Nestlé Aero: Bubbly white

Product name: Nestlé Aero: Bubbly white
Purchase details: Two 41g bars for £1.00 (Martin’s)
Calories: 221 per bar

I have big confession to make but, at the risk of all other food bloggers turning against me, I have to stick to my honesty policy...I was one of the people who voted for Nestlé to release a white chocolate version of the Aero bar when there was a Facebook campaign a few months ago. I’m really sorry, guys – I just love white chocolate so much so, for me, the idea didn’t seem ‘boring’ at all!

As it happened, I nearly missed out altogether on trying this limited edition White bubbly that was produced for the UK and Ireland. I searched high and low and, in the end, my Dad came to the rescue when he found it in Martin’s. Since he took advantage of the multibuy offer, I don’t know how much a single bar would have cost, and he couldn’t remember!

The ‘smooth milk chocolate filled with vanilla flavoured bubbles’ featured cream-coloured bubbles on the wrapper but I was a little confused by the description – it didn’t particularly sound like white chocolate. I am a vanilla fan too, though, so I hoped it would still be delicious.

The bar was part of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan and contained chocolate as the main ingredient – presumably as the centre was largely air! The chocolate contained a minimum of 14% milk solids and produced the same aroma as a standard Aero which, I think, is quite an unusual chocolatey scent.

The shape of the bar was identical to the orange version but the filling was pale rather than orange in colour. Due to the general concept being unchanged, the bar also had the same enjoyable texture where the centre almost collapsed and became chewy under pressure.

Unfortunately, I did feel let down by the taste. The milk chocolate coating had the usual, slightly bitter cocoa taste that Aeros have, but the centre just tasted a bit weird. The first thing I thought of when I took a bite was that it reminded me of margarine – not really the kind of comparison I was hoping to make! However, it did improve greatly as I went on, with this unusual flavour being overpowered by the chocolate itself, although it was still much less chocolatey than a normal Aero. Guttingly (yeah, that’s a word!), it just didn’t taste like white chocolate or vanilla. However, it did taste better when allowing the thick melt to take control, and I actually preferred the mellowed chocolate flavour on offer here to a plain Aero.

I can’t pretend this bar didn’t disappoint me. It was fine but that’s pretty much all it was. Fair play to Nestlé, though, for letting the customer choose the variety. Maybe next time they should go down the ‘choose a Chunky champion’ route that Kit Kat used, allowing people to try before they vote. If this had been real and solid white chocolate, my views would probably be different, but if I’d know this would be the execution before I voted, I probably would have opted for the cappuccino or strawberry versions instead!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Kinder Chocolate: With cereals

Product name: Kinder Chocolate: With cereals
Purchase details: £0.52 for a 23.5g bar (Martin’s)
Calories: 131 per bar

I have a small Kinder Chocolate bar most days with my lunch so I was intrigued by this new product which came described as ‘fine milk chocolate with cereal and a smooth milky filling’.

This With cereals bar came in a wrapper that continued the white and red Kinder theme, with the white looking like spilt milk. It also contained an illustration of the chocolate bar, cereals and a glass of milk.

The bar was distributed by Ferrero UK and seemed to be the usual Kinder Chocolate concept with ‘a delicious milky filling’ and consisted of 33.5% chocolate and 7.5% cereals which were made up of barley, rice, wheat, spelt and buckwheat. It was these five cereals that made this product different, and the wrapper promised a ‘great taste’ and described how they had been ‘simply puffed and toasted’. In total, the product contained 30.5% milk solids and, since it had been designed for kids, the 23.5g portion size was relatively small.

 

The bar was divided into 10 pieces which each contained a cereal imprint. Although it was shallow, it did feel quite big, and so it did still feel like a treat. The cereal pieces were visible through the base of the bar and seemed similar in appearance to Sugar Puffs. The chocolate and milky filling looked like standard Kinder Chocolate but the filling’s smoothness was interrupted by the aforementioned cereal. Whilst I can’t say it looked as nice as the usual, plain bar, it did still look nice. I was also pleased that the usual sweet, milky aroma remained.

On tasting this snack, I was surprised that the cereal provided quite a strong flavour and actually did taste like Sugar Puffs! There was quite a caramelised taste which was very sweet and tasty but whether or not the cereal had been toasted in sugar, I’m not sure. Due to the strength of this flavour, the general Kinder Chocolate taste was weaker than I’d expected, although there was still a chocolate element there. I did think it was a shame that the milky flavour that I love wasn’t very strong, though.

Texturally, the cereal pieces were soft and fluffy but with crunchy edges. I found it to be similar to popcorn so, combined with the flavours, I thought the overall product was like a popcorn-filled chocolate bar, although creamier and with fewer puffy bits. It was possible to let the chocolate melt and chew the cereal afterwards but I preferred to chew the whole thing as this kept the slight crispiness from the cereal and also provided a more satisfying flavour.

This With cereals bar didn’t taste or feel how I expected it to but it did offer a really nice flavour that’s not present in the original Kinder Chocolate bars. I do prefer the smooth texture of the latter, but this was far, far nicer than I thought it would be and I would happily eat it again. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10