UK Update 2012: Lindt Lindor Stracciatella

UK Update - September 14th 2012

I'm delighted to announce that the lovely people at Lindt have recently been in contact with some exciting news regarding these Lindt Lindor Stracciatella chocolates. Yes folks I have the rather awesome news to bring you that these delightful little chocolate morsels will soon be widely available here in the UK as a limited edition. Last week I got my own box of them to try (as per my new photo above!). I can confirm they were every bit as awesome as when I tried them back in June 2010. I've not yet heard where these are going to be distributed, though I've been assured they will be available from the Lindt Chocolate store - See HERE. If white chocolate truffles are a favourite of yours then I highly suggest you give yourself a treat.

Original Review - June 10th 2010
Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Just a few weeks ago ChocolateMission reader Lauren got in contact with me and requested that I 'review the new Lindt Lindor flavours'. I have to admit that I responded by asking Lauren what these new Lindt Lindor flavours were, as I wasn't even aware that any even existed! Adding further weight to my argument that my readers are the nicest people ever ;) Lauren not only responded with the information, but also with a very generous offer of sending me some in the post. This was of course an offer to good to turn down - so thanks to Lauren I today bring you my first of three reviews on the new flavours, the Lindt Lindor Stracciatella.

Keen ChocolateMission readers will be aware that I have previously reviewed Lindt's attempt at a Stracciatella chocolate before, in the form of a bar from their Excellence range (See HERE). For those unbeknown to what Stracciatella is, I can inform you that it is an Italian type of ice cream called Gelato, which is further supplemented with chocolate shavings. From what Lauren told me, she bought these truffles in a 'pick-a-mix' type Lindor selection in her local Whittakers shop (damn my local one for shutting down!). Obviously due to this, they came with no exterior packaging, though each was wrapped in a very cool looking sky blue coloured wrapper.

Removing the truffles from their foil coatings, the first thing that struck me (apart from how difficult they were going to be to photograph!!) was how awesome the speckled white chocolate effect looked. In terms of aroma the truffles didn't offer much in the way of progression from the intial faint dairy based scents, however cutting in to the truffles the brown dotted appearance did enough to hold my intrigue. Placing the first truffle in my mouth I was instantly reminded how of just how good Lindt are when it comes to white chocolate. The taste was thankfully devoid of all the generic sugary flavours that most average white chocolates offer, and was far more focused in providing a long, smooth flowing cream based taste that was nothing short of delightful. The crunchy cocoa bits placed within both the shell and inner truffle filling were similarly great, and enhanced the overall taste with short, sweets bursts of chocolatey cocoa flavours. Speaking of the truffle filling it was your usual Lindor fair, and contrasted almost perfectly with the crisp outer shell, melting with infinite smoothness like butter once warmed on the tongue. In comparison to some of the dark chocolate Lindor truffles, these weren't as rich, thus weren't quite as satisfying and were edible in greater amounts. I guess this was to be expected given the white chocolate proposition.

Overall despite these not quite being the same imperious all round product as the Lindt Excellence Stracciatella bar, these Lindor Stracciatella were still some very tasty truffles. When it comes to white chocolate, I tend to think there are three main groups of products - firstly you have the sugary messes that belong in the abyss (Hannah's White Mice etc!), secondly the bog standard sweet, milky tasting white chocolates (Nestle Milkybar etc), and thirdly a small group of prestigious white chocolate offerings from the likes of Hotel Chocolat etc. Thankfully I am glad to report that these Lindt Lindor Stracciatella sit nicely in that third group, as the smooth melting cream based experience they offer entitle them to sit alongside some of the other white chocolates elite. If I was to compare and contrast with the Lindor White I reviewed last year, I would say the additional cocoa bursts brought to the party by the sprinkling of cocoa nibs, made them just a little bit superior. It is a safe assumption to make that if you are a fan of them you would really enjoy these - I would recommend you give them a try.

8.1 out of 10

September 12th: Artisan du Chocolat Chocolate Coated Salted Caramel Popcorn

Astisan du Chocolat are never a brand afraid to try something a little different and the products I'm featuring from them today would certainly reaffirm that statement. Although we have recently seen some of the mass market chocolate producers try their hand at chocolate coated popcorn (See Cadbury Popcorn HERE), Artisan du Chocolat are the first higher-end brand that I can recall making gourmet chocolate coated popcorn. This step into the unknown was exactly the reason why I was so excited about trying these new Artisan du Chocolat Chocolate Coated Salted Caramel Popcorn flavours. If they were going to be the same sort of quality as some of the rest of their range, I knew I was going to be in for a treat.

