May 23rd: Lindt Excellence Milk with a touch of Sea Salt

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

As showcased previously this year, Lindt have released a fair few new bars to their Excellence portfolio - see Wasabi & Coconut Intense flavours HERE. This latest addition to the Lindt Excellence milk chocolate range was one that I found on sale in my local Tesco supermarket, and it came described as 'Excellence milk with a touch of sea salt'. Given previous experience with Lindt and their salt enhanced chocolates, this was one I thought had a great deal of promise.

This 100.0g bar cost me in the region of £1.50 which I thought was reasonable given the expected quality that I hoped with follow. The packaging style was aligned to everything I had come across before with the Excellence range. It was modern, sleek and ultimately very classy looking - I've always thought Lindt's Excellence chocolates have been stunningly well presented. Aroma wise the bar smelt none to dissimilar to any other of the Lindt milk chocolates I had reviewed previous, with it's dairy focused, sweet cocoa smells coming quickly to the fore.

Following my taste test I'm pleased to report that this chocolate not only met, but managed to exceed my considerably high expectation levels. In my opinion, this new Milk with a touch of Sea Salt flavour built on all the glorious attributes of the Lindt Excellence Milk Extra Creamy, and introduced a further level of flavour depth with a deliciously moreish added salt lick. This chocolate had an impressively smooth development of flavours, moving from a light and crisp milky starer-base, to a more full-on, richer cream fueled experience with a salt hinted aftertaste. All this developed within what was a epically smooth, free-flowing melt - the mouth feel was as luxurious as ever with Lindt chocolates.

Overall you can probably tell I was very satisfied with this chocolate and it was one that I instantly fell in love with. I expected nothing less from the indications given by the packaging, presentation etc but even I didn't expect this bar to taste quite as heavenly as it did. The matching of the salt, with the sweeter, high quality milk chocolate was a synergy that I thought worked extremely well. As you will have likely of noted from my many reviews on chocolates with peanuts in, the addition of salt to chocolate is something I'm very fond of and this certainly only strengthened my opinion that it can only be a good thing. The taste was multi-dimensional and the texture was soft as silk and well paced - I literally have no complaints in these regards. This was certainly one of the best chocolates I've got around to reviewing this year and I can't recommend it enough. Milk chocolate fans owe it to themselves to try this one out.

9.0 out of 10

May 21st: AmericanSoda Super Post - May 2012

The guys over at AmericanSoda have been busy updating their stock with some of the newest snacks available in the US. What with every product currently on sale here in the UK now being draped in Union Jack packaging, it was certainly nice to be able to try some products sourced a little further away from home. Here are my thoughts on some of the products I've recently been treated to by @AmericanSoda

------

Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips - Coconut

Kcal 150 Fat 4.0g Fat 2.5g Carbs 31.0g (per 40.0g serving)

Colour me confused people! I did a little background research on these *New* Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips and it appears that aren't all that new it seems. In fact, looking at this review by Rosa over at ZomgCandy (See HERE), it would appear that these have been around for a fair few years already. One can only assume that Jelly Belly are alluding to this particular format being new, and not the actual product!? Whatever I was the lucky receiver of these coconut flavoured Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips which I got sent in an 80.0g pack (supposedly two servings!). What with all the chocolate I have to try for the site, I don't often eat many other sugary snacks, thus it had been a while since I last had Jelly Beans. Well this all changed last week when I tried out these 'coconut flavoured Jelly Belly beans coated in dark chocolate', and I'm happy to say it was favourable reunion. To be honest I wasn't expecting much from the chocolate and it came to my pleasant surprise that it wasn't half bad. The melt was perhaps a little slow initiating, however once the glazing agent had diminished it was all upwards from there and each mouthful of jelly beans at least started with a pleasant, unsweetened chocolate flavour hit. If anything it was actually the Jelly Beans themselves that were a little bit under-powered and not as strong as I wanted. The sweet coconut flavours did come through once the beans were chewed, though it was the chocolate I found myself appreciating more and it was certainly the longer sustained influence on the taste. I'm certainly very keen to try some more of the other flavours Jelly Belly have to offer - would it be too much to ask for a chocolate dipped mixed variety!?


