Celebrations

Product name: Celebrations
Calories: 344 per 70g box

This mini box of Celebrations was the other food item in the goody bag I recently received.

Made by Mars for the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland, this ‘assortment of milk chocolates and a milk chocolate covered biscuit’ is my favourite mainstream variety box to receive as a gift since I think the combination of eight brands inside is the best one!

Despite being a small box, this pack still featured the usual red design and the great logo that incorporates the fonts used on the wrappers within – images of these were also printed on the cardboard.

The milk chocolate used for the bite-sized treats contained a minimum of 14% milk solids and 25% cocoa solids and each variety had a pretty thick and chunky outer shell which made me a happy bunny.

Galaxy

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Galaxy milk chocolate is my favourite kind. This glossy ‘G’-imprinted chunk came in the usual brown wrapper and was the basic kind that, when sold alone, is now called ‘Smooth Milk’.

The Galaxy website described the chocolate as ‘smooth and creamy’ that had been ‘lovingly created to melt in your mouth’. I couldn’t disagree with this since it featured the same scent and strong flavour I experienced with the Bubbles (milk chocolate egg) and a good melt that was slow, thick but smooth. It reminded me of the old adverts that me and my brother used to imitate! 

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

Mars

I’ve always seen the Mars bar as being manly and basic but, at the same time, I’ve always enjoyed it. However, I’ve previously found that it doesn’t work quite as well on a smaller scale as the proportions aren’t quite right.

This miniature Mars came in its distinctive black and red wrapper but something seemed to have gone slightly wrong with the bumpy design on the chocolate shell! The Mars website described the product as ‘a delicious fusion of chocolate, caramel and nougat’ and I was pleased to see that the layer of nougat was far thicker than the caramel and its mid-brown shade suggested it would have a chocolatey flavour.

The Mars’ scent was not dissimilar to the Galaxy’s and it tasted very sweet and chocolatey. I didn’t think its flavour was of the highest quality but it was very tasty and I did enjoy the soft nougat and overall chewy but melting texture. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10 

Bounty

As a big coconut fan, I do like Bounty bars, so I was pleased to see that the tropical desert island-themed white, green and pale blue wrapper was included in this selection. I did think the Mars website was being a bit overdramatic in claiming ‘the moist, tender coconut tempts your senses with the taste of paradise’ but I enjoyed this sweet nevertheless!

Unlike the Peter Paul Almond Joy, the coconut in this chocolate shell had a fresh white appearance, although it did still have a deep coconutty aroma.

The Bounty also had a strong, milky coconut flavour and I was pleased that the chocolate’s taste was also evident. The coconut’s texture lived up to the expectations raised by its moist and bitty appearance too. 

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

Galaxy Caramel

The Galaxy Caramel had the same outer appearance as the standard Galaxy chunk but, this time, it contained a fantastic-looking thick, amber caramel centre. The wrapper was also similar but it featured the colour yellow to distinguish it from the basic chocolate. (Thankfully there was no Honeycomb Crisp variety included here to confuse this with!)

Galaxy's website claimed the inner caramel was ‘luscious’ and I certainly did enjoy this treat more than Cadbury’s equivalent of Dairy Milk: Caramel – I found it to be more silky and less stodgy.

The caramel didn’t really add anything to the aroma (in fact, the scent didn’t seem as strong here) but I loved how it burst into the mouth with its smooth texture reflecting the chocolate’s. It was very sweet and quite sugary compared to other caramels, and I did prefer the flavour of the chocolate on its own, but this was still very tasty. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10 

Snickers

I’m not actually a massive fan of the standard Snickers bar as I find it a bit too bitty and chewy and, whilst there are actual peanuts, there’s not peanut butter! Like the Mars, I also think of this brand as male-orientated, and this was reflected with the chocolate-brown wrapper.

According to Mars' website, I was surprised to see that the Snickers is actually the world’s best-selling bar, whilst the Snickers site gave the product description of being ‘packed with roasted peanuts, nougat, caramel and milk chocolate’.

I was impressed by the neat inner appearance of this bite-sized piece. The caramel was the main feature and was full of chopped peanuts. The nougat was pale in colour and, on sampling it, there appeared to be nuts in there too. The nougat itself was slightly sticky but added a sweetness to the otherwise strong peanut flavour.

The chocolate tasted nice and creamy and I noticed that the toasted aspect of the peanuts was also evident. The caramel provided a chewy texture and I actually found I preferred this product in miniature form since the nuts were a lot smaller and, for me, more manageable.

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

Maltesers Teasers

This has always been my first choice in a box of Celebrations since, for so many years, it was the only Maltesers product like it – I was delighted when Mars released the separate Malteaster products and, now, the Teasers bars!

The red wrapper continued the theme of standard Maltesers and, whilst still long and narrow, this was the only miniature with a particularly curved appearance that featured a wave design. Inside, there were lots of tiny, crispy honeycomb balls to reflect the centre of normal Maltesers.

The scent, again, was similar to Galaxy chocolate – it was stronger than Maltesers but weaker than Galaxy chocolate itself.

Having eaten this variety after a Galaxy, I could tell that the chocolate tasted a bit less creamy than Galaxy but, in turn, it was more chocolatey.

