October 5th: 'Bits n Bobs' American Soda Selection

My pals at AmericanSoda (See HERE) have been sending me all sorts of tasty American snacks and treats lately. Some of them have been great, some of them not so much :D What better way for me to give you a quick run down of them all than via one of my famous 'Bits n Bobs' posts!?
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Nabisco Chips Ahoy! Chewy
Kcal 120 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 17.0g (per 2 cookies)

It was only a few weeks ago that I posted my review of the original Nabisco Chip Ahoy! where I concluded that for store bought cookies they weren't a 'half bad option'. Following that review, several JCM readers requested I try the Chewy variant that had recently been added to the AmericanSoda website ...... wollah ... :D

AmericanSoda kindly provided me with a 396.0g pack that included around 30 or so cookies which were contained in a red coloured resealable foil pack. In hand, these Chewy cookies were smaller in size and and softer to touch though we had no issues of crumbling which one might have expected. Taste wise these delivered broadly the same experience to the original variant cookies, though one of my co-workers commented that they tasted more chocolatey as the number of chocolate chips was maintained despite the smaller size. As promised the cookies were softer in texture, and melted very nicely to give what I thought was more pleasant mouth feel. To be frank these didn't offer much differentiation from a typical Chips Ahoy! experience, however if you are one of those people that likes to change things up every now and then you could have some fun to be had with these.

7.8 out of 10


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Marshmallow Fluff Vanila
Kcal 60 Fat 0.0g Fat(sats) 0.0g Carbs 15.0g (2 tsp - 18.0g)

I honestly can't tell you how much fun I've been having with this stuff :D Indeed for the past week or so I've been experimenting with all different manner of food/drink stuffs trying to find the optimal situation for use of this dexterous ingredient. I present to you vanilla flavoured Marshmallow Fluff - 'a very sweet, spreadable, marshmallow-like confection' (according to Wiki).

With great difficulty you will be able to make out the marshmallow based substance piled on to my spoon in my photo above. As you can hopefully see, this was spoon-able mallow substance that can be used in a number of different ways. I tried it with ice cream, yoghurt, crackers, biscuits, milk, coffees etc ... you name it I stuck Fluff on it. Most the time the Fluff added a startling sugar hit to the taste, though as promised it did also bring a hint of vanilla which made it more than just a sugary gloop. By far and away the best usage of this Fluff came when making the famous American 'Fluffernutter' aka for me here toast with peanut butter and fluff. The salty sweet combination was quite the experience - definitely not a 'have everyday' sort of experience, but more a once or twice a year special occasion sort of pleasantness. If you like your sweet food ingredients you need to make sure you have a jar of Marshmallow Fluff in your cupboard just for when you need that extreme junk food indulgence snack.

7.0 out of 10


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Moon Pie Double Decker Chocolate Flavour
Kcal 300 Fat 7.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 55.0g

I was delighted this month to finally lay hands on to one of America's most commonly referred to pop culture snacks the Moon Pie. Moon Pies have always been one of those things that I knew existed and heard talked about a lot in US TV programming, however until this time I had never tried one myself. After pulling a few American Soda strings I finally got my opportunity to put this straight.

According to Wiki a Moon Pie 'is a pastry which consists of two round graham cracker cookies, with marshmallow filling in the center, dipped in chocolate or other flavours'. The Moon Pie I managed to lay hands on was of the 'Double Decker' variety, which as you can see, double up the Graham Cracker and marshmallow layers. The presentation of the pie was a little iffy, though I have given it the benefit of the doubt considering how far it travelled. What was blindingly evident however was the thickness (or lack of!) of the chocolate layer - it was frankly a non-existent aspect of the taste and got lost in the cracker and marshmallow elements. Speaking of which both the cracker and marshmallow constituents were hardly the most flavoursome in isolation, however together they combined for a fair salty biscuit wafer and sweet mallow synergy which meant it at least offered a token taste. To be honest I was expecting a little more from such a highly talked about snack - I think I may need to do a redux-review later down the line.

