Nestlé Munchies

Product name: Nestlé Munchies
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 52g packet or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 135 per six sweet serving (256 per pack)
Country of origin: UK

It’s been years since my last packet of Nestlé Munchies but I do remember loving them as a kid as they seemed to last forever (yep, I was a greedy-guts!). I don’t feel the wrapper has changed much since then, with the 12 chocolates still coming wrapped in a gold foil and red wrapper, on one side of which was an image of a biscuit and caramel centre within a chocolate shell.

 

The sweets contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and the milk chocolate contained a minimum of 14% milk solids. Shaped into cubes with a simple decoration, I did find their dusty appearance made them look less appealing than they could have done. However, the ‘crisp biscuit’ (6%) and ‘soft caramel’ (30%) inside did look more promising, although the colour of these barely contrasted with the outer chocolate which I thought was unusual (that said, the difference is more noticeable on the photo!). 

The product had a scent of overly sweet and not great quality chocolate but it still had a nice enough flavour. It had the taste of general Nestlé chocolate, as well as quite a buttery biscuit. Mainly, though, it was very sweet and this seemed to be down to the caramel and chocolate combination.

The standout feature of the chocolates, for me, was the texture. The chocolate’s melt was ok but was improved by the way the caramel seeped out. As an added bonus, the biscuit didn’t feel uncomfortable when doing this. However, it would have been wrong not to munch on these Munchies and I’m pleased to report that this provided a lovely mix of chunky, crispy and soft, gooey textures – wonderful.

Although I didn’t feel that this was the type of product that was worth raving about, it did provide a nice change in my evening routine. I’m sure I’ll buy them again at some point but they won’t be a regular item on my shopping list.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut

Product name: Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 43g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 248 per bar
Country of origin: UK

Well this is one exciting, new and limited edition product that nearly passed me by! I hadn’t (and still haven’t) heard a thing about the Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut but saw them mixed in with a stand of other Yorkie bars in Tesco. Once I’d convinced myself that the unusual jet black wrapper wasn’t an indication of Hallowe’en or dark chocolate, it went straight into my basket!

Choosing to ignore the typically sexist slogan of ‘man fuel for man stuff’, this bar was described as ‘chunky milk chocolate with peanuts (25%)’ which were roasted. The chocolate consisted of a minimum of 25% cocoa solids and 14% milk solids and was part of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan.

The bar was the same in style as the Raisin & biscuit and was divided into five pieces that were full of dark-centred peanuts (the fact the chocolate splintered when I cut into it demonstrates how full each piece was!). These produced a really strong nutty scent that actually smelt a lot like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

The Yorkie’s chocolate itself was unchanged from the usual kind and it tasted nice and sweet against the nuts – I particularly loved the roasted aspect of these. It had a nice yet chunky melt but the bar was also really satisfying to chew as the nuts were really crunchy. To my amazement, the flavour was very similar to peanut butter, and the overall product reminded me of a simpler Reese's Nutrageous.

I genuinely didn’t expect this bar to be as good as it was but it was such a delight to eat. I’m gutted it’s only a limited edition...please don’t take it away from me!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.38/10

Nestlé Le Chocolat: στρατσιατέλα

Product name: Nestlé Le Chocolat: στρατσιατέλα
Purchase details: £0.59 for a 90g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 124 per 22.5g serving (498 per bar)

Every now and then I pick up an interesting-looking product and then wonder how on Earth I’m going to review it when its name uses characters which are foreign to me. Thankfully, the wonderful world of the internet has meant I’ve been able to properly name this Nestlé Le Chocolat: στρατσιατέλα, but how you pronounce that last word, I have absolutely no clue!

It was the shiny silver wrapper that caught my attention, adorned with images of what appeared to be cookies and cream chocolate and ice cream, so I took a guess that this bar would be along the same lines as Lindt Lindor: Stracciatella. Although the entire wrapper was in Greek, there a small English translation on an added label, and this told me it was ‘white chocolate with dark chocolate chips and crispies’. With it being white chocolate, I was happy to give it a go anyway, but I did later translate the Greek Nestlé website  which turned ‘στρατσιατέλα’ into ‘stratsiatela’ which Google seemed to think was the same thing as ‘stracciatella’ – boom!

I felt the bar was very good-looking with visibly wide spread dark chocolate chips (7%), as well as the rice ‘crisp pieces’ (2%) that could be seen through the base. Strangely, the dark chocolate seemed to have its own filling that almost looked like biscuit, but I couldn’t work this out. The white chocolate itself was divided into 28 small, slightly curved pieces that each featured a little decoration, and I later found their size to be just right with the level of flavour on offer.

Although there was an absence of a drifting scent, the bar did have a white chocolate smell up-close. It also had a good snap to it, although I found the texture to be quite unusual. The white chocolate seemed to separate out when chewing, but this was also broken up with splinters of dark chocolate, as well as the crispy pieces. Alternatively, the white chocolate did melt, but this was slow and not very smooth. Although the pieces left behind were a little bit uncomfortable, I didn’t find the bar to be too bitty, so this was a plus for me.

I found the melting flavour to be more like a milky vanilla ice cream rather than white chocolate and this was pretty nice. However, despite containing a minimum of 50% cocoa solids, the dark chocolate only seemed to add texture rather than flavour.

When chewing, the flavour was a bit more like white chocolate, although this still wasn’t majorly the case. Fairly early on, there was a familiar burn at the back of the throat and a hint that the bar was going to become too sickly to eat a lot of, but it actually turned out to be perfectly manageable. It was by no means amazing but it certainly wasn’t bad.

This Nestlé Le Chocolat: στρατσιατέλα was a nice little find but I’m not about to swap my favourite white chocolates for this one!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Nestlé Quality Street: My orange bar

Product name: Nestlé Quality Street: My orange bar
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 35g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 98 per half bar (196 per bar)
Country of origin: UK

 

Having enjoyed the Nestlé Quality Street green and purple bars, I really wanted to try the new My orange bar which was the same idea but made use of the brand’s Orange chocolate crunch sweet – one I like but tend to forget exists!

Presented in an on-theme purple and orange glossy, festive wrapper that included an image of the bar, the ‘milk chocolate with an orange flavoured filling and orange flavoured crunch pieces (9%)’ was split into four hexagonal segments with engraved bows for decoration. The filling looked quite grey in comparison to the chocolate (containing a minimum of 14% milk solids), but the crunchy pieces added something a bit different, with a glassy kind of appearance. Cutting a piece in two also allowed the chocolate shell to lift off and I quite liked being able to see the two layers in more detail.

As I’d hoped, the bar had a nice, tangy chocolate orange scent, and it also tasted of sweet orange chocolate – it was lovely. The orange aspect was definitely from the centre which meant the taste was more sugary and cocoa-focused than the Terry's Chocolate Orange (milk bars), and this was particularly noticeable when allowing a piece to melt. When doing this, the texture of the filling felt very grainy, but I did like crispy bits which felt a bit like a shattered lollipop and added more of a tang to the flavour.

When chewing the bar, the centre felt a bit more like a truffle, but I was surprised at just how many crispy pieces there were within it. I’d say the balance was spot on, actually, because they made a pleasant difference but there weren’t so many that they became a nuisance. The orange flavour was also a lot stronger throughout, when chewing, but there was still a milky element from the chocolate too. As much as I enjoyed both methods of consumption, I did find that this more traditional option had me salivating for the next piece before I’d even finished the one I was on!

I think I’ll be paying more attention to the Orange chocolate crunch sweets in future as I really enjoyed this bar. I just wish it had been bigger – I would have thought it would be impossible to stick to the recommended two-piece portion!

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