Cadbury Picnic

Product name: Cadbury Picnic
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of three bars (Poundland)
Calories: 230 per 48.4g bar
Country of origin: Europe

The Picnic seems to be one of Cadbury’s lesser known products – it’s not a bar I see around all that often and it must have been over a decade since my last one so I could barely remember what they were like!

The purple wrapper boasted ‘a feast-full’ of caramel (32%), peanuts (12%) and raisins (7%) and these three ingredients were each represented around the brand name – I particularly liked the way the caramel was used as a border. However, beneath the chocolate that contained a minimum of 14% milk solids, lurked another significant ingredient: ‘crispy’ rice cereal (10%).

This particular multipack had been produced by Kraft Foods and I couldn’t believe how huge each bar felt on removal from the main packaging. However, on opening the individual wrappers, I realised that, whilst the bars were very long, there were also relatively thin. That said, they had a very rugged appearance, and the caramel was clearly holding the individual elements together. Despite not being mentioned in the main product description, the cereal was definitely a big feature, whilst the raisins were a lot less visible and nowhere near as big as the Nestlé Yorkie: Raisin & biscuit.

The Picnic mainly smelt of sweet chocolate but the aroma did hint at the fact there was more going on beneath the surface and I was pleased to find that each ingredient made its own significant contribution to the whole. The peanuts provided flavour (although not lots) and a bit of a crunch within the crispy chewiness provided by the cereal and caramel. (For the record, this overall texture was perfectly balanced so that the bar wasn’t hard work to eat.) As for the raisins, I found there were more of these further down the bar than first appeared, and they produced an extra chew and an occasional additional sweetness.

Thinking of the Picnic as a whole, I realised that it was essentially a cereal bar in reverse, with a proper chocolate coating rather than the silly drizzles some brands include in an attempt to make a seemingly healthy product a bit more exciting. In this case, though, the overall flavour was a general sweetness that came from the individual components, and the thicker-than-normal chocolate layer provided an alternative method of consumption since the bar was also enjoyable to let melt, and it added a nice juiciness to combine with the raisins and caramel.

This was certainly a decent product but, although individual elements were noticeable, the main flavour wasn’t particularly exciting and, I guess, it felt a bit too healthy for my liking, bearing in mind it was an unhealthy snack!

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

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 41g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 225 per bar
Country of origin: UK

As much as I love Oreo cookies, I’ve only ever had Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo once before as it was originally only available in a large bar format which wasn’t convenient on my diet. As a result, I was delighted when Mondelez released this new individual portion size, although it’s taken me until now to eat one!

The ‘milk chocolate with a vanilla flavour filling (36%) and biscuit pieces (17%)’ came in the expected purple wrapper which also featured an Oreo logo and image. The bar was divided into six pieces which, unusually, didn’t feature the Cadbury logo, although the simple decoration it did have bore a striking resemblance to the Milka Leo. The cookie pieces gave a speckled effect to the chocolate (containing 23% milk solids) and, inside, the bar was full of the creme and biscuit pieces.

The Dairy Milk had the familiar scent but with a slight element of vanilla mixed in. The taste wasn’t quite as I remembered in that it wasn’t noticeably of Oreo at all – the filling wasn’t quite sugary enough and the biscuit didn’t have the hint of bitterness I’ve come to expect. However, it was still sweet and creamy with an added biscuit flavour, so a general cookies and cream theme was present within the chocolate.

Texturally, the bar was very crispy but soft too. As usual, the chocolate had a nice melt, although this was combined with the bitty biscuits. I found the size of these cookie pieces to be perfect as it provided a great crunch and the feel of eating proper biscuits, without losing the cushioned feel of the vanilla filling.

This bar was nothing short of delicious. I did struggle to connect its flavour with the Oreo brand but, nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable product which I’ll definitely be buying more often now it’s available in single servings!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire

Product name: Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of two desserts (Tesco)
Calories: 205 per 90g dessert
Country of origin: UK

I’ve tried a few Pots of joy from Cadbury in my time but this is the first time I’ve tried a new Layers Of Joy, with this brilliantly named ‘Caramellionaire’ being the variety I couldn’t wait to get stuck into.

The purple packaging featured an image of the product that looked like a trifle in style and that was the name it was given in the small print too. Made by Müller Dairy for Mondelez, the full description sounded mouth-watering: ‘shortcake biscuit at heart surrounded by delicious layers of Cadbury milk chocolate mousse, rich caramel dessert and white chocolate mousse’. You probably won’t be surprised to know that it was the white chocolate that particularly caught my eye!

The clear pot made it nice and easy to see three distinct layers of white chocolate (1% of the product was white chocolate powder), caramel, and milk chocolate (another 1% was milk chocolate but the pot also contained cocoa powder). However, despite accounting for 11% of the dessert, the shortbread wasn’t visible.

The dessert smelt of chocolate mousse (possibly as it was at the top!) and the latter aspect was also the key texture throughout. The chocolate layer was deep and provided quite a rich cocoa flavour and this went nicely with the caramel which was the same as my memory of Cadbury Dairy Milk: Pots of joy (caramel) and had quite a butterscotchy flavour to it.

Despite appearances, there was a definite biscuit layer next, with a buttery shortcake taste which was delicious. Rather than being hard and crumbly, this was soft and soggy, but very enjoyable!

I initially struggled to sample some of the white chocolate on its own, and it was hard to notice it against the other flavours, but it was possible to try it in larger quantities at the end of each pot. It was beautifully sweet and tasted a little like vanilla ice cream.

All in all, this was a really good dessert and, although I’d prefer a real piece of millionaire’s shortbread, the combination of layers did produce a satisfyingly authentic experience. To my surprise, it was the biscuit that made it, but every layer made its own unique and tasty contribution.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb)

Product name: Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 110g box (Tesco)
Calories: 35 per finger
Country of origin: UK

Despite not being new, I’ve never bought Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb) before, although I vaguely recall trying one a while ago – not that I could remember what they were like!

These biscuits featured the usual Fabulous branding but had an amber carpet with a honeycomb design to symbolise the flavour. The box contained an average of 16 biscuits (with a serving intended to be two) and mine ended up being particularly good value since Tesco had kindly sent me a Clubcard voucher for £0.50 off!

I’d assumed that the Fingers, made by Burton’s Biscuit Co., would have featured a honeycomb cream layer like with the Fox's Velvety: Caramel & honeycomb cream but it turned out that the pale layer beneath the ‘velvety smooth’ milk chocolate (41%) was still white chocolate (31%). Instead, the flavour came from ‘honeycomb flavour biscuit’ which looked a bit more amber in colour to normal. However, I did also think the white chocolate looked a bit less white and a bit more yellow, but that was probably wishful thinking!

 

The very crispy Fingers had a sweetened scent which, whilst very nice, wasn’t strong. To melt, the outer experience was unchanged from the other varieties, but I was surprised to find that the inside tasted like a Crunchie that had been mixed with a bit of biscuit! I didn’t find this honeycomb aspect to be quite as noticeable when chewing but the overall feel was more sugary and the biscuits definitely did taste different to the standard Fingers: Fabulous.

I may not have purchased these before but I most certainly will again!

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