February 18th: Bits n Bobs Tubs, Pouches, Bakes & Cakes

Marks & Spencer Extremely Chocolatey Chocolate Mini Bites
Kcal 465 Fat 23.7g Fat(sats) 14.3g Carbs 57.3g (per 100.0g)

I'm sure you will all be delighted to hear that a Marks & Spencer food store has opened up round my neck of the woods so you can all expect a few more M&S goodies to be appearing on the site :D Chances are if you have had any sort of cakes from M&S before it is a decent bet that you would have come across these Extremely Chocolatey Chocolate Mini Bites at some point. Described as 'chocolate mini bites with chocolate buttercream, covered in milk chocolate', they were one of the first products I remember to be offered in this 'tub' style. Though I may be mistaken, I personally remember M&S being the first one to bring this sort of mini cake offering to the table - I'm sure someone will make me stand corrected :D Anyway, to celebrate the stores grand opening I reunited myself (and fellow co-workers) with a few tubs of these mini bites. The sweet, milky chocolate that coats the cakes are still just as thick as I remember from years past, though the buttercream in the cake was a just a little less creamy and well portioned than I seemingly remember it. Suffice to say these are still very rich little mini cakes and without a shadow of a doubt I will buying them again for sharing occasions/celebrations in the office. I would happily buy and recommend them.

8.3 out of 10


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Rocky Rocks Crispy Crunch
Kcal 84 Fat 3.6g Fat(sats) 2.7g Carbs 12.1g (per 2 biscuit pieces)

Back in September I showcased you the new Rocky Crispy Crunch Bars which I included in one of my weekend posts as 'Snack of the Week'. Well following on from those new standard bars, Fox's biscuits have also seen fit to create some new pouch snack offerings - namely in their Original and Crispy Crunch variant guises. These new Rocky Rocks come billed as 'mouthfuls of chocolate covered crispy wafer, with crunchy biscuit bits'. Without over elaborating a review that need only be short, these were quite simply miniature sized Rocky Crispy Cunch bars, all contained within a 125.0g resealable foil pouch. Now although I say miniature, each piece was about a third of the size of a normal bar, so a few handfuls of provided a fairly substantial snack for someone just seeking a few nibbles to compliment a afternoon brew or coffee. As far as pouch snacks go these weren't half bad - I would at least consider buying them again.

7.2 out of 10


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Cadbury Cake Bars Turkish
Kcal 120 Fat 4.4g Fat(sats) 2.7g Carbs 18.1g

After the release of the Turkish flavoured Cadbury Biscuits, one should probably have pre-empted these Turkish flavoured Cadbury Cake Bars eventually making it to market. That said, it still came to my surprise, when I saw these 'Special Edition' bars on-shelf in Sainsbury's last week. Packaged in a 5 bar multi-pack, these cake bars came described as 'chocolate flavoured sponge with a Turkish Delight flavour topping covered in milk chocolate', and inevitably sat there on a £1.00 'introductory' price promotion offering. In terms of the chocolate coating and cake base, everything was to be expected, with both contributing towards a base taste comprised of sweet milk chocolate Madeira sponge. The 'turkish delight' layer sat on top was also in-line with expectations and brought a very sugary and sharp rose tinted jam like element to the party. Combined with the cake the jam produced a scorchingly sweet taste, though this was all fine given their small size. These wont be the best or worst Cadbury cake bars you come across.

7.5 out of 10


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Kellogg's Elevenses Choc Chip Bake
Kcal 179 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 28.0g

It's not often I miss my alarm in the mornings, but as I believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day I always keep a stash of cereal bars in my cupboard for such emergencies. Currently my designated saviours for such a situation are the Kellogg's Fibre Plus bars which have been my favoured option since I came cross them last year. With my willingness to try all things chocolatey however, I decided to give one of these Kellogg's Elevenses Choc Chip Bake bars a go after having them suggested to me by a work colleague. Weighing 42.0g and containing 179 kcal, you could say this Bake bar was immediatedly the more substantial offering - something that was also promised by it's 'hearty bakes made with rolled oats, wheat & chocolate chips' billing. This proposition turned out to be reality. The Bake bar had a stodgy, compressed texture that felt dense and heavy in mouth and hand. The cake itself had a sweet, oaty cereal taste that every so often offered a chocolatey flavour sensation when the inner chip pieces were encountered. The binding syrupy glucose substance that ran throughout made eating the entire bar at once a minorly sickly experience, though it did also give the bar it's aire of substantuality and hunger filling credentials. I found this to be a far greater superior offering to the Kellogg's Chocolate Nutrigrain, but I would say I still prefer the tastier Kellogg's Fibre Plus bars if push came to shove.

