Jim's Chocolate Mission

May 30th: Bits & Bobs Misc 2012 # 1

2012-05-30T07:00:00.000+01:00

Bits & Bobs is the order of the day so as usual these reviews will all be short and sweet. Enjoy the pictures and please use the Jim's ChocolateMission Pinterest (HERE) and @Chocmission Twitter feeds (HERE) to give me your own thoughts on any of the products featured today.
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Milka Loffel Ei Chocolate Cream

Kcal 570 Fat 37.0g Carbs 53.0g (per 100.0g)

Easter may be long gone but JCM reader Catherine insisted that I try these chocolate cream flavoured Milka Loffel Ei eggs after she sampled them on holiday in Germany earlier this year. Indeed Catherine enjoyed them so much she brought me back my own pack of four (136.0g) and was kind enough to send them long to me. These eggs were essentially the same as the original Milka Loffel Ei (review HERE) apart from the obvious substitution of the milk flavoured creme with the chocolate one. When I say the same I literally mean the same! Even three years on since trying the original cream eggs the packaging and presentation was entirely consistent with each egg foil wrapped and accompanied by a cute little spoon for the inner cream. Now, to the all important taste test and unfortunately I have to report that I didn't quite think theses stacked up against the milk cream ones. The inner cream was pleasant and accentuated the creamy sweet flavours of the Milka milk chocolate, but it didn't have the creamy qualities of the aforementioned originals. I still really enjoyed these but given the option between the milk cream or the chocolate cream Loffel Ei I would have to go with the milk ones.

8.0 out of 10

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Kellogg's All Bran Chocolate Breakfast Biscuits

Kcal 167 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 21.0g (per 40.0g)

One of the most common questions I'm forever being e-mailed about is 'is this (insert dodgy brand name X here!) healthy chocolate good for me!??'. Ninety-nine times out of one-hundred I politely respond back with an e-mail pointing out the ridiculousness of the question. Yes, a sensible amount is of course good for you, it will make you happy and to me at least that's a good and healthy thing! On the other hand, consuming ten tons of the stuff is not going to be a good thing for any of us - not at least for our waistlines. What I often do out of courtesy is point people in the direction of some of the 'healthier' chocolate flavoured alternative products I've tried down the years. Falling nicely into that very category today are these new Kellogg's All Bran Chocolate Breakfast Biscuits. I found these a few weeks ago in Tesco priced at a rather expensive sounding £2.39 (6 bar multi-pack) and promising 'bran enriched wheat and oat fibre cereal bars with chocolate chips'. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that these are going to be your 'chocolate heaven; the bran cereal is certainly the dominant element of the taste, but the chocolate chips do bring a chocolatey influence to pretty much every bite. Like I said, chocolate heaven maybe not, but as a healthier alternative these are certainly more satisfying than many of the lighter weight sugar intensive chocolate cereal bars out there. Give them a try and tell me what you think.

7.1 out of 10

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Nestle Aero Biscuits Mint

Kcal 99 Fat 5.4g Fat(sats) 3.1g Carbs 11.2g (per biscuit bar)

I've commented a few times in the last year about the recent explosion of new Aero products we've seen released here in the UK. Lambs, dark chocolates, reappearing orange bars ... you name Aero have done it recently! Though a lot of these have been re-released or repackaged old products one of the more innovative creations of late has been their venture into the chocolate biscuit aisle. April 2011 I gave you my views on the first product from this very range - See HERE. Twelve months on Aero have seen fit to add some more of their flavours to the chocolate biscuit aisle, one of which is this new mint variety. These mint bars are available in multipacks of seven, and yes of course cost me the token £1.00 on offer in my local supermarket. Packaging and presentation wise these maintained a lot of consistency from the standard Aero range. One thought I did have is that is thought they look attractive enough they might not be too similar looking to the normal Aero bars!? Perhaps a little more could be made of the 'Biscuit' element in this sense ... just a thought!? Minor concerns over the wrappers aside when it came to the taste test I was duly impressed. The long finger pieces made for a comfortable two bites with the extra golden biscuit pieces lining the base adding minor enhancements to both the taste and texture with an element of shortbread crunch.As expected the milk chocolate and mint taste was standard Aero fair - sweet and milky with a friendly, non-threatening peppermint coolness. I know that chocolate biscuit products are traditionally smaller but I could have done with these being a little larger; one can only suspect they were this small to keep below the 99 calorie glass ceiling. To summise I would happily recommend these to mint chocolate biscuit fans. Not all that satisfying but they are hardly going to damage you in the pocket.

7.7 out of 10

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ION Break Milk Chocolate

Kcal 234 Fat 14.0g Fat(sats) 9.0g Carbs 23.0g (per 42.5g serving)

ION!?? Who!? What!? Where!? Allow Wiki to do the honours ...

"Ion is a Greek chocolate brand. Although the first chocolate recipe has been manufactured since 1927, the company was formally incorporated in 1930. The main factory is located in Athens and they are best known for their almond milk chocolate variety. The company has grown to be one of Greece’s 50 largest companies with annual sales of over €100 million."

Hands-up if you had heard of them before reading this ... no ... me neither!!! My ION education started when I came across this chocolate in my local Tesco supermarket. When I first saw it my immediate thought was that this as a new 'knock-off' Ritter Sport brand as the packaging and presentation of the bar was deeply reminiscent of the German brand with it's square shape and plastic foil wrapper. Indeed, just like any Ritter bar the chocolate was segregated into a 4x4 block grid and broke with ease. This was simply ION's milk chocolate variety and was a 29.0% cocoa recipe. The aromas emanating from the chocolate were highly indicative of the taste that followed with strong vanilla scents forthcoming from the outset. The flavour and melt development of the chocolate was ultimately sound. It had a nice enough paced melt and the taste progressed from a mild, friendly sugary cocoa base, to an aftertaste most notable for it's aforementioned vanilla influence. At the end of the day, this was hardly a chocolate that set my world on fire but at the same time I can see why it's probably universally liked in Greece. It's not a chocolate you need to search out as a must try, but if your curious to try some Greek chocolate then I would suggest it as a nice enough one to start with.

7.2 out of 10

May 28th: Hotel Chocolat Jubilee Selection

2012-05-28T07:00:00.001+01:00

Since 1952 - no that's not how long Hotel Chocolat have been making excellent chocolates, but rather it's the year of coronation for the nations' favorite nanny! Yes indeed it's Jubilee time this weekend folks, you wouldn't have guessed it huh ;-) I maybe sounding a little cynical there and I don't mean to be! What isn't to love about this weekend!? We have four days to have time off work, fine food and drink, national cheer and dare I tempt fate by saying some nice weather :-D It's going to be great, but we all know though that no celebration is complete without a box of chocolates! Cometh the coronation celebration, cometh the Hotel Chocolat Jubilee Selection!!! Guess who got to give it a try.

