Nestlé Quality Street: My orange bar

Product name: Nestlé Quality Street: My orange bar
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 35g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 98 per half bar (196 per bar)
Country of origin: UK

 

Having enjoyed the Nestlé Quality Street green and purple bars, I really wanted to try the new My orange bar which was the same idea but made use of the brand’s Orange chocolate crunch sweet – one I like but tend to forget exists!

Presented in an on-theme purple and orange glossy, festive wrapper that included an image of the bar, the ‘milk chocolate with an orange flavoured filling and orange flavoured crunch pieces (9%)’ was split into four hexagonal segments with engraved bows for decoration. The filling looked quite grey in comparison to the chocolate (containing a minimum of 14% milk solids), but the crunchy pieces added something a bit different, with a glassy kind of appearance. Cutting a piece in two also allowed the chocolate shell to lift off and I quite liked being able to see the two layers in more detail.

As I’d hoped, the bar had a nice, tangy chocolate orange scent, and it also tasted of sweet orange chocolate – it was lovely. The orange aspect was definitely from the centre which meant the taste was more sugary and cocoa-focused than the Terry's Chocolate Orange (milk bars), and this was particularly noticeable when allowing a piece to melt. When doing this, the texture of the filling felt very grainy, but I did like crispy bits which felt a bit like a shattered lollipop and added more of a tang to the flavour.

When chewing the bar, the centre felt a bit more like a truffle, but I was surprised at just how many crispy pieces there were within it. I’d say the balance was spot on, actually, because they made a pleasant difference but there weren’t so many that they became a nuisance. The orange flavour was also a lot stronger throughout, when chewing, but there was still a milky element from the chocolate too. As much as I enjoyed both methods of consumption, I did find that this more traditional option had me salivating for the next piece before I’d even finished the one I was on!

I think I’ll be paying more attention to the Orange chocolate crunch sweets in future as I really enjoyed this bar. I just wish it had been bigger – I would have thought it would be impossible to stick to the recommended two-piece portion!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 8/10

Snickers Bar: More choc

Product name: Snickers Bar: More choc
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of four bars (Poundworld)
Calories: 240 for a 48g bar

  

I wasn’t intending to bother with this limited edition Snickers Bar from Mars, but the lure of the blue wrapper eventually won me over, and the ‘chocolatey nougat and chocolatey caramel’ did sound nice, even though I knew I’d probably find it too similar to the standard bars.

The image on the packaging looked really good but I somehow didn’t expect the reality of the caramel (27%) and nougat (15%) to look so much darker than the original. Unlike with the miniature Snickers found in Celebrations, the peanuts (23%) weren’t chopped, suggesting its texture would be on the chunky rather than bitty spectrum. Unfortunately for me, though, this wasn’t the case and I found the texture too gritty for my liking – the same issue I have with full-sized Snickers Bars.

The Bar had a salty peanut scent, as well as a strong peanut flavour, with an occasional toasted aspect still coming through as it had done with the Celebrations. I can’t say this UK and Ireland offering sounded quite as exciting as America’s Rockin' nut road, but the additional chocolate did seem to make a bit of a difference. The outer milk chocolate coating (containing a minimum of 14% milk solids) contributed to 35% of the product, so it was already pretty chocolatey, but I think this More choc variety was a bit less sweet and had a slightly stronger chocolate flavour than a standard Snickers – it certainly seemed to burn the throat more! What I’m not convinced about, though, is that I would have been able to identify what the difference was if I didn’t already know.

Whilst I did enjoy the flavour, I did miss the squidginess of the Rockin' nut road – the More choc was more chewy and quite stiff in places. As a result, it was the texture that stopped me liking this more than I did, but then that was an outcome that I’d expected due to my existing opinion of the Snickers Bar.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Snickers Bar: Rockin' nut road

Product name: Snickers Bar: Rockin’ nut road
Purchase details: £1.59 for a 49.9g bar (Mr Simms)
Calories: 230 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I’m not generally a fan of Snickers which is why, so far, I’ve only reviewed the mini version included in Celebrations. However, this Rockin’ nut road variety (based on rocky road) caught my eye on my first ever visit to Mr Simms. (That’s right – we have a Mr Simms now! I always wondered what this magical place was like and I can now report that it smells amazing!)

This bar consisted of dark chocolate, almonds, caramel and marshmallow flavoured nougat, and it was the change in nut type and nougat that got me so excited. I can usually take or leave marshmallow since I like the flavour but, in other things, I don’t tend to like its elasticity. As a result, having the flavour in a nougat seemed like a win-win situation, particularly since it’s the presence of marshmallows in real rocky road which tends to put me off eating it, usually.

Made by Mars Chocolate North America, the bar came in a striking black wrapper and was a very good looking specimen. The semisweet chocolate was nice and glossy and the pale nougat, large nuts and gooey caramel were all well-defined against this dark shell.

It may have contained artificial flavours but this Snickers Bar: Rockin’ nut road wasn’t bad at all. Its aroma was a simple but deep dark chocolate one and this ingredient was definitely the main one in terms of taste too – it made the product noticeably more bitter and it balanced well with the inner features, almost creating a saltiness by comparison. The downside was that the nougat and caramel weren’t as sweet as they could have been and the inside, generally, wasn’t very flavourful but, overall, the taste wasn’t miles away from an actual piece of rocky road.

The texture was the standout element for me, though. The inside was stringy but not too chewy, and I loved the softness of it, as well as the fact that it wasn’t overrun with nuts that got in the way. If anything, I’d say the feel was very much like a Mars bar but with the odd dull crunch here and there.

In conclusion, I would have liked the flavours from the nougat, almonds and caramel to be more prominent in this bar, but its squidginess was very enjoyable indeed.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter

Product name: Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter
Purchase details: £1.28 for a 68g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 254 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I bought this Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter at the same time as the White chocolate macadamia nut that I’d previously reviewed. Despite my love of peanut butter, I had actually been more excited about the concept of white chocolate, although I did still hope that this variety would be better than the other peanut butter energy bar I’ve tried: Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie.

Understandably, this bar had the same history and features of the White chocolate macadamia nut version. The packaging was also identical apart from the mountains being brown instead of white.

Described as an ‘oat and peanut butter energy bar’, it contained 15.2% rolled oats, 6.3% peanut butter, as well peanut flour and peanuts. It was the same shape as the other variety but was darker in colour (even more akin to a flapjack), had no drizzle decoration, and was sticky to the touch.

The aroma was different but still slightly strange. The waxy element remained, and it didn’t smell natural, but there was the subtlest hint of nut and no floral aspect.

Thankfully, the flavour on offer here was also nicer. The peanut butter wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked but there were hints of it and, every now and then, I hit a ‘clump’ of it which felt like a nice treat and had a toasted nut aspect to it. However, I did find each mouthful had a bit of a journey – it started off nice and relatively nutty, then tasted a bit weird and artificial just before the swallow, but had a pleasant aftertaste to follow!

The moist texture remained good and was actually improved. There was still a chewy/crispy combination but with an added starchy feel, as well as the odd crunchy nut, and thick flake of oat.

There is no doubt in my mind that this Crunchy peanut butter bar was nicer than its White chocolate macadamia nut sibling, as well as the Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie: Peanut butter competitor. As I’ve come to expect by now, I do prefer more general snacks than these functional ones, but I definitely wouldn’t complain if I was given one of these as an energy boost! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 6.88/10