7.2 out of 10


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Nature Valley Oats And Chocolate
Kcal 195 Fat 8.3g Fat(sats) 1.4g Carbs 25.1g (2 bars)

Comparators don't come harsher than Heavenly Cakes so I did feel a little sorry for these Nature Valley chocolate granola bars from the outset. New to the UK market as of October 2011, these bars came described as 'crunchy granola bars made with baked rolled oats with chocolate pieces', and I found them on sale in Tesco priced at £2.39. Although these were a more expensive option compared to most of the other one pound merchants I have been mostly been reviewing from down this aisle, I felt like this was a fair price given that each of the six individual packs contained two bars (42.0g!). Like I said initially these bars were always going to have a hard time living up to Heavenly Cakes's Fruit & Nut Granola (See HERE), but on reflection they didn't do half a bad job. The taste was refreshingly uncomplicated and had a heavily oat cereal base focus that was fused together expertly by a tasty, non-overbearing syrupy substance. The chocolate pieces dispersed throughout, were well portioned, and did bring the desired creamy chocolate flavours to the party where present. As a fan of granola cereal I really enjoyed these. Heavenly Cakes beaters no they aren't, but by their own merits they are worth a look at. I'll be buying them again for sure.

8.0 out of 10

February 16th: M&M's Mint with Dark Chocolate

Kcal 210 Fat 10.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 29.0g

Thanks to my pals at American Soda I continue to be able to try out all the latest American Candy and Snacks. The latest new(ish) product sent my way were these M&M's Mint with Dark Chocolate. These were released Stateside December 2011, and are the third mint flavoured M&M's that I've managed to review in my three years doing this site. Those of you wondering what the other two were can see my reviews of the M&M's Mint Crisp HERE, and the M&M's Premiums Mint Chocolate HERE.

There isn't much to say about the packaging and presentation of these M&M's other than they were standard sized, light and dark green coloured M&M pieces. The 42.5g bag contained around 25 M&M's and a nice minty smell aroused when I opened it up. Rather puzzlingly, a quick look at the ingredients showed that 'milk chocolate' was top of the list despite these being supposedly M&M's Mint with Dark Chocolate. Ho hum, I wasn't to be perturbed and it was hardly like I was expectant of a grand cocoa experience anyway. Indeed what I got was the expected 'mass consumer friendly' semi-sweet milk chocolate i.e. a richer chocolatey taste, but still with an underlying sweet milkyness to it. Complimenting this all rather nicely, a well balanced peppermint undercurrent was apparent throughout the melt of the chocolate. It's integration was smooth and non-overbearing or under powered. For my liking the level of mintyness was about spot on.

Overall candy coated chocolates are never a total favourite of mine, but just as the other mint variants that have gone before, these M&M's Mint with Dark Chocolate were really rather good. I think a UK release of these would probably be pretty successful if it happened, as currently there isn't much competition when it comes to mint flavoured chocolates in this sort of format - Aero Mint Bubbles perhaps!? Anyway, I'm still a big advocate of the M&M's Peanut Butter, but these aren't too far behind by my reckoning. Certainly worth a try if you love your M&M's.

8.0 out of 10

February 13th: Cadbury Bitsa Wispa

Kcal 180 Fat 11.1g Fat(sats) 6.9g Carbs 17.2g (per 1/4 bag)

Last week I was contacted by one of Cadbury's PR agenices who informed me that they had been running a competition on Facebook to find the ultimate Cadbury Wispa fan. This competition, unbeknown to me, had been ran to celebrate the launch of a new mystery Wispa creation that they provided to the winner. Though this competition winner had the reward of being able to say they were the first person in the UK to lay hands on it, seemignly the Blogosphere community weren't far behind as I got my own samples late last week.

So what do Cadbury have in store for us all then!? Why it's the inevitable launch of these 'Bitsa Wispa'. The Bitsa Wispa come described as 'textured milk chocolates'. To add some meat on the bones there I can tell you that these mini-sized Bitsa Wispa 'allow you to eat delicious Wispa chocolate in a new way; bite size bits, stacked up in a re-sealable bag'. Each Bitsa Wispa is 9% of a standard bar, and each bag has a weight of 130g (roughly, 3 and a bit Wispas!). The information I have been given states that these will be nationally available as of April 2012. I recieved no indication of the price, though you would expect them to be price aligned to the likes of the Twirl Mini Bites, Cadbury Clusters etc.