6.2 out of 10


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Kellogg's Pop Tarts S'mores
Kcal 200 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 36.0g (per pastry)

No AmericanSoda feature would be complete without a Kellogg's Pop Tarts flavour review, and today we finish off with this S'mores flavour. AmericanSoda have one of the biggest ranges of Pop Tarts here in the UK with nearly twenty different flavours on offer - See HERE. I'm sure you will all be amazed at the amount of variety they have in the US compared to just the two Chocolate and strawberry flavours we have here.

If any of you are thinking that the sound of a 'chocolate and marshmallow filling inside a chocolate-icing topped graham cracker pastry' sounds rather familiar then the chances are you previously tried the Pop Tarts Choco-Mallow we used to get here in the UK. I used to have them as a kid myself, so everything from the appearance to the toasted aromas felt very nostalgic and took me back to my childhood and getting ready for school in the mornings. With memory Lane affections put to one side I tried these in two forms frozen (thanks for the tip Marvo! See HERE) and toasted. Unlike my 'Impulsive Buy' blogger friend I have to say I much preferred these when they were toasted as they the chocolate flavour hit cut through the sugaryness of the marshmallow and icing with greater effect. When frozen I didn't feel like I got the savoury cereal balance from the pastry, and the bran saltiness seemed greater when heated providing superior balance. I would rate this S'mores flavour as up there with some of the better Pop Tarts.

7.8 out of 10

October 3rd: Toblerone Snow Top

Kcal 525 Fat 29.0g Fat(sats) 17.5g Carbs 60.5g (per 100.0g)

It's been a fair few years since we last got a new Toblerone product but just in time for Christmas 2011 we have this new Toblerone Snow Top bar. Whether or not this is a 'New' product, or a limited edition only made for the upcoming festive period I'm not so sure!? The packaging would suggest that it is 'New' and here to stick around - you will find out that's a good thing if you read on :D This Snow Top flavour was announced by Kraft back in July (See HERE), and came billed as 'Swiss milk chocolate with honey and almond nougat, capped with white chocolate'. This seemed like a straight forward proposition to me, though I did have some reservations as to why they didn't go whole hog and do a milk, white and dark chocolate mix :D

I bought this bar in a 100.0g pack that found in Sainsbury's priced on a very reasonable round pound (£1.00) introductory offer. I thought the pack was attractive and the choice of the light blue colour made in stand out from the other variants in the Toblerone range - (enough to get me to notice there was a new flavour on offer anyway!) As ever the Toblerone pieces looked lovely on the eye and of course the white chocolate topping on each block appeared well suited and gave each a cool look. Aroma wise I could detect sweet chocolate with minor nutty hints.

Toblerone isn't a chocolate I eat all that often, though I soon felt right at home with it's distinct tasting milk chocolate gracing my taste buds first. In line with expectations, the chocolate had a sweet milkiness that had just a touch of sweeter floral honey that developed during the latter stages of it's melt. When finally encountered, the white chocolate topping further accentuated the creamy dairy flavours of the taste, and brought a vanilla like note to the party as it developed. Once the chocolate was well progressed in it's melt, the remaining almond and nougat pieces added a buttery nuttiness to the after taste and provided further entertainment to the mouth feel senses with their chewy, crunchy textures. For me a four piece serving felt like plenty, any more and the sweetness would have caught up with me.

Overall I was very pleased with this new Toblerone bar and would hold it up there as one of the best options in their current range. The fusion of the milk chocolate with the white chocolate was proportionally correct with the milk chocolate still the main focus of the taste with it's unique honey sweetness, but the white chocolate portioned enough to bring it's enhancing vanilla and cream elements. When I got a few second opinions from work colleagues they similarly reacted very positively to this bar, and a few of them said they would be buying one for themselves when they next went shopping. Whether or not I offer a recommendation for this Toblerone Snow Top couldn't be more of a simple decision. Even if you don't regard yourself as a massive Toblerone fan, I would urge you to give this a try as it offers something a little bit extra from the straight up milk chocolate offering. It's one I will buy again in the run up to Christmas.

