Lu Glico: Mikado (Daim)

Product name: Lu Glico: Mikado (Daim)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 70g box (Home Bargains)
Calories: 11 per biscuit
Country of origin: France

I love the Mikado brand – so few calories! It’s been a while since I’ve had space in my snack stash for them, though, and I’ve only had this Daim variety once before, so I decided it was time to buy them again.

These ‘biscuits covered with caramel flavour milk chocolate with caramel pieces’ came in an eye-catching yellow box that featured red branding for both the Mikado and Daim logos – I particularly liked how the Daim brand had been used to look like an explosion from the bomb in the background. The box also had images of Daim chocolate, as well as the long, thin biscuits – I could totally see the reason for the name ‘Mikado’ which is another word for the game ‘pick-up sticks’.

The clever thing about Mikado biscuits is the way one end is left free of chocolate to avoid messy fingers – I guess the result is not too dissimilar from corndogs! Going by the picture on the packaging, though, the rest of the sticks were coated in a decent chocolate coating and knobbly caramel pieces. Despite these contributing to 43.9% and 5% of the product, respectively, I did find the reality looked a little less impressive – the chocolate layer was very thin in places and the surface wasn’t as bumpy either. However, they were still attractive, and I liked the contrast between the biscuit’s golden surface and white innards.

This particular pack had been made by Kraft Foods and, on opening the inner foil wrapper, released a buttery caramel scent. Up close, a milky chocolate aroma was noticeable too. I was pleased that the caramel infusion was noticeable in the chocolate’s taste, with the overall flavour being quite deep – an almost burnt sugar taste against the sweet chocolate. In contrast, the biscuit was very plain, and was like an unsweetened rich tea.

These Mikado (Daim) were lovely and crispy to chew, and the chocolate melted away very quickly too, if preferred. However, this did leave behind the smooth but hard biscuit which, quite unusually, didn’t really dissolve. At 11 calories a pop, though, you couldn’t really go wrong with these!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Daim

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Daim
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 120g bar (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 80 per three chunk serving (630 per bar)
Country of origin: UK 

My old colleagues used to rave about the Milka Daim bar that the shop in work sold so, one day, I decided to give it a go. To be fair, it was pretty good, but I can’t remember exactly what it tasted like. I’ve not had one since, and this was my first go of the newer Cadbury Dairy Milk version, so I was interested to see if I’d find it as enjoyable.

I’m not actually a huge fan of the standard Daim because, like the Skor bar I’ve previously reviewed, it’s a bit too crunchy for me – I prefer my chocolate treats softer. However, as I’d experienced with the Milka version, I had no problems with the little ‘crunchy almond caramel pieces’ that were scattered throughout 20% of this milk chocolate.

The chocolate itself was the standard Dairy Milk, containing 23% milk solids, and a minimum of 20% cocoa solids. As usual, it came in a purple wrapper, but this variety had a toffee-coloured strip along the bottom to represent the flavour. There was also an image of the chocolate which showed how much ‘Daim yumminess’ was ‘nestling amongst’ the ‘creamy chocolate’ (Cadbury’s words – not mine!). 

The bar had the normal Dairy Milk large bar shape made of slightly angular chunks and it was three of these that made up a 15g serving. Inside, the crystallised amber-coloured pieces were clearly visible, and they were evidently abundant. 

As I’d hoped, there was a great, strong Dairy Milk smell, as well as the classic taste. The chocolate melted well, as always, but there were jagged edges from the Daim. When melting, the Daim didn’t seem to add any flavour to the chocolate itself but, when left behind, there was an additional mellow toffee taste at the end of each piece. It was much better to chew – fantastic, in fact – since the chunky texture went well with the slight crunch from the crispy and sugary pieces which weren’t too hard at all. Furthermore, the taste became richer, sweeter, and slightly buttery and, every so often, I hit an almondy piece which was an added bonus. (I don’t know if this was intentional, but it didn’t seem to be present in all of the Daim pieces.) 

I must admit that, prior to trying it myself, I thought people may have been over-hyping this bar. However, it genuinely was brilliant and had a solid flavour – shame on me!

If only my current workplace had a shop... 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.25/10