Posts tagged UK

Cadbury BrunchBar chocolate chip

October 22, 2010 · Filed under Cadbury, chocolate, energy bar · Tagged , , , , , , ,

I don’t think the look of this bar is very tempting. Compared to a German corn bar this thing surely looks lousy. Small and semi-finished.  Everything but the top is covered with a thin milk chocolate layer, on the top you can see the cereals kept together with honey, plus some chocolate chips. The chocolate chips aren’t very balanced, one site is well covered with chocolate chips and the other is almost empty. I think the definition on the wrapper that says ‘half covered with milk chocolate’ is a little misleading if you don’t take a closer look at the picture on the wrapper. You’d probably have expected more chocolate (as I did!).

It smells like sweet Cadbury milk chocolate mixed up with honey and the aroma of cereals; the milk chocolate dominates the thing.

Like I expected, the taste of the bar is dominated by the cereals. The chocolate coating and the honey keep the BrunchBar from getting too dry and give it a comfortable sweet taste. Sometimes the honey, and at other times the chocolate is a little stronger, depending on how many chocolate chips are on the top. I see and taste that there are different cereals in there, but I am not really able to distinguish them, as they are all mixed up. What confuses me a little is that oats and bran flakes are just the same ingredient in Germany. The texture is smooth and sticky; the bar is easy to break into pieces. Still, the bar remains very chewy and also a little crispy. Nice!

For a cereal bar I find it really tasty. It is not as chocolaty as some German versions, and it is a little drier, but still not too dry. Still, cereal bars are not really candy, I believe! What do you think?

Oh, and to add one final note: Somehow the pictures I’ve taken look way better than the product did!

6 out of 10

Name: BrunchBar
Branch: Cadbury
Price: 0.95 Euro
Calories: 155kcal per bar, 440kcal per 100g
Fat: 6.5g per bar, 18.6g per 100g

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Cadbury Buttons

October 17, 2010 · Filed under Cadbury, chocolate · Tagged , , , , , ,

Somehow I think I always get hold of the white version of a product before finding the original one. It was like that with the KitKat Chunky, the Lion White, Maltesers and it is like that with Cadbury’s buttons.

Is the penguin with the button- eyes on the front of the crème-colored bag the usual image of their wrapper? It is suitable for kids which always is one of the main target groups. The snack pack size is great for being on the run, as well as perfect to saturate your hunger for chocolate. With 180kcal per bag you have less Calories than a common chocolate bar, but you get a lot more satisfaction from the buttons, at least if you enjoy them one after another.

When I first saw them, I thought the size is a joke. They are flatter than every solid chocolate bar and even thinner than a lot of chocolate statues. Against my first thoughts, I like the size of the buttons, at least for eating them. They have just the right size to fit perfectly on your tongue. I always leave them there to let them melt away, which happens immediately. But on the other hand, because they are that small, the flavor cannot develop very well.

The chocolate is really sweet ‘n creamy. To my surprise they used dried cream instead of milk, what explains the level of creaminess coming with this chocolate. This is also why the chocolate isn’t really milky like I always expect white chocolate to be. Don’t get me wrong it is ‘milky’ in a creamy way, but the cream flavor is different from the typical white milk chocolate taste; and furthermore definitely varying from the dairy milk chocolate texture Cadbury is so famous for!
They are alright. Sweet and sugary, nice to eat but nothing spectacular. I miss a certain je ne sais quoi in the chocolate.

6 out of 10

Name: Buttons white
Branch: Cadbury
Price: 0.69 Euro
Size: 37.5g
calories: 180kcal per bag
fat: 11g per bag

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Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut

October 7, 2010 · Filed under Cadbury, chocolate, Kraft · Tagged , , , , , , ,

The combination of fruit and nuts is really cool, as there are crispy as well as chewy ingredients in there, mixed up with melting chocolate. I had high expectations as the “Full Of Plenty” bar I tried a while ago was purely awesome!

I like the wrapper: It comes in the usual Cadbury purple with part of it in wine red. It is slightly shiny and has “Dairy Milk” written all across the bar. The Cadbury logo is on the left in a dim golden color. Its scent is really milky with a glimpse of nut in it. The milk chocolate crumbles easily, but I did not expect anything different from a Cadbury chocolate treat. You can see the huge embedded nuts on the back of the bar.

The chocolate is, as expected from a “dairy milk” really rich of milk. Milk is also the main ingredient in the chocolate, the sugar comes only after it. Still, it is really sweet, but the milk dominates the entire bar. If you are a fan of milky light chocolate, you will like this chocolate.