8.6 out of 10

October 1st: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 88 - Aero Christmas Tree

SITE UPDATE + TWITTER COMPETITION

Hi All,

Edition 88 of 7Days of Chocolate Reviews ... you might think I've been doing this too long eh!? I have enjoyed hearing from you all about the reviews this week, both the Cadbury and Lindt posts sparked a good deal of debate and discussion is still going back and forth on various issues. You can take a look at these reviews here:

Cadbury Mascots - See HERE
'Bits n Bobs' Cakes, Muffins & Biscuits - See HERE
Lindt Excellence Dark Caramel - See HERE

Here in the UK we have had a bit of a summer renaissance which makes my SOTW today looked even more of a nonsense then it is already posting about Christmas chocolates in September :D What can I say!? Before anyone gets too worried the Halloween reviews will be starting in the next few days so don't get the impression that I've skipped one holiday altogether - patience kids :D

I feel the need to run a competition for some chocolate :D ... who wants a Ritter Sport Milk & Wheatpuffs (See HERE)??? Well get yourself on twitter, follow @Chocmission and then Re-tweet one of my reviews with the hashtag #competition. I will randomly pick a few lucky winners next week.

FIND THE CHOCOLATEMISSION TWITTER FEED HERE

I hope that will keep you all out of mischief until next Monday :D 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 weekAero Christmas Tree
Kcal 146 Fat 8.3g Carbs 16.2g

You guys didn't do anything to discourage me off the Christmas reviews last week so I'm back with yet another for you all (at least we can say it's October now haha :D ) Indeed today we have the Aero Christmas Tree - Yep, yet another new Aero product to join the likes of the Aero Orange, Aero Biscuit, Aero Easter Sheep etc which have already been sent out our way from Nestle this year.

This 25.0g single Christmas Tree shaped mould came in a snazzy looking foil packet, and looked similarly cool in reality with it's bright green coloured aerated centre. Anyone who has had Aero Mint before will not feel out of place with what you get here - essentially a sweet milky outer chocolate with a lovely melt in mouth textured peppermint chocolate centre. As with every Aero product you have to able to appreciate the sweeter, more sugary type of chocolate to enjoy this one. If you are well versed with Aero Mint however you will likely get a the same deal in terms of pleasure, but just in a smaller, less substantial Christmas themed manner. I'm sure the majority of you would have known the score with this one before reading this review - I think it's always nice to be reassured though, check it out mint chocolate fans.

8.2 out of 10

YOU CAN BUY AMERICAN SWEETS & GROCERIES HERE HERE at AmericanSoda

CHOCOLATE NEWS

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September 30th: Lindt Excellence Dark Caramel

Kcal 493 Fat 30.0g Fat(sats) 17.0g Carbs 57.0g (per 100.0g)

Beady eyed ChocolateMission readers have been getting in touch with me for awhile now regarding the new Lindt Excellence bars that seem to have made their way to UK shores. Amongst the new offerings in the Excellence range we have the 'Lindt Excellence with a touch of Sea Salt' (See HERE), and this new Lindt Excellence Dark Caramel which I have to say I was rather excited about trying. The bar came described as 'Fine dark chocolate with crispy caramel pieces', a none to dissimilar sounding proposition to the superb Lindt Excellence Milk Caramel (See HERE). As one would expect I didn't feel all that put out having to fulfil this reader request.

Having been made aware of this bar by several readers (I believe Sam & Daisy were the first two! Well done :D ) I finally found it being stocked in my local Sainsburys where it was price aligned with the other Excellence Dark bars at £1.83. To my surprise despite the minor aesthetic changes recently made to the Excellence Milk bars recently, the packaging was styled the same as the Excellence range has been historically!? What an odd decision to update one part of the range but not the other!? Unfolded from it's silver foil confines the bar appeared fresh in state and plentiful with to it's crystallised caramel pieces.

