August 17th: Heavenly Cakes Lavender Shortbread / Smartie Pants Brownie

Heavenly Cakes are a good company and do you know what all good companies do??? They practice the philosophy of Kaizen :-) Kaizen!? What the devil is Kaizen young Jim!? Please ... allow Wiki:

'Kaizen (改善?), Japanese for "improvement", or "change for the better" refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement' ...

Indeed at it's basic principles Kaizen is all about companies maintaining a competitive advantage by constantly improving on what they already do - thus creating effencies and/or a better product/service. If I haven't bored you tears already please bare with me on this one as I believe this highly relevant to the reviews today. Heavenly Cakes Lavender Shortbread and Heavenly Cakes Smartie Pants Brownie - Were these cakes to be Kaizen successes or Kaizen squibs!? Let's find out shall we :-) ...

Heavenly Cakes Lavender Shortbread

I've come across lavender flavourings in confectionery products before and I have to say my experiences have not been successful. The two that stick out in my memory are the Lindt and Hotel Chocolat chocolates which frankly I remember being ruined by the said flower. Suffice to say I thought this had all the makings for the first ever Heavenly Cakes failure - a Kaizen squib so I should say. Well colour me totally and utterly wrong, this not only exceeded my expectations, but well and truly took my expectations, gave them a good stamping on and then threw them back in my face and made me feel like I don't know what I'm talking about :-) This shortbread was wonderful, and the lavender influence was expertly integrated both visually and in flavour. Small lavender bud heads were dispersed among the biscuit giving a great visual impact and aesthetic standout with what looked like little purple seeds. Taste wise a small amount of lavender oil purely enhanced the gorgeous buttery shortbread and created the most subtle of sweet floral, blossom honey like flavours. The older generation of my family (thats a nice way of saying the old geezers haha!) thought this shortbread was epically good and said they preferred it to the plain Heavenly Cakes Shortbread they had tried previously.

8.8 out of 10

Heavenly Cakes Smartie Pants Brownie

Whilst I was a little unsure about the Lavender Shortbread before trying it, I had no qualms with the philosophy behind this Smatie Pants Brownie whatsoever. The prospect of  'Milk Chocolate Brownie mixed with naturally coloured Smarties' had the philosophy of Kaizen written all over it - Heavenly had in effect taken their fantastic brownie from before and made a subtle tweak to make it even better. It sounds very simple, and sure it was! Again as I thought above in the shortbread review, I thought enhancements had been made to the aesthetic presentation and of course the taste. The Smarties employed on the top of the brownie gave the cake greater visual standout. It still wasn't up there with some of the 'food-porn' visuals of say a Billionaire Shortbread, but the multi-coloured pieces on top certainly added a little interest and colour. Taste wise things also felt like they had me taken on a notch with the maturation of the sweet, sugary candy shells to the richer, chocolatey cake brownie providing just another layer of variability to the overall experience. Smartie Pants or just plain smart? Decide for yourselves but take note - not many products ever reach the JCM 9.0 mark!

9.0 out of 10

Overall from my opening load of waffle you probably tell I was exceedingly happy with both of the cakes featured today and was in favour of both the minor enhancements that had been made on the originals. Whether or not the shortbread is suitable for a younger audience is up for debate - explaining to little Timmy what the purple bits in his biscuit are is probably more hassle than it's worth, however for mature audiences I think you would be on to a winner. The Smartie Pants Brownie gets all round thumbs up from me. Simple,  if you don't like Smarties then pick them off :-D I'm sure the rest of us will happily eat them for you. One of these days these guys are going to send me a cake I don't think is all that special, it's got to happen eventually. For the minute I'll continue to be wax lyrical over the excellence they continuously deliver - I can't say anything other than the truth now!

August 15th: Bits n Bobs August 2012

You guys will all know the drill now. Here are some mini reviews of both the latest products hitting the UK shelves and also some very generous contributions sent to me by my loyal JCM readers. If you have an opinion on any of the products you see here be sure to share them with me @ChocMission.

