Celebrations

Product name: Celebrations
Calories: 344 per 70g box

This mini box of Celebrations was the other food item in the goody bag I recently received.

Made by Mars for the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland, this ‘assortment of milk chocolates and a milk chocolate covered biscuit’ is my favourite mainstream variety box to receive as a gift since I think the combination of eight brands inside is the best one!

Despite being a small box, this pack still featured the usual red design and the great logo that incorporates the fonts used on the wrappers within – images of these were also printed on the cardboard.

The milk chocolate used for the bite-sized treats contained a minimum of 14% milk solids and 25% cocoa solids and each variety had a pretty thick and chunky outer shell which made me a happy bunny.

Galaxy

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Galaxy milk chocolate is my favourite kind. This glossy ‘G’-imprinted chunk came in the usual brown wrapper and was the basic kind that, when sold alone, is now called ‘Smooth Milk’.

The Galaxy website described the chocolate as ‘smooth and creamy’ that had been ‘lovingly created to melt in your mouth’. I couldn’t disagree with this since it featured the same scent and strong flavour I experienced with the Bubbles (milk chocolate egg) and a good melt that was slow, thick but smooth. It reminded me of the old adverts that me and my brother used to imitate! 

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

Mars

I’ve always seen the Mars bar as being manly and basic but, at the same time, I’ve always enjoyed it. However, I’ve previously found that it doesn’t work quite as well on a smaller scale as the proportions aren’t quite right.

This miniature Mars came in its distinctive black and red wrapper but something seemed to have gone slightly wrong with the bumpy design on the chocolate shell! The Mars website described the product as ‘a delicious fusion of chocolate, caramel and nougat’ and I was pleased to see that the layer of nougat was far thicker than the caramel and its mid-brown shade suggested it would have a chocolatey flavour.

The Mars’ scent was not dissimilar to the Galaxy’s and it tasted very sweet and chocolatey. I didn’t think its flavour was of the highest quality but it was very tasty and I did enjoy the soft nougat and overall chewy but melting texture. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10 

Bounty

As a big coconut fan, I do like Bounty bars, so I was pleased to see that the tropical desert island-themed white, green and pale blue wrapper was included in this selection. I did think the Mars website was being a bit overdramatic in claiming ‘the moist, tender coconut tempts your senses with the taste of paradise’ but I enjoyed this sweet nevertheless!

Unlike the Peter Paul Almond Joy, the coconut in this chocolate shell had a fresh white appearance, although it did still have a deep coconutty aroma.

The Bounty also had a strong, milky coconut flavour and I was pleased that the chocolate’s taste was also evident. The coconut’s texture lived up to the expectations raised by its moist and bitty appearance too. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.5/10 

Galaxy Caramel

The Galaxy Caramel had the same outer appearance as the standard Galaxy chunk but, this time, it contained a fantastic-looking thick, amber caramel centre. The wrapper was also similar but it featured the colour yellow to distinguish it from the basic chocolate. (Thankfully there was no Honeycomb Crisp variety included here to confuse this with!)

Galaxy's website claimed the inner caramel was ‘luscious’ and I certainly did enjoy this treat more than Cadbury’s equivalent of Dairy Milk: Caramel – I found it to be more silky and less stodgy.

The caramel didn’t really add anything to the aroma (in fact, the scent didn’t seem as strong here) but I loved how it burst into the mouth with its smooth texture reflecting the chocolate’s. It was very sweet and quite sugary compared to other caramels, and I did prefer the flavour of the chocolate on its own, but this was still very tasty. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10 

Snickers

I’m not actually a massive fan of the standard Snickers bar as I find it a bit too bitty and chewy and, whilst there are actual peanuts, there’s not peanut butter! Like the Mars, I also think of this brand as male-orientated, and this was reflected with the chocolate-brown wrapper.

According to Mars' website, I was surprised to see that the Snickers is actually the world’s best-selling bar, whilst the Snickers site gave the product description of being ‘packed with roasted peanuts, nougat, caramel and milk chocolate’.

I was impressed by the neat inner appearance of this bite-sized piece. The caramel was the main feature and was full of chopped peanuts. The nougat was pale in colour and, on sampling it, there appeared to be nuts in there too. The nougat itself was slightly sticky but added a sweetness to the otherwise strong peanut flavour.

The chocolate tasted nice and creamy and I noticed that the toasted aspect of the peanuts was also evident. The caramel provided a chewy texture and I actually found I preferred this product in miniature form since the nuts were a lot smaller and, for me, more manageable.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10 

Maltesers Teasers

This has always been my first choice in a box of Celebrations since, for so many years, it was the only Maltesers product like it – I was delighted when Mars released the separate Malteaster products and, now, the Teasers bars!

The red wrapper continued the theme of standard Maltesers and, whilst still long and narrow, this was the only miniature with a particularly curved appearance that featured a wave design. Inside, there were lots of tiny, crispy honeycomb balls to reflect the centre of normal Maltesers.

The scent, again, was similar to Galaxy chocolate – it was stronger than Maltesers but weaker than Galaxy chocolate itself.

Having eaten this variety after a Galaxy, I could tell that the chocolate tasted a bit less creamy than Galaxy but, in turn, it was more chocolatey.

