Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe)

Product name: Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe)
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 150g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 394 per half bar
Country of origin: France

Traditionally, lemon isn’t my favourite flavour, but this Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe) caught my eye as something different and, since I trust the Lindt brand, I thought it would be worth giving a go.

The packaging of this Lindt & Sprüngli bar was in French so I couldn’t read most of it but there was a helpful English translation that told me it was ‘fine milk chocolate with ganache and concentrated lemon filling’ which included concentrated lemon juice (2%).

On getting the bar home, I had a quick look online for a couple of further translations and found that ‘Fraîcheur acidulée’ meant ‘tangy freshness’. This alarmed me slightly as I was hoping for something a bit more mellow, but I was still optimistic that I’d like what was described as a ‘new chocolate experience’. The wrapper also advised that this chocolate was best eaten fresh from the fridge. This went against all my instincts about not chilling the brown stuff so I decided to compromise and eat half at room temperature and half cold.

This bar had the same outer appearance as Lindt’s other Creation bars (such as the Coconut) but its very pale inside almost looked like Kendal mint cake. There was almost a hint of orange in the aroma but I could also smell a subtle lemon flavour – for me, its weakness was a good thing!

Starting with the room temperature half, I initially tried a couple of specks of the chocolate that had broken off and it definitely had a citrus element but, again, this was a bit like orange chocolate. On tasting it properly, though, I could tell that it was the usual Lindt milk chocolate, but a tang of lemon did remain on its surface when it was peeled away from the filling. This centre was a bit like fondant and very much had a lemon flavour but its strength was perfect and reminded me of what you get in a lemon meringue pie. It also balanced well with the creamy, sweet chocolate (although the lemon was the dominant flavour), and the quite thick, squidgy, gooey texture was very enjoyable. I can’t deny it was much nicer than I expected and a lot like a dessert. For some reason, it reminded me of Christmas, but I couldn’t quite work out why – I ended up concluding that I associated it with the kind of chocolates I find in gift boxes at that time of year! This was a lot nicer, though, and had enough of a tartness to the flavour that eating more than five squares at once would have been too much.

The chilled chocolate obviously didn’t melt easily (not helped by the large pieces meaning it had to be broken down a bit first!) but the lemon did seep out nicely when attempting this. The change in temperature made the lemon feel fresher, more concentrated and its acidity was a bit more ‘zippy’, but the main change was definitely the texture which had a much crunchier shell, and a slightly chewy centre.

Personal preference for unchilled chocolate meant that this was how I preferred to consume this bar of Lindt Creation but, either way, the variety was far nicer than I could have hoped and felt like such a treat.

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

Nestlé Crunch: Noisettes

Product name: Nestlé Crunch: Noisettes
Purchase details: £0.49 for a 100g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 143 per 25g serving (571 per bar)
Country of origin: France

 

Having loved the Nestlé Crunch bar, I was really excited when I saw a version in Home Bargains that had the colour green on half of the wrapper. I initially thought it would be mint flavoured, but when I saw the name and the images of hazelnuts, I was just as happy to give this Noisettes variety a go.

This slab had the same overall appearance as the original but it was thinner due to being 20g lighter, and the base looked a bit more packed too – there was less cereal (7% rather than 15%) but this had been replaced with the hazelnuts which made up 13% of the bar. Inside, the nuts were clearly visible, and seemed to be more prominent than in the Milka Hazelnuts bar. Unfortunately, though, my chocolate appeared to have suffered some patchy blooming, and my other gripe was that the shape would have made it difficult to easily get the correct portion size if I hadn’t been eating the whole thing at once...I guess you can’t have everything!

Both the milky chocolate and hazelnuts contributed to an appetising scent and, although the nutty flavour wasn’t immediately obvious when I first put a piece on my tongue, it did then begin to play a large part in the taste. The chocolate had the same flavour I’d enjoyed previously and the hazelnut aspect balanced well with this.

Texturally, the bar was generally the same as the original product but there was an added hardened crunch which was extremely enjoyable. The chocolate still didn’t provide a silky smooth melt, and the sucking texture obviously remained rough, but when the chew was so good, it hardly mattered.

Another bargain, another hit! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.25/10

Nestlé Lion

Product name: Nestlé Lion
Purchase details: £0.29 for a 42g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 207 per bar
Country of origin: France

Having reviewed the Polish Nestlé Lion: Peanut and White bars, I thought it was only right I had my first original Lion in many years.

The bar continued with the usual Lion branding and imagery but, this time, the wrapper was a nice shade of chocolate brown. It was described as ‘filled wafer, caramel (30%) and cereals (5%), covered in milk chocolate (41%)’ so I was pleased to see this French version had actual chocolate rather than the Peanut's ‘cocoa icing’!

Outwardly, the Lion had the same level of knobbliness as the White one had, but the inside looked a little different. The caramel layer looked thicker, and the wafer looked whiter and smaller than the Peanut bar.

I was surprised at just how much of a difference the chocolate made to this product. It had the sweet, milky scent of most Nestlé chocolate, as well as the same sugary taste. Combined with the caramel wafer, I was really reminded of Tunnock’s Caramel: Wafer biscuits but, the bonus for me was they weren’t quite as chewy.

This Lion, whilst still crispy, was also texturally different to the other bars. It was really stiff to bite into, and the caramel was quite stretchy, but working through this helped release the juiciness of the flavour so the effort felt worth it.

Looking back, I’m not sure why it had been so long since my last plain Lion bar...maybe they just appeared too ‘manly’ for me! I really enjoyed this, though, so I plan to buy them more often in future.

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate)

Product name: Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 75g box (Home Bargains)
Calories: 11 per 2.3g biscuit

Country of origin: France

I seem to have a habit of reviewing the original version of a product after I’ve already looked at some of the variations. In this case, although the Daim and King choco (praliné) may have seemed more interesting types of Mikado, I was very happy to go back to the first one I ever tried: milk chocolate.

These ‘ultra-thin, crunchy biscuit sticks coated with wonderfully smooth milk chocolate’ were made by Kraft Foods and came in a simple white box that included an illustration of the product. I won’t go over the basic concept again as I did this with the Daim variety but it goes without saying that I was more than pleased with the low calorie count!

Almost half of each stick was taken up by the chocolate layer (49%) which was spread evenly and wasn’t too thin either. The aroma was standard but good – chocolate biscuits!

The biscuits themselves were the usual plain and crispy kind. The chocolate that coated these felt nice and smooth on the tongue and also provided a lovely chocolate flavour that included a sugary element. The lack of bumps on each stick’s surface meant I was also able to revert to my preferred method of consumption – gnawing them like a beaver!

There’s no pretending that Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate) are essentially chocolate biscuits but their great format and lack of calories make them a big hit with me.

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