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

Lindt Lindor: Stracciatella

Product name: Lindt Lindor: Stracciatella
Calories: 77 per truffle
Country of origin: Switzerland 

I was really pleased to receive this box of Lindt Lindor: Stracciatella as an alternative Easter gift this year. I had tried this limited edition variety when they were first released, ages ago, but I’d not had them since.

The ‘Swiss white chocolate truffles with slivers of cocoa and a smooth melting filling’ came in an ice blue box which could easily be mistaken for the Coconut variety. The presence of snowflakes also suggested that this particular box had been manufactured in time for last Christmas! I loved the imagery of the melted chocolate being poured into the white chocolate shell and couldn’t wait to tuck into the ‘irresistibly smooth’ treats.

Wikipedia informed me that ‘stracciatella’ is a type of soup but, more fittingly here, it’s also an Italian ‘milk-based ice cream infused with fine chocolate flakes’. Due to the speckled effect on the pale white chocolate balls (provided by the cocoa kernels that contributed to 1% of the product), this made perfect sense! Rather than ice cream, though, Lindt claimed that these truffles tasted ‘like cookies and cream’, although they didn’t actually contain either ingredient.

Knowing that my 200g box contained 17 chocolates, I was able to work out the above calorie content from the website’s nutritional information. Each truffle was individually wrapped, contained a beautifully smooth-looking centre, and emitted a vanilla cookie scent.

The white chocolate itself wasn’t the best I’ve ever tasted but it did have a subtle vanilla flavour. The shell did a surprisingly good job of replicating the taste of cookies and cream and, if allowing it to melt, the pure white chocolate’s contrasting flavour came through more strongly on reaching the cooling and melting centre that I love about Lindor truffles.

The downside of letting the balls melt was the texture of the cocoa kernels. These were bitty and felt like harder and sharper pieces of desiccated coconut. What I did like about this, though, was how their dark chocolate taste made the experience reminiscent of ice cream toppings. When choosing to crunch through the shells, the cocoa slivers also provided a pleasant added crisp.

I mentioned in my first ever Lindor review of the Caramel variety that I did go through a period where I found the brand too sickly. Looking back, I think the texture, as luxurious as it is, contributed to this, since I found it a bit much with the rich flavours on offer. However, the Stracciatella truffles’ flavour seemed to be the perfect match for the inner texture as it was subtle enough to not feel sickly, but strong enough to provide a delicious, creamy and pretty juicy treat.

Although I rationed myself to one chocolate a day, I could easily have eaten more!

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10