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

Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire

Product name: Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of two desserts (Tesco)
Calories: 205 per 90g dessert
Country of origin: UK

I’ve tried a few Pots of joy from Cadbury in my time but this is the first time I’ve tried a new Layers Of Joy, with this brilliantly named ‘Caramellionaire’ being the variety I couldn’t wait to get stuck into.

The purple packaging featured an image of the product that looked like a trifle in style and that was the name it was given in the small print too. Made by Müller Dairy for Mondelez, the full description sounded mouth-watering: ‘shortcake biscuit at heart surrounded by delicious layers of Cadbury milk chocolate mousse, rich caramel dessert and white chocolate mousse’. You probably won’t be surprised to know that it was the white chocolate that particularly caught my eye!

The clear pot made it nice and easy to see three distinct layers of white chocolate (1% of the product was white chocolate powder), caramel, and milk chocolate (another 1% was milk chocolate but the pot also contained cocoa powder). However, despite accounting for 11% of the dessert, the shortbread wasn’t visible.

The dessert smelt of chocolate mousse (possibly as it was at the top!) and the latter aspect was also the key texture throughout. The chocolate layer was deep and provided quite a rich cocoa flavour and this went nicely with the caramel which was the same as my memory of Cadbury Dairy Milk: Pots of joy (caramel) and had quite a butterscotchy flavour to it.

Despite appearances, there was a definite biscuit layer next, with a buttery shortcake taste which was delicious. Rather than being hard and crumbly, this was soft and soggy, but very enjoyable!

I initially struggled to sample some of the white chocolate on its own, and it was hard to notice it against the other flavours, but it was possible to try it in larger quantities at the end of each pot. It was beautifully sweet and tasted a little like vanilla ice cream.

All in all, this was a really good dessert and, although I’d prefer a real piece of millionaire’s shortbread, the combination of layers did produce a satisfyingly authentic experience. To my surprise, it was the biscuit that made it, but every layer made its own unique and tasty contribution.

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

Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb)

Product name: Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 110g box (Tesco)
Calories: 35 per finger
Country of origin: UK

Despite not being new, I’ve never bought Cadbury Fingers: Fabulous (honeycomb) before, although I vaguely recall trying one a while ago – not that I could remember what they were like!

These biscuits featured the usual Fabulous branding but had an amber carpet with a honeycomb design to symbolise the flavour. The box contained an average of 16 biscuits (with a serving intended to be two) and mine ended up being particularly good value since Tesco had kindly sent me a Clubcard voucher for £0.50 off!

I’d assumed that the Fingers, made by Burton’s Biscuit Co., would have featured a honeycomb cream layer like with the Fox's Velvety: Caramel & honeycomb cream but it turned out that the pale layer beneath the ‘velvety smooth’ milk chocolate (41%) was still white chocolate (31%). Instead, the flavour came from ‘honeycomb flavour biscuit’ which looked a bit more amber in colour to normal. However, I did also think the white chocolate looked a bit less white and a bit more yellow, but that was probably wishful thinking!

 

The very crispy Fingers had a sweetened scent which, whilst very nice, wasn’t strong. To melt, the outer experience was unchanged from the other varieties, but I was surprised to find that the inside tasted like a Crunchie that had been mixed with a bit of biscuit! I didn’t find this honeycomb aspect to be quite as noticeable when chewing but the overall feel was more sugary and the biscuits definitely did taste different to the standard Fingers: Fabulous.

I may not have purchased these before but I most certainly will again!

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