Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (strawberry dream)

Product name: Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (strawberry dream)
Purchase details: £1.29 for a pack of four desserts (Tesco)
Calories: 160 per 70g dessert
Country of origin: UK

I was very privileged, growing up, as I was the only member of my family who particularly liked the strawberry and orange cremes in tins of Roses. As a result, they were practically guaranteed to be mine! I couldn’t wait to try them in the form of Cadbury’s Pots of joy by Mondelez.

These new, limited edition strawberry dream desserts had the same overall design as the hazel whirl but it was very pink rather than being brown. They again promised to be ‘smooth’ and ‘creamy’, containing melted milk chocolate (9%) and a strawberry flavoured fondant. Sadly, there was no sign of anything close to real strawberries on the ingredients, so I knew this element was purely achieved through flavourings.

 

Produced by Müller Dairy, the outward appearance remained the same as the hazel whirl and Creme Egg varieties. Beneath the chocolate layer on this occasion, though, was a pale pink delight that added a delicate, sweet strawberry scent to the existing chocolate mousse aroma.

This strawberry dream version actually contained more cream (7%) and chocolate than the other two types I’ve reviewed and I really enjoyed the incredibly creamy taste that combined with the usual, delicious chocolate flavour. The texture was also as exceptional as the Creme Egg's had been – thick and amazingly smooth.

And the strawberry? Well this was a bit artificial and quite medicinal but it was still sugary and tasty. It wasn’t as sweet as an actual Roses chocolate but I don’t think the strawberry element was quite as strong either. However, it did taste like a far superior strawberry milkshake that had the added bonus of chocolate.

Fan-flipping-tastic!

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

Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl)

Product name: Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl)
Purchase details: £1.29 for a pack of four desserts (tesco.com)
Calories: 155 per 70g dessert
Country of origin: UK

Although I’ve only reviewed the Creme Egg version so far, I love trying Cadbury’s Pots of joy, so I was really pleased when they released two new Roses varieties that are based on the popular selection box chocolates. First up, for me, was the hazel whirl.

The cardboard packaging contained the usual bright blue and rose flowers that feature on real boxes of Roses. However, there was also a large brown section to reflect the flavour, with the background leaves tying in with the flower heads above.

The hazel whirl is one of my favourite Roses since it features a whole nut encased in milk chocolate. I was really intrigued by the product illustration, for that reason, since it seemed to show a bitty, nutty section in the centre of the dessert. The description confirmed this, with the ‘smooth’ and ‘creamy’ treat (containing melted chocolate) having ‘a centre with chopped hazelnuts on a smooth hazelnut flavour fondant’. This nutty centre made up 14% of the product and also contained caramel syrup – sounded interesting! 

Made by Müller Dairy, this Mondelez product looked outwardly identical to the Creme Egg: Pots of joy. Unfortunately, the reality of the centre was that the chopped hazelnuts weren’t really visible, although a bumpiness could be seen through the thick topping that contained 7% milk chocolate. There was no nutty scent, either, but the chocolate mousse aroma was still pleasant.

The chocolate layer was the same as the Creme Egg version so tasted just as good. Beneath this, the beige hazelnut section didn’t have the strongest nutty taste ever, but it did have a mild icing sugar-like sweetness which I enjoyed. Combined, these layers remained smooth and still tasted creamy, with cream contributing to 6% of each pot.

As for the chopped nuts, these were soft but chunky and, with the other layers, did a pretty good job of replicating the original hazelnut whirl. Understandably, though, the texture was completely different. It would have strayed from the initial idea further but I did think this layer would have been nicer if the hazelnuts had been caramelised so they provided a crispy texture instead. That’s just me, though!

I found these Cadbury Roses: Pots of joy (hazel whirl) to be another great addition to the range of desserts. I can’t wait to try the strawberry dream next!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Cadbury Creme Egg

Product name: Cadbury Creme Egg
Calories: 180 for a 40g egg
Country of origin: UK 

I didn’t think I’d get a chance to review the wonderful Cadbury Creme Egg this year but then I found a friend of mine, who doesn’t like them (shock, horror!), had been given some that she didn’t want. She kindly gave one to me so, weeks after Easter, here it is!

