Was Friday 13th unlucky for Jim???

Heck no!!! Thanks to @CybercandyLtd it wasn't!!

These guys sent me a box full of JCM faves to brighten up my day so many chocolates I haven't had the chance of eating in such a long time!

Milka Oreo - Review HERE - Buy HERE

M&M's Peanut Butter - Review HERE - Buy HERE

Nestle Coffee Crisp - Review HERE - Buy HERE

Enjoy your weekend all!!!

JIM

July 13th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Olympic Editions: Nuts for Gold

Prepare for the anthems we have our gold medal offering from Cadbury's Dairy Milk Olympic Editions going under the Jim's ChocolateMission jurisdiction today. Was this 'Nut for Gold' really the best of the bunch? Or it did it fail to live up to it's billing? Take a look below and see for yourself. Got a view you want to express? Join the ChocolateMission Twitter feed - @ChocMission and let me know your thoughts.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Nuts for Gold
Kcal 85 Fat 5.1g Fat(sats) 2.7g Carbs 8.0g (per 3 chunks)

Concluding our week long Cadbury ceremony this 'Nuts for Gold' bar had all the promise of being a real quality offering. The wrapper was definitely the best looking of the bunch and I loved how the usual gold Cadbury brand logo was consistent with the adapted gold coloured on-pack Union Jack. The chocolate was sectioned into nice bitesized chunks and smelt delicious with both strong chocolate and nuts scents on offer. To this point all sounded, smelt and appeared well, however I took a look at the bar description and I knew things were likely to take a turn for the worse - Doh!

'Milk chocolate filled with praline (yay!!!) ... and caramelised hazelnut pieces (booooo!). Indeed, cast your minds back to just this Monday and you will get what I made of these supposed 'caramelised hazelnut pieces' - I was far from impressed. Fully aware I was likely to end up disappointed I proceeded with the taste test and it all went down as I expected. The initial stages of the chocolate melt development were awesome and I was very much loving the woody, hazelnut influence that was complimenting the Dairy Milk chocolate very nicely. Of course what came after this initial development with the discovery of the caramelised hazelnut pieces in the middle of each piece was in my opinion totally counter productive. For me they again failed to bring anything to the party aside from a very unnatural brown sugar lump like feel and flavour influence. They weren't quite as spoiling to the stronger flavoured praline as they were the milder toffee creme on Monday, but they still did nothing for me and ruined what was a nice pleasant textural feel and nutty chocolate taste.

Overall 'Nuts for Gold' may be classified as the gold medal winning chocolate in this new line up but for me it didn't merit the accreditation. Unfortunately that award has to go to the Silvery Creme, a bar that was just as disappointing in it's own way due to it being a repackaged Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss bar. I think if Cadbury had gone for a bar more akin to their Dairy Milk Whole Nut offering and had big, whole nut pieces of honey roasted Hazelnuts this could have been a really quality offering. Unfortunately I believe they went for the more kid friendly approach, which sadly with my money making corporate hat on I can see why. After a week of Cadbury Dairy Milk reviews I'm all out of things to say other these were all ultimately three rather mediocre chocolates. They wont upset the masses by any means but at the same time I don't think there will be much clamor for them once the Games are over.

7.3 out of 10

July 11th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Olympic Editions: Silvery Creme

Today we have the continuation of my Cadbury Dairy Milk Olympic Editions reviews with the silver medalist 'Silvery Creme' bar. Be sure to let me know what you think about these new chocolates you see this week. You can get in touch with me on the ChocolateMission twitter stream - @ChocMission where you can also catch the competition I will be running.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Silvery Creme
Kcal 80 Fat 5.2g Fat(sats) 3.0g Carbs 7.7g (per 3 chunks)

I will be keeping the review of this one rather short for reasons that will soon become obvious. It came described as 'Milk chocolate with a vanilla flavour filling' - sounds a little familiar huh!? Yes ladies and gentlemen this was a classic repackage and relabel offering. Admittedly I haven't seen this bar in the wild for what it seems like forever, but ultimately this was the Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss in a different wrapper, albeit larger sized.

I may be sounding mega cynical at this point so I will at least say aesthetically this Silvery Creme offering was a more attractive looking bar that the Bronzed Creme Crunch that I featured yesterday. The middle filling was glistening white in colour and just looked easier on the eye than the dirty looking Monday feature. Taste wise you wont be surprise to hear that all tasted rather familiar. The Dairy Milk was all I expected with it's creamy sweet cocoa flavours and heavy longing smooth melt. The light, silky textured filling wasn't all that strong in fllavour, but it had enhanced the taste with a minor note of natural vanilla and added creamyness. Altogether fair tasting and moreish - just unexciting and by no means anything new.