The Hotel Chocolat Jubilee Selection is a 195.0g collection featuring 20 individual chocolates. Just as I expected the presentation of this Limited Edition was first class and the uniquely styled round shaped, ribbon decorated box caught the eye with it's attractive curves and well presented chocolates placed inside. As you can see above and below the 'Old Man' dusted his camera down for this one and went snap happy with some excellent looking photos. Here are our thoughts on the eight chocolate varieties inside:

Raspberry Liqueur Truffle - This showcased HC's fine talents with fruit flavoured chocolates brilliantly combining a dark chocolate outer shell with a creamy, red berry infused, boozie white chocolate centre. The alcohol hit was superbly balanced in this one and even brought a small warmth to the party. Very Good.

Salted Soft Caramel - Just sensational, I needn't say more - See previous review HERE

Raspberry & Hibiscus - This was another new one we hadn't tried before and it came with an 'Academy of Chocolate Gold Winner 2012' certification. This chocolate was essentially the same as the raspberry liqueur truffle above, but rather had an even fruitier emphasis and a sweeter floral note to it rather than a boozie focus. Again I loved it - as did my mother. Very Good.

Simple Milk Truffle - Simple ... Yes! Delicious .... Yes! See previous review HERE

Cherry Bombe - Cherry flavoured chocolates can often be awfully fake tasting but HC proved that their skills with raspberrys and strawberrys also carry over to this other sweet red fruit. Indeed this milk chocolate contained a very tasty, creamy cherry flavoured white flavoured ganache filling. It was soft in texture, but bold and 'real' tasting flavour wise. Very Good.

Classic Whisky Truffle - The 'Old Man's favourites! I didn't get a sniff of these but he said they were the usual high standard. See previous review HERE

Dizzy Praline - It wouldn't be a Hotel Chocolat selection box without a praline chocolate in there. Suffice to say usual high standards were consistent - See previous review HERE.

Eton Mess - The star attraction - fit for the Queen herself! It's the fourth year I've been reviewing this chocolate and it still remains in my opinion one of their finest. White chocolate, strawberry buttercream, meringue and real strawberry pieces. Still as epic as ever! See previous review HERE.

Overall this collection was everything it should have been and that's a celebration of the things that Hotel Chocolat do best. Fruit chocolates ... check, caramels .... check, liqueurs .... check, Eton Mess .... check :-D you get the picture! If you were going to put a selection of the best truffles that Hotel Chocolat do, and put them in all one box you find it hard to craft a better mix than the one on offer here. At £25.00 you are paying over £1.00 per chocolate and normally that would be hard to justify. Frankly though, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee only comes around once in our lifetime and if we are going to celebrate we might aswell all do it properly. If your buying a box of chocolates for the occasion (of course you will be!!) then you needn't look past this option here. Diamond quality for a Diamond weekend!

9.2 out of 10

May 25th: Berry Temptation Jubilee Edition

2012-05-25T07:00:00.000+01:00

Back in April Berry Temptation made their first ever appearance on Chocolate Mission when I reviewed their delightful Classic Temptation Collection - See HERE. Since that time I've heard from many a satisfied reader who took on my recommendation and bought some of their chocolate dipped strawberries for all sorts of different occasions (one reader even told me they bought them for a colleague's leaving do when they were fully aware they were allergic to red berrys - haha any excuse huh!?). Well having tried their more general, classic offering, Berry Temptation recently got back in contact offering me the chance to try these newly created Jubilee Edition strawberries - do you think there was ever a possibility I was going to say no :-)

The box I received from Berry Temptation included 16 pristine looking strawberries and came with the descriptor of - '16 Hand dipped chocolate strawberries with a patriotic makeover of the Union Jack flag to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, and Olympic season'. Now I'm sure we've all started picking up on the sheer amount of British flag coloured products and wrappers in around our shops at the moment, but these were something special. These strawberries stood out as looking tremendously impressive and they really did look like someone had gone to extreme effort to hand decorate them as nicely as possible. On all 16 chocolates the care that had been taken was obvious to see and I hope my photos do the quality justice - my family and I were very impressed anyway.

This was one of one of those situations where eating the first one from the box almost 'felt wrong', as the collection looked so pretty with all the cute strawberries lined up with their pretty flags on show. Guilt was not a feeling that lasted long though :-) within seconds of tucking into the box we were all preoccupied with how delightful they tasted and we were soon swapping opinions and arguing over whether it was the freshness of the strawberries or the tastyness of the chocolate that made them so appealing. As always I'll sit on the fence and say it was the combination of the two that made these so terrific haha! Indeed, if you ask me the juicy, sweet, zingy flavours of the fruit were every bit as nice as the smooth melting, creamy, sweet tasting milk chocolate. Between four of us the box lasted just the one day - our excuse being they were fresh produce so we had to eat them when in their peak to write a fair review of course it was ;-)

Overall I have to send another big thumbs up in the direction of Berry Temptation for these. As I stated earlier in the review, there aren't going to be a shortage of these British themed products doing the rounds at the moment, however these stood out as being something just a little special. The effort that had gone into the design work on the strawberries was very obvious and these came across as having had a lot more thought put into them rather than just a lazy British colour scheme implemented on a wrapper. Come Jubilee party time I think these would be a fantastic product to have as a center piece sweet nibble platter - I'm sure they would raise a fair few eyebrows with impressed guests. Fingers crossed we are in for a fantastic summer full of British celebrations and summer sun. Why not make your festivities all that bit more special with a box of these!?

8.4 out of 10

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

2012-05-23T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

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

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

9.0 out of 10

May 21st: AmericanSoda Super Post - May 2012

2012-05-21T07:00:00.001+01:00

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

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Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips - Coconut

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

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

7.3 out of 10

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Kellogg's Pop Tarts Frosted Chocolate Fudge

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

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

7.6 out of 10

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Snyder's Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzel Pieces

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

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

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

May 18th: Oreo Triple Double

2012-05-18T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

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

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

8.4 out of 10

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

2012-05-16T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

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

7.3 out of 10

May 14th: Ritter Sport Summer Editions 2012

2012-05-14T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

Ritter Sport Waldbeer Yogurt

See the review - HERE

Ritter Sport Amarena Kirsch

See the review - HERE

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

Ritter Sport Weisse Cocos

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

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

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

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

8.6 out of 10

May 11th: Theo Chocolate

2012-05-11T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

Theo Bread & Chocolate:

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

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

8.0 out of 10

Theo Coconut Curry:

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

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

7.0 out of 10

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

May 9th: Nestle Rolo Bar

2012-05-09T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

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

7.2 out of 10

May 7th: Glico Mikado Daim

2012-05-07T07:00:00.001+01:00

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

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

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

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

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

8.6 out of 10

May 5th: Meiji Meltykiss Caramel

2012-05-05T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

8.2 out of 10

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Meiji Meltykiss Whip More Caramel Kcal 305 Fat 21.8g Carbs 24.0g (per pack)

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

8.8 out of 10

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

2012-05-02T07:00:00.001+01:00

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

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Whoppers Strawberry Milkshake Kcal 190 Fat 8.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 30.0g (per 41.0g)

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

4.0 out of 10

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

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

7.7 out of 10

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Flipz Dark Chocolate

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

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

8.4 out of 10

April 30th: Tango Demolition Chocolates

2012-04-30T08:04:00.000+01:00

Yet again I'm endeavoring to bring you reviews of the latest chocolate products hitting the UK shelves . Yes indeed, the focus today falls upon these new Tango Chocolate products - the 'Demolition Bar' and the 'Demolition Balls'.

