Nestlé Lion

Product name: Nestlé Lion
Purchase details: £0.29 for a 42g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 207 per bar
Country of origin: France

Having reviewed the Polish Nestlé Lion: Peanut and White bars, I thought it was only right I had my first original Lion in many years.

The bar continued with the usual Lion branding and imagery but, this time, the wrapper was a nice shade of chocolate brown. It was described as ‘filled wafer, caramel (30%) and cereals (5%), covered in milk chocolate (41%)’ so I was pleased to see this French version had actual chocolate rather than the Peanut's ‘cocoa icing’!

Outwardly, the Lion had the same level of knobbliness as the White one had, but the inside looked a little different. The caramel layer looked thicker, and the wafer looked whiter and smaller than the Peanut bar.

I was surprised at just how much of a difference the chocolate made to this product. It had the sweet, milky scent of most Nestlé chocolate, as well as the same sugary taste. Combined with the caramel wafer, I was really reminded of Tunnock’s Caramel: Wafer biscuits but, the bonus for me was they weren’t quite as chewy.

This Lion, whilst still crispy, was also texturally different to the other bars. It was really stiff to bite into, and the caramel was quite stretchy, but working through this helped release the juiciness of the flavour so the effort felt worth it.

Looking back, I’m not sure why it had been so long since my last plain Lion bar...maybe they just appeared too ‘manly’ for me! I really enjoyed this, though, so I plan to buy them more often in future.

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10