The three different flavour variants that got sent to me to try came in 100.0g plastic jars. I loved the look of the presentation with the containers giving a retro, old sweet shop type of feel to the range. The flavours on offer, Poping Candy Salted Caramel, Rocky Road Salted Caramel and Milk & Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel all sounded like interesting variants; the first two in particular were not varieties of chocolate coated popcorn I had ever seen produced before. Below are my thoughts on each flavour:

Artisan du Chocolat Popping Candy Salted Caramel Popcorn

Lets be honest - we all know that I really don't like popping candy so to say this was the flavour I was most looking forward to trying would be an outright lie. Despite my initial concerns I was delighted to find that the popping candy element was really not that significant and aside from a small, interesting touch of mouth fizz as the chocolate melted, it wasn't something that was all that obvious. The popping candy in no way hampered my enjoyment of the delicious dark chocolate which coated the corn - let me go in to more detail on that below ;-)

8.2 out of 10

Artisan du Chocolat Rocky Road Salted Caramel Popcorn

The next variant I tried were these Rocky Road milk chocolate coated popcorn. I have to admit that at first I was a little disappointed to read that there was no cherry or other read fruit involvement like with most Rocky Road products. This initial disappoint fizzled away as fast as the corn melted on my tongue as I was soon treated to a luxurious taste packed full of creamy cocoa, sweet toffee, woody hazelnut, salt and corn cereal. This five pronged deluge of flavours was just sensational and I found it hard placing the lid back on every time I reached inside.

8.4 out of 10

Artisan du Chocolat Milk & Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Popcorn

Now if you thought I enjoyed the Rocky Road flavour then you should really take note of how much I loved this Milk & Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel variant. This ladies and gentlemen was gourmet chocolate coated popcorn in the most grandioso sense. This combination of two chocolates types mixed 35.0% milk chocolate with 70.0% dark chocolate - both were of a phenomenal quality. The milk chocolate coated corn were obviously the sweeter of the two and they brought a lovely contrast to the plainer, richer, earthier cocoa flavours being offered by the dark chocolate pieces. Both chocolate types matched the buttery, salty flavours of the inner corn superbly. These I'm afraid did not last me longer than the one sitting - I just couldn't help myself.

8.9 out of 10

Overall it has to be regarded as an incredible feat by Artisan du Chocolat to be able to take an everyday snack like popcorn and make it seem as special as they have done with these products here. All three flavours were fantastic and I wouldn't have any qualms whatsoever recommending a purchase of any of them. With that said If you want my advice on which to go for you only need look at my scores, which should lead you in the direction of the Milk & Dark Chocolate variant. For me that was the one that stood out from the collection. Please let me (@Chocmission) and Artisan du Chocolat (@ArtisanduChocolat) know on Twitter which you fancy trying the most.    

September 10th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch / Toffee Popcorn

Last week I was yet again the recipient of a parcel from the folk at Cadbury HQ. A day earlier I had stumbled across this article HERE informing me of these two, soon to be released new Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates. I never thought I would have them in my hands so soon, but over the last few days I've been sharing them around with work colleagues and friends to get their opinions.

The two new bars are the Cadbury Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch (200.0g) and Cadbury Dairy Milk Toffee Popcorn (150.0g), and they should be in all good stores by the time you are reading this review. Bars in hand, the first thing that I noticed about them was that the Kraft influence was very obvious, and they reminded me a lot of some Milka bars I had reviewed in previous years - see Milka Choco Rice HERE & Milka Choco Swing Biscuit HERE. Below are my own thoughts on these two new flavours:

Cadbury Dairy Milk Toffee Popcorn
Kcal 510 Fat 26.5g Fat(sats) 16.0g Carbs 59.5g (per 100.0g)

This one came described as 'milk chocolate with pieces of lightly salted caramel popcorn' and comes hot off the heels of the launch of the Cadbury Popcorn pouch which I reviewed back in June - See HERE. I thought the chocolate was very cool looking and I liked the way that the bar was absolutely crammed full of popcorn pieces - see my pic above! With comparisons to the aforementioned pouch product inevitable, I soon came to the conclusion this bar format had both upsides and downsides. On the positive side the use of the Dairy Milk chocolate was all for the better flavour wise, and I could certainly detect a creamier chocolatey taste. The denser melting chocolate however did present a downside for the popcorn element, as its already weak flavours never seemed to come to the fore whatsoever with the salt and toffee elements MIA for the large part. Ultimately it was a decent enough chocolate but it wasn't one that left me gagging for more.