Overall as far as flavoured Dairy Milk chocolates go this was a pretty good one but I still feel disappointed with it. Sorry to not sound as enthusiastic as perhaps I should but I was hoping for more from these new bars and so far I haven't got that - especially from this Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss (See HERE) mark II. I can't deny this wasn't a good chocolate, but I feel a little aggrieved that they simply took that bar, put it in a new wrapper and then stuck on the words 'Limited Edition' - thats just a little cheeky for me. So far we've had one not so good chocolate and another one that was simply repackage job. Will the gold medal prospect deliver the goods!? Find out Friday!! 


8.2 out of 10

July 9th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Olympic Editions: Bronzed Creme Crunch

The countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games is nearing it's end and in under a month we will well and truly be in the swing of things. Like it or not (some people really aren't - See HERE) Cadbury are one of the chief sponsors of this years Games so it's with little surprise that they have seen fit to release some Limited Edition Olympic themed chocolates. Over the course of this week I will be reviewing each of the three variants. In true medal ceremony order, I will first today give you my views on the 'Bronzed Creme Crunch', Wednesday you will see the 'Silvery Creme' and then on Friday we will wrap up with the 'Nuts for Gold'. I wont go over the top with the detail for all three as I'm sure you will all know what to expect from Cadbury nowadays. I do have a competition lined up for the weekend - more details on that will be revealed during the week.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Bronzed Creme Crunch
Kcal 85 Fat 5.7g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 7.8g (per 3 chunks)

So we start the week with this 'Bronzed Creme Crunch' offering and like all the three in the new selection it came in a 120.0g 'sharing' bar form. Cadbury didn't reveal how much they planned to be selling each of these new Olympic bars for, though I would expect to pay around the £1.00 given that this has often been their selling price for their limited editions. It came described as 'Milk chocolate with a toffee flavour filling and caramelised hazelnut pieces' - it was at least going to be something new if nothing else.

The first thing I noticed about this bar when doing the photos for the review was just how dull and un-bronze-like the filling looked. Sandwiched in between the Dairy Milk exterior the creme was a dirty beige colour and although there were spots of gold coloured hazelnuts it just looked underwhelming. Armoa wise there were better things to report with sweet toffee smells forthcoming as soon as the wrapper was unsealed. In a taste of two halves, proceedings started out nicely with the sweet, creamy Dairy Milk chocolate instantly enhanced by a further raft of buttery, butterscotch toffee flavours. Although still very sweet at the point of mid-melt, the taste was more notable for it's creamyness and I was certainly enjoying the smoothness of the mouth feel. Unfortunately it was the second half that didn't do it for me and the entrance of the caramelised hazelnut pieces were this bars downfall. Indeed these supposed nut pieces were more akin to tiny little clumps of sugar. For me they upset the equation texturally and annoyingly the taste took a large swing over to the point of no return in terms of it's sweetness. After just a few blocks I could feel that horrible burning sensation at the back of my throat - I did not approve.

Overall if you like sweet chocolate then I can see you might get a little more enjoyment from this Bronzed Creme Crunch than I did here. As described above, I found this chocolate enjoyable to a point but the experience was ultimately ruined by the the unnecessary and poorly executed hazelnut pieces. They frankly just weren't nut like in taste or texture - whats really annoying is sadly this would have been a pretty decent offering had it just been all about the toffee flavoured creme. It was by no means awful but I don't think I would buy this bar again.

6.4 out of 10

July 6th: Zotter Ginger-Carrot "In & Out"

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

First off I must pay a big thank you to my pal Lee (@Chocolatereview) who recently sent me a nice parcel full of chocolates from East Europe - Cheers Lee!!! Being the fantastic guy he is, Lee took the trouble of looking at my collection of Zotter Handscooped bars reviews (See HERE), and picked out a few that I hadn't had the pleasure of giving the JCM jurisdiction on. One of the bars just so happened to be this Ginger-Carrot "In & Out" chocolate - a proposition described by the bizarre Josef Zotter as 'carrots chocolate filled with carrots-coconut cream and ginger'. Funnily enough the taste testing volunteers weren't quite as eagerly forthcoming as they are normally are when there is a sniff of Artisan du Chocolat or Hotel Chocolat doing the rounds :-)

You will likely recognise the presentation style of the bar as one of Zotter's 70.0g Handscooped chocolates - you aren't wrong. It came in the usual flat, slab style format and was wrapped in a gold foil and paper wrapper tandem. For once I thought the wrapper made some sort of sense with the ginger 'men' piggybacking on the back of the larger carrot 'creatures'. This was an insight in to the actual chocolate itself, which aesthetically looked appetising with it's cream coloured exterior and innards studded with golden pieces of candied ginger. Although finely wrapped and obviously fresh the chocolate didn't create much of an impression aroma wise with only faint hints of spice and dairy cream really detectable.