7.3 out of 10

------
Kellogg's Pop Tarts Frosted Chocolate Fudge

Kcal 200 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 37.0g (per pastry)

It wouldn't be a real AmericanSoda super post without the standard Pop Tarts review now would it!? I think I must have tried in the region of twenty different flavours now - some great, some bad, some indifferent (you can see all my previous reviews HERE). The flavour on offer to me this time around were these Pop Tarts Frosted Chocolate Fudge - a flavour I had been a little hesitant to try previously as I believed they would just be the same as our British made Chocotastic flavour (See HERE). This preconception was born out of the fact that every photo I had seen of these Chocolate Fudge pastries looked identical to the Pop Tarts I had eaten so often as a nipper. When I received these in person I saw first hand that this wasn't an inaccurate observation. Indeed they looked no different at all to our UK chocolate ones so it was at this point I just knew I had to do a side-by-side comparison taste test. The result of this was that I found myself favouring the American ones! Trust me my research was thorough, and I tried them toasted, frozen and ultimately my favourite method of straight from the packet. The main difference between the two was that the pastry on the American Chocolate Fudge wasn't quite so dominant as the one used in the UK ones. It was lighter in texture and had a crumblier biscuit like mouth feel that didn't feel like every last drop of moisture was being sucked away when enjoyed at room temperature. This lower emphasis on the pastry made the chocolate flavours come through stronger and thankfully they seemed more chocolatey and creamy than the over powering sugary experience I expected. As you know I don't like to promote these as an everyday food stuff but as a nice treat to have from time-to-time I would happily suggest them as a fun, adaptable chocolatey option.

7.6 out of 10

------
Snyder's Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzel Pieces

Kcal 140 Fat 7.0g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 18.0g (per 28.0g serving)

Since starting this website many a reader has asked me whether I felt like broadening my reviews across other types of snacks and I've always given the same answer that it was 'unlikely'. I've maintained that stance for the sole reason that I find it difficult enough keeping you all up-to-date on everything in the chocosphere - opening the site up further would no doubt make the site an insurmountable task if I wanted to ensure I was providing the latest cutting edge content. As a bit of a compromise I've decided to start dropping in a few other savoury snack features when I come across something I really like. There will no scores, no graphs ... just a few words on what it is and in hopefully most cases where to buy it.

.... which bring me nicely to today's little feature - these Snyder's Honey Mustard & Pretzel Pieces. I got these as a little courtesy gift from guess who AmericanSoda. Indeed this curious little pack of pretzels made it's way into my latest sampling pack and despite my initial skepticism I can ashamedly say I'm now hooked on them. The combination of the sweet honey and slightly mouth warming roast red onion flavours make an incredibly moreish salty snack.The mustard element isn't particularly spicy or hot like our English yellow stuff - these had more of a milder Dijon, vinegary type influence to them.  I thought these were very good and I was disappointed to find that my bag emptied so quickly - I'm certainly keen as mustard (haha!) to try more of the Snyder's range. These get a definite JCM savoury snack thumbs up!

May 18th: Oreo Triple Double

Kcal 100 Fat 4.5g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 15.0g (per cookie)

If you're a frequent Chocolate Mission visitor you will be well aware that Oreos are one of favoured brands of cookies. Unfortunately you will also likely be aware that Oreos are rather limited when it comes to the size of the range and availability here in the UK. It's frustratingly an all to common experience that I log on to one of my fellow US bloggers site (The Impulsive Buy for instance!) and see the likes of Marvo fawning over the latest Nabisco creation. Admittedly recently those instances have been becoming fewer and further between thanks to my pals at AmericanSoda, who for the couple of months have been doing a splendid job satisfying my American snack cravings. To my great excitement one of the last products they sent across were these Oreo Triple Double - that's double stuffed, triple sandwiched Oreos.