There was no nutritional information provided on the red, yellow and purple wrapper of this Mondelez product so I obtained this from Cadbury's website. However, the packaging did provide the description of a ‘milk chocolate egg with a soft fondant centre (47%)’ which, I noticed, was 2% more filling than the mini version I’ve previously reviewed.

This larger egg had an almost identical appearance to the minis – it simply had stars on both sides instead of just on one. There was something about the bigger size, though, that made it even more mouth-watering to look at! The Creme Egg emitted a fantastic ‘Easter’ scent of chocolate combined with the famous sweet, sweet, fondant, and I found the incredibly chunky shell (just look at it!) was surprisingly hard to cut in half. However, doing so revealed the wonderfully gooey mass within, although I apologise for the flecks of stray chocolate that got mixed up with this egg-inspired centre.

Due to the way I cut this egg, I sacrificed my preferred method of consumption (biting the top off and licking out the middle), but I could still tell that the ratio of chocolate to fondant worked much better on this larger scale. The sugary centre oozed out of its chunky shell and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The taste was also pretty much the same as the mini eggs but I did think the chocolate tasted less sweet. I re-checked the wrapper and saw it contained a minimum of 14% milk solids whereas the mini variety's minimum was 20%. I’m not sure if this is what my tastebuds were detecting but, either way, I thought it was bit odd to use a different type of chocolate for what was essentially the same product!

Anyway, it didn’t matter, because I loved having this little reminder of Easter in June!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Cadbury Creme Egg (minis)

Product name: Cadbury Creme Egg (minis)
Calories: 50 per 11.5g egg (400 per 89g bag)
Country of origin: UK

Can you believe I only had one Cadbury Creme Egg this year? I didn’t even get to review it as I had it on Easter day at my brother’s house! Thankfully, though, the Easter Bunny decided to get me an egg that came with a bag of eight mini ones.

Made by Mondelez UK, the bag contained the familiar red and purple colour scheme with a yellow splat – I do love this branding as it’s so instantly recognisable and gets me excited about the time of year. Inside, the ‘mini eggs of fun’ were individually foil-wrapped, and these could be viewed through a window on the bag.

The ‘milk chocolate eggs with a soft fondant centre (45%)’ used chocolate that contained a minimum of 20% milk solids. These shells were a bit matt in appearance so they didn’t look incredible and, due to the fondant having a tendency of making them a bit sticky, they didn’t feel great either. However, the eggs were decorated with the Cadbury logo and some stars, and there was no denying the gooeyness of the glossy fondant within. I must say that the novelty of the egg whites and yolk appearance never gets old for me either.

I loved the sugary sweet fondant smell that combined with the chocolate aroma of these eggs. The very viscous fondant provided a sugary hit which was unsurprising, really – you could tell it contained a lot of sugar from where the knife had made contact with the fondant and created a more crystallised appearance. (Per 100g, these Creme Eggs contained 67g of sugar!)

The chocolate melted relatively nicely but wasn’t totally smooth. However, I did like the cooling effect of the fondant as the two elements merged. This did also result in the fondant’s taste having less of an impact. This wasn’t an issue for me, but I do understand how some people (my own mother included!) find Creme Eggs too sickly, so sucking these smaller eggs may help.

When chewing, the fondant provided a liquidy burst through the chunky chocolate. However, there was no doubt in my mind that I prefer the regular-sized Cadbury Creme Eggs. My answer to the famous question ‘How do you eat yours?’ would be biting off the top of an egg and scooping out the middle with my tongue. However, this wasn’t an option here.  Size was the main issue but I also found that the fondant seemed thicker and a little less gooey so, even when trying to lick out an egg that had been cut in half length-ways, it was really hard to get it to budge.

In summary, then, I liked the flavours on offer from these mini Creme Eggs but, for me, the different ratio of chocolate to fondant made the overall experience a little less enjoyable than a standard Creme Egg.

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