7.8 out of 10

Cadbury Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch
Kcal 545 Fat 33.0g Fat(sats) 19.0g Carbs 55.5g (per 100.0g)

This next Cadbury Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch came billed as 'milk chocolate with a creme filling, milk chocolate creme filling and biscuit'. My photo really hasn't done it justice, but aesthetically it looked terrific with the different multiple layers clearly evident with the bar broken apart. I've long been waiting for a decent Dairy Milk biscuit bar since it got taken out of the range mid 2000's and I'm pleased to inform we finally have one. This chocolate was nothing other than delicious and I thought every layer played its part in what was a multi-dimensional taste. The outer Dairy Milk was as usual a terrific carrier for the inner filling with it's sweet, cream laden cocoa flavours a delightful lead in to the crunchy biscuit center. The layers of creme that lay between chocolate and biscuit didn't particularly add to much to the experience, though that really mattered little with the buttery, salt licked shortbread like biscuit bring added interest and intrigue to the party. Unlike the Toffee Popcorn bar above, once I opened this chocolate I really was left wanting more - I didn't deny myself.

8.8 out of 10 

Overall with new additions coming and going from the Cadbury Dairy Milk range at an increasingly fast rate these days, it's easy to write them off as bars that wont stand the test of time. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but I rate the chances of at least one of these bars sticking around quite high. I will make the very non-risky prediction that the Cadbury Dairy Milk Toffee Popcorn will not be around this time next year :-) On the contrary I rate the chances of the Cadbury Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch a heck of a lot better. The latter of the two for me just brought more to the party in terms of it's proposition and uniqueness and I don't think there are than many similar alternatives currently in the Dairy Milk range. Have you tried these bars yet!? Let me know what you thought of them @ChocMission

September 7th: Oh Henry! Peanut Butter

Kcal 310 Fat 20.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 29.0g

Until a few weeks ago I was having a right old time sourcing any Canadian products to review for the site. Luckily for me, my pals at Cybercandy (@CybercandyLTD) recently stepped up to the plate and sent me a whole host of products that they stock from there - Take a look at their Canadian range HERE. Included in this rather wonderful selection, they included one of these Oh Henry! Peanut Butter bars; I remembered Cybele reviewing it on Candy Blog a while ago (review HERE!). When I saw it on Cybele's site I thought it looked and sounded like a Reese's Nutsrageous bar and the on pack description of 'peanuts, Reese's peanut butter and caramel, covered in a chocolaty coating' did little to persuade me otherwise. The aforementioned Reese's product earnt itself a 8.9 on the ChocolateMission rating scale so I was looking forward to seeing if this could be equally as successful.

This Oh Henry! Peanut Butter was a monster of a bar and it weighed a plentiful 60.0g. Although it packed a lot of calories the bar contained a pretty hefty 8.0g protein and made for a very fulfilling snack. The outer packaging was nicely designed incorporating the standard yellow Oh Henry! colour theme but also with a touch of orange to communicate the Reese's input to the product. The bar itself was nicely protected in the foil wrapper as it was protected with one of those cardboard strips. Personally I think it would have been more convenient for the bar to have already been split into two pieces (like the original American Oh Henry!) but it wasn't as if it was too much hassle doing it myself. When I split open to foil wrapper I was little underwhelmed with the smell that greeted me, but this soon changed when I cut into the bar upon where I was met with a lovely waft of Reese's peanuts.

Having had a Reese's Nutsrageous just the other day I was in a good position to make a comparison when I tucked into this bar today. I have frequently been disappointed with Reese's milk chocolate in the past and unsurprisingly I didn't perceive the milk chocolate coating on this bar to be any better at all. I say I was unsurprised as both bars are made by Hershey's so to be honest I didn't feel all that let down when I was met with a familiar mild tasting chocolate that had a slightly waxy melt. Thankfully where the chocolate was equally as disappointing the other elements to the bar were nearly just as good with the peanuts, peanut butter and caramel all combining to deliver a wonderful synergy of flavours. Together the peanuts and the peanut butter made for a delicious roasted nut taste that brought a real saltiness to the overall taste. In stark comparison the caramel was fantastically sweet and had a sweet, syrupy butter like taste with a chewy soft texture. As previously mentioned above the whole 60.0g bar made for a very satisfying snack which more than settled my hunger at the time.