I have mixed feelings about the almonds in the bar: Some of them were really delicious with a great amount of crunch and a nutty, not too dry experience. But others tasted kind of dry, and anything but tempting. Of course one cannot predict how a nut tastes, but anyway… This kind of thing rarely happens to high quality chocolate treats…

The fruit inside the bar are plain dusted raisins; and actually, I don’t like raisins a lot. Though, they are alright and covered by the strong and sweet milk chocolate taste of the bar. They still add a nice amount of fruit to the bar. They are chewy but smooth at the same time and remind me of jelly. A real plus is that they don’t taste dry at all.

The amount of nuts and raisins is alright, though there are some places without any filling. This is nice if you like parts with plain chocolate to let it melt in your mouth and enjoy pieces of your chocolate which is really rich of milk. It gives you a rest from chewing and provides a more versatile texture. I like the fact that the bar is neither crowded, nor under-filled with almonds and raisins.

Personally, I do not think Cadbury produces the best products out there, but some are really worth trying; especially the dairy and their more recent inventions!

6 out of 10

Name: Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut
Branch: Kraft foods
Price: 0.99 Euro
Calories: 245kcal per bar (49g)
Fat: 13.3g per bar (49g)

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Galaxy Cookie Crumble

September 21, 2010 · Filed under chocolate, Mars · Tagged , , , , ,

This is one of the first cookie-filled chocolates I’ve ever tried. The treat smells milky and sweet and somehow familiar. After inhaling the aroma a few times I know where I have sensed this smell before: The British Maltesers had the same sweet milky aroma. It does not look like a usual straight bar, the pieces are wiggly-lined shaped and have the Galaxy “G” on their top. What made me smile were the eating instructions:  “For maximum pleasure enjoy Galaxy in complere peace and quiet”.

The chocolate is definitely different from the maltesers coating, and I like that fact. It is not as sweet, but still contains a lot of sugar. And the more you eat the sweeter it seems to get. Still, for the really low amount of cocoa the bar has a really rich taste of chocolate instead of milk.

But when it comes to the cookie crumbles, I’m very disappointed: There are not too many pieces of cookies in the bar, but there are enough to make it crunchy. There are also a few smooth parts without any crunch, so that you can enjoy the plain chocolate (if you like this sweet sugary chocolate flavor!)

All in all this is not really what I would consider very well done. There are several other cookie bars that are way better done and make use of the full potential of the dark cocoa cookies. I think of the Hershey’s cookie’s’n’crème bar here. There the mini cookies make a real difference to the chocolate in the bar; their taste does not disappear in the jungle of the very dominating chocolate. But I have to admit I like its looks!

4 out of 10

Name: Galaxy Cookie Crumble
Branch: Mars
Price: 0.99 Euro
Calories: 547kcal per 100g, 246kcal per bar

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Rowntree’s Jelly Tots

September 19, 2010 · Filed under gummies, vegetarian · Tagged , , , , , ,

I know I tend to stick to chocolate reviews, simply because I prefer eating chocolate, but every now and then there is other candy I’d like to show you: I got a small snack sized bag with those tiny dots from a candy swap and I was really keen on them from the day I got them. Though, it took me some time to get to try them, mainly as I did not make too good experiences with Rowntree’s products (not because the products I tried were bad-tasting, just because I almost lost my teeth while trying to chew them xD).

These jellies are supposed to be smooth and come with a sugar coating. Their size is about thumbnail size, so they are smaller than the usual jelly gums I know. You can actually see that there aren’t any artificial colors used in their production, the colors are pretty decent and I find them really nice.

They come in five different flavors.

My first impression of the yellow  lemon version is: sweet. No sourness, no fruit, simply sweet. After the sugar coating wears off (which takes some time!), I sense a slightly citrus-like flavor, but it does not get sour like citrus is supposed to be.

Orange is even sweeter, but really fruity. I like the orange flavor a lot in here, something I usually don’t do, as I’m not a huge fan of orange flavored jelly. But the fruit is totally natural and tasty!

Strawberry is surprising. Most tots in there are strawberry flavored and I guess I know why: They are fruity, turn sour soon after you made your way through the sugary coating, juicy and not too artificial. Nice!

The green ones are lime and yes, they are a little sourer than the lemon ones. Though, I find them the most artificial in here, but I think lime is in general rarely a well done flavor. I like lime, but most of the time I’m spoiled by lime-flavored jellies.

The last ones I try are the blackcurrant ones. I always try to let them be the last version, as I really love blackcurrant and I am better at remaining objective without trying them first. Unfortunately, there are only four blackcurrant tots in the entire bag (while strawberry is available 12 times or so), but that probably is random. But to be honest – they are not as good as I hoped them to be. The strawberry tots are way better and fruitier and somehow I am glad there are only four in the entire bag, as they are (except for the lime version) my least favorite…

I was kind of confused about the texture. Basically they are smooth, but more solid than soft foam and some other sugar-coated jelly. Yet, there were a few among them, which differed from the rest, coming with a really soft texture. I was a little confused in the beginning, but that’s nothing I’d worry about too much, they are nice!

