Müller Corner: De luxe (crème praline)

Product name: Müller Corner: De luxe (crème praline)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of two 130g yoghurts (tesco.com)
Calories: 238 per yoghurt
Country of origin: UK 

 

I’ve wanted to try a ‘new’ Müller Corner: De luxe for a while but, if I’m honest, I’ve been put off by the standard prices so have been waiting for them to be on offer. (We did have a different variety in our house a couple of months back but they contained alcohol so I decided against trying those ones!) 

I mainly associate Müller Corners with my childhood Summer holidays – it used to be a treat to be able to mix a crunchy or fruity (if I was slightly less lucky!) ingredient in with the main yoghurt section. The packaging and name of this crème praline variety, though, made it clear that this particular yoghurt was a bit more up-market. 

I loved the sophisticated black and brown design of the packaging (even the plastic pot was black instead of white), and the images of a cream-topped tower of chocolates, as well as a spoon containing all three layers of the product within. I couldn’t wait to tuck into what was described as a ‘velvety smooth praline flavour’ yoghurt that contained 15% whipping cream. Beneath this yoghurt I was supposed to find ‘an alluring hidden dark chocolate layer’ but, on peeling off the foil lid, this was already partly on show. For this particular Corner, the accompaniment I would be mixing into the main yoghurt was ‘crispy fancies coated with milk chocolate’, and these contributed to 8% of the product. 

I’d never had (or even heard of) praline yoghurt before but this dessert really did both smell and taste of hazelnuts, although a tangy yoghurt element was also present in both. (Bizarrely, whilst the health warnings confirmed a presence of nuts, these weren’t actually listed on the ingredients.) Claiming to be indulgent and a ‘creamy heaven’, the yoghurt did have a lot to live up to, but the very pale beige element of this product really was incredibly creamy. It was also beautifully thick and smooth. 

The chocolate layer was very watery in consistency and, although it introduced a slight bitterness to the overall experience, it seemed to have picked up a lot of the yoghurt’s tang over anything else. I actually felt a little let down by this sauce since it seemed to take away from the fantastic creaminess that was so present when trying the praline yoghurt aspect of the product alone. 

The knobbly fancies had a noticeable chocolate aroma and, taste-wise, were the same as the other cereal-type crunchy pieces used in different Müller Corners. As expected, they were very crispy, and I also found they tasted more chocolatey than the actual chocolate layer beneath the yoghurt. 

As tasty as this yoghurt was, for me, it didn’t compare to an actual praline-containing chocolate. However, for a yoghurt, it had a great flavour – I genuinely would have been happy for it just to consist of the yoghurt and fancies, though, and I think, if that had been the case, it may even have resulted in a higher score! 

Appearance: 8/10

Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Strawberries & creme

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Strawberries & creme
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 120g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 85 per three chunk serving (672 per bar)
Country of origin: Europe 

What better way to mark the middle of December than with a limited edition Summer chocolate bar? That’s right, after sitting on my shelf for several months, I’ve finally got around to reviewing Cadbury Dairy Milk: Strawberries & creme!

Made by Kraft Foods, the bar came in a slightly girly wrapper since, not only did it contain Cadbury purple, but baby pink too. This was understandable for the flavour on offer, though, and I loved how the word ‘Strawberries’ was made to look like the fruit by containing little seeds.

In case anyone was in any doubt about what variety of Dairy Milk this was, the wrapper also contained images of the product and a strawberry, and carried the description of milk chocolate containing a yoghurt  and ‘strawberry flavour filling’. Whilst I’d had yoghurt-based chocolates before in the form of Milka Lila Pause: Erdbeer-Joghurt and Ritter Sport Himbeer-Cranberry Joghurt, I was interested to see Cadbury’s take on the idea.

The aim was to create a bar that tasted like Summer and so the good people at Cadbury half-filled the bar with a ‘delicious crème’ that contained ‘dried skimmed milk yoghurt’ as well as 1% freeze-dried strawberries which promised a mouth-watering experience. The chocolate itself was the usual Dairy Milk and contained 23% milk solids to add to the creamy theme.

This slab of Strawberries & creme had the usual, slightly curved Dairy Milk presentation (as seen with the Snowy delight) and had a pale pink inside which seemed to darken slightly towards the centre. This filling also contained darker speckles which I thought may have been pieces of freeze-dried strawberry. It looked delicious!

As is often the case with fruity chocolate, the bar had a really strong aroma. In this case, it was a sickly sweet strawberry one but, thankfully, this sickliness didn’t transfer to the taste. The strawberry was by far the main flavour and, amazingly, did taste specifically of yoghurt. It was creamier than I’d expected it to be but it also had a slight tang. Unusually, I found the two parts of the bar tended to separate when I broke chunks off, but this did mean I could easily sample the chocolate and yoghurt on their own. In doing so, I found the chocolate did provide its own flavour but had also picked up a fruitiness from contact with the crème. Together, as much as I enjoyed the strawberry flavour, I wouldn’t have minded a stronger chocolate taste as I did feel the classic Dairy Milk goodness was overpowered a little too much.