Overall this was a very nice chocolate bar though I am pretty sure they also get the Reese's Nutsrageous in Canada which does beg the question why does it exist in the first place!? On the downside in comparison to the Reese's Nutsrageous I didn't think the nuts tasted quite as fresh or had quite the same crunchiness in texture and to be honest I was disappointed to see the chocolate was equally as poor. Looking at the bigger picture though this was still an exceedingly tasty bar and one that I would definitely have again if offered. If you like your peanut butter and peanuts this would well worth being a bar you should invest in at some point. This was a great bar but yet again I am left thinking what could be if Hershey's would make a product with higher quality chocolate

8.6 out of 10

Sepetember 5th: Elizabeth Shaw Chocolate Flutes

Over the last five years I have received infrequent, but consistent reader requests to do some reviews of Elizabeth Shaw's chocolate range. Back in 2011 I did feature some of their chocolate bars in one of my Christmas recommendation posts but that aside I probably haven't done their line up justice .... until now of course :-) Yes indeed the kind folks at Elizabeth Shaw recently sent me a whopping 2.5kg chocolate hamper. Admittedly that is way too much chocolate for one guy - be sure to keep an eye on the @ChocMission twitter feed for my inevitable giveaways! Back to matters at hand today I'm going to give you my thoughts on  Elizabeth Shaw's Chocolate Flutes range. This included four different packs of thin chocolate sticks with flavoured centres

Elizabeth Shaw Latte Flutes
Kcal 24 Fat 1.3g Fat(sats) 0.8g Carbs 2.6g (per stick)

Unfortunately these didn't prove to be all that great. They were oddly very, very waxy in texture (just look at the bend in my photo above!!) and had a horribly greasy mouth feel that left a nasty feeling on the roof of my mouth. Whilst horrible in texture they also did very little for me taste wise and though they avoided the common pitfall of most mass produced white chocolate offerings and weren't horribly sugary, they fell right down the other end of the flavour spectrum and hardly tasted of anything at all. In fact it wasn't until I got to the milk chocolate centres where I was finally greeted with any sort of chocolatey flavours and even then the coffee influence wasn't as strong as it should have been. I don't like reporting disappointments but I'm afraid these were exactly that - shame!

4.6 out of 10

Elizabeth Shaw Mint Flutes
Kcal 23 Fat 1.3g Fat(sats) 0.8g Carbs 2.7g (per stick)

I don't know about you guys but whenever I think Elizabeth Shaw, I think dark chocolate and mint. These two are probably what you would regard as ES's signature combination and I've tried many  different offerings with them from their range before. Suffice to say I knew what to expect here - 50% cocoa dark chocolate and sweet as sin mint fondant. Unlike the Latte Flutes above these did meet my expectations and thought they were wonderful complimenting an after dinner coffee. The texture and mouth feel of the melt was ten times better with these and the same can be said about the taste. The dark chocolate was also a big step up from their white chocolate. It wasn't bitter or over powering and it was a nice match with the sugary, peppermint fondant which itself added a refreshing burst of mintyness when uncovered. Wonderful stuff.

8.2 out of 10

Elizabeth Shaw Orange Flutes
Kcal 22 Fat 1.3g Fat(sats) 0.8g Carbs 2.5g (per stick)

Out of all the flavours these were the ones I was probably the least enthused about. Despite by lack of enthusiasm there were no worries there though, I found a suitable chocolate orange fan to assist me with my taste testing. These sticks were billed as 'orange milk chocolate coated in dark chocolate' and came with the same same 50% cocoa recipe exterior as per the mint flutes above. Again I found the dark chocolate coating was rich in flavour but this time I did think it overpowered the centres and the milk chocolate fillings struggled to substantiate the orange fruit flavours. The orange was there but not as strong as desired - perhaps an orange flavoured fondant as per the mint flutes above would have been a better option. These didn't set my world alight but at the same time there was certainly nothing wrong with them at all.

6.9 out of 10

Elizabeth Shaw Amaretto Flutes
Kcal 23 Fat 1.3g Fat(sats) 0.8g Carbs 2.6g (per stick)

Last but by no means least these Amaretto flavoured Flutes were the final flavour in the selection I tried. I left them until last as I wasn't expecting that much from them given that I only very seldom drink alcohol. Well I'm delighted to report that I loved these! The combination of the milk chocolate outer portions with the amaretto liqueur flavoured centres was just marvelous. The inner fillings were a texture and flavour delight and the silky soft mouth feel was a perfect synergy with the flowing smooth flavours of the buttery almond nuttyness. There was a minor boozieness to these particular Flutes but it was well contained and was the correct level at which it was detectable and enhancing rather than a distraction. These were a close second for me.