At this point it's probably worth me making introducing the Tango brand to my non-UK readers - Thanks Wikipedia ;-)

"Tango is a carbonated soft drink sold primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Originally, Tango was the name of the orange flavour in a range of different flavoured drinks that each had their own name. In the 1990s, long after the other products in the range had passed into obscurity, the Tango brand was expanded into other flavours, including apple, lemon, cherry, blackcurrant, and later 'Fruit Fling'." N.B The Orange variant is the flavour most commonlly associated with the brand and will no doubt constitute a great proportion of their sales.

I found both of these products in my local Superdrug highstreet store, where they were on sale for £0.50 each. Presentation wise, I liked the way the brand kept it's branding and packaging style consistent with it's drinks range. Black wrappers can often be recessive on a crowded shelf, however these both really stood out with the glittery silver and orange colours proving particularly eye-catching. Disappointingly no nutritional information supplied on either product. Here are my thoughts on them:

Tango Demolition Bar - 'Bubbly milk chocolate orange bar with a tangy fizz' - This 35.0g came split in to five separate blocks and looked the more impressive of the two products with the Tango branding and inner orange center providing reassurance that this just wasn't a gimmicky product produced on the cheap. The chocolate, containing 25% cocoa across both products, had a rather generic, sweet milky emphasis and certainly wouldn't have tasted out of place on any given Nestle product. It wasn't the highest quality no, but it was fine as a 'carrier' chocolate and it allowed full expression of the orange center whilst delivering a fair standard chocolate flavour hit. The orange center, delivered a fine and realistic enough fruity influence, however as you probably will have guessed I cared little for the fizzy mouth feel and texture it created. The sweetness of the chocolate and center combined meant that the portion size was just about right for my liking - any more and it would probably have been a little too much for me.

6.2 out of 10

Tango Demolition Balls - 'Milk chocolate orange balls with a tangy fizz' - I wont yabba on too much here as these were largely the same as the bar above. The only difference I really noticed between the two (aside from the obvious format difference! Duh!!!) was that the melt of the chocolate coating these Demolition balls was poorer and had a waxy feel thanks to a glazing agent property being present. That minor thing aside these pretty much just served up an identical taste experience. - the 35.0g packet meant they were equally as satisfying as a snack.

5.8 out of 10

Overall I would neither label either of these products as a complete success or a complete disaster. There are certainly better mass produced orange milk chocolate products out there (Terry's immediately springs to mind!) but I guess if you are one of those people that enjoys popping candy, sherbet etc then these do additionally bring that dimension to the party. To be honest I was half expecting these to be more gimmicky and lower quality so I would like to praise them in that respect. These are worth a try if you like your orange milk chocolates though I'm not going to promise you that they will turn your world upside down.

April 28th: Bits & Bobs: New UK Misc Products - April 2012

2012-04-27T08:07:00.000+01:00

There have been an tremendous amount of new products released by some of the big brand names already this year. Some of them I've found in my local supermarkets .... others I've sourced from different corners of the globe :-D ... take a look at what I made of them:
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Marks & Spencer Percy in the Pink

Kcal 20 Fat 1.2g Fat(sats) 0.7g Carbs 2.4g (per 4.0g pig)

I never hide the fact that I'm a big M&S food fan and I don't think there is a person out there who doesn't have a little soft spot for their iconic Percy Pigs. Since the creation of the first gummy sweets in the mid nineties the range has grown considerably - our pink little chum even has his own wikipedia page - See HERE. You can correct me on twitter if I'm wrong here, but I believe 2012 is the first time that Percy Pig has come in chocolate form. Although I didn't quite get around to reviewing it this year, Percy even got his own chocolate Easter egg (See HERE) - This I believe was the brands debut in chocolate form. Well a few weeks on we now have these 'Percy in the Pink' pigs - 'white chocolate with dried raspberry and strawberry concentrates'. Priced at just shy of £1.00 these small pink coloured pig shapes came in a 90.0g bag baring the familiar Percy branding. Opening up the bag the first thing that struck me was how these smelt EXACTLY like the Percy gummy sweets - no difference whatsoever with the fruity, candy floss like sweet scents forthcoming. That word 'sweet' was a word I was desperate not to use up until describing the taste as there is genuinely nothing else that I can use to describe it better. Indeed these were as sweet as any chocolate I've ever tasted in my lifetime. Sugary doesn't begin to describe these - yes there were red berry fruit elements underlying but there was no getting away from the sugar - after just a mouthful I could feel my throat burning up and my teeth crying for help. I think you all know that this sort of chocolate isn't what I like so take from this what you will. I wont be buying these again but I'll take the inevitable backlash from the Percy Pig cult following with good jest :D

5.2 out of 10

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McVitie's Jamaica Ginger Cake BarKcal 111 Fat 5.9g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 13.5g (per cake bar)

Although I could name a handful of different cake varieties that I would choose to have before ginger, the McVitie's Jamaica Ginger Cake Loaf is one often spotted in our tea room at the office. Normally I would say that flavours like Carrot, Lemon Drizzle or Coffee offer more excitement, but these new Jamaica Ginger Cake Bars sounded like they had more to them with the addition of a chocolate cream layer and outer coating of milk chocolate. These bars came in pack of six that I picked up from my local Sainsbury's on one of the infamous £1.00 introductory deals. Out their very cool looking retro wrappers, the bars looked no different to any other cake bar I've seen before. That said the gingery smells were indicative of the cake at hand and it set expectations well for the taste. The gingeryness from the cake was the main flavour focus, though the additional chocolate elements weren't lost and I liked how they set an initial milky sweetness to it all before the more spicy cake came in to play. The chocolate cream layer was certainly a nice addition and it's light texture meant it provided a nice texture contrast. I wouldn't rush out to buy these again but at I did enjoy these a lot more than I thought I would.

