August 12th: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Biscuit Superpost # 2

Earlier this year I broke my all time promise of not reviewing chocolate biscuits and opened the floodgates for several reader requests to come my way. It may have taken me a while to do, but I took all of your suggestions seriously and with the aid of my work colleagues have slowly but surely made my way round the supermarket biscuit shelves. Below are some very short, concise reviews on numerous different chocolate biscuits that were suggested to me. I hope you enjoy the photos etc. I may regret saying this but again if you have any further suggestions please send them through.

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McVitie's Caramel Chocolate Digestives
Kcal 80 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 5.0g (per biscuit)

It was an education to learn of the existence of these but given my love of caramel chocolate it was an offering I certainly had no qualms trying out. The 300.0g pack cost me £1.40 in my local Tesco - on a £/Kg basis these were at a price premium versus standard McVitie's Chocolate Digestives.

In size these Caramel Digestives were smaller in hand at around two thirds the stature of the normal digestives. I was hoping the that the caramel integration was going to involve some sort of liquidy centre, however I was to be disappointed by more a chewy toffee like substance that ran between the thin chocolate layer and the biscuit base. Ultimately the caramel layer was more disappointing than it was poor, it was fine for what it was, but it only offered an extra added dose of sweetness to the taste which negated the usual saltiness of the biscuit to a degree. Not horrible, but not a pack of biscuits I would rush out and buy again.

6.8 out of 10


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Mcvitie's Quirks Chocolate And Hazelnut
Kcal 61 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 1.0g Carbs 4.0g (per biscuit)

The majority of the reviews today are ones that have been asked for by readers but these new McVitie's Quirks first caught the eye when I saw them announced in the trade back in July - See HERE. You got to love the marketing spiel: "Our research has shown this launch will be accepted extremely well by consumers" ... oh really now eh :D

I bought these again in Tesco on an introductory £1.00 offer - this got me a pack of about 16 biscuits that had a catch-weight of 175.0g. In terms of packaging and presentation everything to me cam across as very lazily designed. The outer foil wrapper was overly plain and simplistic (boring!!!), whilst the unbranded biscuits themselves looked horrendously generic and unexciting. Taste-wise these tested a little better than they looked. The biscuit portion offered a generic set of floury, sugar noted flavours, though the inner hazelnut hinted chocolate cream at least went some way to taking them on further and adding a little more interest. These biscuits were 'accepted extremely' averagely by this consumer :D

6.6 out of 10


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Fox's Melts Chocolate Vienesse
Kcal 83 Fat 4.9g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 8.8g (per biscuit)

According to a good few people who fedback after my classic chocolate biscuit bits and bob post, Chocolate Vienesse biscuits were a shocking absentee from my original selection. Personally I wouldn't bracket them in alongside those all time greats, though I was more than happy to give them a ChocolateMission airing.

Chocolate Vienesse come ten-a-penny in this country so I wasn't lacking options when it came to choosing which to review. I was initially keen on the the Marks & Spencer ones, though I thought I would settle for the ones I think the British public know best, which are these made by Fox's. The current packaging and presentation was all fair from my perspective though, I did get a niggling sense that the size of the biscuits had been slimmed down since I last had them. Taste wise nothing seemed out of place with the buttery shortcake like biscuit a nice light foil for the inner sticky layer of milk chocolate. The chocolate cut through in the taste was of a sound quality, however the light biscuit and chocolate flavour hit were both a little short-lived for my liking compared to other more substantial biscuits reviewed recently.

7.2 out of 10


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Mcvitie's Hobnobs Medley Caramel Milk Chocolate
Kcal 134 Fat 4.8g Fat(sats) 2.1g Carbs 20.9g (per bar)

I know this isn't strictly a chocolate biscuit but hey the rules are pretty lax around here :D The McVitie's Hobnobs Medley bars have been out for almost a year and I since that time I have tried all three of the original flavours - Raisin (HERE), Hazelnut (HERE) and Peanut (HERE). In April 2011, McVitie's announced they would be bring a £2m advertising campaign to further push the Medley range (HERE).

