Cadbury Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman (chocolate)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman (chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.65 for a 30g bar or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 168 per bar

I may have only recently finished eating my stock from last Christmas, and I know it’s only September, but it’s time for my first review of Christmas 2014.

I could have sworn I’d had the vanilla version of the Cadbury Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman last year but, as I haven’t reviewed it, I must have just read so many other reviews of it that it felt like I’d tried one myself! Anyway, this chocolate variety is new so it’s the one I decided to buy. I did think it was expensive for the size but the multibuy made it better (although my third item was out of stock so it ended up being £0.40 by itself!).

I was pleased to see that the knitted theme had returned for this Christmas’ Cadbury packaging, and I thought the snowman on the front looked really cute in its scarf. The lovely and glossy ‘milk chocolate with a soft milk chocolate flavoured mousse filling (37%)’ was also shaped into an adorable snowman with a little hat and carrot nose.

Made using the usual Dairy Milk recipe, the snowman had a beautiful, deep and creamy scent and it tasted delicious. The inner mousse was a slightly paler colour and was richer than I expected but this tasted great against the sweeter shell. It was soft, smooth and melted well, reminding me more of a truffle than a mousse. The shape of the product really added to the overall experience, too, by providing variety in the ratio of chocolate to mousse – no mouthful was the same but each one was incredibly enjoyable.

I remember trying another snowman-shaped chocolate last year, in the form of The Snowman chocolate truffle in the Thorntons The Snowman and The Snowdog: Christmas selection box, and being a bit underwhelmed by the flavour. For me, this Dairy Milk alternative nailed the concept, in comparison, as there was a clear difference in taste between the chocolate and the mousse.

Thank you, Mondelez, for another tasty treat for us lucky people in the UK and Ireland!

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.38/10

Nestlé Quality Street: My purple bar

Product name: Nestlé Quality Street: My purple bar
Purchase details: £0.16 for a 40g bar (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 208 per bar

Way back in September, I reviewed the Nestlé Quality Street: My green bar, so I couldn’t resist picking up the My purple bar in the post-Christmas stock clearance. It’s just taken a while to get around to eating it!

The ‘milk chocolate with hazelnut in caramel centres’ bar was made for the UK and Ireland and, once again, came in a sparkly purple wrapper. Split into four large but cute nut-shaped segments that were joined by a chocolate rod, each piece had a big hazelnut nestled neatly in the centre of a caramel pool, and emitted a very sweet scent that was only really noticeable up-close.

Technically, a serving was half the bar, but that seemed daft to me so I happily ate the whole thing! What I found interesting was the way the chunky chocolate and thick caramel remained separate when chewing rather than blending together. The caramel wasn’t as stringy as I remembered it from the Hazelnut in Caramel Quality Street sweet – it was ever-so-slightly chewy, although the overall feel was still one of softness that was broken up by the crunchy nut.

Containing a minimum of 14% milk solids, the chocolate melted gradually and had a slight graininess to it. I didn’t find the cocoa flavours to be at all strong. Instead, the bar had quite a plain flavour – it was fairly milky with an added sweetness from the caramel. Even the nut didn’t seem that nutty, although it did provide the strongest distinct element of the lot!

The purple-wrapped Quality Street chocolates have always been my Mum’s favourite so I’m sure she’d love this snack. However, it just didn’t seem as flavourful as normal to me, so I’ll definitely be sticking to my preferred Quality Street: My green bar in future. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Terry's Chocolate Orange: White

Product name: Terry’s Chocolate Orange: White
Calories: 180 per four segment serving (455 per half Orange)

This Terry’s Chocolate Orange: White was yet another gift I received from Santa last year and, as one of my favourite products, it was one of the best ones too! I was particularly delighted that this was the standard version rather than the Smasher variety that’s been on sale in the past – for me, the tutti frutti pieces it contained detracted from the enjoyment. I was so excited about this unadulterated version, though, that I actually had a dream about it the night before I knew I was going to open it! (In my defence, it had been a few years since I’d last had one...)

The white chocolate version of the Chocolate Orange was very much as the same concept and design as the Milk one. It simply came in a cream-coloured box that was covered in snowflakes, and the chocolate itself was obviously cream in colour too. I thought it looked more attractive in white – what a babe.

