Fox's Creams: Nice

Product name: Fox’s Creams: Nice
Purchase details: £0.49 for a 175g packet (Home Bargains)
Calories: 59 per biscuit

I have a strange relationship with Nice biscuits since there was a period in my childhood when it seemed to be the only type of biscuit that was ever in the tin and they just seemed so...well, boring. Yet I always knew that, once I caved in and had one, they were actually enjoyable. I think I was the only kid who was taught to pronounce them like the French city rather than the adjective, though!

This probably makes me appear really stupid but, until now, I’ve never realised that Nice biscuits are actually coconut flavoured. It was the promise of ‘real flaked coconut’ that attracted me to this packet of Fox’s Creams: Nice, but I thought this was a new concept with the coconut being in the cream – oops! To be fair, the description provided was ‘shortcake biscuits sandwiched with a coconut flavour cream’, so I was right, but I thought the actual pairing of flavours was something new (which it obviously isn’t).

These biscuits came in a baby blue wrapper with a polka dot theme which I really loved. Whilst Fox’s is a British brand, and the contact address provided was also for the UK, the country of manufacture wasn’t explicitly stated and so I have not included it in my product summary.

Unlike standard Nice biscuits, these were oblong rather than rectangular and, I was surprised to see, had no sugar granules on the surface. They remained simple in appearance, though, with ‘FOX’S NICE’ stamped on each side. Inside the sandwich, the white cream layer was thick and appeared to have been piped onto the biscuit in blobs.

It’s been a long time since I last had a Nice biscuit but these certainly had the smell I remembered. To me, it’s a unique aroma that I find hard to describe. However, it was pleasant and faintly coconutty.

In both appearance and taste, the biscuits seemed more oaty than standard shortcake ones. I also didn’t find them as sweet as normal Nice biscuits, which I put down to the lack of surface sugar. However, there was still a sweetness there and, despite being quite plain, the flavour did work, and the biscuits had a nice, soft crunch.

On its own, I thought the coconut cream was amazing! I couldn’t decide if it reminded me more of cupcake frosting or raw cake batter. In the end, I decided it was the texture of the former (soft but ever-so-slightly coarse) and the taste of the latter! I was slightly disappointed that the coconut flavour wasn’t strong, however, there was an element of this in the taste.

The cream didn’t have as much of an impact when combined with the biscuit but its presence certainly made the product far better than standard Nice biscuits. However, despite the added moisture, when eating three or more at a time, these biscuits did run the risk of becoming dry and became slightly hard to swallow.

The general experience provided  by this product was a sweet one but, despite containing 4% desiccated coconut, this aspect of the flavour just didn’t seem strong at all. I really did love the cream, though, and would happily eat it from a jar with a spoon! 

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

Wonka Chocolate Nice Cream

Product name: Wonka Chocolate Nice Cream
Purchase details: £0.69 for an individual bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 193 per bar

Following my review of Wonka Millionaire's Shortbread a few days ago, this is my review for the other bar I picked up from A Quarter of Sweets: Wonka Chocolate Nice Cream. This bar was presented in similar packaging (although with a cream-coloured strip along the bottom rather than a golden one) and again, no specific information about the country of origin was given.

At first glance, I thought the product image showed a jam layer which would be similar to the strawberry and raspberry sauces that are often used on ice cream, but this, of course, was called Chocolate Nice Cream, and the product description said the bar contained a ‘smooth vanilla creme topped with chocolate sauce’.

Again, this bar was divided into four squares, but these ones were more interesting in appearance and featured a raised depiction of an ice cream bowl with a Wonka ‘W’ wafer. Apart from the fact I thought this looked a bit more cupcake-like than ice cream-like, I considered this to be a nice touch which also allowed for a deeper filling by raising the height of the outer milk chocolate layer.

The bar had quite a dark chocolatey scent and I was pleased to see that all three layers of the product were relatively thick. The vanilla flavoured filling provided 30% of the overall experience and looked lovely and smooth and, encouragingly, had visible vanilla pod specks. The chocolate flavoured filling that sat atop the vanilla creme was almost treacle-coloured and looked a bit like jelly in texture. Although the bar only contained half as much chocolate sauce as the vanilla centre, there still seemed to be a lot of it.

I found the chocolate to be really sweet and more sugary than chocolatey in flavour. I did love the satisfying crack it provided, though, before giving way to the bar’s soft innards. The chocolate sauce was gooey and quite thick, texturally, but it was still soft and, as intended, tasted like the chocolate sauces served with ice cream. The vanilla creme was stiffer than I’d expected, although, again, soft on the whole. Taste-wise, it was creamy but only had a mild vanilla flavour. Overall, I thought the bar tasted quite artificial whilst still being enjoyable, but it was only really the chocolate sauce that seemed reminiscent of ice cream since the creme layer didn’t quite cut it. 

As I usually do, I also tried letting a couple of squares melt on the tongue, and I found this had pros and cons. It released a creaminess from the chocolate before leading onto the sugariness that had been immediate when chewing the bar, and it also allowed the chocolate flavour to become gradually richer as the outer layer combined with the inner sauce. However, I found the vanilla layer did feel a bit rubbery when left behind in the mouth after these two chocolate elements had melted.

Whilst this bar scored the same, overall, as the Millionaire’s Shortbread version, the breakdown of points shows they had different things to offer. I preferred the flavours offered by the Millionaire’s Shortbread bar, but this Chocolate Nice Cream product was still pretty decent in its own way. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10