Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana

Product name: Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 100g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 590 per bar
Country of origin: Germany 

Following on from my review of Ritter Sport Cookies & Cream, tonight’s the turn of another ‘Spring speciality’: À La Crema Catalana. As previously, this variety is no longer featured on Ritter Sport's website, but I had made a note of the nutritional information before it disappeared.

This limited edition product came in an orange wrapper that featured a photograph of its flavour inspiration which seemed to be a crème brûlée – a quick Google search told me that this is what ‘crema catalana’ is! Furthermore, Monster Sweets described how the brand had taken ‘a classic Spanish caramel cream dessert and added milk chocolate top and bottom’. The result was a bar that was divided into 16 squares and consisted of 47% caramel cream.

The product had an indulgent, creamy and sweet caramel scent and a beautifully smooth, fudgy appearance. Each piece provided a wonderfully thick melt and, unusually, I found it hard to tell where the chocolate ended and the cream centre began. By the end of each piece, though, the centre did feel a little grainier, and it provided a slightly tingly sweet sensation too. On the whole, I found the texture of the Ritter Sport À La Crema Catalana to be like a less puddly Lindt Lindor truffle.

The creamy chocolate had a sweet cocoa flavour which contrasted with the very slightly burnt element of the caramel’s taste. In terms of flavour, this bar reminded me more of a better quality Wonka Millionaire's Shortbread than other crème brûlée bars I’ve tried. The caramel’s flavour was much less deep here, though.

I was sure there were some crispy bits within the centre to replicate a crème brûlée’s caramelised topping but, unlike Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée), these didn’t provide a bitter, burnt taste. I also found that they were so few and far between that I ended up wondering if I’d imagined them altogether! I was more than happy with this as it meant they didn’t interfere with the melt.

I found the À La Crema Catalana to be another great quality offering from Ritter Sport. It felt very rich, and I certainly enjoyed it, but I also found it to be a little plain. Not the most exciting flavours in the world, then, but still very tasty.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée)

Product name: Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée)
Purchase details: £2.00 for a 100g bar or two for £3.00 (tesco.com)
Calories: 143 per 25g serving (573 per bar)
Country of origin: France 

Despite featuring the word ‘new’ on its packaging, I know this Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée) has been around for a while because I’ve wanted to try it for a few months now! 

Made by Lindt & Sprüngli, the aim of the bar was to achieve an experience as ‘equally indulgent’ as the famous dessert it was named after. The wrapper certainly looked promising, with an enticing image of the delicious, caramelised topping of a real crème brûlée, as well as an illustration of the ‘extra fine milk chocolate with caramelised pieces of sugar and a creme filling’.  

This Creation variety was represented by the colour amber and, like the coconut version, was divided into 10 pieces. In contrast, though, these were thicker to allow for a deeper filling, and were more curved (though still angular) in shape. Each square had the brand name imprinted on it and, inside, contained a pale creme with quite pale sugar pieces that looked almost like biscuit crumbs. The reality of the product wasn’t dissimilar to the image on the box, although the illustration certainly suggested more of a caramel shade underneath the chocolate shell. 

The 10 pieces acted as completely separate chambers so none of the ‘creamy centre with caramelised sugar pieces’ seeped from one square to the next. Despite containing sugar as the main ingredient, the aroma the bar emitted was really milky with a slight shortbread element to it, although this could only really be detected up-close. 

This milkiness was just as present in the taste and I loved how the ‘delicate crème brûlée flavoured filling’ genuinely did have a kind of vanilla custard taste. As a result, this bar did a far better job of recreating the dessert’s flavour than the Wonka Crème Brûlée bar did. Furthermore, the caramelised sugar, which accounted for 4% of the product, produced a burnt sugar taste which added to the authenticity. 

The chocolate, containing a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids, was described as being ‘decadent’ and ‘smooth’ and I certainly thought it tasted good. Together with the creme filling, it melted well - it was just a shame that this left a mouthful (and I mean full!) of sugar pieces to crunch on as, alone, these were a bit intense in flavour. As a result, I chewed the majority of the bar, but this wouldn’t have been the case if it hadn’t been for the caramelised sugar. 

The bar had a lovely smooth and moist texture and the crunchy bits did work really well when all mixed together. I noticed on the ingredients that 1% of the product was made up of wafer so, presumably, this added to the crispness too. 

Unlike the Wonka attempt at this dessert, this bar was not overly sweet, but yet it was sweet enough to prevent the sugar pieces tasting too bitter.  

All things considered, I thought the proportions of chocolate, creme and sugar used for this heavenly crème brûlée version of Lindt Creation was pretty close to spot on. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Wonka Crème Brûlée

Product name: Wonka Crème Brûlée
Purchase details: £1.40 for a 100g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 111 per two square serving (555 per bar) 

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the two newly-released Wonka bars (Millionaire's Shortbread and Nice Cream). At the time, the Crème Brûlée variety was due to join the collection but had yet to make an appearance. Whilst I managed to obtain this ‘scrumdiddlyumptiously shareable’ 100g bar shortly afterwards, it has taken me until now to try it (as is always the way, I’ve seen them everywhere since!).

As with the other bars, the Crème Brûlée came in a pinky-purple wrapper but, for some reason, I didn’t think this looked as magical in appearance (maybe my initial excitement had just worn off!). Once again, the packaging didn’t state where this Nestlé product had been made, but it did have a useful opening and sealing method which worked well...not that there was any chance of my bar being resealed! The other plus points mentioned on the wrapper were that that bar contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and that it was part of the Cocoa Plan – ‘supporting farmers for better chocolate’.

The bar was divided into 10 large squares that each contained a ridged circle for decoration, within which was, alternately, a Wonka ‘W’ or what looked a bit like a sun but was a bit too faint to make out. The milk chocolate contained a minimum 14% milk solids and gave out a noticeable chocolatey aroma on opening. The filling was described as a ‘vanilla crème with a caramel crunch’ and the ‘caramel flavoured sugar pieces’ that made up the latter also smelt of burnt caramel up close.

The ‘vanilla flavoured filling’ contributed to 40% of the bar and looked almost identical to the Nice Cream filling – it was smooth and contained specks of vanilla and, on eating, the caramel pieces were also visible. Unfortunately, this vanilla crème also tasted and felt the same as the one used for the Nice Cream bar – I struggled to taste the vanilla and it was rubbery to the extent that, after allowing the chocolate coating to melt, it just remained on the tongue, flexing but not really dissolving. On the plus side, 6% of the bar was the caramel pieces within this crème, and this added an interesting, bitty texture, as well as a sweet sugar taste.

The chocolate used for this bar had a strange taste to it. The cocoa flavour was there but there was also a slight chemical element to it. Whilst it was creamy, I did think it was a bit too sweet. This wasn’t a problem in itself but I just didn’t seem right for milk chocolate. However, it did melt well, and the slow nature in which this happened allowed the caramelised pieces to be gradually released to be crunched on. The squares could have done with being a bit smaller, though, since I found they reached quite far back in my mouth!

Combined with the other ingredients, I found the whole experience a bit strange – it certainly tasted like no crème brûlée I’ve ever had before. It was pretty rich, and I certainly wouldn’t describe the flavours as ‘unpleasant’, but it was just odd. In addition, whilst the bar didn’t have a hard texture, I’d expected the filling to be softer and creamier, so I was quite disappointed.

I so wanted to love this bar but it was actually my least favourite of the three Wonka flavours. It was by no means disgusting, but it certainly left some important boxes unticked. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 6.75/10