Wonka Millionaire's Shortbread

Product name: Wonka Millionaire’s Shortbread
Purchase details: £0.69 for an individual bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 200 per bar 

Ah, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory – a place of dreams. I loved reading the Roald Dahl books as a kid and I enjoyed the two film adaptations of the story even more (if only because you could see the chocolate delights!).

I remember the excitement of the last Wonka bars being released in 2005 in line with the second of the films. However, my memories are tinged with sadness since the day I finally got to try them turned out to be the day that my Nan died. As a result, I don’t remember much about the chocolate itself – just the bittersweet moment of sharing the different varieties out amongst a shell-shocked family. I do know I enjoyed the products, though, so I was delighted when I heard the brand was making a return with some new varieties. Needless to say, when I saw on A Quarter of Sweets' Facebook page that they had them in stock, it didn’t take me long to pay a visit to the store to buy one of each variety!

These bars seem to have attracted a lot of bad press for their apparently high calorie contents. However, as a dieter, this is a complete non-issue for me since there are fewer calories in these bars than many other single-serving bars I consume.

The bar I’m reviewing first is the Millionaire’s Shortbread variety which came described as ‘soft caramel and crumbly biscuit’ and was presented in a purple wrapper that contained the Wonka logo and somehow captured the magic of the story. It felt like good quality too. Whilst I’m not sure where the bar was produced, the contact address given on the wrapper was for York, whilst the trademark was for Nestlé, Switzerland.

Prior to purchasing my own bars, I’d read Kev's review and seen that the caramel in this bar was like the kind that used to feature in Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky caramel bars rather than being the gooey, sauce-like substance that most people associate with the foodstuff. I have to say, though, that I considered this to be a positive thing as it’s something a bit different with a less messy texture that I enjoy, and so my anticipation was increased.

The bar was quite plain in appearance and consisted of four squares that had a slight ripple effect through the chocolate and contained a little Wonka ‘W’ in a corner of each piece (annoyingly for my OCD, this looked a bit too random!). The inner caramel layer that provided  50% of the product was a lovely, golden colour that was visibly flecked with bits of biscuit, and the bar emitted a slightly milky chocolate aroma with a tinge of caramel – very similar to the Kit Kat: Chunky caramel smell, although milder.

On placing the first piece in my mouth, I was hit with an instant flavour which was different to what I’d been expecting. At this point, only the chocolate was in contact with my tongue, but the taste was almost of brown sugar. This flavour became richer as the chocolate melted and, on reaching the filling, the taste of caramel was evident, although it was very rich and sugary – different but nice! (I also agree with Kev about its similarity to the Kit Kat: Chunky caramel and I maintain that this was a good thing!) 6% of the bar was made up of pieces of biscuit and, unfortunately, this did ruin the melt of the bar. However, it also added a saltiness which prevented a sweetness overload.

I love millionaire’s shortbread so I’d been interested to see this bar’s interpretation of the cake. (For those who are interested, my blog’s profile image is of Snickers Flapjack – an amazing amalgamation of millionaire’s shortbread, flapjack and peanut butter!) I’d found the bar quite solid to cut through, which I’d expect from the real thing, and the caramel layer was also thick which I consider to be important for this product. Obviously, the fact that the caramel wasn’t runny did stray from the usual traybake, but I did find that the fudgy flavour it provided was one I’d associate with millionaire’s shortbread. The biscuit bits were pleasantly crunchy but, again, this was texturally different from the norm since, to me, the shortbread base should be more crumbly. My only other slight criticism was that the chocolate flavour was not overly strong and so it only played a small part in the overall experience.

Was this bar as magical as the story I grew up with? Well, no. But it was a pretty good product that I’d definitely make a regular purchase if it were made available in cheaper multipacks. 

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