Elizabeth Shaw Cocoa Crunch
Kcal 521 Fat 35.8g Fat(sats) 19.4g Carbs 42.5g (per 100.0g)

You may or may not be aware (depending on how my review schedule plays out!!) that I was recently the lucky recipient of a big hamper full of samples from the folks at Elizabeth Shaw. Included in this big collection of goodies the ES guys included some samples of their chocolate bar range - you can find two of the flavours reviewed here in one of my Christmas posts last year (See HERE). Since then  Elizabeth Shaw have introduced a new variety to the range in the form of this Cocoa Crunch bar. At times like these I'm glad I don't commit to writing full on reviews for some chocolates as I would have really struggled to write anything more than I will do here ... this bar was AVERAGE in almost every possible sense. It sounded unremarkable 'dark chocolate with cocoa nibs' and for the most part it was. It looked fine, smelt like any standard dark chocolate and ultimately tasted like a very run-of-the-mill 57% coocoa offering. The flavour generation was of a more than acceptable level and did have a rich, unsweetened cocoa prowess, though it was ultimately a little one dimensional. The cocoa nibs did nothing more than add a not so great crunchy, rough element texturally. This wasn't a bad product at all but I've had so many better dark chocolates in my team I doubt I would ever buy it again.

7.0 out of 10

Nestle Boci Aero Strawberry
Kcal 193 Fat 11.9g Carbs 18.5g (per bar)

First off thanks to JCM reader Phil who sent me this bar for the review today. Phil got in contact after finding a number of European chocolates in one of his local discounter stores. Being the kind guy he is, he sent me a selection of what he found and this included this Nestle Boci Aero Strawberry bar. According to the back of the wrapper this was a bar that produced in Budapest at Nestle Hungary. Back in December 2011 I did review a few bars from Hungary including one Boci bar - (See HERE). I was hoping for another good Hungarian experience though I must say I feared the worst when I unsealed the wrapper and was greeted with some horrible, fake smelling strawberry scents. The jet pink coloured filling did nothing to subside my fears though I commenced my taste test and I'm sure glad I did. The outer milk chocolate was very Milka esq - light, milky and altogether pleasant. The Aero textured filling was the big surprise though and it was lovely! It was far departed from the overly sugary, artificial flavour experience I expected and was more a creamy, not overly strong, red berry taste that I actually really enjoyed. The strawberry flavours were far more reserved than I thought they would be - it wasn't strawberry excellence ala Hotel Chocolat Eton Mess but it was tasty nonetheless. This Boci Aero Strawberry is certainly worth a buy if you like your Aero products. I liked it a lot more than the Aero Orange.

7.0 out of 10

M&M's Peanut Intense 65% Cocoa
Kcal 209 Fat 12.1g Carbs 19.7g (per pack)

Here in the UK Mars don't often treat us to any of the new M&M's flavours that we often see our American pals get treated to. Suffice to say I was hardly surprised to read that these were a product made by Mars Polska when I took a look at the back of the bag. Once again I must extend my thanks to JCM reader Phil for sourcing these for me. Phil said when he found them that he got 3 bags for the bargain price of £1.00 - that sounded like a great deal to me! These M&M's Peanut Intense came in a bag weighing 40.0g which included around 20 or so randomly sized candy coated peanuts. Despite all the on-pack blurb being in Polish there was a English translation informing these were 'peanuts in chocolate, in a coloured layer of sugar'. The 65.0% cocoa billing sounded strong for an everyday mass consumer chocolate product but it proved to be anything but the sort. Indeed when it came to the chocolate it was more your non-sweet milk chocolate rather than a darker, richer flavoured one; and it ultimately lacked the flavour depth of the sweeter, creamier chocolate of the standard M&M's Peanut. When you factor this in with the peanuts not being as flavoursome or as fresh crunchy as normal you will understand why I haven't rated these so great. I wont pretend like I buy M&M's very often but I cant see myself having these again.

6.1 out of 10

 Rocky Chockas Double Choc
Kcal 86 Fat 4.4g Fat(sats) 2.6g Carbs 10.2g (per biscuit)

When it comes to chocolate biscuits here in the UK it seems more and more manufactures are bringing an ever increasing amount of new limited edition products to the table. For me to cover them all would be impossible but don't you worry if I try something and have a strong opinion on it you will be sure to be well informed (N.b. if you think I have missed something tell me @ChocMission). This brings me on nicely to these Rocky Chockas Double Choc, guess what!? I have a strong opinon on them :-D Don't worry though boys and girls I have nothing but glowing praise. These 'Rocky Chockas' are the latest line of biscuits created by Fox's and are obviously a line extension of the original Fox's Rocky bars (See HERE). The new lineup consists of three flavours - (Full details HERE) and are available in most supermarkets currently retailing on introductory £1.00 offers. I recently bought a pack of the Double Choc - 'chocolate shortcake biscuits sprinkled with dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and crispy rice, coated in milk chocolate' ... err shouldn't that be 'Triple Choc' then!?? Name fail!? Menial nonsense aside I have the pleasure of reporting I thought these were wonderful! The milk chocolate coating the biscuit was thick, soft melting and instantly delivered a satisfying chocolate flavour hit. The buttery, salt licked shortcake in the middle was crisp to the bite and the two chocolate chip types added richer cocoa bursts and creamy vanilla hints when called upon. Altogether these were just very nice, affordable chocolate biscuits and had I paid more than just £1.00 for them I probably still would have felt content with my purchase. I certainly feel encouraged to try the other flavours now.