I would love to make this review mega interesting and say they were totally different to what I expected but I frankly cant. Inline with expectations these Bitsa Wispa were as billed, and provided the complete Cadbury Wispa experience, but just in a miniature format. The chocolate was sweet and milky, and the mouth feel was light and bubbly thanks to the aerated centers. As one could have foretold these were ridiculously moreish and way to easy to consume in handfuls at a time. Shared amongst three of us the contents of the bag disappeared in minutes - to be honest it wasn't like I was expecting otherwise.

Overall had we all been presented with the promise of a new Wispa product I don't think I would have been alone in dreaming that the Wispa Mint or Wispaccino might be making a triumphant comeback. It's probably lucky this wasn't the case as I think it likely that the majority of us would have felt these Bitsa Wispa were resultingly a bit of a letdown. Whilst I still wish they had gone with the return of either of the aforementioned, I begrudgingly see the logic in them releasing these mini Wispa pouches given the success of their other pouch based Mini Bites. I don't think there's any question about these Bitsa Wispa being yet another winner for Cadbury - Wispa fans will love them and they are no spot on for all sorts of sharing situations cinema visits, office tuck etc. Uninspired but very tasty.

8.0 out of 10

February 10th: Hotel Chocolat Head Over Heels

Three Hotel Chocolat reviews in a week! You guys do get spoilt nowadays :D You are getting an extra treat today as ChocolateMission's resident 'Old Man' has been on another one of his photo frenzies. Indeed I'm going to let the photos do the 'talking', and keep my spiel to a bare minimum - I think the chocolates themselves speak volumes to how good they were.

It's been a fair while since a selection box has got a look in here on JCM but today it's Hotel Chocolat's 'Head Over Heels' collection that get's his moment in the spotlight. If you look on the Hotel Chocolat site you will see that this box comes with this epically cringe worthy product description:

'Loosen the ribbon and let the true romance begin because there’s something for everyone to fall in love with inside – from silky soft truffles with champagne, mouth warming amaretto and fruity raspberry, to melt-away praline and mellow milk chocolate mousse.' .... those desiring more of a factual based billing should be aware that this was a 210.0g box containing 19 chocolates (8 different varieties).

Praline Truffle - Previously reviewed HERE - Superb.

Raspberry Rapture - This was a sensational truffle that combined a milk chocolate outer shell and a raspeberry flavoured white chocolate filling. The thing I love about Hotel Chocolat's fruit truffles is that always taste so 'real' and non-artificial. Once again here the raspberry element was perfectly embedded in the creamy truffle center. Very Good.

Black Cherry Truffle - Once again we had a perfectly balanced truffle here, with an outer dark chocolate portion hiding a soft fruit flavored white chocolate center. As with the other fruits, the cherry was spot-on, though it has to be said I found the more subtle, less sharp, strawberry and raspberry truffles a little more to my liking. Good.

Strawberry & Black Pepper - This was a new and intriguing chocolate that I was looking forward to trying. The outer dark chocolate shell broke with a crisp snap and nicely substantiated a rich, unsweetened cocoa base taste. The revelation of the sweet jam textured center brought lovely real tasting strawberry tones. Disappointingly I sensed no presence of black pepper, but ttill, worthy of a Very Good.

Bakewell Tart - Previously reviewed HERE - Very Good.

Champagne Truffle - Previously reviewed HERE - Superb.

Simple Milk Truffle - I needn't say much about this one. A crisp, whipped shell hid a lovely truffle filling that had an incredibly soft mouth feel. Basic yes, but still Very Good.

Amaretto Armour - As usual I save the best until last. This amaretto dashed truffle was absolutely Superb in every sense. From the gorgeous milk chocolate shell, to the brandy noted centre and biscuit topped crunch on top - it was a pleasure in taste and texture. This chocolate just oozed creamy almond deliciousness :D Superb.

Overall this was a collection of chocolates that contained some superb fruit flavored truffles and if you, or anyone you know, are a fan of them I would strongly recommend it. One thing I should also mention is that I've become so accustom to Hotel Chocolat doing a good job with their presentation that I've almost forgotten to mention the fantastic look of the box and chocolates. The standout pieces for me were the Amaeretto Armour and Praline Truffles - my mother as ever was a strong advocate of the Champagne Truffle. I never shy away from recommending Hotel Chocolat selection boxes and I wont be making a change here. This was another of great quality.

8.6 out of 10

February 8th: Hotel Chocolat Lips & Hearts

If your start to 2012 has been as hectic as my own, you'are probably still wondering where the month of January disappeared to. Luckily for you guys, your researching of Valentines Day gifts need be of little stress this year - JCM has you covered :D

My Valentines Day coverage started with my take on one of Hotel Chocolat's newest slabs the 'You Smoothie' (See below!). New Chocolate Mission readers will also want to bare in mind that the archives contain reviews of several other Hotel Chocolat goodies that I've reviewed done the years - just take a look HERE.

