Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre

Product name: Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre
Calories: 168 per 30g serving (560 per 100g bar)
Country of origin: England

You may remember that I was recently lucky enough to win a few bars of Kingdom chocolate from their Facebook page. It was this Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre variety that I’ve wanted to try for ages and, over a month since my last Kingdom review, I was mightily impressed with myself for having resisted it for so long! However, the time has now come for me to review this little beauty.

I described the brand’s characteristics in my review of the Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre bar and these were unchanged here. Once again, the wrapper used an unusual colour combination, and I just loved the use of amber and purple in this case. The slab itself had broken in transit but it was clear that its design was also the same.

The bar used the same chocolate as the Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre for 90% of the product, containing a minimum of 34% cocoa solids and 27% milk solids. As for the other 10% of the bar, this was simply ‘peanut paste’.

Part of me had really wanted this bar to have a pure, squidgy peanut butter centre but the reality was a filling that was a very similar colour to the Cappuccino one – it had a few added speckles but it certainly wasn’t the orangey shade of peanut butter I’d expected.

In terms of scent, the main smell was the milk chocolate but, even so, this was pretty weak. At a push, I’d say there was a slight hint of nuts, but this certainly wasn’t a strong peanut butter aroma. The flavour, though, was beautiful, and it was absolutely not a problem that the filling hadn’t been taken from a jar. The milk chocolate was good quality and, when melting, the peanut butter flavour came through subtly, at first, but got stronger as the centre was reached. This softened filling provided salty kicks here and there, which were very welcome, and also had a slightly grainy texture.

The chewing texture of the bar was the same as the Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre and I found it split the two elements in two a little more, with the peanut butter flavour coming through a bit later. I probably would have preferred a slightly thinner chocolate shell but there was absolutely no shortage of the nutty filling and I enjoyed every mouthful.

I definitely saved the best until last with my Kingdom reviews and this Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre definitely deserved a big thumbs up from me...why don’t all chocolates have peanut butter centres?! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre

Product name: Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre
Calories: 168 per 30g serving (559 per 100g bar)
Country of origin: England

I received this bar of Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre as part of my prize from their Facebook page and, as a lover of coffee-flavoured chocolate (although not actual coffee!), I couldn’t wait to try it.

The overall concept and design was the same as the Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre, but this bar came in a dark brown and spearmint wrapper (which I thought gave the impression of mint-flavoured dark chocolate!), and featured coffee beans in the background and an image of a coffee cup.

Since the coffee centre also consisted of milk chocolate, it accounted for a huge 94% of the bar. Within this, 38% of the chocolate was sugar, and it also contained a minimum of 34% cocoa solids and 27% milk solids. Once again, the chocolate formed part of the Cocoa Development Project, and natural flavouring was used to achieve the coffee taste.

The slab had the same ridiculously chunky appearance but, obviously, was paler in colour than the dark chocolate. The filling was almost indistinguishable from the shell but it was just about possible to work out which bit was the core.

The aroma wasn’t very strong but there was an element of slightly bitter coffee about it. This bitterness was also present in the taste but the chocolate’s sweetness overruled it, with the two components combining to form a decent coffee chocolate experience.

 

To chew, the bar had the same texture, and I just loved the silky, smooth and creamy melt of the shell as the milky chocolate gave way to the coffee centre.

The best thing about this bar, for me, was that the emphasis was on the chocolate rather than the coffee, making it preferable to the Ritter Sport Espresso. That’s not to say that the coffee didn’t make a good impact – it did – it just wasn’t so strong that the chocolate became superfluous.

This was another great quality product from Kingdom and my appetite is now well and truly whetted to try the final bar from my bundle – thanks, guys!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Kingdom Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre

Product name: Kingdom Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre
Calories: 162 per 30g serving (541 per 100g bar)
Country of origin: England

I can’t remember when or how I first heard of the Kingdom brand but I do remember it was their peanut butter-filled chocolate that I found out about at the time. Up until now, I’d never been lucky enough to have tried any of their chocolate, but I have been keeping a close eye on them on social media and was delighted to win three bars from their Facebook page – thanks, Kingdom!

My first impressions of the brand were excellent. Kingdom pride themselves on making ‘modern British chocolate’ which they describe as being ‘new and uniquely flavoured bars’ that are ‘delicately decadent’ and the product of ‘British creativity’. They are also keen to combine fun with high quality produce.

The first bar I’m reviewing  is the Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre which contained no artificial ingredients and contained ‘Ethical Ugandan cocoa’ as part of the Cocoa Development Project.

As excited as I was by this brand, I wasn’t really expecting to like this particular variant as I’m not a huge fan of dark chocolate, lemon or lime! They’re all ingredients I can eat, just not ones I’d necessarily choose. My interest was raised, however, when I saw that it was described as ‘dark chocolate with a white chocolate lemon and lime centre’. Regular readers will know that I’m a little bit obsessed with white chocolate so this was a massive plus for me. There was also something about the combination of the main three ingredients that I thought would actually work, even if they weren’t my favourites.

Kingdom’s branding is royal-themed, with their logo being a crown that is featured on their wrappers, as well as each of the 12 squares that this bar was divided into. I absolutely loved the striking colours used as well. The vibrant green and pink shades were very different, and there was a little image of a lemon and lime too, to represent the flavour. Unfortunately, this bar was already partly open at the top when I received it, but I assumed that this happened in transit as the chocolate itself was fine. It had still been sealed in a jiffy bag for delivery and, once I received it, I transferred it to an airtight bag to keep it as fresh as possible.

The dark chocolate contributed to 80% of the bar and contained a minimum of 61% cocoa solids. Another 38% was sugar! The white chocolate accounted for 13% of the product and I was also interested to see that 4% of the bar was coconut oil. As for the flavours, these came from lemon, lime and lime oil.

The chocolate was properly chunky and actually pretty hard to snap. I was also a bit alarmed when breaking off a row didn’t reveal the ‘delightfully delicate centres in every chunk’ but it turned out that these fillings were entirely contained within each piece. Once I cut a square in two, I could see the lovely contrast between the very dark brown shell and the white centre.

 

The bar had a pretty strong dark chocolate scent but there wasn’t a hint of lemon or lime within this. The chocolate’s strength was just as prominent in its flavour and it was certainly the dominant element of the bar. It was bitter, with strong cocoa tones, and it also had a smooth melt which eventually led to the slightly softer, but still smooth, white chocolate. As you can probably imagine by the bar’s appearance, the chocolate was also enjoyably chunky to chew too.

 

The filling didn’t taste of white chocolate but the citrus flavour managed to make an impact against the powerful dark chocolate. It had the subtlety of the lemon mousse centres that can often be found in selection boxes but it still did enough to lessen the chocolate’s bitterness. I was pleased that the citrus taste wasn’t sharp and imagined that it was the white chocolate’s sweetness that achieved this.

Due to personal taste, this product’s flavours still weren’t my favourite, but I did think the combination worked well together and I liked how the dark chocolate’s bitterness was lessened by the lighter filling. I actually thought these ingredients would work well together in a cake as, in a solid chocolate, I found it a bit too intense and sickly. However, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and I can’t wait to try my other bars!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.13/10