8.2 out of 10

August 13th: Nestle Vice Versas

 Kcal 98 Fat 4.1g Fat(sats) 2.6g Carbs 14.3g (per 7 sweets)

Nestle UK have answered the prayers of many a Facebook 'fan page' and buckled to consumer demand bringing back Nestle Vice Versas. Although these re-released chocs come under the guise of a 'new' crediatation on the packaging I'm sure many a chocolate fanatic will recall their first flirtation with the UK market back when they were first released in 1991. Since that time they have been taken in and out of distribution a few times - according to Wiki the last limited edition batch I believe was around the 2004 period. Well all you need now know is that they are back and are being stocked in a few limited retail outlets - Asda and Toy R Us are the places spotted so far.

Before I launch in to the review today I have to pass thanks to ChocolateMission reader Michael who kindly sourced these from his local Asda for me. Michael told me in his e-mail that they were on an introductory £1.00 offer but had an RRP of £1.59 according to the label on the shelf. These days it seems that £1.00 buys you 126.0g worth of Vice Versas - I would guess around 30 to 40 sweets.

Aside from being contained in a glossy new plastic packet, the outer packaging looked very similar to the old Vice Versas I remember from yesteryear. Whilst I liked this consistency from the past I was very unimpressed by the look of the actual chocolates when I got them out the packet. As you can probably ascertain from my photo the sweets with the milk chocolate outer shells were very dull in complexion. This wasn't too much of an issue I guess but the contrast between the two varieties wasn't as striking as it could have been and it just didn't visually look as impressive as I thought it could be.

When it came to the taste test my first impressions were that the candy shells were a lot thicker than I remember. For all I know they may be exactly as they used to be but regardless I still thought they were very thick here. When it came to which of the two variants I preferred I will have to sit on the fence as to be honest neither were anything special or differentiated. To me both tasted broadly similar and with that both similarly mediocre. The sugar candy shells dominated the main stay of the taste and ultimately made most mouthfuls a monotonous brown sugar led flavour generation. The middle fillings did inject sweet chocolate flavours (the white filled ones with a little note of vanilla), but they weren't that significant and after a few mouthfuls I found myself very unexcited by the one dimensional sugar dominated taste.

Overall some things are better left in the past and sadly I think that applies to these Nestle Vice Versas. We live in a day and age where we have all sorts of different flavours being offered by the likes of M&M's and with Nestle Smarties being available all year round anyway I cant see a situation where these suddenly become a permanent fixture again with us here in the UK. I cant deny it wasn't fun reacquainting myself with these Vice Versas to just get old nostalgia kick, however as described above it was only after a few mouthfuls that I got bored of them. For that reason alone I can suggest perhaps a cheeky purchase if you see them on offer. One packet is enough though and I certainly wont be complaining if its another 8 years until I have another.

5.0 out of 10

And the winner is .... part 2

Two competitions in two weeks eh!? I am getting kind in my old age aren't I. I'm sure we all have Olympics Closing Ceremonies to be watching so without further ado I can announce that this weeks winner of the Kit Kat Cookies & Cream bars is ......

@Daisybeebee

Congrats Daisy. I will be in contact and your chocolates will be in the post.

Have you failed to win yet another JCM competition??? Don't be sad! Just make sure you keep an eye on the site and the JCM twitter feed @Chocmission You never know when the next competition will crop up!

