Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl)

Product name: Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl)
Purchase details: £1.29 for a pack of four desserts (tesco.com)
Calories: 155 per 70g dessert
Country of origin: UK

Although I’ve only reviewed the Creme Egg version so far, I love trying Cadbury’s Pots of joy, so I was really pleased when they released two new Roses varieties that are based on the popular selection box chocolates. First up, for me, was the hazel whirl.

The cardboard packaging contained the usual bright blue and rose flowers that feature on real boxes of Roses. However, there was also a large brown section to reflect the flavour, with the background leaves tying in with the flower heads above.

The hazel whirl is one of my favourite Roses since it features a whole nut encased in milk chocolate. I was really intrigued by the product illustration, for that reason, since it seemed to show a bitty, nutty section in the centre of the dessert. The description confirmed this, with the ‘smooth’ and ‘creamy’ treat (containing melted chocolate) having ‘a centre with chopped hazelnuts on a smooth hazelnut flavour fondant’. This nutty centre made up 14% of the product and also contained caramel syrup – sounded interesting! 

Made by Müller Dairy, this Mondelez product looked outwardly identical to the Creme Egg: Pots of joy. Unfortunately, the reality of the centre was that the chopped hazelnuts weren’t really visible, although a bumpiness could be seen through the thick topping that contained 7% milk chocolate. There was no nutty scent, either, but the chocolate mousse aroma was still pleasant.

The chocolate layer was the same as the Creme Egg version so tasted just as good. Beneath this, the beige hazelnut section didn’t have the strongest nutty taste ever, but it did have a mild icing sugar-like sweetness which I enjoyed. Combined, these layers remained smooth and still tasted creamy, with cream contributing to 6% of each pot.

As for the chopped nuts, these were soft but chunky and, with the other layers, did a pretty good job of replicating the original hazelnut whirl. Understandably, though, the texture was completely different. It would have strayed from the initial idea further but I did think this layer would have been nicer if the hazelnuts had been caramelised so they provided a crispy texture instead. That’s just me, though!

I found these Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl) to be another great addition to the range of desserts. I can’t wait to try the strawberry dream next!

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