Cadbury Milk Tray

Product name: Cadbury Milk Tray
Calories: 495 per 100g
Country of origin: UK 

I received this 200g box of Cadbury Milk Tray as part of a Christmas present and I think it may actually be the first time I’ve had one of my own! 

This ‘assortment of chocolates’ by Mondelez came in a Cadbury purple box with a pink border which strongly suggested it was for a female target market. There were photographs of eight different ‘sweet, smooth, fruity’ and ‘nutty’ chocolates around the outside of the packaging, but there were actually 10 varieties inside, all coated in milk chocolate that contained a minimum of 14% milk solids, and producing a collectively fruity smell. 

Since the chocolate itself was the same for each chocolate, I won’t go into detail when reviewing each one, so just remember that it was very sweet! 

Caramel softy

The Caramel softy was presented as a stripy heart and was described as ‘milk chocolate matched with its caramel sweetheart’. 

It had a slightly sweetened aroma and the caramel centre was a golden colour. It was very much like a Dairy Milk: Caramel that had been made with inferior chocolate. As a result, it was sweeter and a little bit too sickly, although I did enjoy its soft caramel. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10 

Overall score: 6.88/10 

Hazelnut swirl
I can’t describe the shape of this ‘whole roasted hazelnut in a whirl of milk chocolate’ as anything other than the ‘swirl’ mentioned in its name!

As the variety I’d probably go for if I were just eating one of the chocolates, I enjoyed the solidity of the chocolate, combined with the crunchy centre, and it had a great nutty taste.

The chocolate looked smooth throughout and there was a pleasant hazelnut aroma too. 

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

Overall score: 7.5/10 

Fudge duet

This ‘vanilla flavour fudge covered with milk chocolate’ was oblong in shape and covered in white chocolate stripes. It had a slight caramel scent with some milkiness, from the chocolate, thrown in too.

After my recent positive experience with the Cadbury Fudge, I was pleased that this chocolate was very similar – it even had the same two-tone inner appearance. The only real difference was that the texture was a little less grainy and, as a result, didn’t feel as sugary. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10 

Overall score: 7.25/10 

Exotic delight
There was only one ‘aromatic’ Exotic delight chocolate in the box (there were two of everything else) but, as someone who doesn’t really like Turkish delight, I was pleased about this.

This chocolate was square-shaped and featured a sun-like design on top. Beneath the thick chocolate shell was a dark jelly which produced a sweet Turkish delight aroma.

The centre felt like a bouncy gel with a strong and typical Turkish delight flavour. Thankfully, for me, the chocolate distracted from this, so it didn’t taste as unpleasant as I feared it might have done.

The texture was my least favourite part of the Exotic delight but I think this was typical of the sweet and, therefore, down to personal preference rather than a fault on Cadbury’s part. 

Appearance: 6/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6/10
Texture: 5.5/10 

Overall score: 6/10 

Orange truffle
I was really looking forward to this ‘milk chocolate truffle with an intense orange twist’ since it was a variation from the usual orange crèmes that are the more usual offering in boxes of chocolates.

Shaped like a pretty realistic (albeit chocolate!) orange segment, there was a slightly tangy smell that was evident through the chocolate, but I did feel let down by the weakness of this.

The Orange truffle was pretty solid and, although the centre was slightly softer than the outer chocolate, this wasn’t by much. The appearance of the truffle had made it look like it contained crispy bits but this wasn’t the case. However, it wasn’t entirely smooth either.

The chocolate had quite a strong cocoa taste with an orange kick that followed afterwards. This orange flavour tasted more realistic than I’d expected it to but it also wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped – it certainly wasn’t as good as a Terry's Chocolate Orange or as ‘intense’ as it had been described. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10 

Overall score: 7/10 

Perfect praline
As the only praline chocolate in the box, I expected this one to be my favourite.

It was presented as a circular ‘chocolate gem’ with an inner section that looked a bit like a nut in a shell. The praline itself contained visible flecks of hazelnut which, unfortunately, didn’t provide a scent.

The filling had seemed stiff and dense when cutting the chocolate open as it had stuck to the knife but, in the mouth, it was a lot softer and smoother. The nuts provided a crispy texture but, due to their tiny size, they felt more like sugar granules than nuts – I definitely prefer smoother pralines.

As for the flavour, this was nutty but, unfortunately, it was also too sweet. However, there was coffee-like aspect to it as well which I quite enjoyed. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10 

Overall score: 6.75/10 

Caramel charm
I wasn’t really looking forward to the Caramel charm as it was described as ‘chewy’ which is a feature I’m not a fan of in a caramel – I think they should be runny!

It was presented as a square ‘trinket’ with white chocolate stripes and its centre was smooth and fudge-coloured in appearance.

The caramel had a mild scent and was very stiff so, therefore, hard to bite into. I must admit that I struggled with the texture but it did, at least, taste ok. That said, it wasn’t as flavourful or buttery as the Chomp bar, although there did seem to be a slight salty element in this case. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 5.5/10 

Overall score: 6.5/10 

Nutty heart
The Nutty heart was, unsurprisingly, heart-shaped, and featured the letters ‘MT’ for ‘Milk Tray’.

It was described as a ‘whole roasted hazelnut smothered in a caramel and milk chocolate’. The first one I had (the one that I’ve based my score on) tasted very nutty and this toned down the sweetness from the chocolate and caramel. However, I did still find it a bit too sweet. The caramel was viscous (I usually find the type used for this sort of chocolate is a lot runnier) whilst the nut was pleasantly crunchy.

So why didn’t the same apply for the second Nutty heart in the box (the one my photo is of)? Well, have you noticed how you can’t see the hazelnut through the golden caramel? That’s because there wasn’t one!

Nuts (or lack of them) aside, this chocolate was very similar in appearance to the Caramel softy, although the caramel itself wasn’t as runny. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10 

Overall score: 6.75/10

Strawberry sundae
The Strawberry sundae was shaped like a strawberry and contained a slightly pink runny goo in the centre which was slightly darker on top.

This ‘fondant creme’ was also supposed to taste of vanilla but, to be honest, I didn’t really think it tasted of either. It was very sweet, with a slight tartness, but it mainly made me think of medicine.

Surprisingly, its aroma wasn’t strong – it was just slightly sweetened. As for the texture, this consisted of chunky chocolate with an almost liquid centre. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6/10
Texture: 6.5/10 

Overall score: 6.63/10 

Surprise parcel
I genuinely was surprised (but mainly excited!) when I saw that this gift-shaped chocolate contained ‘a white chocolate truffle’. This smooth, white centre contrasted nicely with its milk chocolate shell.

The Surprise parcel had a barely detectable, albeit sweet, aroma, and I found it actually tasted more nutty than white chocolatey. However, it was still very sweet.

The chocolate was very chunky and quite hard but the smoother centre provided a cooling sensation which resulted in a very enjoyable texture. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10 

Overall score: 7/10

I found the Cadbury Milk Tray to be a bit of a mixed bag (well, box!) but it was certainly more positive than negative. What I particularly liked about the product was the notion of all the coatings being the same (milk chocolate) since there was no disappointment of realising that my favourite filling was coated in a type of chocolate I wasn’t as keen on (dark!).

Appearance: 7.15/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6.7/10
Texture: 6.95/10
Overall score: 6.83/10