8.0 out of 10

Overall Elizabeth Shaw did a really fine job with two out of the four flavours here and they come very much recommend them if they are flavours you fancy. I wasn't surprised to enjoy the Mint Flutes as much as I did, but as described the Amaretto Flutes were a pleasant revelation. Remember to keep an eye on @ChocMission - you never know I could be giving away some ES Flutes this week ;-)

September 3rd: Cadbury Pretzels

Kcal 165 Fat 7.0g Fat(sats) 4.8g Carbs 22.7g (per 36.6g - 1/3 bag) 


Barely a month has gone by this year without our friends over at Cadbury releasing some sort of new product to treat us UK folk with. Last month it was the launch of the Cadbury Popcorn - an altogether surprisingly nice proposition that I've admittedly bought a few times since - review HERE. Taking centre stage today we have the latest Cadbury offering and like the popcorn this one also had Kraft's American influence written all over it; ladies and and gentlemen - Cadbury Pretzels. Though the chocolate and pretzel combination isn't one that is totally new to me (See my reviews of Pretzel Flipz HERE), the duo isn't often found here in the UK so it was nice to see something a little different coming out of Cadbury HQ.

I bought this 110.0g bag in my local Tesco on a 2 for £2.00 deal. The packaging to me was instantly recognizable as Cadbury though I think on your average person the branding may be lost due to it's small size and placement on the bag. Marketing geekyness aside, I was also a little disappointed with the actual pretzels which I thought were a little on the small size - certainly smaller than I was expecting anyway! Checking the back of the packet my expectations were instantly drawn to the lack of 'Dairy Milk' wording anywhere. With that said I was still very welcoming of the instantly recogniseable Cadbury chocolate smells that did reignite expectations somewhat.

High expectations are never a good thing to have with new products nowadays but I'm pleased to say these lived up to, if not exceeded them. I've already passed mention to my awareness of the lacking of Dairy Milk chocolate so I was fully prepared for the slightly less creamy, more sugar intensive chocolate coatings on offer here. In its weird sort of way this sweeter chocolate actually kinda worked, as it meant the contrast between the sugary chocolate and savoury, salt noted pretzels innards was all the more extreme. This combination of sweet and salt was very tasty and was described as 'epically moreish' by one of the friends I shared these with. Like the Cadbury Popcorn pack last month, the bag was emptied in minutes when shared amongst a few people - it was definitely a good thing I bought the 2 for £2.00.  

Overall unlike a lot of the 'new' products we see churned out these days I think that these Cadbury Pretzels have 'legs in them' and it wouldn't surprise me if they are one of the few that stick around for a fair few years. As I said at the start of the review today, the chocolate and pretzel tandem isn't one commonly seen over here so a widely available option will be new on a lot of UK chocolate lovers. I don't think Cadbury executed these perfectly but frankly they have done them well enough and I can see it pretty likely that I buy them again some time in the not to distant future. Fans of Pretzel Flipz will  be interested as I expect the average Cadbury will also. I say give them a go, its likely you will get some level of enjoyment from them.

8.0 out of 10

August 31st: Kellogg's Rice Krispies Squares Honeycomb Crunch

Kcal 134 Fat 3.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 25.0g (per bar)

Im sure by now you all know that Im rather partial to the odd Rice Krispie Square and that I never leave  it to long to write my reviews whenever there is a new limited edition flavour released by Kelloggs. Well lads and ladies Im sure you will all be ecstatic to hear that we have yet another variety joining the Rice Krispie Squares ranks, this all new Honeycomb Crunch flavour. This latest variety joins the likes of the Rocky Road, Totally Chocolatey Orange and Totally Chocolatey - all of which have been released in the past 12 months. The Honeycomb Crunch came billed as 'toasted rice cereal topped with milk chocolate covered honeycomb pieces and a chocolate flavour coating'.

The launch of these new Honeycomb Crunch bars has been all rather low key and I didn't happen to see any press releases prior to my purchase. I bought these as part of a 4 bar multipack that just so happened to be a on a 'better than half price' deal in my local Tesco supermarket, priced at a rather attractive £0.95 price point point. Having not been aware of them before seeing them in store it was by luck that I actually spotted them; I certainly didn't feel like they have great standout when they were placed to the similarly colored packaging of the Totally Orange bars.

Casting my minor grievances about the packaging standout to one side, I thought the cereal bars themselves looked nice and attractive and I liked the look of the golden cereal with the plentiful milk chocolate topping on top. If you look back in the archives you will see that my least favourite Rice Krispie Square of all time was the Chocolate Caramel flavour which I described as 'overpoweringly sweet'. Fearing an experience of similar quality I was pleasantly surprised to taste a more mild mannered Rice Krispie treat. To me this Honeycomb Crunch was far superior to the aforementioned Chocolate Caramel and the less sugar intensive bind that fused the bar together had more of a lighter sweet flavour delivery to it. This milder base meant that the flavours of the chocolate and the floral noted honey came through a lot stronger and every bite seemed to deliver a good flavour hit of both these two elements.