The first thing I noticed when handling this chocolate was the real lack of cocoa scents being offered. What is usually a given with dark chocolates is that they present a forthcoming set of cocoa scents, however these were by and large missing in action aside from a smattering of chocolatey whiffs. I should have taken this as a sign of things to come, though the taste still by and large took me by surprise with it's lax flavour offerings. From the very first block being placed on my tongue I couldn't believe this was a Lindt dark chocolate as the shallow flavour depth was just totally unrelateable to any bar I had tried from them previous. All I can say is thank heavens for the saving grace caramel pieces, which lit up the mild tasting milky cocoa flavours with some sweet condensed milk like brown sugar flavours. The interest sparked by the caramel influence was enough to satisfy me to a reasonable standard, however this just wasn't the behemoth chocolate I was expecting it to be.

Overall on the balance of things I was pretty disappointed with what this bar offered as I was genuinely in the way of thinking that it might be challenging the upper portion of the ChocolateMission leaderboard. In a nutshell the 47.0% cocoa dark chocolate was lacking flavour depth and it created a very passive taste that had little life until the crunchy caramel pieces were munched down upon to spark some interest. My own personal perspective was that this bar needed a far stronger dark chocolate at it's heart so that the swing from the mature tasting chocolate to the sweeter caramel pieces could have been more emphatic. Unfortunately what we got here was more of a inoffensive dark chocolate that contributed very little to the total experience. I wouldn't write this off anyone's 'to try list' but at the same time I wont be pitching it as a solid recommendation.

7.4 out of 10

September 28th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cakes, Muffins & Biscuits

Bits n Bobs features cakes, muffins and all sorts today - some new, some old :D I hope you enjoy the reviews and photos. Be sure to drop me a message if there is anything you guys want featured on the site in the coming weeks. You know reader requests are always gratefully received.
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Fabulous Bakin' Boys Milk Chocolate Chip Muffins
Kcal 226 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 1.6g Carbs 28.6g

Starting us off today we have these Fabulous Bakin' Boys Milk Chocolate Chip Muffins which I found on a lovely price discount promotion in Tesco for £1.00. For such little expense, this four pack of muffins seemed like a good deal, and I shared them amongst some colleagues at work who were all very willing to provide some second (third and fourth!!) perspectives on them.

On pack these were described as 'golden sponge muffins with real chocolate chips' - a none to far apart proposition from the Mr Kipling Chocolate Chip Cakes I reviewed a while back (See HERE). The muffins were contained within airtight clear cellophane packs which surprisingly did a very good job as maintaining both appearance and freshness. Breaking these seals and immediate waft of vanilla scents overcame my senses, and this was highly indicative of the taste of the base muffin. Indeed, it was the cake constituents which exceeded most peoples expectations and it's delightful vanilla led sweet taste was nicely delivered through the slightly moistened crumble cake texture. Again to our surprise the chocolate chips were generously portioned throughout, though that said they were generally perceived as poor in terms of flavour delivery. The golden question - would I buy again? Yes I would on that offer. A substantial, tasty muffin offering for fans of vanilla cake.

7.8 out of 10


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Cadbury Boost Cake Bars
Kcal 190 Fat 10.6g Fat(sats) 6.9g Carbs 20.9g

In the past few years Cadbury have released more cake bar varieties than ever before. We've had seasonal varieties, limited edition flavours - you name it, they've done it! One thing they haven't always done however, is use the strengths of some of their sub-brands to create some more attractive and credible propositions. We have had the Fudge themed cake bars (See HERE), but apart from them we have seen little else - until now that is :D Enter the NEW Cadbury Boost Cake Bars which I found in my local Sainsburys store last week (unfortunately not on a £1.00 deal! Doh!).

Straight away these appeared to be offering something a little different from the Cadbury cake bar norm. For starters the packaging was Boost themed and unattached from the usual purple Cadbury colours, whilst they also appeared a far more substantial offering billed as 'chocolate flavoured sponge topped with a chocolate flavoured creme with biscuit pieces and caramel, covered in chocolate'. This all sounds great right!? Well they were! The coating and chocolate sponge were all standard fair for Cadbury cake bars - sweet but chocolatey, on the whole pretty nice. The Boost filling on top however really made these stand apart, with the chocolate creme, caramel and biscuits all bring different textures and flavours to the party. Through the midst of chewy, crunchy and crumbly mouth feels, a lovely variety of butterscotch and cream flavours made for a truly delightful synergy of cake and original Boost bar. I give these a real thumbs up - ChocolateMission recommended!