If you read that article above you will notice there was no mention made of this new Caramel Milk Chocolate flavour which I found in my local Sainsbury's store. As far as I'm aware this flavour has replaced the Peanut one, though it wasn't as if that flavour had great distribution anyway. In construct this bar was a mirror image of the others in that it was an oat and wheat flake bases bar which was fused with a sticky honey tasting like glaze. On the underside of the bar a caramel flavoured chocolate was coated reasonably thickly and provided a better than fair chocolatey taste that did indeed have a little hint of buttery syrup to it. Cereal bars aren't a snack of choice for me all that often but I would happily have one of these again.

7.7 out of 10

August 10th: Lily O'Briens Irish Cream / Champagne Truffles

There's nothing better than receiving an unexpected parcel full of chocolates, and this is exactly what I got last week from ChocolateMission reader Lucy. Lucy was so kind enough to send me both these Irish Cream & Champagne flavoured Lily O'Briens chocolates, both of which I have reviewed below.

For those that haven't heard of Lily O'Briens before, I can tell you that they are Irish based company formed in 1992 by none other than Lily O'Brien (funny that!). On their website they claim to offer 'a mouth-watering repertoire of delicious chocolates using the finest ingredients'. Back in 2008, under the recommendation of some of my readers I took a look at some of their chocolate bar offerings, which managed to score around the average mark of 7.6 out of 10 on the ChocolateMission rating scale (See HERE). Although those bars hardly set the world alight, Lucy claimed that these were some 'of the best truffles ever' - who was I to turn down some free chocolates :D

As you can see below both types of truffles came in similar looking packaging that consisted of an outer cardboard box with an inner plastic tray containing the separate pieces. In regards to the quality of the presentation I have to give a thumbs up to both of the variants. Lily O'Briens did a great job making the exterior box look like it was made for a premium brand with all the smart looking golden fonts and tempting looking photos. What impressed me majorly about both types of chocolates was the fact that the actual chocolates looked exactly like they did in the aforementioned photographs - I tried recreating the effect as best I could myself.

Below are my brief thoughts on each of the flavours.

Lily O'Briens Irish Cream Truffles

'A white chocolate truffle laced with Irish Cream and smothered in milk chocolate'

There was absolutely no chance of me trying these Irish Cream flavoured truffles without giving my sister the chance to give cast her valued second opinion (she adores Baileys!). Luckily for me this was no real issue, as the chocolates came in a 100.0g box that contained a more than plentiful 8 truffles. In terms of aromas the chocolates were immediately impressive, emanating a nice set of boozie, dairy scents that wafted from the tray as soon as I released the box seal.

Placing the first truffle in my mouth (my gob was just about big enough to handle the large size!), the first set of flavours to greet me palette were rather underwhelming. Indeed the milk chocolate was just as I remembered it, with it's smooth, yet uneventful sweet milky taste. Thankfully much better things can be said of the truffle filling, which was simply delightful in every which way. Initially it brought an added dose of cream based white chocolate flavours, though it wasn't long before a little note of Irish whiskey came to the party bringing with it a modest boozie kick and pleasant warming sensation. More often than not, alcohol filled truffles came hide startling boozie kicks that take over the taste, but what both my sister and I really loved about these truffles was the fact that the flavour progression felt so natural and the smooth tasting. We both really enjoyed these and would both recommend them to all Irish Cream lovers.

8.0 out of 10


Lily O'Briens Champagne Truffles

'A white chocolate truffle with 'Marc De Champagne', smothered in milk chocolate with a dark chocolate swirl'.

As much as these looked very appealing they were always going to be facing the tough comparartor of the Hotel Chocolat Champagne Truffles I reviewed back in December 2008 (See HERE). Those Hotel Chocolat truffles are a long time favourite of my mother, so like I did with my sister for the above Irish Cream chocolates, I employed her services when it came to the taste testing. Again this was no problem given the 100.0g eight truffle format.

Upon removing the cardboard lid and surrounding packaging layers I was met with some more subdued chocolatey aromas compared to the boozier Irish Cream scents. Just as I described above, the exterior milk chocolate layer played a very similar role, and it again wasn't until the revelation of the inner champagne filling that the taste really came to life. Like the Irish Cream truffles, the first flavours established by the centres were cream based with the alcoholic influence shortly following during the mid stages of pleasant feeling soft melt. Our thoughts on the champagne element were that it was well integrated in to the filling, though the slightly sourer bozzieness lacked the charm of the Irish Cream which we thought worked a little better and more naturally with the overall taste. Whilst these weren't in the same class as the Hotel Chocolate Champagne Truffles I would still say they are at least worth consideration given their cheaper price and overall fair quality.