A funny thing of note for todays review is that for the first time ever my Father refused to do the photos for the site. Indeed the carrot hating 'Old Man' detests the orange coloured vegetable so much he point-blank said he would have no involvement - I have to say had this been a mushroom flavoured chocolate we could of well of had our first ever JCM chocolate refusal haha! Luckily I was still up for the challenge and was pleasantly surprised to find we had ourselves a high quality white chocolate at hand. Being a Zotter creation this wasn't your standard white chocolate and was created using carrots instead of the traditional milk powder. You would of thought that this was going to be detrimental to the creamyness of the chocolate, however the bar still retained a high level of dairy flavours with it's inner coconut cream. The white chocolate had a good smooth melt and had did indeed have just a tiny inclination of carrot vegetable in it's aftertaste. In a well balanced fashion, the majority of the taste experience was headlined by the stronger ginger and creamy milk coconut participants. The flavour journey was complex, yet at the same time none to busy, and made for an exciting taste development that was interesting from beginning to end.

Overall this chocolate vastly exceeded expectations and disproved my initial preconceptions that ginger was only really an ingredient that was well matched for dark chocolate. The carrot element will no doubt put some people off, but it was really only a small piece of the experience which was more dominated by both the ginger and coconut influences. As ever with Zotter chocolates I thought the presentation was top class though I still would like them to try and differentiate this Handscooped chocolates with a little design work to the chocolates themselves. Whilst I can nitpick at the aesthetic design, I can't really fault the actual chocolate as for what it was it was done very well. All three major components were integrated well and they made for a satisfying, not to sweet, multi-dimensional white chocoalte. If you have a look in the archives you wont find yourself too many reviews where I give a white chocolate so much praise. I feel comfortable giving this the thumbs up to any white chocolate or flavour adventurous fans.

8.0 out of 10

July 4th: Hostess Chocolate Twinkie

Kcal 160 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 27.0g (per Twinkie)

July 4th is a special day for our American friends so I thought that it would be especially timely fashion for me to review one of their most famous snack cakes. This review today was made possible by new pals at Cybercandy whose site has recently gone under a full redesign (See HERE). My contact @CyberCandyLtd (that's their Twitter handle!!) Libby had been searching the ChocolateMission archives and had noticed I hadn't ever got around to giving Hostess Twinkies the JCM review treatment. Well folks this wrong is certainly put right today and I even managed to get Libby to send me the chocolate variety as opposed to the originals - I dare you to try read this review without your mouthwatering :-)

Libby was probably full aware that one of these Twinkies wouldn't suffice my impending Twinkie habit so being the lovely person she is, she kindly sent across two of the Chocolate flavoured beauties. Individually wrapped in clear, charmless cellophane packets, nothing particularly stood out out to me about about these cakes until I opened one up for my photos above. The first thing that struck me was just how great these smelt. For such a well traveled, mass produced snack food the fresh baked cake smells that emanated were just incredible and I was immediately made even more keen to get stuck in to the sweet, sticky delights at hand.

For the reference of my non-Twinkie aware UK audience, Twinkes are marketed as a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling" - the cream filling in this chocolate version being chocolate flavoured of course. As I hope my photo displays clearly these were cakes that were not lacking in cream filling whatsoever. In fact the cream filling was almost as well portioned as the cake which made for a pleasant, never too dry, cake mouth feel.The sweet, sticky exterior was perhaps a little bit of a pain in practicability when eating but the sticky glaze was non-compromising on the taste. What a taste it was as well folks :-) The cake was light like a delicious vanilla noted Victoria sponge and the inner-creme was every bit as tasty with the it's smooth, chocolatey butter cream tones. Three big bites had me polishing off one of these cakes in no time at all - satisfying but epically moreish at the same time. 


