Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana

Product name: Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 100g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 590 per bar
Country of origin: Germany 

Following on from my review of Ritter Sport Cookies & Cream, tonight’s the turn of another ‘Spring speciality’: À La Crema Catalana. As previously, this variety is no longer featured on Ritter Sport's website, but I had made a note of the nutritional information before it disappeared.

This limited edition product came in an orange wrapper that featured a photograph of its flavour inspiration which seemed to be a crème brûlée – a quick Google search told me that this is what ‘crema catalana’ is! Furthermore, Monster Sweets described how the brand had taken ‘a classic Spanish caramel cream dessert and added milk chocolate top and bottom’. The result was a bar that was divided into 16 squares and consisted of 47% caramel cream.

The product had an indulgent, creamy and sweet caramel scent and a beautifully smooth, fudgy appearance. Each piece provided a wonderfully thick melt and, unusually, I found it hard to tell where the chocolate ended and the cream centre began. By the end of each piece, though, the centre did feel a little grainier, and it provided a slightly tingly sweet sensation too. On the whole, I found the texture of the Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana to be like a less puddly Lindt Lindor truffle.

The creamy chocolate had a sweet cocoa flavour which contrasted with the very slightly burnt element of the caramel’s taste. In terms of flavour, this bar reminded me more of a better quality Wonka Millionaire's Shortbread than other crème brûlée bars I’ve tried. The caramel’s flavour was much less deep here, though.

I was sure there were some crispy bits within the centre to replicate a crème brûlée’s caramelised topping but, unlike Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée), these didn’t provide a bitter, burnt taste. I also found that they were so few and far between that I ended up wondering if I’d imagined them altogether! I was more than happy with this as it meant they didn’t interfere with the melt.

I found the À La Crema Catalana to be another great quality offering from Ritter Sport. It felt very rich, and I certainly enjoyed it, but I also found it to be a little plain. Not the most exciting flavours in the world, then, but still very tasty.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10