7.5 out of 10


Thanks again to Lucy for sending me both of these products.

August 8th: Hotel Chocolat Salted Caramels

I have to admit that I've been chomping at the bit to review these for absolutely ages. Until now Hotel Chocolat have puzzlingly not had a product offering solely dedicated to their Salted Caramels available in their online store, however the recent launch of a new range called 'Spotlight On' has recently seen one come to market. As you can imagine, this was right at the top of my request list that I sent along to Hotel Chocolat when asked about new samples. The promise of 'smooth liquid caramel with a pinch of sea salt in milk chocolate shells' sounded familiar and given my previous encounters with said combination I knew I was in for a marvellous treat.

The new 'Spotlight On' range consists of some of Hotel Chocolat's most popular individual chocolates and are line priced at £13.00 a box (See HERE). That investment there will buy you a box of 21 chocolates that collectively amass to 150.0g - enough to share but honestly you wont want to be doing any of that nonsense :D The packaging and presentation of this new 'Spotlight On' range is relatively consistent across the different offerings, and I personally think it looks very classy with it's combination of the typical white on black branding and simple communication imagery of the chocolates in question.

Although I've already referred to the idea of sharing of these being a nonsense, the Old Man and Mother were at hand to provide second and third opinions due to their photography skills being called in to action. After a period of refrigeration and painstakingly tempting time spent photographing these chocolates we all finally got to dig in and I'm glad to say Hotel Chocolat didn't fall below expectations. The outer milk chocolate was crisp in it's cream and sweet cocoa flavours and the base melted away on the tongue like a dream with it's tremendous smoothness. Sat at the heart of each piece the cool liquid caramel slowly oozed it's way out of the chocolate and soon took a hold of the taste. It's buttery, sweet toasted sugar butterscotch notes were elegantly balanced by just the finest suggestion of salt. The only words I need use to describe this are delicious, sweet caramel heaven.

Overall I don't care how predictable this all sounds, these were quite simple outstanding. The simple, yet classic combination of the milk chocolate and caramel was executed to near perfection with one and the other combining to create a tremendous synergy. The rating I've given these I think reflects the total package. Do I think they taste better than the Cadbury Caramel and Galaxy Caramel - yeah sure they do. Do they cost more than the aforementioned offerings - you betcha! A level rating with these products is what I believe to be the fairest thing to do. We would probably all love these to be able to afford Hotel Chocolat everyday, but for 90.0% of us this just isn't reality. For special occasions though I can't recommend these enough. If you love milk chocolate and caramel combinations you needn't look further for a special treat. Hotel Chocolat fully deliver here, I will leave you with the word 'Excellence'.

9.4 out of 10

August 6th: Competition

COMPETITION

7Days of Chocolate Reviews takes a rest this week and is being replaced by a short and simple competition. To be in with a chance of winning one of three Thorntons Cloudy Lemonade (reviewed earlier this week - See HERE) then all you have to do is tell me what the 3 chocolates bars are in the photographs you see below ...

To enter please send an e-mail to Jim[@]Chocolatemission.net with your answers. Please make the subject of your e-mail 'Thorntons Competition'. The three winners will be announced next weekend. Please do not leave comments this weekend - all to often someone always spoils the competition.

Best of luck

JIM


SMALL PRINT
1. Open worldwide
2. One entry per person
3. I have final jurisdiction on any matter that may arise.

August 5th: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Biscuits, Wafers & Cookies

It wouldn't be a full ChocolateMission week without a 'Bits n Bobs' post now would it!? There's no special theme today behind all of these, just a few reader requests that have popped up in the last few months. As ever the reviews are as concise and to the point as possible - please feel free to leave your own thoughts on any of these.

