'. These were another American delight sent to me my pals at AmericanSoda (See HERE) - if you are lucky they might still have some of them in stock!

Nutter Butters are a Nabisco brand and come described as 'peanut-shaped sandwich cookies with peanut butter fillings'. I'm sure all you peanut butter lovers are salivating at the prospect of this and to be honest you have good reason to be doing so. AmericanSoda sent me the largest pack size of Nutter Butters that they sell (453.0g) but even that only lasted a few hours when left in my open office environment. Luckily for me I managed to grab a fair few myself - boy are they great. The saltyness of the peanut butter filling and the sweetness of the outer malty wheat biscuits is a combination made in cookie heaven. All I can say is that if you love peanut butter, you will love these cookies.

8.0 out of 10



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May 20th: Thorntons Cookies

Back in December, Thorntons released this press release HERE, announcing the launch of a store exclusive Cookies range. Common readers of the site will be aware that Thorntons have tended to score consistently well with their more random chocolate offerings here on ChocolateMission - I'm talking about the likes of their Millionaire Shortbreads, Brownies etc. With these past experiences in mind I was delighted when I was approached by one of Thorntons's PR agencies who offered me the chance of trying these new cookies. I quickly snapped their hands off, and before I knew it I had all four of the varieties in-hand, photographed and prime for sampling.

Before I give you the run down of how each tasted and bombard you with photos and graphs, I must first give you the finer details about the four different flavours. Distinguished by their coloured packs, the four variants were Sicillian Lemon Meringue, Triple Chocolate, Praline & Milk Chocolate and Ginger & Dark Chocolate. Three out of the four (all but the Praline 175.0g) weighed 200.0g with eight cookies in each pack. Aesthetically I thought the presentation quality was fair to standard. I wouldn't say they looked as premium as one might have thought Thorntons would have chosen to make them look, but they looked appetising enough, and it must at least be said the on-pack pictures gave a very good steer as to how they looked in real life.

With thirty-two cookies in my possession, there were more than enough to pass round the family to get some second opinions - brace yourselves for a feast of photos, graphs and ratings:

Sicilian Lemon Meringue
'Lemon flavour cookies baked with white chocolate covered meringue pieces'
Kcal 120 Fat 5.1g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 17.3g (per cookie)

Lets start off the worst ones and get them out the way. When I first showed all these cookies to my family, both my mother and sister latched on to these stating they were the most desirable. Unfortunately they were none to impressed with them, and described them as overly sweet, and fake tasting in regards to their lemon fruit flavours. When I got around to trying them myself I have to say I 100.0% agreed with them. The covered meringue pieces acted almost like lumps of sugar, and the lemon element was tart enough to take the edge off the sweetness (if anything it just enhanced it). Want to know the worst thing of all about these cookies? They made the rest of them smell and taste like them when stored in the biscuit barrel!

4.6 out of 10


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Triple Chocolate Chunk
'Baked with white, dark and milk chocolate chunks, half coated in milk chocolate'
Kcal 124 Fat 6.1g Fat(sats) 3.8g Carbs 15.7g (per cookie)

On to the next disappointing ones :D Now before you all get the wrong idea please take notice I say 'disappointing' and not 'bad'! Essentially these were tasty cookies - the dough bases were pleasant, and the half coated milk chocolate undersides were a nice touch if a little messy. My disappointment, actually, OUR collective disappointment came in the fact that they didn't deliver a 'Triple' chocolate experience. Had you asked me what flavour they were in a blind taste test, I would have told you that they were just milk chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately the dark and white chips didn't cut through in the taste, with neither the unsweetened flavours of the dark or the creamier influence of the latter mentioned managing to shine through. Good cookies, but didn't live up the Triple Chocolate billing.

7.0 out of 10


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Praline & Milk Chocolate
'Hazelnut & almond praline, roasted hazelnuts, half coated in milk chocolate'
Kcal 117 Fat 6.9g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 12.1g (per cookie)

These cookies were slightly smaller than their other counterparts, but what they lacked in size they made up for taste. These were the favourite of both my mother and sister, and I have to say they did give the Ginger cookies a run for their money. These cookies were billed as being filled with nutty influences and I'm glad to say the nut element was more than delivered on. The combination of the base biscuit and milk chocolate set the taste up with an initial sweet chocolatyness. As the melt developed, and the crunchy hazelnut pieces came into play, a pleasant woodsy nuttyness came to the fore and brought a delicious salty savoury note along with it. These weren't as satisfying as some of the others, but they were well liked all round.

7.2 out of 10


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Ginger & Dark Chocolate
'Ginger flavour cookies backed with candied ginger pieces, coated in dark chocolate'
Kcal 120 Fat 6.1g Fat(sats) 3.8g Carbs 14.9g (per cookie)

Hands down these were the nicest of the lot. As much as the praline variety was liked, these were loved! Being the dark chocolate ginger lover of the family, my father didn't wait to long before tasting one of these, promptly telling us how 'awful' they were, and attempting to run away with the rest of the packet haha :D Luckily the rest of got to him before he could get to far - and we are very glad we did. The combination of the dark chocolate and ginger was executed flawlessly. The outer lick of dark chocolate was thick enough to create a kind, unsweetened dark chocolate taste, which contrasted nicely with rest of the sweeter components. At the heart of each biscuit, the ginger didn't hold back when it came to the taste, offering a beautifully contrastive set of sweet, spicy flavours. Quite simply, these were damn tasty cookies.

8.5 out of 10


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Overall its pretty obvious which of these cookies I would be happy to recommend to you all. Fans of praline or ginger chocolates will be sure to enjoy those variants, whilst I'm pretty certain the Triple Chocolate would go down well with anyone none to demanding of the triple chocolate experience. As ever with Thorntons we got a real mixed here - my advice is just pick and choose wisely.