August 10th: Kit Kat Cookies & Cream (UK)

Kcal 107 Fat 5.1g Fat(sats) 3.2g Carbs 10.8g (per bar)

Got a feeling of Deja Vu?? Well folks you haven't traveled back in time to last weeks Kit Kat Cookies & Cream review - See HERE - you are in fact reading my views on Nestle's latest Kit Kat new product for our very own UK market. Yes Nestle must be avid Chocolate Mission readers as it took them under a week to read my glowing report of the Australian bar and then get their own incarnation into the market :-) Haha ok ok perhaps not!! Whilst I'm pretty sure you guys are glad I haven't gone completely crackers and started posting the same reviews over and over again, I'm even more sure you will be pleased to hear that this weeks Kit Kat Cookies & Cream bar review also comes with another competition:

COMPETITION: Simply follow me on Twitter - @ChocMission and 'retweet' my review here today. Simple huh!? The winner will win themselves 3 of these Kit Kat Cookies & Cream and will be notified on the evening of Sunday 12th.

Back to the matter at hand, and I can inform you that these bars came billed as 'two crisp wafer fingers covered with milk chocolate and cookies flavour white chocolate' .... yes you read that correctly 'cookies flavour white chocolate' hmmm indeed! The small matter of £1.00 bought me an 8 bar multipack with the bars each weighing 20.8g. I haven't had two finger Kit Kats for a long while now but I certainly welcomed back the paper sleeve, silver foil combo used to wrap each of the bars.

Out their foil confines the scents of sweet vanilla greeted me as I broke the bar in half with the usual reassuring snap of the wafer. Based on my interpretation of the description I had a dreadful feeling that this might be a lazy invention by our pals at Nestle and unfortunately my fears were confirmed by the taste test. I'm afraid I thought the execution of the Cookies & Cream theme was poor at best with the white chocolate coating the majority of the bar simply boosting the sugary flavours of the usual sweet milk chocolate and dominating the mild malty wheat flavours of the wafer. The small hint of vanilla present was by no means enough to give it a sense of the taste being enhancing and by the final bite of the small bar I was getting that sugar induced hot, uncomfortable feeling at the back of my throat.

Overall I never like to put a downer on companies trying new things but Nestle got these Cookies & Cream bars all wrong. For starters I cannot see for the life of me where these bars justify the Cookies & Cream name - I don't actually see where the cookie aspect comes in to it at all? The white chocolate used here was frankly cheap tasting, overly sugary and resultingly depreciative of the other milk chocolate and wafer constituents. Sorry to say folks but in my opinion these new Kit Kat Cookies & Cream bars aren't great. You wont break your shopping budget giving them a try but I honestly wouldn't expect much. Share your views (and mine if you want to enter the competition!!haha!) with me on twitter @ChocMission.

6.4 out of 10

August 8th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Marble

Kcal 540 Fat 31.2g Fat(sats) 17.9g Carbs 55.8g (per 100.0g)

First of all I must thank my friends @CybercandyLtd who sent this bar across to me in one of my latest sampling packages. When it comes to getting the latest chocolate and snack treats from the Southern Hemisphere, these guys have become somewhat of a savior for me. They not only stock all the latest Cadbury Australasian bars like the one today, but they also have all the latest stuff from the likes of Nestle, Mars etc (Check it all out HERE). Supplier pimping done with, I now get to talk to you about this Cadbury Dairy Milk Marble chocolate - a bar I was exceedingly excited to get the opportunity to review.

This was a bar that I used to have quite a lot when I was a younger and up until it was taken out of production here in the UK it was probably one of the Cadbury bars I used to have most often when I fancied something different from Cadbury Caramel. I used to always think that the swirled chocolate marble effect made the bar a more 'posh', upmarket, and altogether special offering than just the usual Dairy Milk. These feelings all came flooding back when I had the chance to try this Australian version and a wonderful sense of nostalgia swept over me when I opened up the silver foil revealing the very cool milk and white chocolate blend.

'Dariy Milk milk chocolate and Dream white chocolate with a hazelnut praline centre'. Though I had my concerns that this might be a chocolate that my tastebuds had 'outgrown', I was reassured by the strong nutty smells that the Dream contents might play second fiddle to the hazelnut influence. This reassurance was for the large part proven correct, and it was with great delight that I discovered the Dream white chocolate was the lesser influential constituent involved in the taste. Placing the sensibly sized block on my tongue the well paced melt began with the familiar sweet cocoa flavours of Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate exerting authority immediately. This being Australian Dairy Milk the taste wasn't quite as creamy or thick than our UK recipe yet it was still very tasty and was a nice set up for the even smoother, soft yielding praline center. To my joy the praline was every bit as nutty as the aromas suggest and the hazelnut tones were strong, woody and nicely tempering of the sweetness of the milk and white chocolate covering it. A serving size of 6 blocks (37.5g) was a nice amount and it meant this big bar last me a good week which I thought offered good value for money.