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Tunnock's Dark Chocolate Caramel Wafer Biscuit
Kcal 137 Fat 5.4g Fat(sats) 3.4g Carbs 21.0g (per bar)

Despite Tunnock's products being some of the most iconic British confectionery around, its amazingly difficult sometimes to track some of them down. One Tunnocks product that had managed to allude me for a while were these Tunnock's Dark Chocolate Caramel Wafer Biscuits - I finally managed to happen across some whilst shopping in Waitrose last week. Tunnock's offerings seem to be one of the final few products in the chocolate biscuit/bar aisle that can command a price over £1.00 - I guess that is what having a heritage of over a hundred years buys you. The multipack of 8 bars I bought cost me £1.39 - I consumed these over the course of a week with a mid-afternoon tea/coffee. If I refer you back to my previous Tunnock's Milk Chocolate Caramel Wafer Biscuits review (See HERE), you will see that it was the chocolate that I felt let the bar down due to it's mild taste and thin portioning. Unfortunately this problem just seemed exasperated here, with the common issue of the dark chocolate being 'mass consumer friendly' (i.e. just less sweet, but with no cocoa flavour volume rise) as prevalent as in any other bar of recent memory. The caramel and wafer constituents still made for a tasty snack, but I would probably just choose the more forthcoming milky sweetness of the originals if I was presented with them both in the future.

7.2 out of 10

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Butterkist Milk Chocolate Coated Toffee Popcorn
Kcal 505 Fat 25.0g Carbs 61.9g (per 100.0g)

I hadn't read anything in the trade about the release of these new Butterkist Milk Chocolate Coated Toffee Popcorn snack packs, but I found them in one of my local newsagents priced at a rather dear sounding £0.74. Usually I probably would have just let this sort of thing pass me by, but I couldn't help myself seeing how they matched up to a similar milk chocolate coated toffee popcorn product that I buy in Marks & Spencer from time-to-time. Aesthetically it struck me that the pieces were all very randomly sized and the chocolate coatings had very shiney surfaces. The glistening effect of the chocolate did sort of prepare me what to expect, but I was still ultimatelty disappointed to find that the chocolate was pretty poor quality and had a slow lethargic melt and waxy mouthfeel. The inner popcorn piece and toffee elements contributed more to the taste, however even they weren't as buttery or flavoursome as the M&S equivalents product. These weren't a disaster but I wouldn't advise going out your way to try them if I were you.

6.0 out of 10


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Fox's Ambers
Kcal 65 Fat 3.0g Fat(sats) 1.7g Carbs 8.7g (per cookie)

Having been left feeling relatively unimpressed by the first flavour of these Fox's Ambers that I tried (Praline - See HERE), I don't know what quite compelled me to give another variant in the range a try. Well acutally I do - the £1.00 price was my cheap way out of providing the office with a pack of biscuits and it has to be said that the packaging at least gives an impression that these are half decent biscuits. The description of these original Fox's Ambers, 'Golden honeycomb biscuits, dipped in milk chocolate', promised less than the Praline variant, though this hardly enhanced my experience this time around. In truth these were almost identical in taste to the Praline cookies - if I were blindfolded and asked to tell one from the other I'm not confident at all that I could tell you which was which. Indeed, much like the Praline flavoured Ambers, these were just too sweet for my liking and the golden syrup element fusing the oat base just took over taste. Apologies but I can only offer the same conclusion as last time - these cookies aren't bad, but they certainly aren't anything special at all.

6.4 out of 10


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Fox's Cookie Bars
Kcal 79 Fat 3.8g Fat(sats) 1.7g Carbs 10.0g (per bar)

Finishing off Bits & Bobs today we have a second offering from Fox's. These Cookie Bars were relaunched back in April and come billed as a 'fun, tasty, snack-sized twist on a traditional cookie'. The new ‘No Artificials’ message, highlighted on-pack, is supposed to be the new 'reason for purchase', however I was more attracted by the prospect of getting 10 bars for the lowly price of only £1.00 (on deal in my local OneStop). As you can likely determine from my photos above, these were a very simple, straight-up proposition in that they were literally milk chocolate chip cookies shaped into bar form. Packaging and presentation wise they relatively unspectacular, though at no point did I feel like this was a product trying to be anything but that. Indeed, these tasted average and satisfied me averagely - a functional snack if ever there was one. The basic wheat based cookie flavours were nothing special, neither were the crunchy cookie texture or mild flavour input from the chocolate chips. I can recommend them to Mum's looking for portion controlled, cheap snacking for their kid's packed lunches, but if you are after a great tasting snack you will need to search elsewhere.