Getting put under the JCM spotlight today we have these Hotel Chocolat Lips & Hearts. Both of these mini-boxes of chocolates come at the more affordable end of the Hotel Chocolat product spectrum and cost only £5.00 each (See HERE). Though both look the same sort of offering there is a slight variation between the two - the Lips are plain 'milk chocolate truffles' and the Hearts are 'praline filled truffles'.

Now, you probably know where I'm going to go with this before I even say it, so I won't labour the point. Given my love for nuts, in particular hazelnuts, you will find it of little surprise that the Heart chocolates were indeed were my favoured out of the two. Whilst both had the same indulgent sweet creamyness to the milk chocolate constituents, the Hearts just had more of an interesting overall taste with the woody hazelnut coming through within the divine, soft feeling ganache centres.

Overall if you are looking for a Valentines option that wont have your bank manager in tears, but still looks and tastes the part, then these Hearts and Lips truffles are well worthy of your consideration. In my opinion these are great for a person looking to impress, yet at the same time not go excessive.

Hotel Chocolat Lips - 8.0 out of 10
Hotel Chocolat Hearts - 8.2 out of 10

February 6th: Philadelphia with Cadbury

Kcal 86 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs(sugars) 10.0g (per 30.0g)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when the whole Kraft/Cadbury takeover went down, wasn't this one of the things we all joked about?

New Philadelphia with Cadbury or 'Choccy Philly' (as they like to call it) launches February 2012. According to the pamphlet that accompanied my sample, this new chocolate flavoured cream cheese is set to 'cause a new taste sensation, as people experience the brand new, unique taste of Light Philadelphia and Cadbury chocolate - blended together'.

We've seen and tasted some odd things here at JCM, but chocolate flavoured cream cheese wasn't one that we had tried before. It was going to be interesting to say the least. Here are our thoughts and photos ...


I don't eat cream cheese all that often, but when I do it tends to be with either crackers or in ham sandwiches. With option b firmly out the question (no.... just no haha :D ), I decided to whip up the spread on some cream crackers - chocolate cream cheese and cream crackers, a dream combination right!?


Aesthetically and aroma wise this stuff didn't come across too badly at all. It had a smooth, paste like texture that looked pleasing on the eye, and it smelt more sweet and chocolatey than it did cheesey. In regards to the taste I think it would be best described as offering an unindulgent, chocolate cheesecake type of experience. It was creamy, yet ever so slightly sour with a natural yogurt like tang underlying it's sweet chocolateyness. This play on the dairyness of the taste meant that it was by no means a typical tasting Cadbury chocolate product. Unfortunately I didn't feel that it provided the usual creamy Cadbury indulgence, which I thought was a little bit of a let down.

Overall this Phildlphia with Cadbury wasn't quite the disaster one suspected it might be and it was at the end of the day a fair tasting spread option. If desired as a 'lighter' alternative to normal chocolate spread then I think this stuff presents a fair few upsides with it's adequate chocolate flavour hit provision and it's relatively impressive nutritional garb. However, and this is a big however :D if it's a Cadbury chocolate experience you are after I think you are in for a let down as it simply doesn't deliver in that regard. Personally I doubt I will be buying this myself anytime soon, though I can see it causing quite a stir when it hits the shelves later this month. It's worth giving a try if you like trying new things.

7.0 out of 10

February 4th: Superbowl Weekend

This may seem like a blatant shout out for one of my site sponsors American Soda..... that's because it is :D

This weekend is Superbowl weekend, and I like many other Brits will be watching the 'Big Game' with a few tasty American treats close to hand!!

For breakfast I will be starting off with my new favorite cereal - Quaker Instant Oatmeal Maple & Brown Sugar. I'm almost tempted to say don't buy this. If you get half as addicted to this stuff as I'am then you're in trouble :D

Snacks for the game!?!? Well you need only look as far as the Snyders Pretzels and Root Beer to wash it all down with (20% off on both of these atm btw - See HERE!!!)

Whatever you end up doing this weekend, have a good one! See you Monday for another chocolate review!!!

JIM

February 1st: Hotel Chocolat You Smoothie

Listen up folks!!! It's now February and that can mean only one thing! Yes you guessed it ... it's time for some Valentines Day chocolates you lovebirds :D

As has come customary with every holiday season, Hotel Chocolat have filled my boots full of their latest offerings. Some of their Valentines favourites are back with avengence (See HERE), though I'm sure you will be glad to hear that I've been sent some of their new items they've created for 2012.