Overall although this was a simplistic cereal based bar offering it was decent nonetheless and I got a fair level of enjoyment from it. I wouldn't classify it as the best of the Rice Krispie flavours (See Totally Chocolatey or Totally Chocolatey Orange for that!) though I think in the long run if it replaced the Chocolate Caramel I wouldn't think it a necessarily bad thing. I guess we will have to wait and see if that does happen but at the moment I believe this to just be a Limited Edition flavour so it could be gone before we all know it. There probably isnt much more to say other than whether I would give it a JCM recommendation!? To that point I would direct Rice Krispie Square fans in the direction of it, however I would struggle to justify it as a 'must buy' purchase. Let me know what you think of it on Twitter @ChocMission

7.0 out of 10

  

August 29th: Hotel Chocolat Puddles 2012

Considering the amount of rain we have received in the UK this summer it feels somewhat appropriate that I review these Hotel Chocolat Puddles. Both of these flavours were included in my latest sampling package from HC - one new variant and one I had reviewed previously way back in the day of May 2009 (thats over 3 years ago now!! Crazy huh!?)

Both of these Hotel Chocolat Puddles came in 110.0g bag sizes and separately cost £5.50 each. I thought this was rather expensive for a single bag on it's own, however I thought the promotion of £4.50 each when buying 3 or more bags was a lot more agreeable - See promotion HERE.

Down the years I have reviewed  a few different Hotel Chocolat Puddles with varying amount of success - you might want to see HERE and HERE for those old reviews. If you do take the trouble to take a wander back in ChocolateMission time you will notice that the packaging has changed a little. The Puddles now come presented in frosted plastic packets as opposed to the cheaper looking older bags - personally I think they look cooler, and more premium than previous.

Hotel Chocolat Salted Caramel Puddles - See 2009 review for my extensive thoughts HERE. These were still every bit as fantastic as when I last had them. I'm more than happy to stick by my 8.8 out of 10 ruling.

Hotel Chocolat 70% Dark Chocolate & Ginger Puddles - Boy these were god awful .... only kidding :-) No these were seriously very good and met my high expectations. The dark chocolate was typically Hotel Chocolat in that it started off mild mannered and non-bitter but grew in stature of it's cocoa strength and flavour sophistication as the taste developed. The puddles shape meant these were perfect just popping on the tongue and the smooth, well paced melt meant that the earthy cocoa and subtle ginger spice flavours were long sustained in the mouth. The ginger influence was a little under powered for my liking but it did bring about another dimension to the taste with its small lick of spice and heat to the mouth feel.

8.8 out of 10

Overall if you are thinking of purchasing any of these Hotel Chocolat Puddles then I would strongly suggest you take these two flavours in to your consideration. Fans of dark chocolate will no doubt love the ginger infused Puddles and the Salted Caramel ones offer a similarly superb, friendlier offering. I've always thought these are good options to gift people if you are looking to impress them with good quality chocolate, but at a price that isn't going to seem over the top to either purchaser or receiver.

August 27th: Mars Caramel (UK)

Kcal 204 Fat 8.1g Fat(sats) 4.0g Carbs (sugars) 27.0g

Two weeks ago I broke the news on the JCM twitter feed (@Chocmission) that Mars were launching a new limited edition offering for the UK market, the Mars Caramel bar. The official announcement read:

'The latest product innovation from Mars contains 100% chewy caramel coated in thick Mars Chocolate, and aims to capitalise on increasing consumer preferences for caramel. Available in stores across the UK from the 10 September, the Limited Edition Mars Caramel has already had success in the US, Canada and Australia.'

You may recall that I have actually tried both the American (See HERE) and Canadian (See HERE) versions of this bar before, and it was the US Milky Way Simply Caramel that was much to my preference.

Well it didn't take me long to track down our very own UK bar and I found it on sale in my local Tesco retailing at £0.53. Both the wrapper and the bar looked very similar to the Canadian version and it was disappointing to see it was a less impressive looking, smaller 45.0g offering compared to the beefier American Milky Way Simply Caramel. The bar still retained many of the sweet milk chocolaty scent synonymous with Mars chocolate but at this point I was already braced for disappointment.

As you will see from my JCM leaderboard the Mars bar is one of my all time favourite chocolates and I've never been much of a fan of tampering with a winning formula. Why on earth would you want to remove the nougat in the first place? Well I guess if you get more caramel like you do in the American version then it is somewhat understandable as you are sacrificing one element of the bar to make room for another. Personally the feeling I got left with from this Mars Caramel UK bar was that the nougat had been taken out, but with no added extra caramel included. I could be wrong in that the caramel may be more greatly portioned, but my this wasn't something I perceived in the taste thus what I was left with was a rather generic sweet tasting milk chocolate, with a decent standard sweet buttery caramel - if I wanted this why would I not just choose the superior Galaxy Caramel in the first place!?