6.2 out of 10

August 3rd: Thorntons Cloudy Lemonade

Kcal 567 Fat 36.7g Fat(sats) 22.5g Carbs 52.0g (per 100.0g)

I've been waiting to write this review for a fair while now as I first got to sample this bar right at the start of the year when I was asked for some feedback from the guys at Thorntons. This Cloudy Lemonade bar is one of the three limited editions being released this year by Thorntons who are celebrating their 100 years of chocolate production. First up in May we had the Thorntons Dark Chocolate with Rose (See HERE) - today it was the turn of the Cloudy Lemonade which came billed as 'Lemon flavoured white chocolate with popping candy'. This bar is now available in all Thorntons stores including their online one - See HERE.

This bar came in a 80.0g size and was packaged in the familiar Thorntons glossy square box format. The choice of colour (pastel yellow), was the obvious one for this bar, I'm starting to think Thorntons might want to redesign the packaging for this range - they are going to run out of colours soon enough aren't they :D Inside the chocolate was stored in a thin foil wrapper and was decorated and sub-sectioned in the familiar fashion consistent across this range. Aesthetically the bar had a nice complexion and there were visible pieces which looked like rice krispies dispersed throughout.

Previously when I've tried white chocolate and citrus combinations there have times when I have commented that they had smelt cheesey and nasty but this wasn't the case here. I didn't waste too much time taking in the smells on offer but the lemon element was fragrant enough to noticeable when the foil packet was undone. From the very first piece I tasted I noticed that the chocolate was ever so slightly different from my previous experience with it at the start of the year. Starting with the consistencies though, it was still a very tasty white chocolate, and it's smooth cream based vanilla noted flavours were the perfect foil for the sharper citrus lemon oil element. As aforementioned there was an unfortunate change from the initial version of this bar I tried. Disappointingly for my own preference Thorntons had dialled up the popping candy element, and had noticeably increased both the size and portioning of the horrible stuff. Unlike some other chocolates with it in before, it didn't 100.0% ruin the experience for me, but the crackling sensation at the back of my throat was really not welcome.

Overall although I was disappointed by the minor changes from the original bar I tried, I still found this to be a pretty good standard white chocolate. I've said this in many reviews before, but Thorntons for some reason seem to really know what they are doing when it comes to white chocolate. It's not my favourite chocolate type but as far as Thorntons go it's one of things I think they do best. This Cloudy Lemonade was no exception, and it was thoroughly enjoyable for it's smooth flowing creamy flavours. The lemon element was additionally well integrated and came off as both real tasting and balanced - it was just that damn annoying popping candy. I don't want to criticise too much as this is a point of personal preference rather than a glaring production error. If you think you can handle the popping sensation then I see little reason why this wouldn't be a thoroughly enjoyable chocolate for you.

7.2 out of 10

August 1st: Martin's Chocolatier Truffle Selection

We have another ChocolateMission début this week and this time it's the turn of the UK based online trader Martin's Chocolatier (Website - See HERE). According to Martin's Chocolatier website they are: "The UK’s first Premium Online Chocolate shop and Chocolate Tasting Club, providing luxury speciality chocolates from a wide range of internationally-renowned Artisan chocolatiers from across the world. The expertise of Martin’s Chocolatier lies in the sheer enthusiasm for the exquisite taste of luxury speciality chocolates from around the globe". As you will see below Martin sent across a lot of truffles to try so in the interest of review space I will again point you in the direction of his site, if you wish to learn more about Martin and his journey to becoming a budding chocolatier entrepreneur.

Martin was recently kind enough to supply me with a selection of chocolates mostly hailing from his 'Tasty Truffles' selection box. These were supplied to me in a mini compact box with the truffles loosely left to rumble around. Of course this was far from ideal, and the photographs of the chocolates you see below were taken after a good polish and sort out. I'm led to believe this isn't the usual way Martin supplies his chocolates, but I was initially rather disappointed with the presentation. Below are our thoughts on the truffles sent across with the descriptors of each taken from the website (sadly no menu provided).