Starting things off with the JCM Valentines coverage I present to you the 'You Smoothie' slab. This 200.0g chocolate behemoth came described as *draws in breathe* 'a fusion of strawberry white chocolate and milk chocolate. Decorated with solid white chocolate mini-hearts, freeze dried strawberry pieces, a white chocolate truffle and naturally coloured white chocolate swirl' ... *exhales*. The description was a little long-winded but it looked and smelt sensational. Fruity, colourful and just straight up nice to look at - it was again one of those chocolates I felt guilty breaking apart.

Funnily enough my guilty feelings didn't quite put my family and I off tucking in :D So what can I say about the taste that I haven't attributed to Hotel Chocolat previously!? Well ... nothing - in line with all expectations it was utterly delicious. The milk chocolate was creamy, and the white chocolate even more so! The strawberry flavouring and freeze dried pieces established a delightful red fruit juicyness and importantly in a manner that was refreshingly natural. Now, though I would love to say it was all good, but it unfortunately wasn't quite so as the bane of confectionery life made a very unwelcome appearance - popping candy. Indeed, just to spoil the amazing mouth feel of the thick melting chocolate, the unnecessary aforementioned created that horrible crackling, fizzy sensation at the back of my throat. It wasn't a total spoiler by any stretch of the imagination, but had it not been in there I would have enjoyed this slab a whole lot more.

Overall if unlike me you aren't sensitive to the popping candy you will likely be very pleased with this slab. Unsurprisingly the chocolate is great quality and the strawberry is implemented as well as it could have been. Add in to the mix that it looks fun and is reasonably priced at only £7.50 (See HERE), and we have ourselves a valentines day winner. I would happily recommend.

7.9 out of 10

January 30th: TABASCO® Spicy Chocolate-McIlhenny & Company

Kcal 537 Fat 30.8g Fat(sats) 15.4g Carbs 53.8g (per 100.0g)

Before I kick off this review I have to say a big thank you to my friend Liz from Foodstufffinds (See HERE). Liz aka @Cinabar on Twitter, was kind enough to send me this chocolate today as a Christmas gift last December. With the ridiculous amount of chocolate sent my way last December, I've only just got the time to sit down and write a proper review on it - considering the proposition I felt it was one that deserved some full attention.

According to Wiki 'TABASCO® sauce is made from tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco), vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavor'. Indeed, TABASCO® sauce is something that I frequently use as an ingredient and as a condiment to add a bit of spice to food ... savoury food that is :D It isn't something that I think any of us would naturally have assoiciated with chocolate, however the US company 'The Chocolate Traveller Inc' obviously had other ideas.

The chocolate came packaged in a tin bearing the traditional McIlhenny & Company Tabasco sauce branding and contained eight segmented 'spicy dark chocolate wedges' within. The chocolate had a relatively sweet cocoa smell that reminded me of hot chocolate powder and showed no indications of containing anything untoward. The experience however really started upon tasting the chocolate, and the TABASCO® content was certainly not withdrawn or lacking. To speak firstly of the quality of the dark chocolate, it wasn't anything remarkable, though it was step up from my expectations and had a richer, earthy cocoa taste than the expected mass consumer friendly unsweetened milk chocolate I had predicted. To be honest all thoughts regarding the quality of the chocolate were rendered an after thought once the TABASCO® influence came in to play, which was around the time of mid-melt. At this point a pleasant heat sensation was created in the mouth, and the taste took on a more bitter peppery focus that lasted until the end melt and for a little duration after. Consultation with my fellow taste testers revealed that they were split right down the middle on whether it enhanced or spoilt the chocolate.

Overall if you posed me the simple question of whether this chocolate was a thumbs-up or thumbs-down I would give you the very unhelpful answer that it was a thumbs-in-the-middle :D Frankly I was pretty ambivalent towards it. It was fine for what it was, though I'm not sure it was as flavoursome or subtle as say something like the Lindt Excellence Chilli. One thing I can 100% confirm though is that it was a chocolate that was very interesting to try and it created a great deal of talkability amongst us all that tasted it. For that reason I would categorise this chocolate with a lot of the Japanese Kit Kats I try. Just like flavours such as the Wasabi, Green Tea etc they aren't always the best tasting, but they are always a good bit of fun to see what they are like, and how a brand has attempted to integrate them into chocolate. I would give this TABASCO® Spicy Chocolate a recommendation, but on it's novelty factor rather than it's chocolate quality.

7.3 out of 10