Milky Way Bar: French vanilla and caramel

Product name: Milky Way Bar: French vanilla and caramel
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 48.8g bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I always have to remind myself that American Milky Ways are the equivalent of UK Mars bars. Bearing that in mind, this limited edition French vanilla and caramel variety, with its ‘rich chocolate’, ‘creamy caramel’ and ‘smooth nougat’ didn’t seem quite as unusual a concept as it would have done if compared to a British Milky Way!

 

Still made by Mars, I really liked this Milky Way Bar’s packaging, with the colour scheme reminding me of the Nakd Banana Bread, as I’ve previously mentioned. The product image’s luscious caramel topping, and the vanilla flower, were also easy on the eye.

I’ve only reviewed the UK Mars bar in miniature form as part of my Celebrations post, but I’ve eaten a lot of them in my time! As a result, I knew that the Milky Way, on the outside, looked very similar. It was slimmer, and a bit scuffed, but the inside looked incredible. The white nougat was really clean and fresh, whilst the amber caramel layer looked silky smooth.

As for the scent, there was a milky chocolate element to this, but it also smelt recognisably American in terms of the chocolate itself. Unfortunately, the vanilla aspect wasn’t incorporated into the aroma.

For me, the chocolate used on this bar wasn’t as nice as the British version – I can only assume that it was a different recipe! Aside from that, the vanilla nougat tasted immediately of ice cream and was almost floral. Whilst the bar was very sweet, it wasn’t as chocolatey as I would have liked. I did feel that the caramel was improved, though – it remained thick and incredibly gooey, but it was also as smooth as it had looked.

The combination of the chocolate and nougat ended up reminding me of the Charleston Chew Vanilla, although the Milky Way Bar: French vanilla and caramel was definitely a superior product – aside from the very inclusion of the caramel, I loved the way the chocolate shell cracked against the fantastically squidgy centre with every bite.

I’m certainly glad I tried this product but, to be perfectly honest, I much prefer the traditional, rugged and more chocolatey Mars bar!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10