8.0 out of 10

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Kinder Pingui CoccoKcal 143 Fat 9.8g Fat(sats) 6.5g Carbs 11.6g

Back last July I posted some reviews of some Kinder cakes that I found in one of the local shops near where I lived. One of these products was the Kinder Pingui Chocco (See HERE), and it was a cake that received a well deserved endorsement along the lines of this: 'Although light and mousse-like in texture, the cream itself still managed to establish a pleasant fresh dairy cream taste that left me wanting more'.Well 9 or so months on I found myself confronted by a coconut variation of the aforementioned Chocco original. The cake, again originating from Poland, was branded and detailed on the wrapper all in Polish - DOH!That said the coconut content was instantly recogniseable thanks to the on-pack pictures and gorgeous coconutty scents that emerged once opened. To keep this short and sweet I can best sum up the taste experience by saying that it was utterly delicious. The chocolate coating was short lived due to it's thinness, however it still managed to establish the cocoa before the creamy coconut flavours swept in and took hold of the taste. Much like I concluded about the Chocco version this was again frustratingly non-fulfilling, but taste wise I couldn't have asked for more from something that cost just over £0.40. If you like your coconut flavoured confectionery you should be very interested in trying one of these.

7.7 out of 10

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Aero Bubbles OrangeKcal 146 Fat 8.1g Fat(sats) 4.6g Carbs 16.3g (per 9 sweets)

If I was given a pound (rather than having to spend one :D haha) for every 'NEW' Nestle Aero product I've reviewed this year I would be a rich, rich man! Ok, ok ... I'm exaggerating, but I would still be around £10-£15 pounds better off :D Yes indeed the sheer quantity of 'New' Aero products this year has been rather incredible, though if I had the motivation to list them all out it would soon become apparent that 90.0% of them have been just new varieties and formats for the already existing flavours (see them all by looking under the Nestle tag HERE). What my long winded (but relevant!!) introduction here is leading me on to, are my thoughts on these Aero Bubbles Orange - yes yet another reformatting of an existing Aero product. I bought this 80.0g bag in my local newsagent priced at £1.00 - a 20.0g smaller product when you compare it to what the same money buys you for the chocolate in it's bar form (See HERE). Whilst I will complain about the value for money, I will be more positive on the taste which I found a little more manageable in terms of it's sweetness with the smaller sized Bubble pieces vs the blocks of the bar. The orange flavours were still a little artificial and the milk chocolate a little generic but I was never expectant of anything else. This experience with Aero Orange was a little more favourable but I will still stick with Terry's Chocolate Orange for my cheap chocolate orange thrills.

7.3 out of 10

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Nestle Snack Milkybar

Kcal 185 Fat 11.6g Carbs 17.6g (per bar)

This was a bar I found in a local paper shop near where I live and appears to be a bar produced by Nestle Polska i.e. Nestle Poland. From the wrapper, displaying Polish language of course, I could determine that this was a wafer based snack with a Milkybar coating. The best translation of the on-pack descriptor would have me guessing something along the lines of 'crispy wafer layers filled with milk creme and a white chocolate coating' - a proposition in my eyes that had potential if done well. At just £0.50 for the 33.0g bar I had little to lose anyway, so I parted with the change in my pocket and gave one a try. Sensing this might be one of those very sweet Nestle white chocolate experiences I decided to eat this in compliment to a strong brew black coffee that I brewed up mid-morning. The pairing of the two was a good match, and I especially enjoyed the times I dunked the sweet wafer into the bitter roasted bean coffee. In terms of what to expect here you can probably predetermine what I'm going to say. The experience altogether was nothing groundbreaking or special but the combination of the crisp wafer, sugary chocolate and creamy inner creme made for a nice enough snack. Given the product name I feel anything other than a 'thumbs-in-the middle' to 'thumbs-up' would be being harsh.

7.5 out of 10

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Meiji Chocolat de Tomato

Kcal 175 Fat 11.7g Carbs 15.8g (per 30.0g serving)

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph the products featured today have come from all over the globe and this particular one was sent to me by friend Peter @Jlist (See Twitter HERE). Anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time will be aware that Peter is an American expat who runs the company J-List out in Japan. Peter has very kindly been providing me with Japanese snack products for many years now, check the archives here to see the mad stuff he has sent previously (HERE). Whilst a fair few of the products he has had me review before have been pretty crazy, wasabi, green tea ... you name it!? What he has never sent me was anything to do with tomatoes and chocolate :-D ... well until last week of course! Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Meiji Chocolat de Tomato - a product described as 'a delightful combination of the flavour of tomatoes and chocolate'. Being the silly soul I am I was keen to give this a try and I wasn't exactly perturbed by the attractive job Meiji did with the packaging. The first warning signs however came when I undid the first of the lovely little red wrappers - the savoury vegetable smells felt instantly out of context for what I was prepared for - they just smelt wrong and not sweet like chocolate should do. Against my better judgement I tasted a fair few of the sticks - every time trying to convince myself I would 'get used' to the flavours presented to me. Unfortunately, I could just never come to terms with the savoury nature of the taste. The white chocolate basis to each mouthful gave a sweet context, but at the melt progressed the flavour development took more of a savoury, earth vegetable route that felt against what I desired from a chocolate snack. These were by no means 'spit out the mouth' repulsive or anything along those lines, but they just didn't fundamentally taste that pleasurable. Trying them to say I tasted tomatoe flavoured chocolate was worth it, though I wouldn't ever have them again.

4.9 out of 10

April 25th: Ritter Sport Spring Limited Editions 2012

2012-04-25T08:04:00.001+01:00

The arrival of the Spring season is always something I look forward to for many a reason. First of all it means that for at least a year, the cold snap of weather is over and there are brighter, warmer days to come (bye bye Winter!!). Secondly, and most importantly :D the arrival of Spring always brings about three limited edition Ritter Sport flavours and 2012 is no different.

On offer this year we have the return of two of the Spring 2011 line up and also the addition of a 'New' flavour. I use the term 'New' quite loosely here as in actual fact the latest 2012 Kakaosplitter variant is a bar that was formerly available as part of the Ritter Sport Bio range (review HERE).

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So who's survived the cut this year!? Well the Ritter Sport Bourbon Vanille has impressivelly been around as part of the Spring limited editions since 2009. It has never been one of my favourites, but I guess it must be pretty popular given it's out lasted all of the other variants that have been and gone over the years.

Ritter Sport Bourbon Vanille - See Review HERE

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The other bar to survive from 2011 is the Ritter Sport Haselnuss Krokant. This bar made it's debut back in 2010 when it replaced the Ritter Sport Eirlikor (Advocaat). It is also currently available as one of the flavours included in Ritter's new 'Cubes' selection box that I reviewed a few weeks ago. Again like the Bourbon Vanille this Haselnuss Krokant has never been a favourite of mine due to it's under strength nut flavours compared to other Ritter offerings. I would suggest it as a nice option for those who like more subtle nutty chocolates, but being honest it's one of the Ritter bars you could let pass you by and you wouldn't miss on much.

