Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations (cola pretzel honeycomb)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations (cola pretzel honeycomb)
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 200g bar (Sainsbury’s Local)
Calories: 125 per 25g serving (505 per 100g)
Country of origin: UK 

Like with any new products, I was really excited when Cadbury launched the Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations range a few months ago. I tried the first two varieties as soon as they were released and, whilst I particularly enjoyed the cookie nut crunch, I didn’t find either bar to be incredible. For that reason, I wasn’t that bothered when this cola pretzel honeycomb version was announced since the combination just seemed bizarre. I spend my life drinking Pepsi Max but I’ve never had the desire to combine the flavour with my precious chocolate! Even so, I felt I should try it and, having come to the realisation that there’s been absolutely no sign of a single serving bar, I finally caved in and bought the 200g slab which even I wasn’t going to attempt to eat in one go.

The bar came in a familiar, quality purple wrapper which contained the white stripes that are unique to Marvellous creations. Inside, it took the creative shape of the other large bars in the range. I don’t really ‘do’ random but I did find this visually appealing. I found it frustrating, though, since it made it difficult to break off the correct portion size. I could see dark flecks in the milk chocolate which appeared to be the ‘chewy cola flavour nuggets’ that filled 8% of the bar, whilst the ‘salted pretzel’ that made up 4% of the product was clearly visible in its lumpy base, although I was surprised to see that these pieces looked more like nuts.

The chocolate had the standard Dairy Milk aroma but there was also an extra sweetness present which seemed to be from the cola pieces. I still wasn’t sure what to expect though, particularly when I hadn’t enjoyed the chewy texture of the jelly popping candy shells bar – I was worried that this would deliver a similar experience, particularly as I could feel the cola bits stretch as I broke the chocolate apart, and it looked like there was a lot of them inside! At least I knew from Cadbury Choc Full Of...: Pretzels that the salty pretzels would work well with the chocolate (plus, it’s a flavour combination I associate with some American peanut butter products – yay!).

On finally tasting the chocolate, I was met with the usual creaminess of Dairy Milk but with a sweet tang from the cola and a saltiness from the pretzel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t detect the honeycomb (3% of the bar) in the flavour at all, but I was just relieved that the main flavour was still chocolate.

Of course, I tried letting a couple of pieces melt on the tongue and, in doing so, found that it allowed the cola flavour to be introduced with a slight tang at the end of each piece. Whilst I did find this slightly odd, it worked far better than I expected it to. Unfortunately, the pretzel pieces were quite sharp and painful to suck on and it wasn’t really worth persevering with as the end result was a mouthful of random shaped ingredients after the chocolate had melted away! Of course, what this did do, was make me realise just how much had gone into the bar...and there wasn’t actually as much cola as I’d feared.

The best way to enjoy this bar was obviously by chewing it. The cola pieces were like cola bottles but, thankfully, weren’t as chewy as the jelly pieces had been in the other variety. I think the fact that this was offset by the crunch of the honeycomb really helped. The pretzel also provided a lot of interest with a dull, crispy texture. I actually couldn’t believe how enjoyable the overall experience was.

On the back of the wrapper the following question was posed: ‘Who knew golden honeycomb, cola and crunchy pretzel pieces could perform so marvellously with delicious Cadbury Dairy Milk?’.  Well, I certainly didn’t! Cadbury, I’m sorry for doubting you. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10