What I also like about them is that they are suitable for vegetarians. This is cool because they are smooth, which is not always the case with vegetarian-friendly jelly (except for the real soft-jelly made with pectin).

So, all in all they are pretty decent jellies. I enjoyed eating them and if I was out for a sweet sugar coated jelly treat with a fruity taste, I’d take them into consideration.

7 out of 10

Name: Rowntree’s Jelly Tots
Branch: Nestlé UK
Price: ?
Calories: 146kcal per bag
Fat: –

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Butlers milk chocolate with truffle center

August 23, 2010 · Filed under Butlers, chocolate · Tagged , , , , , ,

I got this bar in a candy swap and I was so glad I got some real Irish chocolate! Usually I am not a huge fan of traditional British chocolate, but I’ve never eaten chocolate from Ireland, so this was going to be very exiting! What is a pity is that I cannot find any nutritional information anywhere, neither at the wrapper nor at their webpage.
The milk chocolate has a comparably dark color and herb scent I am not familiar with when it comes to British chocolate, but I got thrilled to try this really high quality smelling chocolate treat.

The chocolate is really rich of cocoa and I really like about it that it is not as sweet as usual milk chocolate. On the back it says it just contains 32% cocoa and 20% milk, and for these amounts this bar seems really chocolaty. At the same time, it is really creamy, but it does not melt as good as other milk chocolate with the same amount of cocoa.

The truffle center is rather solid, but it melts easily. It tends to stick to everything, but that’s cool for me. This makes the bar somehow chewy and slows down your eating speed. Its taste is really sweet compared to the coating and I can sense a scent of vanilla in it. If you eat it without the coating, it can get sickly really fast, but in connection to the coating, they blend in rather good.

The texture is really cool. The solid thick chocolate coating makes a huge difference to the toffee like ganache. A minor minus is that the coating likes to crumble really easily, which should not happen to high quality milk chocolate.

All in all, it cannot really keep up with a high quality German chocolate bar, but it is really good, especially the rich chocolate flavor of the coating. And if I think of where it is from, I am really impressed by the bar! I can imagine that their chocolate block bars are even better than this tiny bar, I hope I’ll be able to get hold of one or two of them in the future!

7 out of 10

Name: Milk chocolate truffle
Branch: Butlers
Price: ~ 1.50 Euro per bar
Calories: ?
Size: 75g

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Haribo Super Sour Monsters

August 20, 2010 · Filed under gummies, Haribo · Tagged , , , , , ,

This is a British version of Haribo jellies. Again, they are sugarcoated and again, there is way too much sugar on them. The jellies should be monster-shaped, but all you can see is a piece of gummy covered with sugar. The faces underneath it are totally unrecognizable. Anyway, they look better than the tangfastics mix I tried some time ago, even though all I see is some missproduced jelly. Though the smell is artificial, it is better as the last British jelly I tried as well. Good start.

The jellies come in three different colors and flavors: a yellow lemon one, apple green and cherry red. There is an additional warning on the back saying that “nasty” Haribo had put extra sour into the mix. Well, they use a double positive here, does that mean anything?

I start with the yellow one. It has the lightest and weakest color. The coating is pretty sour, but not too sour that it makes you shiver. The inner life taste slightly like lemon, but the dominant taste is just sourness.

The green one isn’t as sour as the yellow one in the beginning, but the sourness develops while chewing it. Its apple flavor is most intensive during the first bites, but wears off soon. Nice.

Finally cherry. This is the least sour jelly and the sour taste beats the cherry aroma which you can only get a glimpse of. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but the tiny glimpse of cherry I get is too artificial, just like the water ice flavorings. Nah, even though I usually like berry flavored jellies, this one doesn’t get to me at all!

The texture of them is really chewy. They don’t stick to your tooth too easily, better than several other Haribo jellies.

All in all those jelly is alright, but not outstanding.

6 out of 10

Name: Super Sour Monsters
Branch: Haribo
Price: 1.20 Euro
Calories: 340kcal per 100g
Fat: 0.2g per 100g

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Maltesers original

August 10, 2010 · Filed under chocolate, Mars · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

After I was totally amazed by the white Maltersers, I always wanted to try the original milk chocolate version. In Germany they are only available in big 250g packages and up to now I could not get over myself to buy a bag of them. When I had to visit a doctor in my neighbor town, I missed my bus back home and went into a gas station near the bus station and guess what? They had the original maltesers version available and I purchased it. A day later I received another bag of maltesers in a swap. Pretty cool, ha!