Texturally, the bar was, again, similar to the Snowy delight since the overall experience was pretty soft, although the chocolate was a little chunkier than the yoghurt. The latter had quite a thick, rough texture but it did melt well, as did the chocolate.

Cadbury certainly didn’t disappoint with this variety of Dairy Milk – roll on next Summer! 

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

Reese's Sticks

Product name: Reese’s Sticks
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 42g bar (United States Grocery)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

Another product I bought from United States Grocery with my Living Social voucher recently was this pack of Reese’s Sticks. I had tried them before, but only in miniature form, and that bag had to be brought back from Canada for me especially. Oh how glad I am that these foreign products are now so much easier to obtain!

The 42g bar was made by the Hershey Company and divided into two fingers made of chocolate (according to the front of the packaging), peanut butter and ‘crispy wafers’. As usual for Reese’s, the wrapper was a vibrant orange, and it also contained an illustration of the bar.

I was surprised to see that the back of the wrapper gave a slightly different product description with the chocolate now being ‘a milk chocolate flavoured coating’. However, I was delighted to see that a whopping 45% of the product was peanut butter crème whilst only 12% was wafer. On looking inside the bar, it was evident that the peanut butter layers were the thickest, and it did look quite moist next to the thinner wafers. The waxy-feeling chocolatey layer was also quite thin in appearance so I was looking forward to the peanut butter being the star of the show in this full-sized offering.

The bar smelt pretty much the same as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in that there was a strong peanut buttery aroma that was mixed with some chocolatey scents. The only downside was I found that the wafer added a slightly less pleasant element.

As soon as I took a bite, the peanut butter taste was evident straight away and it was absolutely fanflippingtastic – nutty, sugary, salty and creamy all at once! Whilst it was a crispy bar, it melted well too, with the wafers dissolving into the crème – they didn’t make it dry at all. I did find it slightly strange that the chocolate flavoured coating was barely noticeable since, although I could feel it melt, it didn’t seem to add much flavour, but this may have been a good thing!

I don’t know whether it’s because I’d only ever had Reese’s Sticks: Minis before, or whether my memory just isn’t as good as I thought it was, but I genuinely didn’t remember them being quite this good. I wasn’t expecting the peanut butter taste to be quite so strong so I just loved how much flavour it provided – my idea of Heaven! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Wonka Crème Brûlée

Product name: Wonka Crème Brûlée
Purchase details: £1.40 for a 100g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 111 per two square serving (555 per bar) 

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the two newly-released Wonka bars (Millionaire's Shortbread and Nice Cream). At the time, the Crème Brûlée variety was due to join the collection but had yet to make an appearance. Whilst I managed to obtain this ‘scrumdiddlyumptiously shareable’ 100g bar shortly afterwards, it has taken me until now to try it (as is always the way, I’ve seen them everywhere since!).

As with the other bars, the Crème Brûlée came in a pinky-purple wrapper but, for some reason, I didn’t think this looked as magical in appearance (maybe my initial excitement had just worn off!). Once again, the packaging didn’t state where this Nestlé product had been made, but it did have a useful opening and sealing method which worked well...not that there was any chance of my bar being resealed! The other plus points mentioned on the wrapper were that that bar contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and that it was part of the Cocoa Plan – ‘supporting farmers for better chocolate’.

The bar was divided into 10 large squares that each contained a ridged circle for decoration, within which was, alternately, a Wonka ‘W’ or what looked a bit like a sun but was a bit too faint to make out. The milk chocolate contained a minimum 14% milk solids and gave out a noticeable chocolatey aroma on opening. The filling was described as a ‘vanilla crème with a caramel crunch’ and the ‘caramel flavoured sugar pieces’ that made up the latter also smelt of burnt caramel up close.

The ‘vanilla flavoured filling’ contributed to 40% of the bar and looked almost identical to the Nice Cream filling – it was smooth and contained specks of vanilla and, on eating, the caramel pieces were also visible. Unfortunately, this vanilla crème also tasted and felt the same as the one used for the Nice Cream bar – I struggled to taste the vanilla and it was rubbery to the extent that, after allowing the chocolate coating to melt, it just remained on the tongue, flexing but not really dissolving. On the plus side, 6% of the bar was the caramel pieces within this crème, and this added an interesting, bitty texture, as well as a sweet sugar taste.

The chocolate used for this bar had a strange taste to it. The cocoa flavour was there but there was also a slight chemical element to it. Whilst it was creamy, I did think it was a bit too sweet. This wasn’t a problem in itself but I just didn’t seem right for milk chocolate. However, it did melt well, and the slow nature in which this happened allowed the caramelised pieces to be gradually released to be crunched on. The squares could have done with being a bit smaller, though, since I found they reached quite far back in my mouth!

Combined with the other ingredients, I found the whole experience a bit strange – it certainly tasted like no crème brûlée I’ve ever had before. It was pretty rich, and I certainly wouldn’t describe the flavours as ‘unpleasant’, but it was just odd. In addition, whilst the bar didn’t have a hard texture, I’d expected the filling to be softer and creamier, so I was quite disappointed.

I so wanted to love this bar but it was actually my least favourite of the three Wonka flavours. It was by no means disgusting, but it certainly left some important boxes unticked. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 6.75/10