Cadbury Caramello

Product name: Cadbury Caramello
Purchase details: £1.79 for a 45g bar (Mr Simms)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I’ve wanted to try the Cadbury Caramello for ages but have never managed to find it. For that reason, when I finally came across it in Mr Simms, I was prepared to pay more for it than I would normally on a bar of this size.

Containing ‘creamy caramel’, I was intrigued to see just how different it was from the Dairy Milk: Caramel, although I was aware that the chocolate itself wasn’t Dairy Milk, despite the almost identical packaging (there was just more emphasis on the purple than the yellow and the name looked like it had been written in caramel)!

The bar was distributed by The Hershey Company and the image on the wrapper looked absolutely delicious. Divided into four chunky, brand-imprinted squares, it had suffered some significant leakage so I quickly discovered just how unbelievably sticky the filling was.

The bar had a sweet and creamy scent which I would have liked to have been stronger but I was much more interested in the flavour...

The amber caramel was so buttery that it was unreal. It was nice and gooey too and really reminded me of the Galaxy Caramel’s (reviewed here here) combination of runny caramel and creamy chocolate. Unfortunately, though, I felt that the Cadbury chocolate used here ruined the experience somewhat. It was quite brittle, didn’t really melt, and was not very flavoursome either. The caramel certainly did lift it but, to be honest, I would have been happy to just eat a pot of it on its own!

All things considered, I think if you put this caramel into a bar of Dairy Milk, you’d be onto one heck of a winner.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 6.88/10

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

Reese's Pieces

Product name: Reese’s Pieces
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 43g bag or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 214 per bag
Country of origin: USA

I love Reese’s Pieces but I’d not had them in ages – the last time was as a birthday cake topping over 18 months ago so it was about time I had them again!

The ‘peanut butter candy in a crunchy shell’ used to be quite hard to find in the UK but, thankfully, it’s now a lot more widely available and I quite often see the eye-catching orange bags on shop shelves.

Made by the Hershey Company, these Pieces were a bit like M&M’s but with peanut butter instead of chocolate, and the brown, orange and yellow colours used reflected the branding of the Peanut Butter Cups.

The pale candy centres made up 62% of the product and produced a fairly nutty scent, although this wasn’t pure. They had a lovely peanut butter flavour but, since it had been solidified, it lacked the squidgy texture of ordinary peanut butter.

The shells made up the remainder of the Pieces and these were really sugary – an aspect that was particularly noticeable when sucking. These casings worked really well with the centres, merging crisp and soft textures nicely, although the peanut butter candy didn’t stay in one piece when chewing in the way that chocolate would...it almost had a crumbly feel to it. In terms of taste, though, the Pieces certainly didn’t lack the chocolate, and the flavour was still nice and sweet. In fact, the sweet and salty aspects played off each other perfectly and seemed to create a mini party in my mouth, producing a kind of juiciness too.

I also loved how the bag seemed to last for ages, and that the sweets tasted great individually and in handfuls. They were so addictive that I think I could actually live off them! I definitely need to make them a more regular purchase...

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

General Mills Lucky Charms

Product name: General Mills Lucky Charms
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 49g pot (Poundland)

Calories: 190 per pot (232 per pot with 125ml skimmed milk)
Country of origin: USA

 

General Mills Lucky Charms is another cereal that, like Kellogg's Froot Loops, I’d always wanted to try but never had. For that reason, I was really pleased to find this single-serving  tub that still managed to contain 19g of whole grain within its ‘frosted toasted oat cereal with marshmallows’. I’d never actually realised that this was a frosted cereal so this aspect increased my interest and, what with the marshmallows, I couldn’t think of ever having tried a similar product.

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes take words for granted, so I’d never made the connection between this cereal’s name and what it actually was! However, I quickly realised that the red pot featured things that are often considered to bring luck, such as a leprechaun. This theme continued with the tiny, shaped Cheerio-like cereal and colourful marshmallows – these featured horseshoes (which I initially thought were fish!) and shooting stars, as well as other more general items like hearts. (If anyone can figure out what the shape on the bottom right of my picture is, I’d love to hear from you!)

Imported by Innovative Bites Ltd, there were some negative aspects of this product too. The corn it contained was genetically modified, and the ‘adverse effect’ the colours could have on children was also highlighted – not great but I couldn’t let that deter me!

The overall scent from the tub was gorgeous. It was like a cross between Kellogg’s Rice Krispies: Squares and real toasted marshmallows. The cereal had a slightly sticky glaze that possibly contributed to this but, on the whole, it seemed to be from the hardened ‘charms’ that were also a little sticky. I was impressed to see that the colours of these marshmallows went throughout each piece too – they weren’t just for show on the surface.

I did try a tiny dry sample of the product, out of matter of interest, and found the cereal to be nicely sweetened and the marshmallow to be very sugary with a slight crisp. The different colours used didn’t impact the flavour. They all tasted like toasted marshmallows – it was just a shame they didn’t have the warm, gooey centres to accompany the flavour!

I figured the idea was to pour the milk into the tub so this is what I did...only to find it all went to the bottom (don’t ask what I thought would happen!). This ended up being fine, though, as the cereal still got a good moistening. The only problem I found was that the bits at the bottom did go soft and slimy pretty quickly but, on the whole, the cereal was quite chewy and I adored the sugary hits from the marshmallows. The flavour combination really reminded me of something which I couldn’t work out until I remembered I had actually had this cereal in bar form a while ago so it was probably that!

Once the cereal had gone, I enjoyed using up the remaining milk. It didn’t look very appetising as the blue food colouring had leaked and created a grey appearance, and its texture had also become a bit starchy, but it did have a slightly sweetened taste.

Aside from this cereal’s deliciousness, what impressed me most was the good balance between the two elements – there was no shortage of either the oats or the marshmallows and they were both very enjoyable. If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this so much...I just wish it was healthier!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10