Ritter Sport Haselnuss Krokant - See HERE

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So it was the Ritter Sport Alpensahne Praline (See HERE) which got the boot from the 2011 range and as aforementioned it this Ritter Sport Kakosplitter has taken it's place. This bar comes described as 'milk chocolate with a chocolate creme filling, cocoa nibs and hazelnut-almond pieces' and you guessed it, comes in a 100.0g 4x4 square block. To get an all round perspective on this one I gave away several of these bars to friends and family and asked for their feedback. What was played back to me was probably around about 80.0% positive with most citing that they really enjoyed the pure cocoa flavours bursts that the added cocoa nibs brought to the party. This almost sounds silly to say but a lot of taste testers said they enjoyed it for it's pure chocolateyness - this was a bar that delivered a real chocolate flavour hit and I wouldn't disagree with them. All-in-all It was a lovely tasting chocolate and I obviously wasn't alone in thinking this as it was the flavour that was most requested off me when I offered people a second helping from the 10.0kg stash Ritter sent across.

8.1 out of 10

Overall I don't the Spring 2012 line up is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but there are some nice varieties in there and the new Kakaosplitter bar is a welcome addition. Personally I wouldn't have chosen to rid of the Ritter Sport Alpensahne Praline from last year, though I guess the argument is there that it was awfully similar to the Ritter Sport Praline bar in the first place. I'm not sure I could stretch as far as insisting my UK readers import these bars at any great expense, however if you can find yourself a way of acquiring them where this isn't an issue I wouldn't advise against it.

April 23rd: Berry Temptation Classic Temptation Collection

2012-04-23T08:01:00.000+01:00

Twitter is a wonderful thing isn't it!? Without it I very much doubt I would've ever been contacted by my new friends Berry Temptation who dropped me a message last week introducing themselves. Berry Temptation are a small UK based company formed by two friends with a shared passion and drive to create 'the perfect gift to your loved ones for every occasion'. As you may have gathered, these guys believe such a gift comes in the form of chocolate dipped fruits - strawberries to be exact. After exchanging initial pleasantries across the Twitterverse, Berry Temptation offered me the chance of reviewing their Classic Temptation offering. With the summer sun well on the way I couldn't help but say yes - this was to be the first time that JCM would feature a fresh fruit chocolatey offering.

As you can see above and below I was sent a pack containing nine dipped strawberry pieces. The fruits came beautifully presented in a black, ribbon tied box with the Berry Temptation branding embossed in a classy looking shiney silver font. Suffice to say I wasn't expecting such a well presented product from such a small company. This is normally where there are cost savings to be had and previous reviews I'v done for products for similar sized entities have often reflected this. The presentation in this instance however gets a real thumbs up. The strawberries were equally as impressive looking as the exterior packaging and I felt so confident in them I took them to a dinner party on the night I received them.

I'm glad to report my confidence was not misled - these went down tremendously and served up a real treat after what was a very rich meal. Indeed after our main course these were placed at the centre of the table for all to enjoy. After many a marveling 'oooh' and 'ahhh' at the (and I quote) "gorgeous" and "cute" looking fruits in front of them, my fellow dinner guests and I went about sampling. The box contained a variety of dark, milk and white chocolate strawberries, some plain, some with added bits of coconut and hazelnut. Myself I managed to try one dark chocolate with hazelnuts and one white chocolate with coconut. Both were delicious, but the dark chocolate with hazelnuts was my favourite as I loved the way the semi-sweet cocoa chocolate balanced the sugary sweetness of the ripe, juicey sugary strawberry. Among my fellow diners, it was the white chocolate ones that seemed to really hit the mark, with the common theme of enjoyment being the appropriateness of the creaminess the outer coating brought to the red berry fruits. There wasn't a single person who didn't like these and it wont come as a surprise for you to hear the box was emptied within minutes.

Overall it's always a relief when these samples from smaller companies come good and I can confidently credit Berry Temptation with a JCM thumbs up. I wouldn't ever suggest they are appropriate as an everyday option, but as a proposition I think they are perfect for such occasions like a dinner party like I spoke of above. As a total package I was surprised at the all round quality for a product from such a small company. Like I said above it must be very tempting to cut corners to drive margins when you are a new company like Berry Temptation, but I couldn't see any evidence of this here at all. I of course was not the only one to enjoy these and the dinner party guests I shared them with were similarly forthcoming in their praise of this Classic Temptation Collection. All of them left wishing I had brought a larger box and I was told by more than one of them that they would be looking up Berry Temptation very soon. I think it goes without saying these get a JCM recommendation - look them up on Twitter @BerryTemptation or www.berrytemptation.co.uk

8.0 out of 10

April 21st: Bits & Bobs: New UK Misc Products

2012-04-21T10:06:00.000+01:00

There have been a few new products that have come to occupy our shelves here in the UK in the last few months. Here are a few of the best (and worst) I've found lately ...

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Kellogg's Rice Krispies Squares Rocky Road
Kcal 143 Fat 4.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 26.0g (per bar)

Though they aren't my cereal of choice, but I do like a good Rice Krispie Square from time-to-time. New to the UK for 2012, Kellogg's have released these Rocky Road Squares and judging by the back of the packet I bought it seems like they have replaced the golden packaged Caramel flavour ones (See HERE). Also on the back of the multi-bar packet I bought, there was also this rather long winded description - 'Cripsy toasted chocolate rice cereal with melted marshmallow, raisins and white chocolate chunks'. This sounded all good to me and out their cool looking black foil wrappers the Squares looks as advertised with plenty of the aforementioned pieces scattered throughout. Taste-wise these added bits had mixed success. The raisins and white chcocolate pieces were enhancing, though the shortbread biscuit pieces were mainly lost in it all. The base of rice chocolate cereal was as ever it's sweet self and with the added raisins and white chocolate the 34.0g bar was about the limit I would have wanted in one. Rice Krispies Squares fans will like that they have something new to try - whether or not they will like that this one has replaced the classic Caramel flavour is another thing altogether though.

7.0 out of 10

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Cadbury Mallows with Caramel
Kcal 60 Fat 2.2g Fat(sats) 1.2g Carbs 9.9g (per Teacake)

Tunnock's Teacakes were one of the snacks I frequently consumed after school during my younger days. For some reason or other we always used to have a pack in the house - I guess it was because neither my sister or I ever expressed a dislike of them, so our Mother just continued to be them. Lifestories aside, it is for that reason I feel pretty confident about commenting on the quality of these latest NEW Cadbury Teacakes with Caramel. Cadbury's previous attempts at making Teacakes (See HERE) hadn't proved to be all that successful - generating only a 5.8 out of 10 on the JCM scoring system. The added promise of a 'caramel filling' in to the mix though, had me wondering whether they could be markedly improved!? I probably should have been able to tell that this wasn't going to be the case when I cut through the middle of one of the teacakes for the photograph. The caramel was minimally portioned in the mallow, and when it came to the taste it was almost indeed 100.0% suffocated. Aside from adding a little bit of moistness to the chalky, flavourless biscuit at the base, the caramel was pretty much a non-entity. That disappointment lumped in with the still unremarkable chocolate flavour hit and disappointingly foamy mallow and these 'with Caramel' weren't the step forward I was hoping for. These are best summed up by saying 'just buy Tunnocks'.