Overall I now fully understand why Hostess Twinkies get such the big hype from over the other side of the pond - these cakes are awesome! I've had the 'pleasure' of trying a lot of different cake bars that are made here in the UK and I'm struggling to think of a variety that matches up to just how lovely these Hostess Chocolate Twinkes were. The presentation of the individually sold cakes could do with some work in the unspectacular cellophane packets but believe me these became very much an after thought once the taste test commenced. I think we can safely say I'm now a full blown Twinkie fan and that I think they are worthy of their hype. Even if you were the biggest Twinkie sceptic I would urge you to try them at least the once. JCM recommended. 


8.8 out of 10    
   

July 2nd: Heavenly Cakes Baked Chocolate Cheesecake

You may recall a few weeks ago that I celebrated Jubilee weekend here in the UK with the aide of my good friends at Heavenly Cakes who sent me some of their superb British Bakewell and Sovereign Shortbread cakes (See HERE). Following that review a number of JCM readers sent me messages on Twitter (@ChocMission) asking me what I thought of some of their other products – a few of which I hadn’t had the pleasure of trying yet. One of the cakes that fell in to that criteria was this Baked Chocolate Cheesecake – a new offering that @BettyBakes had introduced to their line-up in early 2012. Following a cheeky message to @BettyBakes I soon found myself the lucky recipient of some Heavenly Cakes Baked Chocolate Cheesecake samples – what a delight it would turn out to be!

I’m not going to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes here and say that my samples came flawlessly presented. To the contrary the packaging didn’t do the job it needed to do, and though granted these came through delivery on a scorching hot day, the soft upper portion of the cake stuck to the wrapper and caused a right old mess. This was despite some of the most careful packaging and use of bubble wrap I’ve seen, yet it still came a little misshaped and malformed – ho hum! Fast forward through a few hours of refrigeration and we were back on song. Out of its cellophane wrapper and placed on to my mid-afternoon coffee side plate and fork in hand I couldn’t wait to tuck in.

Heavenly on their website say this cake has been called ‘the best in the world’ - a pretty exciting proposition for anyone like me that likes the odd slice of cheese cake (or two haha!!). Breaking the cake down by its two key layers, both added a terrific amount to the overall taste and complimented each other really quite superbly. The base layer reminded me greatly of a certain famous biscuit we have here in the UK (*ahem* McVitie’s Digestives *ahem*) and provided a solid, crisp base in both texture and flavours with its synergy of sweet and salty cereal influences. After a period of cooling in the fridge the upper layer had slightly solidified, though it was still a little softer than I would say your average cheesecake topping. In the mouth it felt lovely and it melted like butter with the most supreme softness. Whilst doing this the most epic wave of chocolaty cream cheese flavours engulfed my senses. The chocolate influence was more of a semi-sweet dark chocolate than a sugary milk chocolate and it was enhanced with small, yet noticeable, hints of both vanilla and buttery almonds. This added to the creamy dairyness of the thick cream cheese it created the richest of cakes ever – even by Heavenly Cakes standards. Half at a time was certainly more than I could handle, and believe me I love cheesecake.

Overall I thought this was yet another outstanding cake and it can certainly be added to the ever growing long list of great ones that Heavenly Cakes have created. I was concerned a little by the appearance of the cake when I received it due to its somewhat melted state; however those concerns were a distant memory once I tasted it. Indeed, packaging worries aside the cake was simply outstanding and ticked all the same boxes of luxury and treat of Heavenly Cakes that have gone before. The digestive biscuit base was simple in construct but it wasn’t like it needed to be any more complicated than that anyway – it was perfect. The upper baked layer of chocolate and cream cheese was equally as divine – it was rich, substantial and most importantly tasty as can be. I could go on all day about how much I recommend this cake but like them all there’s only one way of you really knowing how good they are – try for yourself I’ve given you the excuse now.

8.4 out of 10

June 29th: American Soda Bits n Bobs June 2012

Well come on, it wasn't as you were all going to escape without an American Soda Bits n Bobs monthly review was it :-D Yes the chaps @AmericanSoda put me together another sampling package and this one included some of their best selling lines from their extensive US sourced chocolates and snacks range.

