Lindt Hello My Name Is: Salted caramel

Product name: Lindt Hello My Name Is: Salted caramel
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 39g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 199 per bar
Country of origin: Germany

Back in my early blog days I reviewed the new (at the time) Lindt Hello My Name Is range (Caramel brownie, Cookies & cream, Crunchy nougat and Strawberry cheesecake). Having really enjoyed them, I was please to find out about this new addition: Salted caramel.

To my memory, this was the first time I’d had a mainstream salted caramel product, so I was interested to see what Lindt & Sprüngli had come up with.

The overall branding was the same for this bar and I noticed that the wrapper was actually identical to last year’s Caramel brownie – it just featured a puddle of caramel rather than a brownie image. The shape and design of the bar was also unchanged but the inside looked phenomenal and was full of a gooey, viscous caramel.

The bar was described as ‘filled milk chocolate with caramel (45%) and a touch of salt’ and, as much as I like the idea of salted caramel, I was glad of the suggestion that the saltiness would be mild as I prefer sweet flavours! The chocolate contained a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 14% milk solids and produced an immediately noticeable and strong milky Lindt scent on opening.

As usual, the thick chocolate shell didn’t disappoint. It had a voluptuous melt and a sweet, milky flavour. The caramel popped out of this with ease and provided a soft, smooth and thick sensation, as well as adding to the richness of flavours. The salty aspect almost felt like an afterthought, if I’m honest, but it was still recognisably different to standard caramels.

I would never class caramel-filled chocolates as my favourites, and I definitely prefer sweet tastes to salty ones, so this bar didn’t absolutely astound me in terms of flavour. However, there was no denying its excellent quality, and it did look and feel amazing.

I wonder when we’ll get a peanut butter variety?! 

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

Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs

Product name: Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs
Purchase details: £0.85 for a 40g bag (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 212 per bag
Country of origin: Germany

I thought I might have been a bit silly to buy these Lorenz Snack-World Nicnacs as they were described as ‘double-crunch peanuts’ and I don’t actually like peanuts on their own! The red and yellow wrapper had shown that the second crunch came from some kind of shell coating, though, so I hoped this extra flavour would transform the nuts.

There wasn’t much information given in English on the packaging so I obtained the nutritional and ingredients information from the brand's website. Apparently, the ‘full-on peanut power’ came from 49% peanut kernels, whilst flavouring included spices, ‘smoke flavouring’ and cheese powder.

The thick coating on the nuts was orange and crumby and did look like they could be cheese flavoured. However, texturally, I didn’t think they looked that much different from standard roasted peanuts. What surprised me was the impact of the smoke flavouring – the aroma was like peanuts mixed with bacon!

The shells tasted very savoury. Again, the smokiness gave a meat-like illusion, but there was also an element of onion, and even the tiniest spicy hint towards the end of each mouthful. It was really enjoyable to suck this coating off as it had a satisfying juiciness, although its salty aspect did make me feel thirsty! I also found that, when eating this way, the odd nut had a particularly tangy cheese flavour. Overall, the seasoning tasted like the kind you’d find on crisps.

The peanuts inside each shell were whole and tasted standard. The coating was by far the main feature but this didn’t cancel out the flavour from the peanuts and I found the balance just right. I also loved the combination of the crispy shells with the crunchy peanuts – for me, this was a far more enjoyable method of peanut consumption.

I definitely didn’t make a mistake in ordering these Nicnacs. I’d found the wrapper hard to open but I ended up liking its design as it prevented me scooping up handfuls at a time. I’m sure they would have tasted nice that way too but I’m glad that I was able to savour them instead.

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

Dubble (white chocolate)

Product name: Dubble (white chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.65 for a 33g bar (Oxfam)
Calories: 185 per bar
Country of origin: Germany

You may remember I recently said ‘goodbye’ to an old favourite of mine: the Dubble (milk chocolate). What I didn’t mention at the time was that I’d also managed to pick up the white chocolate version which was added to the brand more recently and that I’d never tried before.

As with the milk chocolate version, this ‘chunky white chocolate’ bar by Divine Chocolate Ltd was Fairtrade, and £0.02 from the sale of every one was donated to Comic Relief.

The product’s design was unchanged but it came in a creamy yellow colour that matched the wrapper. The chocolate contained a minimum of 33% milk solids and produced a sweetened milk scent. It also had a complementary, great white chocolate flavour that was sweet and milky but not sickly.

The bar generally felt the same to suck as the milk chocolate had done but, on this occasion, the chocolate had a smooth but slightly rubbery feel on the tongue. To chew, the rice (6%) still provided a crispy texture but, interestingly, the slight chewiness remained despite this variety’s cereal not containing honey. Although the texture was preferable when chewing, it did result in a less creamy flavour, and I found it also added an almost metallic element to the overall sweetness.

If I’m honest, I thought I’d enjoy the Dubble (white chocolate) more than I did. However, for a simple bar, it was still good. Unfortunately, the way of the world means it seemed expensive for what you got, but then that’s inevitable with Fairtrade products as the whole point is to ensure producers earn a fair price for their output. Like most people, I love a bargain, but it’s all too easy to forget that, often, our cheap purchases result in someone, somewhere, losing out on the income they deserve. I suspect this is why the Dubble bars are no longer in production – they just couldn’t keep up with the more popular but less ethical chocolate products on the market. I only hope the same thing doesn’t happen with the other Divine products.

Food for thought!

 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse

Product name: Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 100g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 146 per 25g serving (284 per bar)
Country of origin: Germany

It’s about time I got around to eating this Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse – it looked delicious in its slightly golden wrapper showing a deep vanilla mousse filling and an ice cream image to match.

There was no English on the packaging but, according to Google, ‘Unser sorte des jahres’ translates as ‘our species of the year’...I’m sure you get the gist! The wonders of the internet also taught me that the product was ‘whipped vanilla mousse in milk chocolate’ and that it had ‘large pieces for more mousse-pleasure’.

The bar came in nine large squares so was very much like the Kakao-Mousse in appearance – it simply had a deep and enticing pale cream filling with specks of vanilla instead of a dark brown one. I did think it was silly that a serving was supposed to be a quarter of the bar when it couldn’t be split into four pieces but, as I was eating it all anyway, I didn’t let that bother me! I also didn’t let the tarnished chocolate affect my scoring because that was entirely my fault for not keeping the bar cool enough in the recent heatwave...I refuse to store chocolate in the fridge on principle!

The bar had a creamy chocolate aroma but, unfortunately, this wasn’t infused with an element of vanilla despite the filling making up 40% of the product.

Thankfully, it tasted delicious! The centre was just like ice cream, if a little less sweet, and it even had a similarly liquidy texture. However, it was a bit grainier than ice cream, and it obviously wasn’t cold either!

Whilst my experience of the chocolate shell wasn’t the norm due to the heat damage, it did mean I could easily peel it off and sample it on its own. It had a lovely sweet flavour with a deep cocoa element mixed in – it actually reminded me of chocolate cake mixture which is testament to how nice it was! It was the chocolate that was the main feature of the bar but its flavour did go very well with the vanilla mousse too.

The bar had a thick melt and I loved letting the liquid pop out of the middle. The squares were a bit too big to suck on for long but, to be honest, I found I didn’t need to anyway.

This Ritter Sport treat felt really indulgent. If I could change one thing, it would be to make the mousse a little creamier as, at times, the overall taste was maybe a bit too sweet. However, it was still gorgeous exactly as it was.

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