Overall this was a nice trip down memory road and I just hope one day we see it come back to the UK in one shape of form. As I said above I was a little worried that it might be on the sweet side for my own taste now with the presence of the god awful Cadbury Dream white chocolate, but thankfully I didn't find this to be the case. As chocolates go this was probably verging on my limit of my sugar tolerance levels but the praline was 'big' enough in presence to take focus away from that and my lasting impression was that of hazelnut not a burning throat sensation that usual follows Dream white chocolate around where ever it is present. Unfortunately for the moment it doesn't look like we will be getting a UK comeback for the Marble anytime soon. If you fancy reminiscing with a previous age then you will have to get yourself on over to Cybercandy or better yet visit your long lost brother Skip :-)

8.4 out of 10

August 6th: Hotel Chocolat H-Box Taste of Summer 2012 Selection

Whilst some chocolate companies 'shut up shop' during the summer months and go quiet on the new product front, Hotel Chocolat have never been one to conform. Yes the HC think tank has been working in over drive again this year and they have updated their Summer selection boxes with several innovative chocolate truffle flavours.

This Hotel Chocolat H-Box Taste of Summer 2012 Selection is a 160.0g pack that contains 12 ... yes ... 12 different chocolates inside. The poor 'Old Man' was working overtime snapping all of these. Suffice to say he was rewarded with many a chocolate so please look out for some extra input from the rest of my family who were more than happy to lend me their tasting palettes. Passing comment on the packaging and presentation of the product almost seems pointless - I'm sure you can all see it was all up to the usual HC standards. Here are our thoughts on the chocolates:

Bucks Fizz - I think this chocolate would have been better with a milder chocolate type as the dark outer shell and stronger orange influence dominated the lighter champagne lick. It was unsual to come across an HC alcohol infused chocolate that didn't have a strong enough boozie kick. Standard.

Mocha Frappe - We all know I like my coffee strong so the promise of a 'light airy coffee' centre didn't fill me with the greatest of confidence. Unfortunately it was indeed a little on the non-substantial side and though the coffee element was detectable it wasn't one that left a lasting impression. Standard.

Berry Mousse - Previously reviewed. Good. See HERE

Blackberry Mousse - This was a really tremendous chocolate that combined an outer shell of white chocolate with a blackberry infused soft center. The mixture of the two was spot on for me with the sweet white chocolate beautifully mellowing the sharper, tartier flavours of the blackberry. Very Good.

Orange Praline - Previously reviewed. Very Good. See HERE

Lemon Curd Truffles - These were cute mini chocolates that were about half the size of the others in the selection. These were especially enjoyable when they had been chilled and the creamy, sweet white chocolate perfectly balanced the cool, silky smooth lemon centres. Very Good.

Chocolate Ice Cream - Previously reviewed  Good. See HERE

Chocolate & Orange Pot - This chocolate was essentially the same as the orange praline but sans the hazelnut. Personally I preferred the chocolate with the nut element, however my mother was more enthusiastic about this one where the orange just had a little more longevity and prominence. Very Good.

Mango Creme Brulee - This was one of the stand out pieces in the selection for me. This milk chocolate had the fruitiest, real tasting mango infused cream centre and it was topped off by a lovely trickle of buttery caramel. It was a amazing how the cream, fruit and sweet caramel flavours all came to the fore in such a small bite-size piece. Superb.

Summer Pudding - Previously reviewed. Very Good. See HERE.

Prosecco & Raspberry - Well this one woke me up :-D This truffle had a real boozie kick and that added to the sharper raspberry fruit made for a very strong flavoured chocolate. Personally it wasn't one of my favorites but this might of been my under prepared taste buds for the alcohol lick. My mother liked the one she tried! Good.  

Eton Mess - Previously reviewed (Yes still as amazing as ever!!). Superb. See HERE

Overall I thought this was a good selection of truffles from Hotel Chocolat and I have to compliment them on their willingness to shake things up on the variety front every year. Changing up the flavours not only creates an element of excitement, but when they are as good as say the Mango Creme Brulee it also shows they are also committed to keeping the quality high. After full consultation of my tasting panel I would present the Eton Mess, Blackberry Mousse and aforementioned Mango Creme Brulee as the stand out pieces. Though I'm more of a guy that prefers the dark chocolates, pralines and caramels, my Mother is rather partial to Hotel Chocolat's fruit flavours so this selection was got a big thumbs up from her.