Peachy - 'Peaches & Cream' - A mild flavoured outer white chocolate shell melted with a faint crunch in to a smooth ganache filling. The centre was mildly fruit noted but not distinguishable as peach. Standard.

Magda - 'Dark orange enigma' - The fantastic crunchy outer shell to inner soft filling created a terrific mouth feel. The dark chocolate tasted like a light 50% recipe which was a good partner for the sweet smooth orange centre. Good.

Patricia (left) - 'Milk Praline Truffles' - Once again the textures exhibited and mouth feel delivered by the truffle were spot on. Unfortunately the taste came across very sweet and lacked focus on it's nutty credentials. We were portioned two of these in our pack and my mother described the other as tasting like the praline found in a tin of Cadbury Roses. Standard.

Mary (right) - 'Smooth Irish Creme' - The milk chocolate came across very sweet with the soft fill centre providing a mildly noted alcohol flavour input. The liqueur taste was not directly attributable to Irish Cream - I envisage some Baileys fans being disappointed. Standard.

Samantha - 'Gin & Damson' - My father tried this one and complimented it on it's plum like fruityness which came across relatively real tasting. He was disappointed that the gin element didn't create the warming sensation that is attributable to most chocolates that contain spirits. Standard.

Vesta - 'Carribean Dark Rum' - I loved the flow of the taste from the outer dark chocolate to the buttery rum centre, especially for it's crisp to soft mouth feel texture. It didn't bother me that much, but I know others wouldn't have found the rum element strong enough. Good.

Vanessa - 'Grand Marnier' - This piece was very similar indeed to the Magda truffle described above. The only detectable difference was that the centre was a little less creamy and sweet, though it lacked the boozie kick as proposed by it's billing. Standard.

Glenda - 'Fire blended Whiskey' - The whiskey truffle expert old man tasted this was and was disappointed with it. He isn't one for 'blow your head off' strong liqueurs, but he said this was just too mildly flavoured with the limited malt taste not providing and warming sensation texturally. He felt the crystallised pieces on top were an unnecessary addition. Poor.

Caroline - 'Strawberry ganache & white chocolate' - I left this one to my mother who is a lover of both strawberries and white chocolate. She gave it a thumbs up and said the lightness of the white chocolate allowed good expression of the soft, juicy strawberry filling which had a pleasant real taste. Very Good.

Nicola - 'Tiramisu Surprise' - This was a very disappointing piece given it's proposition. The contrasting textural elements of the truffle were fantastic but the initial white chocolate flavoures were only enhanced a minor amount by a small cocoa suggestion. This chocolate didn't exhibit any booze, coffee or mascarpone flavour inputs. Poor.

Mika - 'Double distilled french cognac' - Like so many of the other alcohol flavoured truffles this was perceived as a no better than average chocolate. My old man again commented that whilst there was a detectable alcohol element in the filling, it wasn't identifiable as cognac and it didn't provide the desired warming alcohol sensation. Standard.

Shelly - 'Bourbon Vanilla Creme' - I've saved the best until last :D This was a very sweet white chocolate truffle but it's extreme richness was matched by a delicious flowing creamy flavour provision. The crisp outer chocolate to the soft as silk inner filling provided a delightful textural sensation. The smooth cream flavours were tremendously noted by a well balanced vanilla hint. Superb.

Overall it was felt that this was a real mixed bag of truffles that had both obvious strengths and weaknesses. The apparent strengths of the selection were that it had a very varied mix of flavours on offer, and that ultimately the base milk, white and dark chocolate shells were all matched well to them and were of a nice quality and construct. Unfortunately there were also some pretty glaring areas for development with the chocolates sent across - the presentation of the chocolates which were cramped in transit and the lacking a menu immediatedly spring to mind. Additionally, some of the flavoured centres were felt to just not be strong or bold enough in their flavour delivery. Whilst the fruit flavoured truffles were mostly met with praise, the booze chocolates felt especially underwhelming and should be looked at for immediate address. In terms of a recommendation I could offer Martin's Chocolatier as an adequete option if you are looking to break away from the mass produced offerings as offered by the likes of Thornton's etc.

7.0 out of 10

July 30th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 82 - Rolo Biscuits

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

Another week passes and there has been a mixed bunch of reviews on the site this week.