Kellogg's Pop Tarts Cookies & Creme

Kcal 190 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 1.5g Carbs 35.0g (per pastry)

No American Soda Bits n Bobs post would be complete without an appearance from Kellogg's Pop Tarts and it's with great pleasure I bring you my thoughts on these Cookies & Creme flavoured ones today. On pack these looked all the money like they were Oreo themed Pop Tarts and the reality was this was exactly what they were. These Pop Tarts combined chocolate flavoured outer pastry, with a vanilla creme filling and came in a 400.0g box containing four foil wrapped packets within. With them being from the 'frosted' part of the Pop Tarts range I presumed that two pastries in a single serving would be excessive, however a cheeky glass of milk on the side and that was quickly disproved. These were by far best eaten when toasted and they created the most gorgeous chocolate bread smells when done so. Contrary to my prior expectations these were not excessively sweet and it was the chocolate pastry that actually took centre stage of the taste. The chocolate flavoured pastry was lovely and it quickly created an Oreo cookie like unsweetened cocoa taste that didn't at any point get dominated by the filling. The creme itself enhanced the pastry with a subtle sugary vanilla hint, but it was perhaps more welcome for the moisture it added to the dry mouth feel created by the pastry. Personally I would give these a big thumbs up and I would certainly have them again as the occasional breakfast treat. I would even go as far as saying these are up there with my favourite Pop Tart flavours.

8.4 out of 10

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Lucky Charms Treat Marshmallow Bar

Kcal 200 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 36.0g (per 48.0g bar)

Ladies and gentlemen this Lucky Charms Treat bar was HUUUUUGE! That was the only thing I could think about when I first picked it out of my American Soda sampling package! Granted it was billed as hefty one at 48.0g but I've genuinely never seen a cereal bar this large before. Thinking back to when cereal bars were first launched here in the UK I seem remember them being marketed as a means of eating breakfast 'on-the-go' in an easily accessible format ... no spilling of milk whilst checking your hair in the rear view mirror etc etc :-D Now whilst I commend General Mills for packing in a full serving size of Lucky Charms into the one bar I do think something has to be said about it's size and lack of practicality for eating it outside of the home - if I was giving a score for that criteria this big-ass bar would get a zero. Suffice to say if you forget all that and just take it for face value this is a product that encapsulates all of the Lucky Charms magic and delivers it in a more satisfying manner. I don't like soggy cereal so personally I actually preferred the dry Lucky Charms experience and found it a more fulfilling one.The bottom layer dried milk coating didn't need to be as sugary sweet as it was but the marshmallows made the taste so sweet anyway I hardly too upset by it. I think it's a very safe one to say that if you like your traditional Lucky Charms cereal your going to be a big time fan of this bar. I'll stick with my "boring" (so I'm told frequently!!) bran cereal for my everyday living but there's no denying that a cheeky bowl or bar now of Lucky Charms isn't a welcome treat.

7.6 out of 10 

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Nestle Chunky Bar

Kcal 190 Fat 11.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 25.0g (per bar)

When you think about it here in the UK we have a great number of different fruit and nut chocolate bars. We have the likes of Cadbury, Galaxy, Yorkie, Green & Blacks, Hotel Chocolat etc etc When I think of our dear pals in the US however I struggle to think of many options that they have available to them. Perhaps this was to be a sign that this Nestle Chunky Bar was going to be so awesome that there was no point there being any others available :-) This perhaps wasn't quite the case, however I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. One thing that has to be said about all those UK bars I mentioned before is that they all comprise of raisins/currants and then either/or hazelnuts or almonds. I can't think of a bar we have that contains peanuts as the nut content - not like this Chunky bar does anyway! Indeed this 39.0g bar was comprised of milk chocolate, raisins and peanuts and as per it's name it was split in to four large sized blocks. The milk chocolate was surprisingly tasty with a good paced melt and pleasant underlying creaminess to it. The raisins and peanuts were plentifully implemented with representation in all four blocks. The sugary flavours of the fruit and saltiness of the nuts provided a nice enhancement to the chocolate. All this together made for a pretty satisfying overall bar and one that I would say definitely exceeded expectations. It's low price would certainly encourage me to purchase it again.

7.8 out of 10

June 27th: Ritter Sport 'Congratulations' & 'A Little Something'

We've hardly been lacking new Ritter Sport products this year what with all the seasonal varieties and other limited editions they have released - full archive See HERE! Compared to a lot of other manufactures in the confectionery market, the Ritter Sport innovation department has been in over drive and today this trend continues to an extent with these latest 'Congratulations' and 'A Little Something' bars.

To an extent!?? What do I mean by that!? Well to say these bars were true innovation would be an outright lie. Like many of our so called 'NEW' products here in the UK this year these are actually just repackaged versions of an existing product. Yes these 'Congratulations' ; 'A Little Something' bars are simply just an exstension of the the previous year's Ritter Sport 'Thank You' bar. The idea being that you give one of these huge 250.0g chocolates when a 'Congratulations', 'Get Well Soon' or just simply a 'Well Done' is in order.

