Cadbury Picnic

Product name: Cadbury Picnic
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of three bars (Poundland)
Calories: 230 per 48.4g bar
Country of origin: Europe

The Picnic seems to be one of Cadbury’s lesser known products – it’s not a bar I see around all that often and it must have been over a decade since my last one so I could barely remember what they were like!

The purple wrapper boasted ‘a feast-full’ of caramel (32%), peanuts (12%) and raisins (7%) and these three ingredients were each represented around the brand name – I particularly liked the way the caramel was used as a border. However, beneath the chocolate that contained a minimum of 14% milk solids, lurked another significant ingredient: ‘crispy’ rice cereal (10%).

This particular multipack had been produced by Kraft Foods and I couldn’t believe how huge each bar felt on removal from the main packaging. However, on opening the individual wrappers, I realised that, whilst the bars were very long, there were also relatively thin. That said, they had a very rugged appearance, and the caramel was clearly holding the individual elements together. Despite not being mentioned in the main product description, the cereal was definitely a big feature, whilst the raisins were a lot less visible and nowhere near as big as the Nestlé Yorkie: Raisin & biscuit.

The Picnic mainly smelt of sweet chocolate but the aroma did hint at the fact there was more going on beneath the surface and I was pleased to find that each ingredient made its own significant contribution to the whole. The peanuts provided flavour (although not lots) and a bit of a crunch within the crispy chewiness provided by the cereal and caramel. (For the record, this overall texture was perfectly balanced so that the bar wasn’t hard work to eat.) As for the raisins, I found there were more of these further down the bar than first appeared, and they produced an extra chew and an occasional additional sweetness.

Thinking of the Picnic as a whole, I realised that it was essentially a cereal bar in reverse, with a proper chocolate coating rather than the silly drizzles some brands include in an attempt to make a seemingly healthy product a bit more exciting. In this case, though, the overall flavour was a general sweetness that came from the individual components, and the thicker-than-normal chocolate layer provided an alternative method of consumption since the bar was also enjoyable to let melt, and it added a nice juiciness to combine with the raisins and caramel.

This was certainly a decent product but, although individual elements were noticeable, the main flavour wasn’t particularly exciting and, I guess, it felt a bit too healthy for my liking, bearing in mind it was an unhealthy snack!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Nestlé Crunch: Noisettes

Product name: Nestlé Crunch: Noisettes
Purchase details: £0.49 for a 100g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 143 per 25g serving (571 per bar)
Country of origin: France

 

Having loved the Nestlé Crunch bar, I was really excited when I saw a version in Home Bargains that had the colour green on half of the wrapper. I initially thought it would be mint flavoured, but when I saw the name and the images of hazelnuts, I was just as happy to give this Noisettes variety a go.

This slab had the same overall appearance as the original but it was thinner due to being 20g lighter, and the base looked a bit more packed too – there was less cereal (7% rather than 15%) but this had been replaced with the hazelnuts which made up 13% of the bar. Inside, the nuts were clearly visible, and seemed to be more prominent than in the Milka Hazelnuts bar. Unfortunately, though, my chocolate appeared to have suffered some patchy blooming, and my other gripe was that the shape would have made it difficult to easily get the correct portion size if I hadn’t been eating the whole thing at once...I guess you can’t have everything!

Both the milky chocolate and hazelnuts contributed to an appetising scent and, although the nutty flavour wasn’t immediately obvious when I first put a piece on my tongue, it did then begin to play a large part in the taste. The chocolate had the same flavour I’d enjoyed previously and the hazelnut aspect balanced well with this.

Texturally, the bar was generally the same as the original product but there was an added hardened crunch which was extremely enjoyable. The chocolate still didn’t provide a silky smooth melt, and the sucking texture obviously remained rough, but when the chew was so good, it hardly mattered.

