Huttons of Windermere Old Bank House Chocolate Shop: Milk chocolate bar

Product name: Huttons of Windermere Old Bank House Chocolate Shop: Milk chocolate bar
Purchase details: Old Bank House Chocolate Shop
Country of origin: England

I was recently given this 100g bar of chocolate from my sister and brother-in-law as a thank you for looking after their cat when they went to the Lake District.

Confusingly, the Huttons of Windermere website says they make their own chocolate, but the base of the simple, gold cardboard box said my bar had been made by Whitakers Chocolates Ltd – confusing!

The milk chocolate contained a minimum of 25% cocoa solids and 14% milk solids and was divided into seven very chunky pyramids with a stripy design.

Bizarrely, there seemed to be an element of mint in both the aroma and the flavour – I think it was my imagination rather than contamination! On the whole, though, it had the milky taste of most souvenir chocolates of this kind.

The pieces were a bit too big for the mouth but they did have a nice, thick melt. I tended to get bored part way through and chew the remainder, though, as I loved the snap and density of the chocolate.

 

I very much enjoyed this bar of chocolate and hope to visit the Old Bank House Chocolate Shop myself one day to see what other treats I can find!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Maltesers Teasers (chocolate spread)

Product name: Maltesers Teasers (chocolate spread)
Purchase details: Tesco
Calories: 108 per 20g serving
Country of origin: UK

Last week, I learned of a new product that had the potential to change my life: Maltesers Teasers (chocolate spread). I was so excited about this concept that I ended up having various conversations with colleagues about how amazing it sounded. To my surprise and delight, one of them came into work after the bank holiday weekend and handed me a jar she’d found in a Tesco in Anglesey. Apparently it was worth it for my reaction alone...

The ‘chocolate spread with crisp honeycombed pieces’ came in a 200g jar which was meant to provide ten servings. We’ve decided it’s an early housewarming present (for the house I haven’t even bought yet!) since, once it’s empty, it’s the kind of jar that can be re-used as a drinking glass once the red Maltesers-branded label has been removed – bonus!

The spread looked amazing. It was thick, chocolatey (containing 5.2% reduced fat cocoa powder), and full of little bits. Only 12% of the product was the honeycomb, but these little balls (the same kind used in products like the Teasers chocolate found in Celebrations) were still abundant. They made the product a bit weird to spread, actually, as they were understandably bumpy and I had to be careful not to press too hard as I didn’t want to crush them. The aroma wasn’t the strongest but it did have the rich, milky scent of standard chocolate spreads.

When we first discussed this spread, the colleague who bought me the jar made an inexplicable comment: ‘I don’t know what I’d eat it with.’. Me and another colleague looked at each other and responded: ‘Er...a SPOON?!’...so it would have been rude for me not to have tried it in this way! It was really thick, sweet and so chocolatey. There was nothing about the flavour, though, that made me think of Maltesers, but the texture was great, with the ‘malty crunchy pieces’ providing some excitement.

The good thing about chocolate spreads is that they’re versatile. It’s perfectly possible to enjoy them as a low-calorie evening treat, as I obviously did! My trick is to use a bread that is also low in calories – the lowest I’ve found is Warburtons Milk Roll which is only 47 calories per slice. I then weigh the bread on its own, add the spread, and weigh it again to work out how many grams of product I’ve actually used. On my first sampling of this spread, I didn’t have many points spare, so I only used 7g of this Teasers goodness. However, despite being a relatively thin scraping, I thought it still went a long way and I didn’t feel hard-done-by at all. Even with this small portion, it was immediately obvious just how unusual the small honeycomb pieces made the texture – I felt like I’d merged two breakfast foods together and put Rice Krispies in a chocolate spread sandwich! However, there was a slight difference in that these malty pieces were a little bit firmer than rice cereal.

I’ve also had a couple of non-diet days since I’ve had this jar so I’ve been able to have fun with much more generous portions. I’ve tried the spread on toast which made the textures less prominent due to the bread already being crispy. Eaten this way, I also found that, due to the way the spread melted slightly, the flavour was even more chocolatey and tasty. However, I still didn’t think it tasted any different to normal chocolate spread.

I also tried a larger portion on bread where I did my favourite ‘trick’ of folding the bread in two and squishing it together to form extra chocolate goo. In this case, this caused the crispy texture to be more of a feature, and I was pleased that it also provided the occasional hint of Maltesers in the taste too. On the whole, it did mainly provide general chocolate spread flavours, but I did quite enjoy the slight stickiness left behind in the teeth which was very much like a normal Maltesers experience.

Then I decided to have some real fun...

I once had a brainwave and decided to mix a bag of Maltesers into a bowl of peanut butter. I think it was simultaneously one of the best and worst things I’ve ever done. ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing’, I thought ‘if I made a Teasers and peanut butter sandwich?’. So I did...

Oh. My. Actual. Days! I tried it on bread and toast, in both cases applying the peanut butter first, and found the Teasers was a little bit harder to spread on top of the toast due to the meltage. They both tasted incredible, though – unbelievably good! The saltiness of the peanut butter lessened the Teasers’ sweetness and, if you’re a fan of chocolate and peanut butter anyway, this is a combination you’ve just got to try. I probably preferred it on bread as the thickness was maintained but, in both cases, the highlight for me was that I’d used crunchy peanut butter even though I usually opt for smooth. The contrast of the crunchy nuts and crispy honeycomb was just heavenly.