8.4 out of 10

Its not only GB athletes winning this weekend .....

@KevvieGuy is also winning!!!!

Yes congratulations to @KevvieGuy who has won the Kit Kat Cookies & Cream competition.

Thanks to everyone that entered this weekend. I would strongly suggest keeping an eye on the @Chocmission Twitter feed this week as I will also be running yet another Kit Kat competition. I don't want to spoil the reviews this week but there is an all new UK Kit Kat out right now - my views on it will be with you before you know it!

..... Well done to Kevin - I'll let him post his views on it should he wish to share them.

.... one last thing ....

.....

#OURGREATESTTEAM

August 3rd: Kit Kat Cookies & Cream 2012 (Original Review May 2009)

UPDATE - AUGUST - 2012


COMPETITION: Yes folks I'm running a competition this week giving away one of these Kit Kat Cookies & Cream bars! To enter you simply need to Follow myself @Chocmission & @Cybercandyltd on Twitter and then 'Retweet' my the review update tweet I send out today. Best of luck and I will announce the winner on Twitter and the site next week. See HERE for my twitter feed


AUGUST 2012 REDUX REVIEW:

Kcal 337 Fat 17.7g Fat(sats) 11.4g Carbs 39.9g

Given the fact this bar hails from Australia it probably wont surprise you to hear that it's not one I frequently get to have. In fact I think I've had fewer than five in my lifetime however thanks to my new pals at Cybercandy I'm sure I'll be having them a bit more frequently than I have been. Though I may be a regular consumer of this Cookies & Cream flavour my latest foray with the bar brought back several memories of my first review from May 2009.

The massive 65.0g size was the same and the constituents of the traditional Kit Kat milk chocolate coated wafer enhanced by a vanilla cream flavoured filling and small cookie pieces was entirely consistent. Looking back at my photo from 2009 the ratio of filling to wafer looks more heavily wafer based - to be honest from what I tasted I can't say it altered my experience to any detectable degree. As noted back in 2009 they worked together superbly and made for a lovely chocolate wafer and creamy Oreo cookie like synergy. Like I said back then, this was a very sweet chocolate bar to eat in it's entirety in one sitting but with that said the three block format made offered the option of saving a portion for later should someone feel it necessary.

Overall I detected way more familiarities than differences and that's why I've stuck with my original score of 8.4 out of 10. We had the Kit Kat Chunky competition here in the UK earlier this year and I think this flavour could of done very well had it been one of the entries. I still regard it as a bar well worth getting hold of if you classify yourself as a Kit Kat fan.


Don't forget to enter the competition on Twitter - See HERE
-------------   
Kcal 346 Fat 19.9g Fat(sats) 11.5g Carbs 37.6g

Nestle have taken a bit of battering over the last few weeks due to their dismal 'Treasures' range but if there is one thing you can count on nine times out of ten is that their Kat Kit brand will deliver the goods. This bar has been requested many a time by ChocolateMission readers so I was especially pleased when Shopenzed sent across this Kit Kat Cookies & Cream in the latest package they sent me. Described as 'a smooth filling with crunchy cookie pieces over chocolate wafer fingers covered in milk chocolate' all the signs were that this could be a real winner; a quick think back to the Kit Kat Cookie Dough though did leave me a little sceptical that it could be pulled off.

The bar came in a 65.0g serving size ... yes you read that right 65.0g!! Suffice to say if your on a diet this probably isn't the bar for you - the calorie and fat content will probably leave many dieters with nightmares. I liked the look the packaging it was in the standard Kit Kat Chunky design and implemented a nice cool sky blue colour. The bar itself looked pretty appetising as well and as you can see in the picture above it had a very plentiful cream layer that was lined with small pieces of cookie. Standard Kit Kats tend to have quite a biscuity smell but this Cookies & Cream bar had more of a sweet dairy led aroma that was evident when searched for.