Another bargain, another hit! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.25/10

General Mills Lucky Charms

Product name: General Mills Lucky Charms
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 49g pot (Poundland)

Calories: 190 per pot (232 per pot with 125ml skimmed milk)
Country of origin: USA

 

General Mills Lucky Charms is another cereal that, like Kellogg's Froot Loops, I’d always wanted to try but never had. For that reason, I was really pleased to find this single-serving  tub that still managed to contain 19g of whole grain within its ‘frosted toasted oat cereal with marshmallows’. I’d never actually realised that this was a frosted cereal so this aspect increased my interest and, what with the marshmallows, I couldn’t think of ever having tried a similar product.

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes take words for granted, so I’d never made the connection between this cereal’s name and what it actually was! However, I quickly realised that the red pot featured things that are often considered to bring luck, such as a leprechaun. This theme continued with the tiny, shaped Cheerio-like cereal and colourful marshmallows – these featured horseshoes (which I initially thought were fish!) and shooting stars, as well as other more general items like hearts. (If anyone can figure out what the shape on the bottom right of my picture is, I’d love to hear from you!)

Imported by Innovative Bites Ltd, there were some negative aspects of this product too. The corn it contained was genetically modified, and the ‘adverse effect’ the colours could have on children was also highlighted – not great but I couldn’t let that deter me!

The overall scent from the tub was gorgeous. It was like a cross between Kellogg’s Rice Krispies: Squares and real toasted marshmallows. The cereal had a slightly sticky glaze that possibly contributed to this but, on the whole, it seemed to be from the hardened ‘charms’ that were also a little sticky. I was impressed to see that the colours of these marshmallows went throughout each piece too – they weren’t just for show on the surface.

I did try a tiny dry sample of the product, out of matter of interest, and found the cereal to be nicely sweetened and the marshmallow to be very sugary with a slight crisp. The different colours used didn’t impact the flavour. They all tasted like toasted marshmallows – it was just a shame they didn’t have the warm, gooey centres to accompany the flavour!

I figured the idea was to pour the milk into the tub so this is what I did...only to find it all went to the bottom (don’t ask what I thought would happen!). This ended up being fine, though, as the cereal still got a good moistening. The only problem I found was that the bits at the bottom did go soft and slimy pretty quickly but, on the whole, the cereal was quite chewy and I adored the sugary hits from the marshmallows. The flavour combination really reminded me of something which I couldn’t work out until I remembered I had actually had this cereal in bar form a while ago so it was probably that!

Once the cereal had gone, I enjoyed using up the remaining milk. It didn’t look very appetising as the blue food colouring had leaked and created a grey appearance, and its texture had also become a bit starchy, but it did have a slightly sweetened taste.

Aside from this cereal’s deliciousness, what impressed me most was the good balance between the two elements – there was no shortage of either the oats or the marshmallows and they were both very enjoyable. If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this so much...I just wish it was healthier!

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

Nestlé Lion

Product name: Nestlé Lion
Purchase details: £0.29 for a 42g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 207 per bar
Country of origin: France

Having reviewed the Polish Nestlé Lion: Peanut and White bars, I thought it was only right I had my first original Lion in many years.

The bar continued with the usual Lion branding and imagery but, this time, the wrapper was a nice shade of chocolate brown. It was described as ‘filled wafer, caramel (30%) and cereals (5%), covered in milk chocolate (41%)’ so I was pleased to see this French version had actual chocolate rather than the Peanut's ‘cocoa icing’!

Outwardly, the Lion had the same level of knobbliness as the White one had, but the inside looked a little different. The caramel layer looked thicker, and the wafer looked whiter and smaller than the Peanut bar.

I was surprised at just how much of a difference the chocolate made to this product. It had the sweet, milky scent of most Nestlé chocolate, as well as the same sugary taste. Combined with the caramel wafer, I was really reminded of Tunnock’s Caramel: Wafer biscuits but, the bonus for me was they weren’t quite as chewy.

This Lion, whilst still crispy, was also texturally different to the other bars. It was really stiff to bite into, and the caramel was quite stretchy, but working through this helped release the juiciness of the flavour so the effort felt worth it.

Looking back, I’m not sure why it had been so long since my last plain Lion bar...maybe they just appeared too ‘manly’ for me! I really enjoyed this, though, so I plan to buy them more often in future.

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10