Again, the product was made for the UK and Ireland by Mondelez, but this ‘white chocolate flavoured with real orange’ was slightly lighter (170g) and contained fewer calories too. However, it still contained ‘real orange oil’ and its description made my mouth water: ‘white in chocolate, orangey in essence’.

The Orange didn’t smell any different to the milk chocolate version but, since this meant it had a delicious aroma, this was in no way a bad thing. Both versions also had the same fabulous texture.

The initial taste from the Chocolate Orange: White was much creamier which meant that the orange flavour that it was blended with tasted more sugary sweet in comparison. I also felt that there was less of a tang, although this was still present. The white chocolate itself didn’t have the strongest of flavours since the orange hid this but there was certainly a hint of it – I would have liked it to have been creamier still but I realise this would be difficult to achieve with the orange. The latter was already not as intense in flavour as it was in the Milk Orange, but it was still prominent, so it would be a shame to fiddle with this winning formula.

As expected, I thoroughly enjoyed this white chocolate Terry’s Chocolate Orange. However, I was surprised that I no longer thought it tasted better than the milk chocolate variety. They taste different, and they’re both great in their own ways, but I didn’t find the white chocolate’s flavour stood out as much as I remembered.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 9/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.63/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (popping candy)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (popping candy)
Purchase details: £0.10 for an 18g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 95 per bar
Country of origin: Europe 

Let’s be honest...I only bought this bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (popping candy) because when do you ever see Freddos for sale at the traditional price of £0.10 these days?! I hadn’t actually had a Freddo since I was a teenager, and I’d never had one containing popping candy, so I thought it was time I gave it a go.

I bought this bar over the festive period which is why the purple wrapper had the knitted theme and some snowflakes. It also featured the cute Freddo frog who was wearing different colours on different wrappers (I went for blue as it’s my favourite!).

The chocolate itself was also shaped like the frog but I did feel its appearance was spoilt slightly by lots of little marks – this was probably a result of the popping candy itself but I still felt it made it look less appealing.

Made by Mondelez, this was the standard Dairy Milk chocolate that contained 23% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids. In addition, though, 6% of the bar was popping candy. I actually couldn’t quite believe what a difference 6% made – the texture of the bar was rougher and crunchier and, whether melting or chewing, the popping sensation was felt throughout the mouth.

Thankfully, the quality and strength of the chocolate’s scent and flavour had not been compromised, with the candy being small enough to allow the chocolate to still feel chunky and contribute to a lovely, creamy taste.

I do prefer the unadulterated texture of a standard Dairy Milk bar (Freddo or otherwise!) but this was still a nice change. 

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

Cadbury Fudge

Product name: Cadbury Fudge
Calories: 115 for a 25.5g bar
Country of origin: UK 

This bar of Cadbury Fudge was another item included in the Christmas selection pack I received as a gift.  

Without being overly harsh, this was another children’s product that, historically, I’m not a fan of – give me a tub of Heroes and I’ll leave the Fudge ones for someone else. However, I thought it would be rude not to give it another chance, and at least I knew it wouldn’t be as frustratingly chewy as the Chomp! 

The ‘fudge covered with milk chocolate (24%)’ bar was quite narrow and cylindrical in shape and came in a distinctive orange wrapper with pale blue text. Inside, the fudge itself appeared to be two-tone, with the upper half being a bit darker and smoother than the fluffier bottom section. I did wonder if this was just the way I had cut the bar, though, although I did still find its colour was a lot paler than I had remembered it. 

The chocolate emitted a sweet, milky smell but didn’t do much to impact the taste buds. However, I don’t mean this as a criticism, since the fudge itself was far nicer than I remembered it! It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but it had a very sweet taste, with a hint of vanilla, and I genuinely ended up enjoying it. 

I can’t deny its sugariness, particularly when combined with its slightly grainy texture, but it was also soft and, whilst slightly chewy, it didn’t take ages to swallow. However, I wouldn’t recommend sucking the fudge as it had a tendency to stick to the roof of the mouth and almost cause choking! 

I was pleasantly surprised by this Cadbury Fudge and I think it’s safe to say I’ll no longer be sharing my Heroes. 

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