AmericanSoda sent these to me in a 371.0g pack that I would guess contained around 18 or so cookies. At 100 calories for just a single cookie, I can't imagine these will be making the diet of any weight watchers personnel any time soon but frankly I would of thought that was self explanatory from the product proposition anyway. Packaging and presentation wise the product was impressive. The packet had a handy resealable tab to ensure the cookies were kept in a decent fresh shape from the time they were first opened. Additionally the cookies themselves looked rather impressive, with the white vanilla and dark cremes providing a nice contrast of colours.

 Assuming this review makes it to publication not long after March you will be aware that I tried these not too far departed from my experience with the Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreos (See HERE). As you can tell from my scoring of those ones (9.0 out of 10) I thought those were a super special edition of Oreo cookies so living up to them was always going to be somewhat difficult. Indeed, at the end of the day these double stuff, triple cookie layered beasts weren't quite as tasty or variable in terms of flavour depth, but this by no means meant they were bad cookies. These were really not that different from original Oreos apart from the fact they were much larger and satisfying. The same cocoa noted sugary biscuit flavoures and vanilla icing elements were the key focal points of the flavour journey. There is really very little additional analysis to add apart from that when separated the chocolatey creme layer had an ever so slightly creamier taste compared to the sweeter vanilla creme.

Overall these were fundamentally great tasting Oreo cookies - I wasn't expecting anything else. The 'Triple Double' concept is probably more of a gimmick than it is meant to be a groundbreaking creation. I wouldn't of thought I will have been the first person to ever 'unscrew' the original size Oreos and stack them on top of each other, thus creating a DIY Triple Double. I guess the minor advantage you have with these is that you get the original Oreo and chocolate creme Oreo experience all in one thanks to the cremes being mixed. Whether or not this is worth paying a little extra for as opposed to doing it yourself is up to you. I would suggest not for my European readers as they are probably best served saving their pennies/cents :D for the more differentiated flavour varieties such as the Double Mint. Thumbs up again for Nabisco here, but perhaps not a variety of Oreo I would regard as an essential must try.

8.4 out of 10

May 16th: Midweek Mini: Cadbury Mini Rolls Strawberry & Blueberry

Kcal 125 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 2.8g Carbs 17.0g (per mini roll)

It's probably not a good sign when I say that I'm already sick to death of seeing everything and anything getting repackaged into British themed wrappers. If you think I'm over exaggerating take a look at the the supermarket shelves next time you go shopping - it's a sea of red, white and blue and in my opinion it's all very counter productive. Think about it ... the packaging of all these items has been changed to disrupt the norm, catch the eyes of the shopper and ultimately STAND OUT! Well if anything I would say this new critical mass of red, white and blue is creating supermarket wallpaper, with everything blending in to one ghastly, gaudy blob of British patriotism :-D ... is this not the exact opposite of what all these manufactures were intending!?

.... Okkkkk rant over! Sorry! It's time to get down to business and today I got to try out these new 'Special Edition' Strawberry and Blueberry flavoured Cadbury Mini Rolls. I bought these in my local Tesco where quelle surprise they were running off an introductory £1.00 offer. 'Golden sponge with strawberry jam and a blueberry flavoured filling, covered in milk chocolate'. Expectations weren't sky high given that the original Cadbury Mini Rolls Strawberry (See HERE) are my least favourite of the entire Mini Rolls range, however the interesting addition of the blueberry was enough to see my part with the meager investment necessary.

