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 Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman (chocolate)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman (chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.65 for a 30g bar or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 168 per bar

I may have only recently finished eating my stock from last Christmas, and I know it’s only September, but it’s time for my first review of Christmas 2014.

I could have sworn I’d had the vanilla version of the Cadbury Dairy Milk: Mousse snowman last year but, as I haven’t reviewed it, I must have just read so many other reviews of it that it felt like I’d tried one myself! Anyway, this chocolate variety is new so it’s the one I decided to buy. I did think it was expensive for the size but the multibuy made it better (although my third item was out of stock so it ended up being £0.40 by itself!).

I was pleased to see that the knitted theme had returned for this Christmas’ Cadbury packaging, and I thought the snowman on the front looked really cute in its scarf. The lovely and glossy ‘milk chocolate with a soft milk chocolate flavoured mousse filling (37%)’ was also shaped into an adorable snowman with a little hat and carrot nose.

Made using the usual Dairy Milk recipe, the snowman had a beautiful, deep and creamy scent and it tasted delicious. The inner mousse was a slightly paler colour and was richer than I expected but this tasted great against the sweeter shell. It was soft, smooth and melted well, reminding me more of a truffle than a mousse. The shape of the product really added to the overall experience, too, by providing variety in the ratio of chocolate to mousse – no mouthful was the same but each one was incredibly enjoyable.

I remember trying another snowman-shaped chocolate last year, in the form of The Snowman chocolate truffle in the Thorntons The Snowman and The Snowdog: Christmas selection box, and being a bit underwhelmed by the flavour. For me, this Dairy Milk alternative nailed the concept, in comparison, as there was a clear difference in taste between the chocolate and the mousse.

Thank you, Mondelez, for another tasty treat for us lucky people in the UK and Ireland!

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.38/10

Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse (orange & choc)

Product name: Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse (orange & choc)
Purchase details: £0.50 for a pack of four mousses (Asda)
Calories: 84 per 58g mousse
Country of origin: UK

I tried the white chocolate and mint versions of Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse a couple of years ago so, when I saw a limited edition orange version was available, I couldn’t wait to try it. My relatively recent enjoyment of the orange bar helped too, as did the great price!

The packaging’s design was very much linked with the wrappers found on the chocolate bars. There was also an image of a spoonful of the mousse and, although I liked the look of the chocolate swirl, I did think the combination of the consistency and orange colour was a bit unnerving! However, the colours weren’t artificial, and I knew that the orange flavour was also natural. In addition, the mousse part of this ‘orange flavoured bubbly dessert with chocolate sauce’ made up 88% of the product and, within that, 68% was whole milk – not exactly a scary prospect!

In the end, the actual mousse did have a generally attractive appearance, but it really reminded me of Hallowe’en because the chocolate ripple looked a bit like a spider’s web on an orange backdrop. Unfortunately, I hate Hallowe’en with a passion, so this wasn’t a good thing for me!

In better news, the mousse had a nice orange aroma, although it was more subtle than the chocolate bar's scent. I also really enjoyed the way the soft, foamy texture melted in the mouth.

 

Initially, the flavour didn’t grab me. Rather than tasting like orange chocolate, it was like milk with a hint of orange and stronger cocoa hints. I also felt that it was a bit artificial, despite the evidence to the contrary. Thankfully, though, the flavour improved as I went on, and I particularly enjoyed the bits which contained more of the chocolate sauce – I’d never really appreciated before just how important the chocolate is in orange-flavoured chocolate!

On the whole, I thought this was a great product for the calories. The serving size was decent, both in appearance and, despite the air, in weight. I would have preferred a stronger orange flavour with more of a kick but this was still great as an everyday kind of snack.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse

Product name: Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 100g bar (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 146 per 25g serving (284 per bar)
Country of origin: Germany

It’s about time I got around to eating this Ritter Sport Vanille-Mousse – it looked delicious in its slightly golden wrapper showing a deep vanilla mousse filling and an ice cream image to match.

There was no English on the packaging but, according to Google, ‘Unser sorte des jahres’ translates as ‘our species of the year’...I’m sure you get the gist! The wonders of the internet also taught me that the product was ‘whipped vanilla mousse in milk chocolate’ and that it had ‘large pieces for more mousse-pleasure’.

The bar came in nine large squares so was very much like the Kakao-Mousse in appearance – it simply had a deep and enticing pale cream filling with specks of vanilla instead of a dark brown one. I did think it was silly that a serving was supposed to be a quarter of the bar when it couldn’t be split into four pieces but, as I was eating it all anyway, I didn’t let that bother me! I also didn’t let the tarnished chocolate affect my scoring because that was entirely my fault for not keeping the bar cool enough in the recent heatwave...I refuse to store chocolate in the fridge on principle!

The bar had a creamy chocolate aroma but, unfortunately, this wasn’t infused with an element of vanilla despite the filling making up 40% of the product.

Thankfully, it tasted delicious! The centre was just like ice cream, if a little less sweet, and it even had a similarly liquidy texture. However, it was a bit grainier than ice cream, and it obviously wasn’t cold either!

Whilst my experience of the chocolate shell wasn’t the norm due to the heat damage, it did mean I could easily peel it off and sample it on its own. It had a lovely sweet flavour with a deep cocoa element mixed in – it actually reminded me of chocolate cake mixture which is testament to how nice it was! It was the chocolate that was the main feature of the bar but its flavour did go very well with the vanilla mousse too.

The bar had a thick melt and I loved letting the liquid pop out of the middle. The squares were a bit too big to suck on for long but, to be honest, I found I didn’t need to anyway.

This Ritter Sport treat felt really indulgent. If I could change one thing, it would be to make the mousse a little creamier as, at times, the overall taste was maybe a bit too sweet. However, it was still gorgeous exactly as it was.

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