Overall I don't like to ever call anything in life pointless but Im afraid Im very much struggling to find a justifiable reason why I could suggest this Mars Caramel UK bar is worth you trying. The bar both aesthetically and when you eat it feels like something is missing. Do you know the defect Kit Kats you sometimes get where they are all chocolate and no wafer!? Well this bar gave me exactly the same feelings as when I used to come across one of them. Indeed all seemed cool and quirky at first, but then after a few bites it became all too apparent that the bar was just missing something. As I said above if you are taking away the nougat then you have to compensate it with something else ala more caramel in the Milky Way Simply Caramel. This was something Mars UK didn't oblige us with Im afraid. Buy one perhaps for the sake of trying it, but trust me I think you will be yearning for the original not long after.

7.0 out of 10

August 24th: Cadbury Dairy Milk Bubbly Mini Bar

Kcal 210 Fat 12.0g Fat(sats) 7.4g Carbs 22.5g

Earlier this week I received a rather funky package in the post from my friends at Cadbury @DaryMilk .

Within a Cadbury branded cylinder tube parcel I found a rather cool collection of @DairyMilk goodies - an Iphone case, a memory stick, a miniature parachute!??? and last but not least the latest new product from the 'Joyville' chocolate factory.

Now before any of you get your hopes up too much (like mine were haha!!) I will quickly douse your innovation dreams by revealing this was a simple re-sizing of an existing product. Ladies and Gents I present to you the latest addition to the Cadbury @DairyMilk line up - the Cadbury Dairy Milk Bubbly Mini Bar.

Yes folks Cadbury are soon releasing a 39.6g version of the original 90.0g bars first released back in January 2012. You can see my original reviews of those bars HERE where you will find my 8.1 out of 10 JCM ruling.

As much as I appreciate the nice parcel of goodies from Cadbury I cant pretend like I'm all that excited by the launch of this new mini bar format. A few obvious things spring to mind like its similarity in proposition to the Cadbury Wispa, though I guess with it coming out of the blue and not at the expense of another bar in the Cadbury range we shouldn't really criticse. At the end of the day its still Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate and frankly that makes it a tasty little number in my opinion.

August 22nd: Zotter Mitzi Blue Mango Tango

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

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Josef Zotter really does live on a different planet to the rest of us! The bar I'm reviewing today is the first one I've tried from Josef's new Mitzi Blue range - a new line of chocolates inspired by a car nonetheless (I told you he was nuts!!). Yes it seems our Austrian chocolatier friend takes inspiration from not only his ingredients, but also the automotive trade. His attempt to combine his two passions has seen him create this new range of 'wheel shaped' chocolates, included in which this Mango Tango variety lies. Before launching head on in to the review, I must again give a shout out to my friend Lee from @Chocolatereview - he was again the kind provider of this chocolate for my reviewing pleasure.

If you take a look in the JCM archives at all the Zotter reviews you will realise that a near 90% of my previous experiences have been with Zotter's 'Handscooped bars' range. This Mitzi Blue Mango Tango offering was a different proposition entirely and it came presented as a flat, thin, round shaped chocolate. Whilst the format of the product was different to normal, there were consistencies with the style of the presentation with the bizarre on-pack artwork again penned by Andreas Gratze. As usual I wasn't clever enough to work out the symbolism behind the drawings, but at the same time I appreciated the cool, funky unique look it established. I'm no art critic but I don't think it can be disputed that Gratze's work doesn't add character to the Zotter products. The chocolate itself was also very interesting on the eye and it certainly created further intrigue with it's chocolatey, fruity scents.

So what exactly constitutes a madhouse, Zotter created "Mitzi Blue Mango Tango" chocolate then!? Why it's the combination of 'mango chocolate and dark chocolate with brazil nuts' of course :-D As you will hopefully be able to see from the my photos above this was predominantly a thin outer rim of cream coloured mango white chocolate, with a centre piece of 80.0% cocoa dark chocolate, all topped with chopped brazil nuts. Breaking the chocolate apart was very easy and I tackled it by eating all around the central dark chocolate before allowing myself to the 'treat' of my favourite chocolate type for my last few mouthfuls - best until last is my policy of course :-) Starting with the mango chocolate then, it was a delicious white chocolate offering and it's mild, crisp, milk focused taste had a strong citric, mango flavour edge to it. Importantly it avoided the pitfall of being overly sweet and the main impression it left on me was it's fruity emphasis which was very much a good thing. The addition of the chopped brazil nuts added little to the taste, though they did bring a sense of variety texture wise with their fresh crunchyness. As for the dark chocolate, aka the 'Main Event' haha well it certainly wasn't a letdown - it was wonderful! The dark chocolate maintained a hint of fruitiness from the outer mango portion yet also established strong tones of rich, earthy cocoa with intriguing hints of coffee and red wine. This was a superbly variable, progressive tasting chocolate that seemed to develop with every stage of it's melt - it was certainly an exciting flavour journey from beginning to end. 