In regards to taste this bar turned out to be a complete shake up from any other Kit Kat I have tried. The normal wheat and malt flavours of the wafer were absent and were instead replaced by a more buttery shortbread taste that just had the smallest hint of salt. Lining this biscuit layer at the bottom was a nice cocoa creme which didn't fail in delivering the chocolate hit that the coating struggled to substantiate and additionally managed to give the biscuit a pleasant moistness. As you can imagine a lot of the taste was dictated by the plentiful cream filling layer and despite its rather one dimensional taste it was actually very nice. Surprisingly it tasted exactly how it was billed - imagine the inner creme of an Oreo biscuit and you wont be far off the sweet, almost fondant like flavours that I experienced. The centre was extremely sweet but the slight lick of salt from the biscuit layer made for a nicely balanced overall taste. 65.0g was possibly pushing the boundaries of what I could handle due to the sweetness though at the same time I wont complain as it made for a fulfilling snack.

Overall I don't know quite what I was expecting, but in a good way this certainly wasn't it. I guess after the gimmicky 'Cookie Dough' variant I was expecting more of the same here though I am pleased to say I was proved wrong. This bar delivered exactly what it said on the wrapper - it combined a wonderful biscuit/cookie base with a sweet creamy fondant like layer on top. The combination was pretty damn wonderful and although I would probably still choose the Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter over it, I would still highly recommend this bar on the basis that it offers something completely different to the rest of the Chunky range. I can't seem to find many other reviews of this bar on the net so it would be interesting to hear from you people that have tried it.

8.4 out of 10

August 1st: Thorntons Best of British 2012 Bakewell Tart / Banana & Custard

A British themed product line ...!? Well I never!!! :-D I'll save you all another rant about my growing weariness of British themed items but I do have to admit I'm fast getting sick of that sight of these red, blue and white brandished goods. I certainly can't take it out on Thorntons today as that would be unfair on them as they are only following what every other manufacture on our shores have done in the last few months. Instead I'll just give you my opinions on the two Limited Edition 'Best of British' chocolates they have created for this summer. Well, its actually more just the one chocolate they've created this year, as one of the variants was also around for a brief time in 2011.

I bought both of these 80.0g bars in my local Thorntons shop and they were both price aligned to the other variants in the Thorntons square bars range at £1.19 a piece. You can probably tell from my paragraph above how much I thought of the British packaging and presentation concept, however I will at least say they were some of the classier looking Brit themed wrappers I've come across in the last few weeks.

Thorntons Bakewell Tart
Kcal 552 Fat 35.6g Fat(sats) 21.7g Carbs 47.4g (per 100.0g)


As I made mention to above I had actually previously reviewed one of the two flavours from the selection - Thorntons Bakewell Tart (Review - See HERE). That was a bar originally released for the Throntons centurion celebration and I remember really quite enjoying it at the time. Unfortunately, what I also remember was that the chocolate had one major flaw and that was the raspberry seeds which created an annoying, rough texture. Thorntons seemingly didn't learn from this mistake and it's a shame becuase it was a shared view by several of my fellow chocolate blogging friends! It was good to see Thorntons retain the insane Bakewell Tart realism in the taste, but I genuinely was disappointed they didn't attempt to rectify the seeds issue. I'm begrudgingly give it the same score as last year.

8.4 out of 10

Thorntons Banana & Custard
Kcal 567 Fat 35.7g Fat(sats) 22.8g Carbs 53.1g (per 100.0g)

Thankfully I now get the opportunity to be a whole lot more positive about this 'white chocolate with banana chips, vanilla seed and custard flavoured' delight. Ladies and gents this chocolate was awesome - there's no other way of putting it. All signs were indicating this from the outset - the bar smelt like a dream and the custard and banana smells were forthcoming straight away. What with it being both a white chocolate and containing a sugary fruit like banana this had all the potential to be sickly sweet but this flaw was negotiated superbly. Instead the chocolate base was gorgeously creamy and had strong tones of vanilla custard that left the most delicious dairy aftertaste in the mouth once it's thick, flowing melt had come and gone. When left to slowly melt on the tongue the melted chocolate left banana chips remnants to crunch down on. These added very real tasting bursts of banana fruit flavours and varied up the texture nicely bringing a cool chewy, crispy element to the party. I loved this chocolate and so did my banana loving Mother.

9.1 out of 10

Overall both of these chocolate deliver big time on their intended flavours so if either are tickling your fancy then you should get involved without doubt. As I said above it was annoying lessons weren't learnt from last year with the Bakewell Tart, but that said it was still an accurate representation of one of our countries most famous cakes. As for the Banana & Custard I think I have to say little other than it was the best white chocolate I've had all year. I highly, highly recommend that one if it is white chocolate that floats your boat. I'll certainly be stocking up on it considering it's a limited edition! Tell me what you thought of these on Twitter @Chocmission