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

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Chips ahoy!

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Chips ahoy!
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 120g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 85 per three chunk serving (678 per bar)
Country of origin: UK

Mondelez really are rolling out the new Cadbury products aren’t they?! I must say I was really surprised when I first found out about this Dairy Milk: Chips ahoy! bar since the Chips Ahoy! cookie brand isn’t one generally sold here in the UK. Personally, I’ve only tried two of their varieties from import stores in the past (the Big & chewy original and Big & chewy chocolate), and they weren’t even the standard kind!

In keeping with the brand name, the purple wrapper contained a fun image of a pirate cookie, and my initial thought was that this product would be similar to the Golden biscuit crunch bar. However, the description of ‘milk chocolate with a biscuit flavour filling (38%) and chocolate chip biscuit pieces (12%)’ showed that it was actually a very different concept.

The bar’s appearance was very similar to the Snowy delight – it was divided into 24 chunks and had a pale filling. This time, though, the creme was a beige colour and it also had dark biscuit pieces within.

I’m so used to Dairy Milk smelling like Dairy Milk that I was stunned to find this slab actually had a strong and buttery chocolate chip cookie scent...and that was before I’d even broken it apart! The Dairy Milk’s flavour did remain prominent, though, and it was a very chocolatey bar all-round. However, the smooth, soft and creamy centre did have a part to play too. It didn’t taste as much of biscuit as I’d expected, based on the smell, but it did have a slightly syrupy flavour which was lovely. The flavour was also very sweet but I had no problem polishing off the whole bar (having saved my calories, of course!).

I’m not always a fan of added crunch in chocolate but, here, the biscuit pieces worked wonderfully. There wasn’t too much but there was plenty to fit with the theme and provide an authentic experience. The texture of the biscuit itself was spot on – exactly what chocolate chip cookies feel like to chew – and, the more biscuit a piece of the bar had, the more I enjoyed it. The only problem I found with the filling was that the combination of soft and bitty meant it was hard to get a clean break when snapping each piece off.

I didn’t, for one moment, expect this Dairy Milk bar to be bad, but I ended up enjoying it even more than I thought I would. My lack of knowledge about the American cookie brand means I couldn’t judge whether or not it lived up to the Chips Ahoy! name, but the crunchy pieces certainly met my expectations, as a Brit, of what cookies should be like!

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

Maryland Choc Chip, Oatmeal & Honey

Product name: Maryland Choc Chip, Oatmeal & Honey
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 200g packet or two for £1.00 (Poundworld)
Calories: 51 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK

I must confess that I only bought these Maryland Choc Chip, Oatmeal & Honey cookies to make use of the multibuy offer when I was buying some other biscuits! Initially, I didn’t think they looked that exciting, but on noticing the magical word ‘new’ in the corner of the golden wrapper, I realised I couldn’t remember having had any cookies with honey in them before.

The packaging contained inviting images of oats and honey which, unusually, looked more enticing than the photos of the biscuits themselves which looked like standard chocolate chip cookies. However, the treat was described as being ‘choc full of yumminess’ and contained 6% oatmeal and 3% honey, in addition to the 16% chocolate chips.

The cookies were made by Burton’s Foods and contained no artificial flavours or colours, no GM ingredients and no hydrogenated fats and oils. They were quite dark in appearance, inside and out, compared to other cookies, particularly when considering another Maryland offering – Strawberry & White Choc.

I quickly realised that the scent was a cross between that of a standard cookie and flapjack. The latter seemed to be caused by the honey and oats and I was kicking myself for not having thought of the connection earlier!

Despite the quantity of chocolate chips varying in each biscuit, their taste was pretty strong in every bite and it was far and away the main flavour element. There was also a baked aspect to the taste which wasn’t usual for this type of cookie. However, neither the oats nor honey seemed particularly noticeable in themselves as additional flavours, at first. I did then find, though, that the honey released a delicate and almost floral sweetness which created a nice contrast with the comparatively bitter chocolate. I found that dipping the biscuits in tea also released more of the honey’s juices, although I preferred to eat them au natural.

These really crunchy cookies didn’t provide an obviously ground-breaking experience but they were different enough for me to choose them over standard chocolate chip cookies in future. Apart from anything else, the flapjack-like element meant they tasted a little more homemade than most mass-produced biscuits.