The texture was very crispy and, despite the small size of the honeycomb pieces, I loved that it still managed to stick to the teeth and it also provided a mild honey flavour.

As expected, I enjoyed having a higher ratio of chocolate to honeycomb here since, whilst the flavour remained unchanged, the less rough texture was preferable.

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

Twix

I’ve reviewed the full-size Twix previously so I have nothing more to add here!

I’ve marked down its aroma score slightly since it wasn’t quite as strong but, other than that, everything else remained the same. 

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

Milky Way

The Milk Way featured its usual blue and Space-themed wrapper design and was described on Mars' website as ‘a light whipped centre covered in tasty milk chocolate’.

Its outer appearance was the same as the Snickers and its very pale beige nougat appeared to have the same texture as the Mars.

The Milky Way had a milky scent and I enjoyed the quite mild but nice and sweet flavour that its really soft nougat provided. I also liked how the chocolate shell tasted creamy against this sugariness. 

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

Overall, this was the enjoyable selection that I expected – I was just sorry I only had one of each variety to enjoy on this occasion!

Appearance: 7.44/10
Aroma: 7.31/10
Taste: 7.63/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.6/10

Nestlé Milkybar: Mini eggs

Product name: Nestlé Milkybar: Mini eggs
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 100g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 101 per seven sweet serving (503 per bag)

I’m sure I first had these Nestlé Milkybar: Mini eggs a few years ago but, if I did, I’ve definitely only ever had them once, so I thought it was about time I tried them again! Since most products of this nature contain milk chocolate, I loved that this product consisted of ‘white chocolate mini eggs in a crisp sugar shell’ instead.

I really liked the bag these Mini eggs came in. It followed the usual red and pale yellow theme of the Milkybar brand and featured an illustration of the Milkybar Kid riding a horse carrying a basket of the eggs and also pulling a cow and some chicks – very child-friendly.

The sweets were made for the UK and Ireland and contained ‘all natural ingredients’. The white chocolate contributed to 63% of the overall product but the hard shells were still pretty thick and very difficult to cut into! These shells were smooth, glossy and a very pale cream in colour and, whilst the inner chocolate wasn’t massively different in shade, it did look more yellow in comparison.

The Mini eggs had a milky white chocolate scent with an added sugary element and the chocolate itself was the usual Milkybar kind. I can’t say I actually eat Milkybar products much these days but these eggs did leave me wondering why! The chocolate had a really strong vanilla taste that actually reminded me of Magnum ice cream – it was very creamy and sweet.

The outer shells were fairly sweet to suck but not in the same was as Cadbury Mini Eggs – presumably due to the absence of a dusty coating. However, the shells did still add a little bit of extra sweetness, and they were also incredibly crispy. Combined with the chunky chocolate in these fat little sweets, I really enjoyed the texture, although they did become quite hard work to chew when eating the whole pack in one go - it was worth it, though!

These Milkybar: Mini eggs were incredibly moreish and reignited my sadness over the loss of the old Milkybar: Munchies. Please bring them back, Nestlé!

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

Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star

Product name: Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star
Purchase details: £1.40 for an 80g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 112 per 20g serving (448 per bar)

Country of origin: UK

I’m a big fan of Tesco’s Chokablok range so I was excited when I spotted this new Utter nutter rock star variety.

Made by House of Dorchester, this slab was made up of milk chocolate (containing a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids) that had been swirled with dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids minimum). It came in the usual simple and transparent packaging, which allowed the glory of the bar to be displayed, and the cardboard was a burnt orange colour to represent this particular variety.

 

The bar was Chokablok (see what I did there?!) of ‘caramelised hazelnuts and macadamia nuts’. Since my only previous experience of macadamia nuts had been with the Subway White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie, I couldn’t wait to tuck into this product. These nuts contributed to 6% of the bar and were chopped up, whilst the hazelnuts accounted for 8% and remained whole, having the appearance of a slightly less bumpy popcorn. To finish off the attractive appearance, the bar was topped with different-sized milk chocolate stars, as well as edible glitter.

I’d never turned over a bar of Chokablok before, due to the topping becoming dislodged, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was more attention to detail on the base. There were divisions marked for easy breakage (not that I used them!), the product name was imprinted across the chocolate, and I loved that the nuts were visible all the way through.

The Tesco Chokablok: Utter nutter rock star gave off a proper chocolate smell that was of a good quality with a slightly woody nut element. The hazelnuts themselves tasted exactly as you’d expect but, on their own, they weren’t particularly caramelised. In contrast, the macadamia nuts were lovely and sugary, providing a hard and crispy texture that contrasted well with the soft crunch of the hazelnuts.

The slab itself had a smooth and quite milky chocolate flavour which had a slightly bitter aftertaste from the dark chocolate. Despite being thin, the stars added to the very chocolatey experience, and the overall texture from the chocolates was chunky yet soft. The slab also melted well, and the Chokablok logo provided an interesting and bumpy texture, but the nuts obviously prevented a comfortable melt in all sections of the bar.

As hoped, this was a very enjoyable product, and I loved how creamy the chocolate was. However, the highlight for me was the caramelised macadamia nuts, since these provided a fantastic sugary flavour and crunch that reminded me slightly of the Ritter Sport Gebrannte Mandel bar. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.5/10