5.9 out of 10

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Paynes Poppets Strawberry Milkshake
Kcal 188 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 3.2g Carbs 33.2g (per pack)

A quick wonder through the JCM archives will show you that I'm generally not the biggest advocate of Paynes Poppets (See HERE). Considering their average score usually nets around 5.0 out of 10, I really wasn't expecting much from this new Strawberry Milkshake flavour - lucky that really :D I found this new flavour on sale in a local newsagents, innocently sitting next to the more commonly found toffee and mint flavours. In regards to packaging and presentation these came brandished in the new Poppets style which like I said in my last Paynes review of the Choc Chip Cookie flavour (See HERE), is certainly a step up from the old style showcased on the older packs you can see in some of my first ever reviews for the site. Unfortunately all positivity ends there, no doubt you've likely already peaked at the scoring chart - yes these really did taste that bad :D! Where do I start!? bland tasting, waxy milk chocolate and centers so chemically artificial and sugary that I almost spat my first mouthful out as I thought I had come across 'a bad one' - the following mouthfuls proved evidently not. The strawberry flavour implementation was one of the worst I have come across, these were frankly just disgusting. Avoid if you know what's good for you.

3.4 out of 10

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McVitie's Medley Hobnobs Double ChocolateKcal 181 Fat 6.2g Fat(sats) 2.6g Carbs 28.6g

Since the launch of the McVitie's Medley range back in 2010, we've seen a number of different variants come and go from the range:

McVitie's Medley Hobnobs Milk Chocolate & Raisin - See HERE
McVitie's Medley Digestive Milk Chocolate - See HERE
McVitie's Medley Hobnobs Peanut - See HERE
McVitie's Medley Hobnobs Caramel - See HERE

Well cometh' the year 2012, and cometh' the McVitie's Medley Hobnobs Double Chocolate. Indeed, the latest flavour to make it's way out of the McVitie's product lines is the Double Chocolate - 'dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate, cereal and biscuit chunks'. To get straight to the point this new variant was 'exactly what it said on the tin'. The larger 40.0g bar was a more fulfilling option than previous that had gone before, and the overall taste experience was more chocolatey rich. I suppose in that sense the proposition lived up to it's billing, though frankly I would jump at the chance to swap a bar of this for two normal chocolate Hobnobs. Those who were previously hating on the originals because of the raisins may wish to take another look. The rest of you might not have too much to get excited about.

7.7 out of 10

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Galaxy Cookie Crumble SlicesKcal 150 Fat 7.8g Fat(sats) 3.9g Carbs 18.3g (per slice)

Having looked at new products from Cadbury, Kellogg's and Paynes already, I'm glad to say that Mars haven't missed out on being part of Bit's n Bobs today. Indeed new for 2012 we have these new Galaxy Cookie Crumble Slices - I guess a bit of a mix-up/match-up with their Galaxy Cookie Crumble Chocolate (See HERE) getting the Twix Slice treatment. As with all the other cakey Mars treats, these have been produced by McVitie's and can be found in most UK supermarkets likely doing the rounds on the £1.00 deals. Presented nicely in a pack of 6 individually wrapped packets, the slices looked simple, but nice. The thick topping of Galaxy milk chocolate melted nicely into the cookie base that lay below and retained all of it's typical creamy, sweet Galaxy chocolate appeal. Sitting on the bottom, the cookie bases were similarly delicious. It was buttery, crumbly and had a hint of saltyness. Unlike the horrible Twix slice I really liked these and would buy them again.

8.2 out of 10

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Cadbury BiscBites Roacky Road CrunchKcal 125 Fat 5.5g Fat(sats) 2.9g Carbs 16.6g (per 7 biscuits)

Ladies and gentlemen well done for making it this far down :D Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to reward you with a review of a product of great quality, these were frankly just pants. Cadbury BiscBits Rocky Road Crunch - 'chocolate cherry and marshmallow flavoured biscuits covered with milk chocolate'. I'm sure you are thinking that all sounds dandy - I don't blame you, it had me thinking that to. These biscuits came in a 110.0g foil pouch that I bought for £1.00 in my local Tesco supermarket (that was an introductory reduced price deal of course). Suspicions immediately rose upon opening the pouch when a rather odd fruity smell emerged. Ignoring the warning signs I hoped for more from the taste and set about munching my way through the pack. After just a few biscuits I decided to set the pouch to one side where it remained untouched until it's ill fated trip to the bin. To sum this up short and sweet these tasted pretty horrible. The outer Cadbury chocolate had this horrible, fake tasting sugary sweet cherry twang and it overpowered the inner chocolate biscuit. These just tasted cheap and I guess I should have learnt from the Cadbury BiscBits Orange Crunch (See HERE) which were equally horrible. Lesson learnt folks!

5.4 out of 10

April 20th: Galaxy Flutes

2012-04-20T07:00:00.000+01:00

Kcal 56 Fat 2.9 Carbs 7.8g (per 11.25g piece)

Personally I think we are at an all time low for confectionery innovation here in the UK. I've been moaning for the best part of a few months now that recently every single product we come across brandishing a 'NEW' label is in actual fact just a re-released or repackaged product we've had previously. If you need me to name examples then please look no further than the likes of the Yorkie Honeycomb (HERE), Cadbury Creme Egg Splats (HERE), Cadbury Bitsa Wispa (HERE) ... I could go on! This mini-rant leads me nicely into introducing the 'NEW' Galaxy Flutes:

“Galaxy Flutes perfectly encapsulate the indulgence and pleasure which have become synonymous with the Galaxy brand and are a perfect treat for a luxurious snack for discerning chocolate lovers.

“Consumers will love the benefit of a combination of textures with the mix of wafer and cream providing an ideal afternoon snacking moment.”

.... yes another 'lighter way to enjoy chocolate' according to the wrapper - where have we heard that before!? Wasn't that the idea of the Galaxy Bubbles bar? Whatever! I came across these Flutes in my local supermarket where a pricey sounding £0.45 bought me a 22.5g pack of two wafer fingers. As ever with Galaxy products the packaging, wrapper and product were all classy looking and I couldn't fault them at all in this regard.