Upon opening the plastic film wrapper (enough said about that already I feel haha!) the smells that emanated were highly reminiscent of the strawberry Mini Rolls which had me a little worried that the blueberry was going to be a non-factor. Thankfully my first mouthful revealed otherwise and to my pleasure it a far greater experience than I previously expected. Indeed the milk chocolate, sponge and cream layers were consistent from previous incarnations and produced a familiar sweet milk chocolate cakey taste that was nice for it's density and flavour strength. Running through the middle of the roll the filling for me had a nicer influence on the cake and the usual sweet as sugar strawberry jam had an element of sharper plum like fruitiness to it. Overall I thought these Mini Rolls were just a whole lot more bearable than the Strawberry solus ones which I normally find are way too much on the sweet side of the tracks for my taste. I'm not sure I would buy them again but I wouldn't like to put any of you off trying them as they are certainly worth a look at.

7.3 out of 10
   

May 14th: Ritter Sport Summer Editions 2012

The arrival of summer means a number of things to me: holidays, sun (touch wood!!), Olympics, beer gardens ... oh yes, of course, the Ritter Sport Summer Limited Edition bars (2009 - See HERE,  2010 - See HERE and 2011 - See HERE) My friends from Berlin have been at it again and as if it wasn't enough for our German friends likely celebrating a Euro 2012 victory this summer (they are my tip anyway!!) they have also got three Ritter bars to enjoy.

As you will see below two out of the three released for summer this year are the same from 2011 with the Ritter Sport Amarena Kirsch and Ritter Sport Waldbeer Jogurt making reappearances. Despite these bars remaining consistent from the previous year, I of course had to check to see if they were still the same quality, to which I can confirm they were :-) You will be pleased to see below that the 'Old Man' also went to the trouble of photographing the bars again just for your viewing pleasure - please find the links to the old reviews if you need reminding of their scores and JCM previous rulings:

Ritter Sport Waldbeer Yogurt

See the review - HERE


Ritter Sport Amarena Kirsch

See the review - HERE

So that's two out of the three ... but what about the third one!?? Well folks we have ourselves a new flavour within the Ritter Sport Summer 2012 range! Yes to my great delight this Ritter Sport Weisse Cocos (White Coconut) is making it's debut this year ...

Ritter Sport Weisse Cocos

I've long been awaiting a coconut flavoured chocolate from Ritter ever since they got rid of the Ritter Sport Cocos, a bar which I never got to review before it got culled. Aiming to fulfill all my coconut desires this summer, this Weisse Cocos came billed as 'white chocolate with toasted coconut and rice flakes'. To me this sounded great and I was further encouraged by the attractive looking wrapper which I felt had a bright and vibrant look with it's cool blue and white colour scheme.

As you will likely have guessed these three bars have been created in the usual Ritter Sport format - 100.0g, 4x4 blocked squares. Aesthetically and aroma wise the chocolate showed a great deal of promise. The coconut looked well dispersed throughout, whilst the sweet smelling scents further raised my anticipation - suffice to say I didn't hang around trying this one out!

I'll waste little time in confirming that this chocolate was as delicious as I hoped it would be. The white chocolate was epically smooth in it's delivery of it's sweet cream, vanilla noted flavours and the coconut proved to be highly complimentary. The coconut when chewed delivered all the expected milky nut flavours I wanted it to and the vast volume meant every single block left a strong impression of coconut in the mouth. I can't say the rice flakes were frankly all that detectable in the taste, but along with the coconut they added an interesting crunchy, crisp element texturally. For a white chocolate it was very satisfying and I would rate it among the better of the Ritter Sport chocolates I have reviewed - do remember that must be nearing 50 now!!

Need I bother offering a recommendation!? If you love white chocolate and coconut be sure to try this one sooner rather than later. My only frustration with it is that it's a limited edition! I better stock up now.