As with the 2011 'Thank You' offering both of these were big bars of Ritter Sport's 40.0% cocoa milk chocolate, made with beans sourced from Trinidad. Just as I stated last year this recipe was 'a noticeable improvement from their rather more generic standard milk chocolate. No doubt aided by it's thicker melting texture, the cocoa flavours were just more forthcoming and tasted deeper layered with rich milk and honey notes all coming to the fore.' ... tasty stuff indeed if you like your milk chocolates.

Overall there is little else to be said other than I'm sure it comes as no surprises that I'll award the same score as I did last year. These are a cute idea if you are in need of sending some love in the direction of  someone you care about - what better way to send a positive message than in milk chocolate form :-)

8.0 out of 10

June 25th: Artisan du Chocolat Chocolate Tennis Ball

Ladies and Gentlemen it is June 25th 2012 - do you know what that means!??? Why it's the start of the most famous tennis championships in the world - Wimbledon! This tournament is one of the most traditional sporting events on the calendar and there are always a few certainties you can rely on:

1. Copious amount of champagne will be drunk over the next two weeks
2. There will be no British success (sorry Andy!!)
3. Many a strawberry will be lathered in cream and devoured in the SW19 region of London.
4. Rain!!

As sure as I am predicting those things I was just as certain that I was going to love this Wimbledon themed chocolate goodie today, I present to you the Artisan du Chocolat Chocolate Tennis Ball. This product came billed as a 'white chocolate tennis ball with salted caramels' - a recipe for success if ever I heard one.

This Chocolate Tennis Ball came to me as a 150.0g product and I hope my photographs do justice to just how stunning this thing looked. Believe it or not I've been writing this site for nearly 4 years now and I have to say this was one of the coolest themed products I've had the chance of reviewing. The  tennis ball looked EXACTLY like a tennis ball - even the surface of it had this textured look that made it so realistic you could have mistaken it for it's non-edible equivalent. This was not a ball you would want to be hitting with a tennis racket though folks - well maybe just the once to crack it open to reach the salted caramels hidden inside :-D

As much as I loved the visual qualities the tennis ball had, I was more keen on tasting the chocolate. I was fully prepared for the tennis ball shell to be a gimmicky outer shell for the inner caramels but I was surprised to find in truth it was a wonderful. high quality white chocolate. Indeed the yellow dyed chocolate had all the good characteristics of a fine white chocolate and had a crisp, buttery milky taste that was well tempered in it's sweetness. I could have eaten that all day but me being me I was more concerned with the salted caramels that lay inside. I don't think you need me to tell you guys just how good these No.1 Salted Caramels are again (full review - HERE). They are award winning for a reason and it's because the salted little morsels of cocoa dusted dark chocolate are chocolate caramel heaven personified. My only disappointment with this Chocolate Tennis Ball came when I finished it - "New balls please" :-D

Overall the Artisan du Chocolat Chocolate Tennis Ball has to go down as another Artisan success story - I loved everything about it. I'm a big tennis fan so it was likely I was going to be highly receptive of anything given a lick of a tennis theme. This Chocolate Tennis Ball though was really something special. The quality of the presentation was superb and again I will reiterate the point that it was one of the best looking products I've ever reviewed for the site. One thing I've failed to make mention to above is the fact that the 'grass' you see nestling the tennis ball in my photos was actually edible ... yes edible grass :-D Indeed it was just sweetened 'sugar paper' but it was just a nice touch and showed a degree of care and thought that you cant say most products show nowadays. Lastly, and most importantly, as I've alluded to above the quality of the chocolate was very, very good. The white chocolate shell was a real surprise but I needn't say more about the salted caramels which are just out of this world. If you need a gift for a tennis fan or just fancy treating yourself for a championship treat I highly recommend you get involved with one of these.

9.1 out of 10

June 22nd: Hotel Chocolat Chocs To Chill

If the weather this last week is anything to go by I think we can safely say that Summer has officially arrived here in the UK! With every season that comes and goes we of course get the excitement of some new chocolates from a lot of the different confectionery companies. One of the manufactures who is always keen to match their product offerings to the season at hand is Hotel Chocolat and they haven't let us down for Summer 2012. Last week I was the lucky recipient of a box containing a number of samples from their Summer range for this year. Among some of the familiar looking chocolates and products I reviewed over the last few Summers, there were also a few completely new items that I will be featuring on the site in the coming weeks. With last week being the heatwave it was I thought I better start with the very apt sounding 'Chocs To Chill'.