If you are going to take the time to read just one then I strongly suggest you head over to the review I posted this past Monday when I took my first look at a brand called Valrhona. Their Jivara milk chocolate offering was up there with some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted. Speaking as an idiot who has eaten some form of chocolate product everyday for the past three years you should understand that as a pretty glowing recommendation - See HERE.

There will be some exciting things coming up in the next few weeks as a few independent UK chocolatiers have been getting in touch requesting some reviews. In addition to them I will have some more new products from the likes of Hotel Chocolat & Thorntons appearing - these guys should be starting their summer sales on their websites soon so I would take a look HERE to see what they are up to.

Now we have hit edition 82 of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' I want to freshen things up a bit. Are there any topics/interviews/features you guys want to see posted about at weekends? There is potential for me to do anything you want so that is very much an open ended question! Drop me a comment or an e-mail if you have a view on that.

.... if you don't then just have yourself a great weekend :D I will of course be back Monday ... but will I be back with Hotel Chocolat Monday??? Log on and find out :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 weekRolo Biscuits
Kcal 95 Fat 4.7g Carbs 12.1g (per biscuit)

Lets keep this short and sweet - What do you get if you take the biscuit out of a Rolo Biscuit??? ... a Rolo ... Fortunately that isn't intended to be a joke. It's in actual fact just the reality of what is on offer here with Snack of the Week - Rolo Biscuits.

I want to bypass the cheekiness of the on-pack 'New' claims (these were first launched in 2000 - See HERE) and more just focus on the product as it is now. Allow me the please to bring out the cliche 'back in my day ...' (god I feel old!!) ... these were an awful lot bigger than they are now. Indeed, now these Rolo Biscuits clock in at a measly 18.5g and contain only 85 calories. Some might say this was a good thing - greedy guts like me would disagree! The part of the product taking the biggest sacrifice appears to be the biscuit portion, which though evident aesthetically, was totally AWOL in the taste and texture department. Essentially what you get here is a jumbo sized Rolo - average milk chocolate with a sugary sweet toffee/caramel soft centre. Of course this was no disaster, but Nestle if you are promising me biscuit .... I want biscuit dammit!! Have you guys noticed these reappearing in your local stores?

7.3 out of 10


CHOCOLATE NEWS

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July 29th: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Cakes

Since starting to work in a large office environment its quickly become apparent that almost every week there is someones birthday to celebrate. What do birthdays mean!? Well of course they mean cake ... more often than not chocolate cake :D Today 'Bits n Bobs' explores some of the current cake options out there on the UK marketplace today. Competition is fierce with the likes of Thorntons and Mr Kipling doing the rounds - take a look at my mini reviews below to see who won out.
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Thorntons Chocolate Mini Cakes
Kcal 188 Fat 10.5g Fat(sats) 3.5g Carbs 21.4g (per cake)
'Chocolate sponge cakes topped and filled with chocolate buttercream ganache, finished with dark chocolate curls and cocoa powder'

When it comes to cakes and the like, Thorntons tend to do pretty well here on ChocolateMission. To prove that point I only need send you in the direction of some of their previous reviews. Although I wrote the reviews years ago, their Chocolate Brownies (See HERE) and Millionaire Shortbreads (See HERE) are still commonly found in my shopping basket. Whilst both of those products previously mentioned are often found on the cake aisles famous £1.00 deals, one product Thorntons never seem to discount are these Chocolate Mini Cakes. Priced at £1.80 (thereabouts) for six cakes, I last week bought a few packs to take in to the office to test them out on some unsuspecting guinea pigs.

My photograph above wont be doing these cakes justice, but these looked superb out the pack, and did truly resemble miniature versions of a much grander sized chocolate cake. Cutting straight to the chase, these cakes were absolutely superb, and met with all seals of approval from all six of us that had the pleasure of eating them. The main reason cited for this unanimous 'thumbs-up' was the layering involved in the cake construct. Starting from the bottom upwards the cakes had a layer of sweet chocolate sponge, then a moist layer of divine buttercream, then another layer of sponge, and then lastly another layer of buttercream that included chocolate sprinkles and curls which gave each bite a terrific crunchy sensation. The cakes were texturally delightful, and delivered a plethora of rich, non-overpowering cocoa and cream flavours.