8.6 out of 10

May 11th: Theo Chocolate

Again before I start the review today I must thank dedicated Jim's ChocolateMission reader Thea for providing me with these bars you see below. Thea was recently in America and very kindly sent me some of the chocolates that she brought back to the UK. Among her haul she managed to find a brand not featured on JCM before - Theo Chocolate. A little research on the internet (actually a look on their own website HERE), revealed that Theo Chocolate are a Fair Trade, US made, organic producer. They state on their site that they are 'Proud to be the First Organic, Fair Trade, Bean-To-Bar Chocolate Factory in the United States'. I'm sure that impresses a certain audience, but being totally honest with you I couldn't give a monkeys about any of that :-) This was all going to be down to the usual JCM criteria, and Thea sent the following two 57.0g 'Fantasy Flavour' bars to try out:

Theo Bread & Chocolate:

Kcal 260 Fat 19.0g Fat(sats) 12.0g Carbs 27.0g (per 57.0g bar)

'An innovative twist on a traditional pairing, featuring dark chocolate with buttery, toasted artisan breadcrumbs and the perfect amount of salt'. This 70.0% cocoa dark chocolate bar came split into 4 very size-able chunks contained within a thick layer of silver foil. The flavour development started with a mild mannered earthy cocoa undercurrent but like every high quality dark chocolate it grew in intensity as the smooth, well paced melt developed. Sat in the middle of this dark chocolate, small, crunchy breadcrumb pieces gave the chocolate a biscuity type influence. Taste wise the bread didn't added too much as the dark chocolate was so rich it just dominated all. For me, texturally the breadcrumbs added an unnecessary roughness that I simply didn't appreciate. Whilst I still enjoyed the chocolate I would of rather it been sans the bread element.

8.0 out of 10

Theo Coconut Curry:

Kcal 310 Fat 22.0g Fat(sats) 14.0g Carbs 27.0g (per 57.0g)

Well well well! It was a double JCM first with this bar :-) Indeed straight out of the world of Mr Zotter, this Coconut Curry flavour certainly indicated that Theo don't pull any punches when it comes to experimenting with flavour combinations - 'Milk chocolate with toasted coconut and savory curry spices'. Now I love coconut, I love chocolate and yes ... I LOVE Curry!! FYI my usual curry of choice would be a King Prawn Shabba - a hot, dry, pepper spiced tandoori dish. I like my curry hot and always stay well clear of the likes of the Kormas of this world. Whether this played a part in my enjoyment of this chocolate I don't know - for my money probably not as the contexts are so different. Anyways, this milk chocolate bar came in the same silver like foil wrapping and it was noticeable that the inner white paper portion had been dyed yellow by what I only think could have been the spices. Taste wise this was again the case of the chocolate coming across super quality but the inner flavoring not enhancing my enjoyment. The milk chocolate was very, very creamy and had the most delicious vanilla sweetened cocoa taste that kicked off the melt. The toasted coconut was detectable in texture but it's milky nuttyness soon became lost among the wealth of spices that took over the taste. Though commendable for not holding back on them, I feel Theo went a little over the top with the amount of paprika, cinnamon and tumeric that I could detect right of the bat. Compounding my eventual dislike of the curry influence, it was unfortunately a spice that I simply cannot stand that was left as the lasting impression in mouth - cloves *shudders!!!*.

7.0 out of 10

Overall even though I wasn't all that enamored by these particular flavours, Theo Chocolate are a company that have showed some great potential. Both chocolate types sitting behind these flavours were very tasty, so I would certainly be more than willing to try a few more of their products in the near future. One thing I haven't noted yet is the quality of the presentation of these chocolates - it was really top notch, especially for a small company who must be trying to keep costs down somehow given the FairTrade, organic nature of the product. Thanks again to Thea for sending these along. This wasn't the most spectacular debut for a brand on JCM but they've at least left me wanting to try more from Theo Chocolate sooner rather than later.