8.4 out of 10


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Fabulous Bakin' Boys King Cupcakes Triple Choc
Kcal 208 Fat 11.1g Fat(sats) 4.5g Carbs 25.1g

The second Fabulous Bakin' Boys offering today comes in the form of their King Cupcake Triple Choc. I bought these cupcakes in a pack of four after seeing them on a 'better than half price' sale in my local J Sainsbury's. Priced at only £0.80 it convinced me that at just £0.20 a cake was an offer to good to turn down despite previous poor experiences with the FBB cupcake range.

On the pack these had a very small, hidden-away descriptor which worryingly them described as 'chocolate flavoured sponge with chocolate chips and dark chocolate flavour topping'. Worrying 'chocolate flavour' billings aside, they did look suitably appetising dressed in the cellophane packet and paper based wrapper confines. The praise I'm afraid to say ends there however, as the taste test proved to be somewhat of a downfall. In the effort of being succinct, the sponge was dry and flavourless, which is a description highly applicable to the 'dark chocolate' topping just with the dryness replaced by a god awful waxy mouth feel. Flavour wise the only real contributor to the experience were the chocolate chips which in the large part were criminally under portioned and MIA for most mouthfuls. I wouldn't buy these again - not even on that ridiculous offer.

5.4 out of 10


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McVitie's Digestives Dark Chocolate
Kcal 84 Fat 4.2g Fat(sats) 2.2g Carbs 4.7g (per biscuit)

Biscuits as famous as these ones need no introduction so I will simply point you in the direction of my reviews from the other parts of the McVitie's chocolate digestive range. For my review of the McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives - See HERE, McVitie's Caramel Digestives - See HERE, McVitie's Temptations Belgian Milk Chocolate Praline - See HERE. That's enough pimping of my own blog and old reviews - lets just get down to business with these dark chocolate digestives :D

As I said above these dark chocolate Digestives are every bit as well renowned as the milk chocolate alternatives and they are a common feature amongst the biscuity treats that normally adorn my work office. Descriptor wise they are described as 'Wheatmeal biscuits covered in plain chocolate', and they come sized in the same profile as the standard Digestives (none of that smaller sized biscuit nonsense like the caramels). I did buy a pack specially for the review, but to be honest with you guys I was already very familiar with the taste. Just like any other digestive biscuit the focal point of the flavour delivery was rooted in the wheat biscuit portion, and it brought the standard sweet, malty, salted hinted experience like any other. Compared to the milk chocolate digestives, the plain chocolate placed on top was slower at establishing itself in terms of it's presence, however it's unsweetened cocoa flavours did feel longer sustained once the biscuit was chewed. Due to the sweetness of the biscuit and thinness of the chocolate portion, I wouldn't say the overall experience is far apart from the milk chocolate version. Lets be honest I think we would all be happy with either.

7.9 out of 10

September 26th: Cadbury Mascots

Kcal 88 Fat 4.8g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 9.0g (per mascot)

We are going to start off this week with a short chocolate review and a mini rant :D As you may have gathered from both the title and the photos, the focus of today's post is on these new Cadbury Mascots chocolates. Cadbury are one of London's official partners for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games, so suffice to say I think we can all expect a barrage of these sort of products heading our way between now and next year. So far we have had to endure the rather tiresome Spots vs Stripes campaign, which in my opinion has failed to stimulate any great excitement despite significant investment (See HERE). Hoping to do a little better, these Cadbury Mascots are the first official Olympic offering from Cadbury - lets see what I made of them.

These 'aerated milk chocolate Mascots' come in packs of two that weigh around 32.0g each. Fundamentally the whole product concept is just the Cadbury Wishes remoulded and repackaged with an Olympic theme obviously applied. In regards to the quality of the presentation and packaging, everything was the usual Cadbury high standard with the matted foil wrapper well designed and decorated with it's kiddie friendly Mascot pictures. Speaking of the Mascots themselves they were well sized and the detail of each mould was impressive and attractive.