Hats off to Mars for this product. It was a shame that the honeycomb didn’t provide any additional flavour but, despite not tasting unique, this was still an excellent product. It was the texture that made it particularly special and, having tried the spread with peanut butter, I’ve found one of the few products that, so far, has made me genuinely concerned about putting back on all the weight back I lost several years ago. For that reason, I couldn’t make this a regular purchase, but it will certainly be an occasional treat.

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

Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs

Product name: Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs
Purchase details: £0.85 for a 40g bag (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 212 per bag
Country of origin: Germany

I thought I might have been a bit silly to buy these Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs as they were described as ‘double-crunch peanuts’ and I don’t actually like peanuts on their own! The red and yellow wrapper had shown that the second crunch came from some kind of shell coating, though, so I hoped this extra flavour would transform the nuts.

There wasn’t much information given in English on the packaging so I obtained the nutritional and ingredients information from the brand's website. Apparently, the ‘full-on peanut power’ came from 49% peanut kernels, whilst flavouring included spices, ‘smoke flavouring’ and cheese powder.

The thick coating on the nuts was orange and crumby and did look like they could be cheese flavoured. However, texturally, I didn’t think they looked that much different from standard roasted peanuts. What surprised me was the impact of the smoke flavouring – the aroma was like peanuts mixed with bacon!

The shells tasted very savoury. Again, the smokiness gave a meat-like illusion, but there was also an element of onion, and even the tiniest spicy hint towards the end of each mouthful. It was really enjoyable to suck this coating off as it had a satisfying juiciness, although its salty aspect did make me feel thirsty! I also found that, when eating this way, the odd nut had a particularly tangy cheese flavour. Overall, the seasoning tasted like the kind you’d find on crisps.

The peanuts inside each shell were whole and tasted standard. The coating was by far the main feature but this didn’t cancel out the flavour from the peanuts and I found the balance just right. I also loved the combination of the crispy shells with the crunchy peanuts – for me, this was a far more enjoyable method of peanut consumption.

I definitely didn’t make a mistake in ordering these Nicnacs. I’d found the wrapper hard to open but I ended up liking its design as it prevented me scooping up handfuls at a time. I’m sure they would have tasted nice that way too but I’m glad that I was able to savour them instead.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Nestlé Smarties

Product name: Nestlé Smarties
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of four tubes (Tesco)
Calories: 88 per half tube (176 per 38g tube)
Country of origin: UK

Back in my day, Nestlé Smarties came in a smooth, cylindrical tubes with different coloured plastic lids that had a different letter of the alphabet on the inside...I loved them! In my opinion, they’ve never been the same since the packaging became a hexagonal cardboard tube with a flip lid. Things have changed even more for my Mum, though, as apparently she used to buy them loose when she was a girl!

 

 

As for my childhood, I always loved sucking on the sugary shells of each sweet until they became soft, and almost papery, on reaching the chocolate centres. The last time I had Smarties, though, they just didn’t taste the same.

On this occasion, the ‘milk chocolate (65%) in a crisp sugar shell’ featured the same fun branding as the Sharing block, and the packaging also boasted the ‘best taste ever!’...I wasn’t convinced.

I’d never realised before that Smarties actually come in all the colours of the rainbow. I remember being gutted when the blue ones were discontinued for making kids hyper, a few years ago, as they were my favourite. Thankfully, they’ve since been brought back, and I was impressed that, as well as containing no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives, the wrapper listed the natural colourings that had been used instead. For example, the blue ones now contain spirulina which, apparently, is a seaweed.

The positive aspect of the newer tube opening mechanism was that it prevented too many sweets falling out. However, I did sometimes have to shake it a bit to get any out at all! What really gutted me, though, was that the Smarties had absolutely no smell – they used to have a lovely aroma. At least they didn’t smell bad...

On eating the Smarties, I was pleased to find that things improved. The texture was the same as it used to be – to suck, they were initially a little rough, but the shells then became smoother and released more of a sweet flavour before reaching the milky chocolate that was part of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan. They were enjoyable to chew too, with the shells having a nice, dull crisp, and the chocolate being surprisingly chunky.

The aforementioned flavours were also how I remembered from childhood – yay! I’ve often wondered, as I’ve got older, if I’d imagined the orange flavour in the orange coloured sweets, but there was definitely an element of this there too, although it wasn’t strong enough to be detected when eating with the other colours. Whatever colour was being consumed, the Smarties were all really sweet, and they were great on their own and in handfuls. They were more hard work to eat when eating a few at a time, due to the increased quantity of shell, but it also made the chocolate more enjoyable as it felt like it was melting amid the crispiness.

As much as I enjoyed this bit of nostalgia, I’m fully aware that Smarties aren’t exactly a superior confectionery product. However, these were so good, addictive and really satisfying – a tube may only have weighed 38g but the bite-sized pieces meant they took a lot longer to eat than a bar of a similar weight, so it automatically felt like a larger snack.

I think I’ll stop snubbing Smarties. I’m not convinced they taste the best they ever have, but they’re certainly a lot better than the last time I tried them.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10