The texture was very crispy and, despite the small size of the honeycomb pieces, I loved that it still managed to stick to the teeth and it also provided a mild honey flavour.

As expected, I enjoyed having a higher ratio of chocolate to honeycomb here since, whilst the flavour remained unchanged, the less rough texture was preferable.

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

Twix

I’ve reviewed the full-size Twix previously so I have nothing more to add here!

I’ve marked down its aroma score slightly since it wasn’t quite as strong but, other than that, everything else remained the same. 

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

Milky Way

The Milk Way featured its usual blue and Space-themed wrapper design and was described on Mars' website as ‘a light whipped centre covered in tasty milk chocolate’.

Its outer appearance was the same as the Snickers and its very pale beige nougat appeared to have the same texture as the Mars.

The Milky Way had a milky scent and I enjoyed the quite mild but nice and sweet flavour that its really soft nougat provided. I also liked how the chocolate shell tasted creamy against this sugariness. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Overall, this was the enjoyable selection that I expected – I was just sorry I only had one of each variety to enjoy on this occasion!

Appearance: 7.44/10
Aroma: 7.31/10
Taste: 7.63/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.6/10

Twix

Product name: Twix
Purchase details: £1.00 for a packet of four two finger bars (tesco.com)
Calories: 124 per finger (248 per bar

It seems I like to do things out of order since I reviewed the imported and lesser-known Twix White last month having not reviewed the common and ever-popular milk chocolate version! 

Made by Mars, this bar was simply described as ‘milk chocolate (35%) covered caramel (32%) and biscuit (26%)’ and was split into fingers that each weighed 25g. Again, the country of origin was not stated, but the contact details provided were for Holland, Great Britain and Ireland. Whilst a serving was, technically, one finger, I don’t think I’ve ever left the other one for later!

The colour scheme used for this variety of Twix was gold and red (quite similar to the Cadbury Crunchie, really!) and there was a delicious-looking image of the twin fingers on the wrapper too. As for the bar itself, this was identical to the White one – only the colour of the chocolate was different (providing a greater contrast with the biscuit), and the coverage seemed a bit thicker. 

This Twix had a chocolate smell that, whilst not overly powerful, was stronger than the white chocolate one had been. It tasted very chocolatey and had the same delicious, sweet caramel, although I didn’t think this tasted quite as good with the milk chocolate. I’m not sure whether the same biscuit recipe is used for both varieties but, to me, the biscuit base used for this Twix was sweeter and less buttery. Together, though, these simple ingredients, once again, formed a winning combination.

Understandably, this bar was also texturally the same as the White bar, and I really enjoyed biting through the soft caramel into the crunchy biscuit. I also decided to try something a bit different by biting off the ends of a finger and drinking some tea through the remainder, like a straw. The process itself wasn’t anything to write home about, but eating the melting, softened finger afterwards was certainly enjoyable, albeit a bit messy!

Well done, Twix, you’re b-e-a-utiful. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Twix White

Product name: Twix White
Purchase details: £1.09 for a 50g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 125 per finger (250 per bar)

I was very excited when I saw this Twix White on Monster Sweets' website. I do like Twixes but I can’t say I have them very often. Swapping the milk chocolate for white made the prospect irresistible for me, though, so onto my order it went!

I don’t know where this bar was made but the contact details given were for Mars in Holland, Germany and Denmark. Whilst this was a European limited edition, something in the back of my mind was telling me that I’d had one of these before. Low and behold, a quick look on Wikipedia revealed that this had been previously released in the UK back in 2004, so there you go!

Like always, this bar was split into two fingers and, according to the wrapper, a serving is one of them. Whatever! I found the packaging to be unique since it maintained the traditional red and gold associated with the Twix brand but was presented on a very white background. I almost didn’t notice it, but there was also an image the white Twix fading into the background on the wrapper.

Due to my previous Twix encounters, I expected each finger to be a long biscuit topped with a thick layer of caramel, all coated in white chocolate...I was right! Whilst not being very thick on the bottom of the bar (you could see the biscuit through it), the white chocolate looked enticing and, inside, the biscuit and caramel layers were almost equal in quantity, although there was slightly more biscuit. These components looked really attractive together since the pale biscuit contrasted nicely with the deeper caramel. There also seemed to be a very thin, dark layer between the biscuit and the caramel which looked a bit like milk chocolate – odd!

This Twix smelt of white chocolate but it wasn’t a strong aroma and I couldn’t smell the other ingredients at all. This chocolate was quite a thin layer and melted really quickly, leaving behind the biscuit and caramel. It probably wasn’t as flavourful as the milk chocolate is but it was still nice and it tasted particularly good with the caramel (I do have a habit of biting the top layer off the biscuit!).

The biscuit was like shortcake and was pleasantly buttery – I could have sworn they don’t taste that good in the milk chocolate version, but maybe it’s just been too long since I last had one! The biscuit was crispy whilst the caramel that topped it was really gooey with a bit of stiffness. Flavour-wise, it tasted as you would expect caramel to taste – good stuff.

Although the Twix White basically contained three simple components, combined, it produced something a bit special. I particularly loved the texture of this product as the caramel and biscuit merged really well together whilst the white chocolate provided a moistness. Definitely a good twist on a classic. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10