To get to what I'm sure you guys are well aware with haste I can confirm that the bubbly Cadbury Milk chocolate was exactly as expected with it quickly creating a sound chocolatey taste that was firmly rooted in sweet sugar, milk and cocoa. The bubbly texture at the centre of each mascot of course added interest in terms of mouth feel, however the Dairy Milk thickness wasn't quite there as one would expect given the usage of their secondary recipe. All-in-all I guess I would say these were just really middle of the road Cadbury offering - nothing to get overly excite about, neither nothing to turn your nose up at either. If you like Cadbury chocolate then you will like these - simple as!

7.6 out of 10


.... but hold it there!!! I've got a bone to pick ...

Funnily enough it's not with Cadbury! No, it's with the idiots who designed our friends here Wenlock and Mandeville. I mean come on! Who in their right mind sanctioned these characters as the official mascots!? The names are confusing and they look like ... well I best not say. I just cannot believe for one minute that these 'things' are going to be the face of our Olympic Games. The idea is to choose something the kids will love - take a look at this link HERE and tell me that not every single one of those mascots are a hundred times more adorable and loveable than Wenlock & Mandeville. Apologies for the rant, but it kills me that someone will have been paid a ridiculous amount of money to come up with these. If you want to really start me off then get me talking about the 2012 Olympic Logo :D Any opinions from you ChocolateMission readers?

September 24th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 88 - Galaxy A Gift For You

SITE UPDATE + RITTER COMPETITION WINNER

Hi All,

Again it's been a busy week on ChocolateMission and I can once again only thank you all for all the feedback you have sent my way. If you managed to miss any of the reviews I've posted the links to them below - please continue to add any thoughts or opinions as and when you have them.

* Go*Do Organic Chocolate Selection - See HERE
* 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Cereal, Flapjacks, Cookies & Bars - See HERE
* Snickers Hazelnut Slab - See HERE

I'm sure most of you are far more interested in hearing who has won the Ritter Sport Noisette bars that I put up for grabs in that review nine days ago - See HERE. After receiving so many responses and sensible suggestions as to why Germans use hazelnuts so often, I decided the only fair way to determine the winners was to use my trusted spreadsheet random number generator to pick my winners.

I can now reveal the lucky winners are ....

Comment #17 - Rachel
Comment #36 - Stu
Comment #75 - Tomas

Well done to you guys - I will give you a week to get in contact with me via e-mail to claim your prizes. Failure to do so will lead in a Ritter Rollover :D

With that guys I will leave you to the weekend ahead with this weeks Snack of the Week :D Thanks again for your continued contributions to the site.

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 weekGalaxy A Gift For You
Kcal 198 Fat 11.3g Carbs 21.7g

With a full three months to go before the big day, on the 24th Spetember I bring you ChocolateMission's first Christmas 2011 review :D It's unbelievable to think but the UK supermarkets have been stocking Christmas themed products for a fair few weeks now - it does make you kinda think why they don't just start stocking them all year round doesn't it!? To just showcase how silly this all is I thought it a funny idea to bring you a first Christmas review before I even got stuck in to Halloween this year - quite the comedian aren't I haha!

Well starting things off this year we have these Galaxy 'A Gift For You' chocolates. Billed as 'one half caramel and one half milk chocolate', this 38.0g present shaped chocolate piece cost me £0.65. To save me giving yet another long winded run down of just how amazing Galaxy Caramel chocolates are, let me point you in the direction of this review HERE. Suffice to say the present shaped mould was every bit as suitable as I imagined, and although the proportions of caramel to chocolate were disappointingly more weighted towards the milk chocolate, it was still a lovely little snack oozing with buttery caramel and sweet chocolate class. I'm sure I will be eating a fair few of these this festive year.