These new 'Chocs To Chill' came in cute looking 105.0g tubs that included 24 small truffle pieces in each. As you can tell from the photos there were three variants that I got to try - Margarita, Mojito and Ice Cream Scoops. Being fully aware that I was no expert when it comes to cocktails I went about getting some taste assistants to help me out - I didn't have to look far with the rest of the family more than eager to help me out.

Here are our collective thoughts on the three flavours:

Hotel Chocolat Chocs To Chill Mojito - 'Rum, mint and lime ganache encased in white chocolate'
It may have been something to do with the weather but these went down extremely well and were the first ones to be polished off. It was a general consensus that the creamy, light flavoured outer chocolate was the perfect chocolate type for the fresh, zingy tasting inner creme. The Mojito centres were nothing short of superb and exactly as described with the lime and mint coming through strongly before a big kick of rum left a long lasting impression. The rum hit may be too strong for some but that wasn't a complaint of the tasting group.

8.4 out of 10

Hotel Chocolat Chocs To Chill Margarita - 'Tequila, orange liqueur and lime ganache in milk chocolate'
Here's a question - does anyone actually like tequila!? It's not exactly a liqueur that you hear many drink for it's taste ... not where I'm from anyways :-D I'm glad I had my tasting panel at hand for these as I was told I was being a little harsh on them. For me the tequila influence was just way too strong - the 40.0% milk chocolate and other orange fruit flavours became completely obsolete as soon as the truffle center was encountered. As someone who doesn't enjoy tequila this wasn't good news in my book though I'm willing to concede another person with a differing opinion may well think they are excellent. The rest of my panel thought they were 'nice' but certainly preferred the other two flavours.

7.0 out of 10

Hotel Chocolat Chocs To Chill Ice Cream Scoops - 'Strawberry and chocolate ganache truffles in milk and dark chocolate'
I thought they missed a trick with these! Within the tub there were two separate flavours with the milk chocolate and strawberry creme combo pieces, and then the dark chocolate with chocolate creme ones. The first of which I've just described were great and got a 360 tumbs up bringing together both creamy chocolate and fruity, real tasting strawberry. The latter variety however weren't met with the same levels of enthusiasm as they simply were as interesting taste wise. They delivered a delicious, powerful chocolatey flavour hit, however the inner chocolate creme failed to build on the dark chocolate outer shells making them a little boring next to some really lively flavoured variants. My mother suggested they could have used white chocolate shells and then dark chocolate inner creme, as that way they would also have got the total Neapolitan effect which would have also been more visually striking. These were well liked but were still a distant second to the Mojito variant.

7.8 out of 10

Overall these were all on the whole well received but there were a few things that they could have done which could have made them even better. As I've made mention to above just a few minor ammends to the Margarita and Ice Cream Scoops could have brought them to the standard of the Mojito flavour which were without doubt utterly superb. I would happily recommend any of these if you like the sound of them and as a range I give them a JCM thumbs up. There's no point telling you which one I ultimately recommend from the three - I think you will have worked that one out already.

June 20th: 'Bits n Bobs' Cadbury Superpost # 3

Back in June 2011 I posted my second 'Bits n Bobs' review that was solely dedicated to Britain's most famous chocolate producer Cadbury Ltd - See HERE. Well since then I've managed to accumulate yet another random assortment of Cadbury chocolate goodies. When I say 'random assortment' there I do really mean it! Some of the products you will see today were purchased in my local supermarkets, whilst others have come from as far afield as Canada. Without further hesitation I suggest we get on with things ....

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Cadbury Sweet Marie

Cadbury Sweet Marie
Kcal 320 Fat 18.0g Fat(sats) 7.0g Carbs 33.0g
'Fudge covered in fresh roasted peanuts and light rice crisps, all smothered in a rich, creamy chocolatey coating'
Origin: Canada

Cadbury chocolates from Canada have had mixed success here on ChocolateMission. The ones that stick out in my mind are the Cadbury Wunderbar (See HERE)and the Cadbury Caramilk (See HERE). Both of these bars were fine examples of what Cadbury Canada could do - I was hoping for similar success from this Cadbury Sweet Marie (formely manufactured by a company called Nielsen).