May 9th: Nestle Rolo Bar

Kcal 509 Fat 26.6g Fat(sats) 15.3g Carbs 62.6g (per 100.0g)

As soon as I saw the announcement of the product featured today I knew it was destined for a 'Midweek Mini' slot. Writing a full-on review for what is simply a reformatted product was something even I couldn't do, not even with my tendency to go in to way too much detail and take this all a little seriously. In my attempt to be much cooler and Lassiez-Faire I will keep this short, sweet and to the point :-)

This new 100.0g Rolo bar came described as a 'chocolate block with a caramel centre' and was on an introductory £1.00 sale in my local Tesco last week. The bar was split out in a 6x2 blocked fashion and I ate it across two different sittings. It's probably worth mentioning that in between these two sittings a rather copious amount of the caramel left in the remaining half escaped in the wrapper. I found this disappointing as despite splitting the bar cleanly where suggested, the sticky filling had still oozed. This not only caused a right old mess but even more annoyingly meant that by the time I had got around to enjoying the second half of the bar it didn't have as much caramel in - boo!! As for the bits that did make it in to my mouth in full form, it will surprise you not that it was remarkably familiar taste experience. The milk chocolate had all of it's standard Nestle friendly milky cocoa characteristics, whilst the caramel was free flowing with it's gorgeous soft mouth feel and sugary butter flavours.

Overall I don't like the concept of stripping Rolos of their identity (i.e. their shape!!!), but perhaps that is just me being precious of what I consider one of the 'classics'. 'Who gets your last block of Rolo' doesn't quite have the same ring to it I feel :-) Yes this bar version did fundamentally deliver the same milk chocolate caramel flavour experience, but did it do it in any better or more convenient way!? Hmmm not for me it didn't! As I informed you all above if anything it created more mess! There must be something in the water at Nestle UK because they keep reformatting all of these chocolates of theirs. First it was the Aero and now Rolos - next thing you know they will be changing the spelling of Yorkie :-) Give it a break guys! How about some blue sky thinking and something truly innovative!

7.2 out of 10

May 7th: Glico Mikado Daim

Kcal 11 Fat 0.4g Carbs 1.6g (per 2.3g stick)

Well I never!!! Never did I envisage there would be a day where I would be writing the following ... 'allow me to introduce a flavour of Pocky/Mikado that the Japanese DON'T currently have'!! Yes folks, in what is a complete turn-up for the books the UK has defied the odds and has managed to find a flavour of these moreish crunchy biscuit sticks that they aren't currently offering in the Far East (to my knowledge anyway haha). These new Daim flavoured Mikado caught me totally unawares sitting on the snacks shelf in Tesco - a nice surprise I have to say.

Although I'm someone who obviously checks the snacks shelves quite often in the supermarkets I visit, I have to congratulate the folks at Kraft foods/LU Frances for creating a pack with great stand out. The pack for me does a great job of communicating the Daim influence on the product and does so without drawing away too much focus from the original Mikado branding - good work chaps! The biscuit sticks themselves could have perhaps done being in two smaller packets rather than just the one larger one, though lets be honest with ourselves these didn't last five minutes once opened anyway :D

This 70.0g pack cost me just £1.00 thanks to an introductory deal and I took advantage of the situation filling my basket assuming I would like them. This assumption was made on two rather simple factors: Daim "gooooooood" - Mikado "gooooooood" ... surely a combination that couldn't go wrong? Surely indeed :D These were fantastic - there's no other way of putting it. The caramel flavoured milk chocolate coating was nothing short of delicious and the and the caramel flavours were more of the buttery, toffee sort rather than an over powering sugary sweetness. This caramel sweetness perfectly matched the shortbread biscuit and the slight saltiness of the sticks proved a perfect contrast. As ever I did get very little fulfillment from these as a snacking option, I don't think there is an office person alive who could make a pack last all day on their desk - they are just the ultimate grazing snack.

Overall I was expecting good things from these and boy they didn't let me down. The Mikado and Daim link up here has been executed nigh on perfectly. I think the only possible improvement they might have been able to make is if they were to have made the sticks perhaps double the size - Mikado XL if you will :D That grievance aside I honestly don't think they could have done better with these, I just loved everything about them. Just like Kraft did with the Milka and Daim bar, the Daim influence was incorporated sensationally and to great effect taking the depth of flavour of the original milk chocolate Mikado onto a whole new level. I needn't bother telling you if these carry a JCM recommendation :D I think you can probably all have a good guess at that.