Overall I can only use one word to describe these chocolate cakes and it would be the word 'Superb'. I (we), loved everything about them - the mouth feel created by the different layers, the chocolatey taste, and even the minor details like them being the perfect size to satisfy a serious bout of the munchies. In my opinion, Thorntons are a company desperately in need of a new sense of direction. If I were devising their strategy going forward, I would stick to the premium line chocolates and target consumers at lower price points with delightful cake offerings like these. Highly recommended.

8.9 out of 10


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Mr Kipling Chocolate Slices
Kcal 132 Fat 6.4g Fat(sats) 2.6g Carbs 16.7g (per slice)
'Chocolate sponge baked with milk chocolate chips and topped with plain chocolate chips'

Chocolate cake offering number two comes from that famous old man Mr Kipling, who recently attempted to delight me with his 'Exceedingly Good' Chocolate Slices. I would love to claim that my bargain hunting skills were called in to action again, but in actual fact I ended up buying this off promotion at their usual price of £1.45 in Waitrose (oooooh get me, aren't I a posh shopper haha!). The 200.0g box contained six individually wrapped slices - more than enough to get plenty of POVs from my colleagues.

The individual packets that sealed the cakes sported the Mr Kipling branding were nice looking, though aesthetically the slices themselves weren't the most exciting. It was nice to see a good distribution of chocolate chips dispersed across the top of each cake, though in truth the plain looking fingers weren't the most stylish looking, and this proved consistent when it came to the taste. Flavour wise these simply didn't offer that much in terms depth of flavour and chocolate richness. The cake constituents had a nice thick viscosity to it, however taste wise it was all a little dull with the direction of the taste predominantly taking a generic sweet vanilla cake type path. This could have all been helped by the chocolate chip pieces, however they were relatively flavourless in their contribution to the taste and were most notable for the differentiation they brought texturally.

Overall, unfortunately for Mr Kipling, these cakes were consumed a day after the Thorntons' ones above, so it was almost like he was behind the eight ball before he even started. Quite simply these Chocolate Slices didn't match up to the Thorntons cakes, they were more expensive, smaller, not as visually striking and of course most importantly didn't taste as nice. Mr Kipling is a great British brand but I'm afraid the old man has been outwitted here - stick to the Fondant Fancies chap!

6.2 out of 10


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Fabulous Bakin' Boys Double Chocolate Muffins
Kcal 258 Fat 14.0g Fat(sats) 2.1g Carbs 29.7g (per muffin)
'Chocolate muffin with real chocolate chips'

I wont even try and attempt to boast about having any elite bargain hunting skills with these muffins - I swear its harder to find Fabulous Bakin' Boys products off promotion rather than finding one of their deals :D Indeed I bought these muffins priced at £0.74 in my local Sainsbury's supermarket (half price down from £1.49). This small expense bought me four muffins which collectively netted to 255.0g - a rather generous (and ultimately satisfying!) 64.0g each.

Presentation wise not one of my colleagues had anything to say about the product. The box and cellophane packs fundamentally just did the job they were functionally intended to do, though there were small mentions made about the nice smells that emanated from the wrappers. Focusing on the positives first it was felt all round that these were very satisfying in regards to curing hunger, and two of my co-workers said they were the 'perfect size for a mid-afternoon snack'. Taste wise these muffins were richer and more chocolatey than Mr Kiplings Chocolate Slices, however they lacked the differentiation of the Thorntons Mini Cakes and could have done with some sort of filling or chocolate syrup/buttercream to create more interest.

Overall these Fabulous Bakin' Boys Double Chocolate Muffins were met with the sort of luke warm reception that leaves me thinking I wouldn't buy them again. I don't wish to put anyone off them, however Like the Mr Kipling Chocolate Slices they are ultimately totally outshone by the Thorntons Mini Cakes. Price wise they may be able to claim that they are one of the cheapest offering in the chocolate cake sector, however we are talking pence rather than pounds here so I would strongly suggest it is worth just paying a tiny bit more for a much higher quality product.

7.2 out of 10


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Have I missed out a chocolate cake offering that I should have reviewed? What do you make of the three products above? Let me know by dropping a comment.