Like many of the chocolate offerings you get in Canada this was another huge one that both looked large and was large - clocking in at a mighty 60.0g. Aesthetically the film material wrapper and inner bar did little to inspire much confidence, though the strong peanutty smells were a lot more promising. Thankfully these smells weren't misleading - the taste was strongly influenced by the salty roasted peanut flavours which played off very nicely indeed against the sweet caramel and condensed milk like flavours of the chocolate. Each mouthful provided a nice mixture of chewy, crispy and melting chocolate textures. These combined with the multi-layered taste depth and fulfilling size made for another Canadian Cadbury well worthy of a ChocolateMission thumbs up.

8.2 out of 10


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Cadbury Milk Chocolate Rich Tea Biscuits

Cadbury Milk Chocolate Rich Tea Biscuits
Kcal 60 Fat 2.6g Fat(sats) 1.3g Carbs 3.9g (per biscuit)
'Rich Tea biscuits half covered in milk chocolate'
Origin: UK

My recent biscuit superposts have stirred up many reader requests, and amongst them a common found one seems to be a call for me to review Cadbury's own biscuit offerings. There isn't much in the way of innovation with these - Cadbury have quite simply taken the British biscuit classic the 'Rich Tea' (See HERE), and applied a half coating of their own milk chocolate.

As you can see from my graph below I felt comfortable handing out average marks across the entire Jim's ChocolateMission rating spectrum (gosh that sounds geeky! Haha!) - 7.0 just seemed appropriate for the entirety of what I experienced with these. Packaging and overall presentation really run of the mill stuff. Nothing was outlandishly Cadbury branded but it was all still aligned to their 'purple' style, and the biscuits bore the branding on their chocolate undersides. As with any Rich Tea biscuit the flavour notes offered by the biscuit were malty hints of brown sugar. The chocolate taste was apparent, yet not overtly recogniseable as Cadbury due to it's short presence longevity as a cnsequence of it's very thin portioning. At push you could describe the taste as a little more milk led, though it wasn't differentiated enough to have me telling you that you need to buy these over the McVitie's equivalents.

7.0 out of 10


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Cadbury Digestives
Kcal 80 Fat 4.1g Fat(sats) 2.2g Carbs 4.7g (per biscuit)
'Digestive biscuits half covered with milk chocolate'
Origin: UK

Well it wasn't like I was just going to stop at the Cadbury Rich Teas was it :D As you will no likely have guessed, Cadbury also have a Digestive biscuit offering. My US readers might want to refer to WIKI again as you probably won't have a clue what a 'Digestive' biscuit is ... according to WIKI it's illegal for them to be called this in the states - don't you just love random WIKI facts :D

If your a UK reader and need me to describe what a Digestive biscuit please send an e-mail to Wherehaveyoubeen@allyourlife.com ... :D seriously if you haven't ever had a Digestive biscuit before you must have led a very deprived childhood. Suffice to say the biscuit portion delivered the same wheaty, brown sugared, salt hinted taste you would get from any McVitie's and supermarket alternative. As opposed to the Rich Teas above, the chocolate layer here was portioned more generously and that of course helped it come across better in the taste. The chocolate taste still wasn't immediately attributable to Cadbury, but still it was nice enough for what it was. They were better than the Rich Teas.

7.5 out of 10


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Cadbury Mini Animal Biscuits

Cadbury Mini Animal Biscuits
Kcal 95 Fat 3.9g Carbs 13.1g
'Animal shaped mini biscuits half covered in milk chocolate'
Origin: UK

Whilst I was more than happy buying the two Cadbury biscuit products above, I left it up to one of my work colleagues to provide me with these for the review today. I don't know what it is, but buying Mini Animal Biscuits just seems kinda wrong for a twenty-something year old male :D This seemingly wasn't a problem for one of my work fellows, who bought a multipack of mini bags from their local Sainsburys supermarket.

As you will have determined from the description and most likely the photos, these were a similar proposition to the Cadbury Digestives but in a mini format. Portioned in nice looking matted Cadbury bags I have to admit the biscuits looked fun, and the animal characters (Ella Funky the elephant :D Leroy the Lion :D and Rockodile the crocodile :D ... legendary stuff haha) were nicely scribed into each biscuit. Taste wise you may be surprised to hear they came off tasting better than the larger sized alternatives above as the chocolate was a whole lot more prominent in the taste. The sweeter chocolate emphasis brought additional creamyness and played of nicely against the saltyness of the wheat based biscuit. Who would have guessed that the kiddie offering would have come out as the best in class here - not me!!

7.9 out of 10