8.6 out of 10

May 5th: Meiji Meltykiss Caramel

You will see today I've done my usual trick of 'saving the best until last'. Indeed today sees me review the last two products from my latest J-List sampling package - these two caramel flavoured Meiji Meltykiss products. As you will see below from my wonderful pearls of literacy wisdom (ahem) and my 'Old Man's' swell looking photos, both of these carried the Meltykiss branding, yet were actually two entirely different products altogether. I needn't probably remind any of you that if you see anything that tickles your fancy today you can buy either of them from J-List.

-----
Meiji Meltykiss Dew Kcal 199 Fat 13.3g Carbs 17.7g (per pack)

These new Meltykiss Dew chocolates are an entirely new proposition from Meiji for 2012. On the J-List site they come described as 'bite-sized chocolate treats with a centers of mouth watering, creamy caramel sauce'. Now these may sound like nothing you haven't seen before, but credit to Meiji for presenting them in a very cool looking manner. As you can see from the photos above (credit 'Old Man'), the chocolates looked fantastic and the pyramid shapes struck me as unique and interesting. Joyfully, it just so happened to turn out that these not only looked the part, but also tasted damn good as well. Japanese chocolates do tend to lean towards the more sugary side of the road, but this wasn't the case here. I would be cautious to describe the chocolate as 'dark', though it was definitely semi-sweet and had a light, crisp cocoa taste with only an underlying of sweetness. This chocolate type was absolutely perfect for the syrupy caramel that was held inside. The caramel was soft and flowing in texture and created a delightful cooling sensation on the tongue. The melt felt even more luxurious when these were eaten alongside a hot drink and mouth temperature was a little warmer than usual. These new Meltykiss Dew get a big JCM thumbs up. I hope we see more variants in this Dew range soon.

8.2 out of 10


-------
Meiji Meltykiss Whip More CaramelKcal 305 Fat 21.8g Carbs 24.0g (per pack)

Last but not least we have a new flavour variant from the more familiar looking side of the Meltykiss count-line. The Japanese writing left me relying on J-List again for the description of these - 'caramel layered between rich milk chocolate, whipped into a fluffy cream, then covered in fine cocoa powder'. That sounded absolutely delicious to me and I had sky high expectations from my Meltykiss experiences. I always say that footballers who wear gold coloured boots should be 'gold standard players' - the same goes for chocolates :D If your going to wrap them in gold wrappers - make sure they are 'gold standard chocolates'. As you can see from the scoring chart, these at least in taste and texture did meet that gold standard - they were an absolute treat. Indeed adding to the expected melt in the mouth like butter sensation, a very small amount of sticky caramel gave each of the chocolates an added dose of syrupy sugaryness. This small bit of caramel did give the creamy tasting chocolate an additional flavour depth, though unfortunately this did not bring about a longer sustained taste. To summarise I can only describe these Meltykiss as dangerous, dangerous chocolates. They taste amazing but the quickness at which they melt is as frustrating as it is sensational as it just means each chocolate disappears before you know it. Luckily there's a way to get around that - buy two packs :D

8.8 out of 10

May 2nd: Bits & Bobs: American Soda Special 2012 #2

You may have noticed that American Soda have been adding many new products to their site recently.Luckily for me, every time they do this I get a lovely package of samples with all their new stock in - long may this continue :D In order to keep you all up to date as to what they have I think there's no better way of displaying it all than in a Bits n Bobs post - please inform me should you think otherwise :D

------
Whoppers Strawberry MilkshakeKcal 190 Fat 8.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 30.0g (per 41.0g)