Overall I could label Mr Josef Zotter with every word under the sun relating to the term 'crazy' but I think time would be better spent just marveling at his fantastic chocolatiering capabilities. The guy is frankly from a different planet to the rest of us but I think it is this uniqueness that makes him the genius that so many have come to love. This Mitzi Blue Mango Tango was yet another example of his talent for combining different flavour combinations - I'm not saying he gets it right 100% of the time, but if you look at the JCM archives it's not often that he picks ingredients that are ill-matched for each other.The pairing on offer in this bar today was again an instance where Josef has got things spot-on. The sweetness and acidity of the mango fruit played nicely with the richer, more mature offering from the dark chocolate and it made for a highly enjoyable plethora of different taste directions. I can see why quite a few people often turn their noses up at Zotter chocolates as I understand his creations don't always fall within the boundaries of what is deemed 'normal'. Personally I enjoy them for the most part and would recommend you at least give them a try if they do hold some intrigue for you.

8.9 out of 10          

August 20th: Hotel Chocolat Jam Jar Chocolates

A fair few chocolate companies go a little a quiet in the summer months but this is not something that cannot be attributed to Hotel Chocolat. With summer themed beauties like their Hotel Chocolat Taste of Summer Collection they have continued to produce some fantastic new offerings and I got the chance today to to try out a further three.

These all new Hotel Chocolat Jam Jar Chocolates came in 100.0g containers that had 22 chocolate truffles in each. I thought the presentation style of all of these was rather quirky and not something I had seen done before - kudos for the innovation there HC! All three of these truffle variants looked well presented and the flavours were made very obvious with the colourings placed on top of each piece. Below are my thoughts on the three flavours and the all important JCM ratings.

Hotel Chocolat Jam Jar Raspberry Jam

If I'm starting off with the 'worst' of the three flavours and you see I'm still giving a score in the 8's then you will know you have some quality products here. These 'Raspberry Jam' truffles came billed as 'raspberry and white chocolate truffles incased in a milk chocolate shell'. The 40.0% house milk chocolate fast established a sweet, cream heavy cocoa taste and this was supplemented superbly by the soft centre filling that bore a seriosuly good tangy raspberry flavour burst. They were verging a little on the sweet side for me but the friend I tried them with described them as 'incredibly moreish'.

8.4 out of 10

Hotel Chocolat Jam Jar Lemon Curd

As these were the white chocolate offering in the selection I was probably least excited about trying these though they did ultimately prove to be my second favourites. These 'Lemon Curd' truffles came with the simple descriptor of 'lemon curd and creamy white chocolate truffles'. A few of my work colleagues turned their nose up at these at first but once they tried them they finished them off within an hour. The combination of the cream and milk flavour laden outer chocolate was just awesome and the way the citrus sharp lemon filling contrasted with it was just delicious. These well exceeded expectations.

8.6 out of 10

Hotel Chocolat Jam Jar Orange Marmalade

The Lemon Curd chocolates were fantastic - these Orange Marmalade ones were incredible! The 'orange marmalade filled dark chocolate truffles' instantly took my fancy and the orangey smells emanating from the Jam Jar when unsealed didn't little to persuade me otherwise.The dark chocolate here was extremely good (surprise, surprise) and it's unsweetened, rich cocoa flavours set up a delicious, sophisticated chocolate flavour base. Contrasting with this completely the centre of each piece contained a sugary, zingy orange jam that was so wonderfully real tasting in terms of its fruitiness. Unlike most dark chocolates these were served chilled from the fridge - this gave the centre fillings a very refreshing coolness in the mouth. I honestly couldn't get enough of these.

8.8 out of 10

Overall I must yet again hand the plaudits to Hotel Chocolat for creating a new range of chocolates that they have done so innovatively and effectively. As I said above the 'Jam Jar' presentation style is not something I have seen done previously and the matching of the chocolates to the flavours was superbly done. If you have to pick only one of the three flavours I would go for the Orange Marmalade but trust me I think you would be happy given any of the three.