8.4 out of 10



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September 23rd: Snickers Hazelnut Slab

Kcal 272 Fat 14.4g Fat(sats) 4.6g Carbs 31.3g

I always say ChocolateMission readers are the best, and I have to pass my thanks on to yet another one of you for providing me with this bar for the review today. My gratitude must specifically go to dedicated reader Daisy, who was kind enough to send me a 'Christmas treat box' full of chocolate bars from her latest trip to a well known candy importer based in London. Within the selection of bars, Daisy managed to pick out a whole host of limited edition chocolates from all over world, some of which I hadn't even known existed. One of these very bars was the Snickers Hazelnut Slab, which is bar hailing from Australia. On the wrapper the bar came described as 'a pile of hazelnuts, chewy caramel and a slab of nougat, covered in chocolate', this was pretty much your standard Snickers, but with the peanuts replaced by hazelnuts.

Unlike the majority of limited edition Snickers products made in the US, this bar pulled no punches in terms of it's size, and came in a plentiful 53.0g form. In terms of the wrapper and presentation, the bar clearly communicated it's hazelnut theme with the aid of some on bold secondary branding and clear on-pack hazelnut pictures. Suffice to say it was differentiated enough from the standard Snickers, yet retained the brand essence by maintaining the clarity of the original Snickers logo (nice work Mars!). Peeling back the folds of the plastic wrapper, the first thing to come to my attention was that the usual peanutty smells were replaced by some more savoury hazelnut scents - it still smelt pretty appetising.

Once I had got my fix of the smells being offered, the next action I took was to cross-section the bar (see above!). At this point I was both pleased and somewhat disappointed, as the hazelnuts were plentiful, but were chopped into smaller pieces rather than integrated as wholenuts. Taking my first bite in to the bar the wonderful array textures were self evident with the crisp outer chocolate, chewy nougat, soft caramel and crunchy nut pieces creating a familiar Snickers mouth feel. Taste wise the milk chocolate, nougat and caramel elements were almost entirely comparable to any standard Snickers bar we get here in the UK i.e. there was nothing remarkable about any of them, but combined they made for one lovely synergy of toffee and vanilla noted, sweet milk chocolate tastes. In addition to this standard Snickers base, the hazelnuts also contributed nicely to each bite, adding a woody, nut flavours. Despite my initial concerns, the nuts still made a major influence on the taste despite their chopped nature - why did I ever worry eh? :D

Overall this was a nice variation on a cult classic, and it was certainly interesting to try. Being realistic, I don't think there is any variation or limited edition that Mars could ever release that would make me think that it was superior to the original. In my opinion I can't ever seeing there being another Snickers bar that can take on the gloriousness of the salty peanut and sweet caramel taste. Whilst the hazelnuts were certainly a welcome addition to this bar, I didn't feel that they were as tasty, or as complimentary to the other constituents as the normal peanuts. Whilst this may be the reality of the quality of this product vs the original, what must be considered is still how good this bar is on it's own merits. On the whole my experience with this Hazelnut Slab variation was nothing but positive - it looked great, smelt great, tasted great and satisfied my hunger fantastically. If you are a fan of the Mars Topic, this bar is almost identical to that one, but just with ten times the amount of hazelnuts. Although the reality is that it isn't as good as the original, I would still give it a ChocolateMission thumbs up, it's well worth a try if you ever see it.

8.6 out of 10

September 21st: 'Bits n Bobs' Chocolate Cereal, Flapjacks, Cookies & Bars

Reader requests have been coming in from left-right and centre in the past couple of months so what better way to cover a good selection of them off but with a 'Bits n Bobs' post today. The reviews will be short and sweet, but I encourage you guys to let me know what you make of these products yourselves. There is a lot to get through today so without further ado lets get down to business ...

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The Fabulous Bakin' Boys Choc on Top Flapjack
Kcal 354 Fat 17.1g Fat(sats) 7.7g Carbs 45.8g

I've had a few variable run-ins with with the Fabulous Bakin' Boys range down the years - some good, some pretty abysmal (See HERE). Encouraingly one of the better experiences I've had with them was with their Choco Flapjacks, which managed to impress despite their small size.