Choco-saddos like myself (aren't we all haha :D ) will have already clocked that these were infact Galaxy Amicelli made smaller and given as a repackaged format. This was fine for all the reasons I posted in my initial review of them a few years ago (See HERE), but in other ways it was just as much disappointing. Fundamentally what we had here were some very tasty filled chocolate wafers. As is the case with Galaxy products the chocolate was sweet, but luxuriously smooth melting and with a delicious prolonged creamy aftertaste that complimented the honey notes of the wafer superbly. It was this tastyness however that made for the downfall of these Flutes as they were a totally unfulfilling snacking option. Speaking as a mid-twenty year old guy these barely scratched the surface of what I wanted from a mid-afternoon snack - if anything they just made me hungrier than I was before eating them, that's a snack FAIL people.

Overall these Galaxy Flutes can be categorised right alongside many of the other 'NEW' UK confectionery products we've been provided with this year. Just as they have been, these were 'fine' for what they were, but frankly they were just totally unexciting as a new proposition. These Flutes don't bring anything new to the table and unless your a 'diet coke drinking female office worker' (stereotype sorry!) you probably wont bother giving these a second glance. The 'think tanks' at these confectionery companies must seriously be at an all time low. Personally I would suggest to these people that if this is the best they can come up with this year then please just stop the new prdocut development projects now.

7.2 out of 10

April 18th: Glico Pocky Almond Crush Bitter

2012-04-18T07:00:00.001+01:00

Kcal 526 Fat 28.9g Carbs 57.9g (per 100.0g)

To say I'll keep the midweek mini short and sweet today doesn't seem fitting given the name of these Almond Crush Bitter flavoured Pocky. Normally I source all my Japanese/Far East snacks from my pal Pete @Jlist (Twitter HERE, Website HERE) but in actual fact I got these in a local Asian supermarket in which I ventured last week. Despite the package blurb being all in Asian text a handy English translation sticker placed on the back of box informed me that these were a product of Thailand and that packet contained 38.0g worth of biscuit sticks. As ever with Far Eastern sourced products the presentation was first class. The sticks were kept remarkably fresh within a thick, golden coloured foil wrapper and they smelt absolutely fantastic with strong chocolate and nut scents escaping when the seal was broken. In reviews previous I've often referred to my frustrations at nuts being chopped too finely. There was no problem with this here whatsoever. The nuts had just as much impact on the taste as the delicious, unsweetened cocoa flavours that the smooth melting, thick coating produced. The triple layered taste of bittersweet cocoa, salty almond nuts and sweet, buttery shortbread biscuit made for a delicious, multi-layered flavour journey. I'm not ashamed to admit I demolished the whole box of ten plus sticks in the one sitting. There was no chance of me putting these down once opened and they will go down as one of my favourite ever Pocky flavours. I would highly recommend these if you have the luck of coming across them.

8.8 out of 10

April 16th: Happy Birthday Milka!!!

2012-04-16T07:00:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday Milka!!!! 2012 sees Kraft's Milka brand celebrate it's 111th birthday and to mark the occasion they have produced three limited edition 100.0g bars. It's been way too long since I last got to review some Milka here on JCM, below you will see my thoughts and photos of these bars. Of course if you have any thoughts or comments on the bars below be sure to drop me a line on either the JCM Twitter (See HERE) or Pinterest (See HERE) pages.

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Milka Bunte Kakaolinsen (Milka Coloured Lenses)
Kcal 520 Fat 27.0g Fat(sats) 16.0g Carbs 62.0g

The direct translation of the bar's name might not have helped you, though I'm sure you've already managed to gather this was a Milka milk chocolate bar containing the Milka equivalent of Smarties. As a proposition this didn't do too much in the way of excitement for me, though that said I really did think the bar looked rather cool with all the different colours. Speaking of these chocolate pieces I was surprised they didn't make the bar a nuisance to split up evenly given their vast quantity. Conversely, the blocks broke away cleanly so there were no issues there. Taste wise I would happily settle giving this bar a thumbs up. The milk chocolate was as expected with it's cream and minor hazelnut noted flavour characteristics - sweet for sure, but tasty none the less. My initial unexcitement for this bar was driven by my relative neutrality to Smarties - I neither love or hate them. With that said I thought the Smarties equivalent pieces worked well here, and I especially liked the way you could let the outer chocolate melt away before crunching down on the remaining sugar shelled choc bits. I'm not sure I would rush out to buy it again (I can't anyway because these bars are only available in Germany!),but as a limited edition it was bar that brought a bit of colour to the table.

8.1 out of 10

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Milka A la Vanille-Pudding (Milka Vanilla Pudding)
Kcal 590 Fat 40.5g Fat(sats) 23.0g Carbs 50.5g (per 100.0g)

Anyone remember this from 2009? This A la Vanille-Pudding flavour was previously available as one of the limited editions created for the 2009 Winter Olympics. In fairness to Milka it's not like they've claimed anywhere that the bar was 'new', so I think we can give them a pass on this one. You can read my full thoughts on the bar HERE - alternatively you could just read my concluding thoughts below :D

'...the product's main strength and main weakness came in the form of its vanilla pudding filling, which was great tasting but at the same time just incredibly sweet. For fans of sweet flavoured chocolate then this is a bar I would recommend, for those the other end of the spectrum I guess this is one to avoid.'

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Milka Knister mit Brausegranulat (Milka crackle with effervescent granules)
Kcal 590 Fat 40.5g Fat(sats) 23.0g Carbs 50.5g (per 100.0g)

I haven't done my usual trick of saving the best until last I'm afraid. This was more the case of me putting off having to try this one until the very last possible moment. Those with any previous JCM experience will know my hatred of popping candy (aka Knister in German tongue), you need only look back at some similar propositions to see the poor reviews I gave them - See HERE & HERE. Unfortunately for me it appears that Milka aren't aligned with me on this, and they felt it only right to mark one their historic birthday with said ingredient. 'Alpine milk chocolate filled with milk flavoured creme, crackle candy and effervescent granules (i.e. sherbet powder). You know what I'm going to say here so I wont beat around the bush! Alpine milk chocolate and milk flavoured creme - YES please, big time thumbs up for the creamy sweet hazelnut noted chocolate and super smooth melt. Popping candy and sherbet powder - BOO!! No, no, no I'm afraid! These two things ruined a perfectly good chocolate for me, with the popping candy creating it's god awful crackly, scratchy mouth feel, and the sherbet powder having little effect apart from an unnecessary additional sugaryness. This obviously isn't a bar made with a twenty something year old bloke in mind but that doesn't mean I have to give it a better score :D Sorry Milka, not for me this one.

5.6 out of 10

April 13th: Kit Kat Orange Tokyo Sky Tree Edition

2012-04-13T07:00:00.000+01:00

Kcal 100 Fat 5.8g Carbs 10.6g (Per 2 finger serving)

I honestly can't recall a week where I have had to do some much research to write some chocolate reviews. First it was that blasted Rilakkuma bear and today I've had to consult my pals at Wiki for some information on the Tokyo Sky Tree ...