I would love to say we are starting the reviews today off on a positive note but I'm afraid this is just not so. My expectations of these strawberry milkshake flavoured Whoppers weren't sky high, but to say they exceeded even my low ones would be a flat out lie. Before you ask my expectations were low due to my previous experiences with Hershey's Whoppers (See HERE), which suffice to say weren't exactly favourable. Being the hero I am *ahem* I didn't let this put me off, though I did call in back-up in the form of some work colleagues. Upon opening the product the age old Whoppers issue of them being loosely contained within the box reared it's head once again - that's just sloppy presentation if you ask me. I guess more importantly when it came to the taste, things didn't really improve my perceptions of the product. The outer strawberry flavoured coating melted with a waxy, slowness and the taste was all to obviously horribly artifical. I wasn't expecting the truest of strawberry fruit tastes, but this was reminiscent of cheap strawberry bubblegum I used to buy as a little kid which wasn't a memory I needed reminding of. This poor tasting coating paired with the dry textured, sugary malt centers really did nothing for me, and I wasn't alone given the similar reactions of my tasting panel. These aren't a product that carry a JCM recommendation.

4.0 out of 10


------
Pop Tarts Frosted Hot Fudge SundaeKcal 190 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 33.0g (per pastry)

It wont surprise any of you to hear that a pack of Pop Tarts was part of my latest American Soda sample package! Indeed I am slowly continuing my way through the entire Pop Tarts range - if they would stop releasing so many damn limited editions I would probably be better than half way now (other reviews See HERE). Further putting the UK's two flavour range to shame, this Frosted Hot Fudge Sundae variety is yet another from the Ice Cream Shoppe line up. Though lacking a formal product description, the picture of the ice cream sundae on the front of the pack set expectations suitably. The pastries themselves both looked and smelt appetizing, with the multi-coloured hundreds-&-thousands decoratively coating the white coloured frosting. Expecting the worst (a barrage of sugar gluttony!), I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the center filling as it far less sweet than I imagined it was going to be. Instead of the sugar intensive experience expected it was actually light tasting and had a nice vanilla hint to it. This complimented the chocolate pastry exterior nicely and was especially enjoyable when eaten from a frozen state. You may have gathered but I enjoyed these a lot more than I thought I was going to. My top tip would be to enjoy them from the freezer! It's not as crazy as it sounds :D

7.7 out of 10

------
Flipz Dark Chocolate

Kcal 130 Fat 7.0g Fat(sats) 4.0g Carbs 19.0g

I still don't quite understand why we no longer get these 'Flipz' pretzels here in the UK, as every time the chaps at AmericanSoda send some my way (sourced from the US of course!!) the people I share them with always speak so highly of them. It's always the case that my fellow taste testers, no matter who they are, have a story to tell about how much they used enjoy them and how much they miss them. The reasoning behind them being banished from the UK for almost decades now I really don't know!? What I can tell you about though is just how great these dark chocolate Flipz are - I recently got the chance to munch my way through a 113.0g bag I got sent by AS. Now I'm not sure how long this particular variant has been around for, but one thing I've noticed since Flipz got taken over from Nestle by DeMet's is that there seems to have been an increase in the number of flavours. Having tried a few of them e.g. double dipped Peanut Butter HERE, I would like to put forward that these dark chocolate covered have in actual fact been my favorites. These weren't 'double dipped' or anything special like that, but the chocolate that coated the salty pretzels was so much better than the choc usef on the original milk chocolate variant. Aesthetically they didn't look all that promising with their dusty, scuffed looking appearance, but taste wise the 50.0% cocoa chocolate really came in to it's own. The chocolate quality wasn't up there with Hotel Chocolat etc, but to say it was coming close to at least Lindt standards should give you some idea how much I rated it. Contrary to presentation the melt was well paced and smooth, and the unsweetened cocoa flavours grew in volume and intensity as it developed. Paired with the salty, crunchy Pretzels it was a highly complimentary and enjoyable pairing. Suffice to say my only disappointment with these came when I reached into the bag to find it empty. If you are planning on reacquainting yourself with Flipz anytime soon, why not give these dark chocolate ones a try.

8.4 out of 10