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

Marks & Spencer Best of British Baking: Toffee fudge & Belgian chocolate hot cross buns

Product name: Marks & Spencer Best of British Baking: Toffee fudge & Belgian chocolate hot cross buns
Purchase details: Two packs of four buns for £2.50 (Marks & Spencer Simply Food)
Calories: 207 per 68g bun
Country of origin: UK 

I’ve been wanting to try a more exciting hot cross bun for a while but I’m from a more traditional family who just don’t do things like that at Easter. Imagine my delight, then, when I found this packet of new Marks & Spencer Best of British Baking: Toffee fudge & Belgian chocolate hot cross buns in the freezer! I know these were purchased on a multibuy offer but, since I didn’t get them myself, I don’t know how much they would have cost for a single pack. 

These hot cross buns contained 8% ‘dark Belgian chocolate chips’ and 17% fudge and toffee pieces. They were presented on a cardboard tray in a simple clear plastic wrapper which allowed their standard appearance to be viewed clearly. Whilst these looked like ordinary hot cross buns, though, the dark bits were the chocolate chips rather than raisins. The buns’ outer appearance was mid-brown with a sticky-looking gloss and, inside, they were like brown bread rolls that had been flecked with chocolate.

The buns were sticky and moist to the touch and had a cinnamon cake scent that was strengthened when heated. There weren’t actually any serving instructions on the packaging and, whilst I enjoy microwaved hot cross buns, I know a lot of people toast them, so I decided to try them both ways. I also wasn’t sure whether or not to add butter (they already contained 2% unsalted butter and I expected the chocolate and fudge to be luxurious enough!) so I had each bun ‘half and half’. (This additional butter obviously wasn’t included in the above calorie count but I wasn’t worried about that on this occasion!)

I found it difficult to fit a bun’s halves into my toaster but their doughy texture did mean I could squish them in – they did get a bit stuck when I tried to remove them again though! I toasted them on the second lowest setting which resulted in a slightly burnt chocolate smell and, I thought, a hint of sweet raisins. However, I think this may have been my brain making a connection with the presence of cinnamon. The chocolate pieces looked a little burnt rather than melted but I could see where the toffee and fudge pieces had become molten.

The plain toasted half bun had remained surprisingly doughy and moist but had an added crisp too. Its flavour was familiar and not dissimilar to standard hot cross buns but there was an extra sweetness that was more like brioche. I definitely could have eaten a whole bun like this but I just had to go the whole hog in the name of research! The only downside was that I didn’t find either the chocolate or toffee fudge flavours were very noticeable as distinct elements.

On spreading the other half of the toasted bun with unsalted butter, its surface felt a little crispy, like actual toast. The butter melted in quickly and, understandably, added an extra level of flavour to the bun. However, this seemed to go beyond the butter itself, and actually brought the dark chocolate’s flavour out a little more – possible due to providing a greater contrast for the slight bitterness.

I microwaved my other bun on full power for 20 seconds. This made the chocolate look a lot more melted than burnt (you can see the mess it made on the plate!) and the dough just tore apart. This texture was just as enjoyable in the mouth – it was so soft and doughy that it stuck to the roof of the mouth beautifully. I still didn’t find the toffee fudge’s presence to be obvious but I did find the chocolate’s flavour more noticeable in this format. The bun was very sweet but this chocolate added a welcome undertone.

The butter melted in even more quickly on the microwaved bun and this was my favourite method of consumption. The texture was truly incredible. It was the same as the plain microwaved half, really, but it was just that little bit more special due to the butter making it slightly more dense. The chocolate’s flavour remained relatively subtle but it did add an enjoyable warmth too.

One thing I really don’t like about standard hot cross buns is the presence of mixed peel so the absence of this in these buns was an added bonus. Aside from that, these hot cross buns were very pleasant in their own right. The flavours weren’t as powerful as I’d expected (particularly the toffee and fudge pieces) but the separate elements presumably added to the overall warming sweetness on offer.

I probably enjoyed these more than normal hot cross buns but I know this was down to personal preference (more so than normal). My Dad also tried one of these buns and didn’t really enjoy it at all. He felt it lacked the spicier flavours that are present in the traditional version and, since this variety did taste very similar to brioche, he felt he may as well have been eating one of those instead. However, I would argue that the superb texture provided by these buns made them superior to brioche!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 10/10
Overall score: 8.13/10