"Tokyo Sky Tree (東京スカイツリー Tōkyō Sukai Tsurī?), formerly known as New Tokyo Tower (新東京タワー Shin Tōkyō Tawā?), is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.84 m/2,723 ft). The project was completed on 29 February 2012, with the tower's public opening due on 22 May 2012."

Of course this being Japan there is only one way to celebrate finishing the construction - yes you guessed it ... a limited edition Kit Kat

This particular limited edition came as a 3 pack of four finger wafers - all contained within a special large Sky Tree fronted box, and additionally their own separate smaller packages. Displayed on all of these very cool looking packaging layers, a rather curious golden crown and 'No.1' emblem is displayed. When I consulted the JList website (HERE) to my mild surprise it became apparent that it meant 'No. 1 flavour'. I'm not making this up folks! Yes Orange is said to be the number one flavour in Japan.

Longer time readers of JCM will be aware that the UK orange Kit Kat has never been a favoured flavour of mine (See 4 four finger HERE & Chunky HERE) and it wasn't with the greatest deal of enthusiasm that I opened my first Sky Tree package. Surrounded by the standard Nestle milk chocolate coating the taste affair started with no real surprises with the sweet, dried milk taste fast established with medium paced smooth melt. From this point onwards things took a real upturn, and expectations were certainly exceeded when it came to the establishment of the orange flavours. Indeed unlike the simplistic overly sweet flavours of our UK Kit Kat, the fruit influence here came in the form of a delicious creamy creme placed amongst the thin wafer layers. It was altogether less sugar intensive, and provided more of a smooth, fruity flavour flow that gave more of a realistic orange taste. The four finger packet as whole was an easily consumable, yet satisfying snack.

Overall the sound of a orange flavour Kit Kat may not sound like the most exciting in the world of Japanese Kit Kats, but this one was a far greater experience than one had imagined it might be. I remain skeptical as to how a limited edition can be the 'No.1 flavour'!?? (Explanation anyone???) but having tasted it I can see why this Orange bar might have a wider appeal than some of the more opinion splitting options like say the Green Tea variant. You have to love the Japanese way of launching a Kit Kat to celebrate the opening of a building, I'm half expecting the equivalent Pocky to turn up on my doorstep next week. For the minute I will point you in the direction of the JList website to get your Japanese Kit Kat fill (HERE) - you should also keep a watch on the JCM twitter feed as there will be a competition to win some the Kit Kats featured this week (See HERE).

8.7 out of 10

April 11th: Midweek Mini(s) Japanese Kit Kats

2012-04-11T07:00:00.000+01:00

This Midweek mini post today sees the continuation of Japanese Kit Kat week here on JCM and the products in focus really are miniature!!

We all know that the Japanese aren't afraid of releasing every flavour known to man, but additionally when it comes to repackaging old ones into new formats they appear to be rather keen on doing that as well. The two Kit Kat variants I'm showing off today are in actual fact to flavours that have previously appeared on the site in one form or another, just scaled down to mini versions.

If you want extended reading in to both these flavours I suggest hitting the review links under the pictures to get the full scoop and my detailed musings on both of these. Just remember if either or these tickle your fancy you can always pop along to JList where they can be found on sale will a host of other crazy and limited availability flavours.

Kit Kat Dark Bitter Minis - See Review HERE - Buy HERE

Kit Kat Green Tea - See Review HERE - Buy HERE

April 9th: Kit Kat Rilakkuma Hotcake

2012-04-09T07:00:00.000+01:00

Kcal 69 Fat 4.0g Carbs 7.7g (per 12.3g Kit Kat)

Before we kick off the review today please allow Wiki to answer the question that I'm sure a good 99% of you are thinking right now ...

Rilakkuma (リラックマ Rirakkuma, a combination of the Japanese pronunciation of relax and the Japanese word for bear) is a Japanese character produced by the San-X company who debuted in 2003. Rilakkuma and Tarepanda, another San-X character, have been described as "huge hits in Japan" by The New York Times. As of May 2010, Rilakkuma ranked as the fifth most popular character in Japan in a survey of the Character Databank.

A Japanese snack based around a popular Japenese character!? That can only mean one thing right!? Indeed JList have been at it once more and yet again the JCM household is stocked full of weird and wonderful Japanese snacks. You can find these Limited Edition Kit Kat Rilakkuma Hotcake on the J-List website HERE, where you can buy yourself a box of 12 mini Kit Kats like the one I got sent for this review. I'm not sure my amateur photography will have done it justice, but the box itself was beautifully decorated and the friendly, fun looking presentation of the packaging was really top-notch even for a Japanese Kit-Kat product. I've not always been a fan of the mini Kit Kat format but as you will go on to learn, the smaller size worked favourably for this particular variant.

Judging by the taste of these white chocolate Kit Kats, Hotcakes appear to be Mayple syrup pancakes - that's what these tasted like anyway! Indeed, these white chocolate Kit Kats were sweet as they come, but in the small 12.3g doses they were a tasty little option to park alongside a nice cup of tea. The white chocolate had a sugary, dried milk taste that as it melted released a set of syrup drenched buttery pancake flavours. Only the brave would dare try eat one of these in say a Kit Kat Chunky form due to it's sugaryness but as stated above in the miniture form the flavour intensity worked.

Overall I'm not for one minute going to even pretend like I have the remotest interest in Rilakkuma, what he does? who his little chicken friend is? or frankly what he is all about :D One thing to say however is that it does appear like me and Rilakkuma have a shared passion for these splendid Hotcakes of his :D Kit Kat flavours are ten-a-penny in Japan but I can honestly say these are one of the most unique I have tried in recent times. I think we all know that white chocolate isn't my favoured chocolate type due it's usual overly sweet nature, however these proved that even I can enjoy it when it is done cleverly with flavour depths more developed that just sugar. I can't say these Kit Kats have me convinced to find out more about Rilakkuma but I'll happily eat some of his hotcakes :D

8.0 out of 10

April 6th: Happy Easter!!!

2012-04-06T07:00:00.003+01:00

Happy Easter one and all! Have a great few days off and enjoy all the chocolates that come your way.

My plans, aside from going to watch my beloved Manchester United <3 <3 <3 are to tuck in the generous bundle sent to me by my pals at Nestle! Yes indeed, Nestle sent me these three Yorkie, Kit Kat and Munchies packages to celebrate them becoming the first major confectioner to use 100% recyclable packaging across all their Easter Eggs. This move to recyclable packaging will save 726 tonnes of plastic waste from going to landfill this year - that's a damn lot when you stop and think about it. If you want to read more on this I suggest you take a look at the Nestle site HERE.

Right! Enough of that I'm off to eat some chocolate and sip some tea from my awesome chocolatey mugs :D (I love a good mug me!!) Enjoy Easter folks!

JIM - p.s. Keep an eye on @ChocMission this weekend! Competitions inbound!!