Aiming to combat the problems of the aforementioned FBB offering, this 'Choc on Top' flapjack looked like it meant business and weighed in at a 75.0g catch weight. Calories galore, I ate this flapjack alongside my mid-afternoon coffee and boy it felt exceedingly heavy in hand. The base flapjack was pleasant, though the taste was definitely not as buttery or caramel led (new word haha!) as say Heavenly Cakes flapjacks are. Whilst the base was fine, the chocolate topping was abysmal. It was waxy and horrible in texture, and almost completely devoid of any cocoa or milk flavours whatsoever. The chocolate element was so AWOL I question why they bothered including it in the first place. There are many better chocolate flapjacks out there.

5.8 out of 10


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Kellogg's Krave Cereal
Kcal 135 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 9.0g (30.0g serving)

The reader requests for me to review this cereal have been coming in ever since it's launch back in 2010 (See HERE), and what with the launch of a second Milk Chocolate variant (purple) to accompany the original Milk Chocolate Hazelnut variant (red) I could hardly ignore it any longer. I found these 'limited edition trial packs' on sale in my local Tesco - how convenient for a chocolate reviewer who just wanted to try them the one time - Thanks Kellogg's :D

To test these cereals out I replaced my usual big bowl of bran flake cereal with these 30.0g trial packs. You may have noted already that I have lumped both of these cereals ratings under the one Krave scoring chart - I've done this because I thought exactly the same about both of them. A real strength about both variants were that they had a nice unique mouthfeel, and the distinction between the crisper outer shells and inner paste centres was evident even after a long duration in the milk. In terms of differentiation between the two, I felt there was very little difference between the two flavours. Both were very sugar led in taste, though the milk chocolate offering was just a touch sweeter in my estimation with the hazelnut variant tasting just a little saltier (despite having lower salt in ... go figure!). My big issue with these cereals was that they just didn't do the functional job I wanted from my breakfast and on both trial days I was hungry by 10.30am having consumed them at 9.00am. I'm sure the kids will love these sugar fest offerings but I can't envisage them appearing in my cereal cupboard again anytime soon.

6.5 out of 10


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Nabisco Chips Ahoy!
Kcal 190 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 27.0g (per 4 cookies)

What with my forays into the British biscuit market this year it was only a matter of time before some of my US readers began requesting I reviewed some of their most popular cookie offerings. In the US, Chips Ahoy! are one of the best selling cookie brands - I have my pals at American Soda to thank for providing me with the ones you see in the review today.

American Soda were kind enough to send across a few 40.0g packs of these original Chips Ahoy! and I ate them across various times during my working week. Partnering my mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffees, I often left the packets unsealed (four was a bit too many for one time!) - this didn't effect their texture whatsoever, as they maintained a consistent crunchy freshness. In terms of taste I found them preferable to the majority of lacklustre cookie offerings we get in this country (e.g. Marylands's), with their less sugar focused taste allowing greater emphasis on the salt hinted wheat. The semi-sweet flavours of the chocolate chips also came through relatively well, though at times I thought they were a little sparsely integrated. Store bought cookies aren't ever as good as home made fresh, but for a taste of America these snack-pack Chips Ahoy! are a decent little offering.

7.7 out of 10


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Mr Kipling Choc Chip Cakes
Kcal 108 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 10.0g (per cake)

Mr Kipling hasn't always had the best time here on ChocolateMission - his Chocolate Slices (See HERE) hardly lit up the scoring chart when he was last featured on the site. Despite this I had higher expectations for these Choc Chip Cakes. I used to have these often during my younger years and used to really quite like them. Today I was hoping this would all stay true to the current day so I could finally have something nice to say about our beloved Mr Kipling :D

Just as with the majority of all these products featured in Bits and Bobs I found these on a £1.00 deal in my local Tesco. Aesthetically and 'in-hand' these cakes looked a lot smaller than I remembered them from past times - I don't have the figures to confirm it but I'm pretty confident saying they are definitely significantly smaller than they used to be. To my delight the smaller size was thankfully no issue to the taste - they were exactly how I remembered. The sweet, vanilla noted Madeira cake was delightful and the chocolate chips were surprisingly well portioned which created a more than adequate chocolatey flavour burst. These weren't the most fulfilling of cakes because of their size and light texture, however that just gave me all the more excuse to have two :D I recommend them as a decent, cheap cake option.

7.7 out of 10