Nestlé Smarties: Sharing block

Product name: Nestlé Smarties: Sharing block
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 120g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 106 per three piece serving (637 per bar)
Country of origin: UK

This new Nestlé Smarties: Sharing block was launched a couple of months ago and, although I was of the majority opinion that it wasn’t the most exciting concept in the world, I snapped a bar up quickly as I had enjoyed the American M&M's Chocolate Bar so I wanted to see how a British version compared.

Made as part of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, this ‘milk chocolate with mini Smarties (14%)’ contained no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives, and it came in a colourful wrapper that I loved – it featured lots of chocolate and Smarties imagery that took me back to my childhood and reminded me of an illustration in one of my old Topsy + Tim books. I also liked the clever way the portion sizes were indicated on the reverse of the packaging...even though I didn’t pay any attention and scoffed the whole bar (I chose to ignore the word ‘Sharing’ in the product name!).

The chocolate was fairly flat but divided into 18 pretty big squares that alternated between displaying the full Smarties logo and one letter from the name. The multicoloured circles of the ‘milk chocolate in a crisp sugar shell’ were visible through the bar’s upper surface but they weren’t really obvious through the base, and the chocolate was by no means awash with the candy pieces. On breaking into the bar, I felt a bit disappointed by just how sparse these Smarties were.

In contrast, the chocolate’s strong smell was very pleasing, greeting me with quite a creamy aroma as soon as I opened the wrapper. Its texture wasn’t smooth, and to the taste, the chocolate was like the Kit Kat kind when melting on the tongue. It was much nicer to chew, though, with a really milky flavour coming to the fore. The Smarties didn’t add anything additional to the taste as it was essentially chocolate on chocolate, but they did provide a dull crisp to what was a thick texture.

This bar was nice enough but didn’t scream ‘quality’ or ‘excitement’. I also found, eating the larger serving, that the chocolate burnt my throat a little and the sugariness also caused a bit of tooth sensitivity. I probably wouldn’t bother buying the Sharing block again but I’m glad I gave it a go.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.25/10