I am slightly disappointed by the taste of those balls.  They are good, I cannot deny that, but after I’ve tried the white version, I think I am a little biased.
The milk chocolate layer is milky and creamy. It is not too rich of chocolate and they have a malty bytaste. It is also very sweet, I sense similarities to milka chocolate. It is not bad though! The malt filling is exactly as I expected it to be: crunchy, but mixes up quite well with the chocolate. The taste is difficult to describe: It is milder than malt bonbons, but I can hardly draw any parallels to other sweets, Maltesers simply is unique. Together they make a chewy but smooth mixture. The malt likes to stick to your teeth which can get a little annoying, but it does not stay there for long.

I’d rather go for a bag of m&m’s, but they still are a really good alternative if you don’t want too much chocolate.

Addition: Well, now I tried the British version as well and I have to say, their taste is different from the Austrian version! Being used the rather German chocolate taste, I’d prefer the Austrian one, as the British maltesers are way sweeter and after half a bag they really got sickly. Further, I believe the malt filling is a little softer as within the previous version I tried.

Name: Maltesers
Branch: Mars
Price: 0.69 Euro
Calories: 184kcal per bag 498kcal per 100g
Fat: 9.0g per bag, 24.3g per 100g

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Nestlé Munchies

June 8, 2010 · Filed under chocolate, Nestlé · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Munchies are little thumbnail sized chocolate treats filled with liquid caramel and a (so to call) crunchy cookie. They come wrapped two times: a red paper with the name and the ingredients on it, and a second layer consisting of a dim golden foil.

The mid-thick milk chocolate coating gets thicker at the bottom, and it is just the right amount of chocolate this way. It is not too sweet but still a typical UK chocolate.

The caramel filling is sweet and sticky, but it lacks the real caramel flavor. I am slightly disappointed because I expected it to be different.

The “crispy” ball inside the caramel comes in different sizes and shapes. Sometimes it is placed in the middle and sometimes on one side of the chocolate. The biscuit is rather smooth than crispy, which I think is a pity as I’d really like some more crisp in it. I like it crunchy when there is a biscuit, otherwise, you could leave it out. What is the sense in putting a smooth cookie in a chocolate? The flavor is usually much less intensive than the chocolate, so you hardly notice it. So, it is the crunch that makes a cookie inside a chocolate worth eating. Further, it would have made a great contrast to the liquid caramel..Would have!

Though, he mixture tastes alright, all the components go well with each other. At first there is a strong milk chocolate taste soon mixing up with the caramel. The choco-cookie like flavor is the last that reveals itself and completes the chocolate. The chocolate definitely dominates the overall flavor, accompanied by the sweet taste of sugar from the caramel.

This is eatable and I think some people actually like it, especially if you’re into chocolate filled with a liquid sugary crème.

6 out of 10

Name: Munchies
Branch: Nestlé
Price: 1.09 Euro
Calories: 486kcal per 100g, 266kcal per tube

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Cadbury Full of Plenty berryfruit and vanilla shortbread

May 23, 2010 · Filed under Cadbury, chocolate · Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m not too well at the moment, but I need to do this today – there are so many reviews I’ve already written that just have to be posted, that I hardly find some of them in the mess I made on my notebook.

This is a chocolate I received in a candy swap, more specific, my first candy swap ever. I was totally thrilled when I saw the bar – the wrapper looks really tempting.

The chocolate is really milky and sweet, definitely what I expected of a Cadbury bar. There are not a lot parts without any added shortbread or dried fruit, but even those pieces taste a little like berries. I like the fruity flavor, it goes really well with the chocolate.

The pieces of tried fruit are awesome. They all are slightly sour, but you can distinguish between the different berries. While the elderberry is the fruitiest one, the strawberry is the sourest fruit. The cranberries are the chewiest fruit, and I am not too keen on them.
The vanilla shortbread tastes like simple buttery cookies. In Germany this seems to be a rare combination, we do not have cookies inside a chocolate treat, especially not shortbread, which contains more butter than cookies around here. I like this combination; and for me it is a new experience.

The texture is really varying. When you hit the vanilla shortbread, the bar is slightly crunchy, the dried berries on the other hand are chewy, similar to jelly. When you chew the chocolate, you feel the great mixture of melting creamy milk chocolate, crunching pieces of shortbread and when they are gone, the dried fruits will stay in your mouth, leaving you some pieces to chew.

In the end the chocolate itself is delicious, even though it is not really high quality. It stays in line with typical Cadbury products, but the entire combination of the components make it better than just average.

I really need to get hold of the other bars!

6.5 Out of 10

Name: Full of Plenty berryfruit and vanilla shortbread
Branch: Cadbury
Price: 2.70 Euro per 140g bar
Calories:505kcal per 100g
Fat: 26.4g per 100g

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