Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (caramel)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (caramel)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of five bars (Poundworld)
Calories: 94 per 19.5g bar
Country of origin: UK

This review of Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (caramel) from Mondelez will only be short since it was essentially an amalgamation of the standard Freddo and the Dairy Milk: Caramel.

Slightly sneakily, there were only five of these ‘milk chocolate with soft caramel (30%)’ bars in the pack, although I did quite like how the featured sport the frog was participating in on this wrapper was canoeing...in a river of caramel – yummy!

The bar was the usual Freddo shape but its thin design meant that the caramel filling wasn’t particularly thick or visible. However, this did mean that the Dairy Milk scent was as strong as if the caramel wasn’t there...every cloud!

As I’d expected, the bar tasted identical to the Dairy Milk: Caramel – the smooth caramel simply felt thin against the two comparatively thick chocolate layers. Furthermore, whilst allowing the product to melt on the tongue did make the caramel feel a little elastic, the different ratios meant that biting the bar didn’t provide the slightly chewy aspect I’d previously experienced.

All in all, another winning formula from Cadbury.

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

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of six bars (Tesco)
Calories: 95 per 18g bar
Country of origin: UK

I don’t usually buy the famous Freddo anymore on principle – I miss the days when they were £0.10 each! However, I was becoming aware of how many uneaten higher-calorie treats I currently have ‘in stock’ and, since I need (yes, need!) some chocolate every day, I thought I’d buy some smaller bars to help me get through the other non-chocolate goodies as accompaniments. Since Cadbury Dairy Milk is always good, I felt it wouldn’t hurt to pay more than I would have done ‘back in my day’ on this occasion!

The purple wrapper featured the brand’s frog holding a tennis racquet. Quite what that had to do with anything, I don’t know, but there you go. Having said that, I did wonder if there was meant to be a general sporting theme going on, since the Australian strawberry variety involved surfing.

I’ve already covered most of the bases of this Mondelez product in my review of the popping candy version so I won’t repeat myself here. This one obviously didn’t contain the bits, though, so it didn’t have the unattractive speckle when I opened it.

As I said in the popping candy review, I did enjoy the chunky, thick and slightly grainy texture more when I didn’t have the distraction of the crackly pieces and, as a result, this was another good way to serve this classic Cadbury recipe.

It’s just a shame about inflation...

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

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (strawberry)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Freddo (strawberry)
Purchase details: £0.70 for a 20g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: Unsure – estimate 96 per bar
Country of origin: Australia 

I think this is the most difficult review I’ve written so far. Having never tried an Australian Cadbury product before, I was really looking forward to sampling the strawberry Freddo, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting!

The ‘milk chocolate with strawberry flavoured centre’ was 2g heavier than the British popping candy version that I’ve recently reviewed but, for some reason, it felt a lot smaller. It came in a fun wrapper that contained a picture of the cartoon frog surfing on a Cadbury purple wave – very fitting for an Australian product! The strawberry element was represented by the packaging’s red tips and, since no nutritional information was available, I relied on MyFitnessPal to provide me with the number of calories.

The frog-shaped chocolate had the same outer appearance as the popping candy variety but without the marks – it looked a lot more attractive as a result! Inside, the filling was quite a deep shade of pink and, any associations with blood aside (having decapitated a chocolate animal), I thought this was appealing. It appeared to have a jelly-like texture and was almost like a solidified Calpol.

The Freddo had quite a standard strawberry fondant chocolate smell which was slightly sickly but pleasant nevertheless.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the eating experience lived up to the bar’s initial impressions. The flavour was – put simply – odd. There was no familiar Dairy Milk creaminess and, if I’m honest, the overall product didn’t seem to taste of much at all. However, there was quite a nice (yet mild) fruity aftertaste.

I was also disappointed that the texture was only slightly better. There was a pretty decent contrast between the soft centre and the chunkier chocolate but, instead of the gooey texture I’d been expecting, it was more of a stringy paste. I think, in itself, this would have been ok, but it probably would have been better if this layer had been thicker so it dominated the chocolate rather than other way around.

I wanted so much to enjoy this bar, and I genuinely thought I would, but it wasn’t to be. What I don’t know is whether or not the difference in flavour was down to Cadbury Australia using a different Dairy Milk recipe or if it was simply the strawberry filling that affected the taste. I would certainly be willing to try more Australian Cadbury products, though, just to make sure!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 5.5/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.63/10

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