Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre

Product name: Kingdom Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre
Calories: 168 per 30g serving (560 per 100g bar)
Country of origin: England

You may remember that I was recently lucky enough to win a few bars of Kingdom chocolate from their Facebook page. It was this Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre variety that I’ve wanted to try for ages and, over a month since my last Kingdom review, I was mightily impressed with myself for having resisted it for so long! However, the time has now come for me to review this little beauty.

I described the brand’s characteristics in my review of the Dark Chocolate Lemon & Lime Centre bar and these were unchanged here. Once again, the wrapper used an unusual colour combination, and I just loved the use of amber and purple in this case. The slab itself had broken in transit but it was clear that its design was also the same.

The bar used the same chocolate as the Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre for 90% of the product, containing a minimum of 34% cocoa solids and 27% milk solids. As for the other 10% of the bar, this was simply ‘peanut paste’.

Part of me had really wanted this bar to have a pure, squidgy peanut butter centre but the reality was a filling that was a very similar colour to the Cappuccino one – it had a few added speckles but it certainly wasn’t the orangey shade of peanut butter I’d expected.

In terms of scent, the main smell was the milk chocolate but, even so, this was pretty weak. At a push, I’d say there was a slight hint of nuts, but this certainly wasn’t a strong peanut butter aroma. The flavour, though, was beautiful, and it was absolutely not a problem that the filling hadn’t been taken from a jar. The milk chocolate was good quality and, when melting, the peanut butter flavour came through subtly, at first, but got stronger as the centre was reached. This softened filling provided salty kicks here and there, which were very welcome, and also had a slightly grainy texture.

The chewing texture of the bar was the same as the Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino Coffee Centre and I found it split the two elements in two a little more, with the peanut butter flavour coming through a bit later. I probably would have preferred a slightly thinner chocolate shell but there was absolutely no shortage of the nutty filling and I enjoyed every mouthful.

I definitely saved the best until last with my Kingdom reviews and this Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Centre definitely deserved a big thumbs up from me...why don’t all chocolates have peanut butter centres?! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Reese's Pieces

Product name: Reese’s Pieces
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 43g bag or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 214 per bag
Country of origin: USA

I love Reese’s Pieces but I’d not had them in ages – the last time was as a birthday cake topping over 18 months ago so it was about time I had them again!

The ‘peanut butter candy in a crunchy shell’ used to be quite hard to find in the UK but, thankfully, it’s now a lot more widely available and I quite often see the eye-catching orange bags on shop shelves.

Made by the Hershey Company, these Pieces were a bit like M&M’s but with peanut butter instead of chocolate, and the brown, orange and yellow colours used reflected the branding of the Peanut Butter Cups.

The pale candy centres made up 62% of the product and produced a fairly nutty scent, although this wasn’t pure. They had a lovely peanut butter flavour but, since it had been solidified, it lacked the squidgy texture of ordinary peanut butter.

The shells made up the remainder of the Pieces and these were really sugary – an aspect that was particularly noticeable when sucking. These casings worked really well with the centres, merging crisp and soft textures nicely, although the peanut butter candy didn’t stay in one piece when chewing in the way that chocolate would...it almost had a crumbly feel to it. In terms of taste, though, the Pieces certainly didn’t lack the chocolate, and the flavour was still nice and sweet. In fact, the sweet and salty aspects played off each other perfectly and seemed to create a mini party in my mouth, producing a kind of juiciness too.

I also loved how the bag seemed to last for ages, and that the sweets tasted great individually and in handfuls. They were so addictive that I think I could actually live off them! I definitely need to make them a more regular purchase...

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (peanut butter)

Product name: Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (peanut butter)
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 48g bar or three for £1.20 (tesco.com)
Calories: 259 per bar
Country of origin: UK

The Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (peanut butter) is one of my all-time favourites. However, I’ve obviously been slacking as I know for a fact that, since I started this blog 14 months ago, I’ve only had one (and that didn’t even get a review as I ate it on a motorway journey!). This treat was certainly long overdue.

The ‘crisp wafer finger with a creamed peanut topping (19%) covered with milk chocolate (60%)’ came in a red Kit Kat-branded wrapper that feature a yellowy-orange panel to represent the flavour. I also noticed, for the first time, the clever way the recycling image on the back used the logo’s ‘K’ to look like a person putting rubbish in a bin!

The bar had the same outward appearance as the original Chunky but cutting it in two revealed its soft inner secret. The thick peanut butter layer was quite dark in colour and almost looked like a caramel. I also thought that the filling between the wafer sheets looked darker than normal and wondered if this could be peanut butter, too, but it turned out to be chocolate.

As soon I opened the wrapper, the aroma was apparent, with an emphasis on the peanut butter rather than the standard Kit Kat scent. Whilst this was good, it didn’t quite compare to an actual jar of peanut butter.

Obviously, the base flavour and texture was the same as the plain Chunky, but the 10% ground roasted peanuts and 2% peanut flour combined to provide a great flavour. It was nice and salty on the sides of the tongue, there was a peanut aftertaste, but the usual sweetness of the product was maintained.

I don’t know if anyone else ever has this problem, but I sometimes find that the chocolate on Kit Kats tastes a bit odd in places. I did find that here but I know from experience that it does tend to vary from bar to bar – it’s a taste I can’t compare to anything but, at the very least, it’s not a natural one. Thankfully, though, this didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this particular bar and, overall, there was a great balance of salty and sweet flavours.

The soft, fudgy texture of the peanut butter transformed the bar so I couldn’t not give it full marks in that area! I just loved the way it practically collapsed, before the crisp, as I took each bite. Amazing.

I’m pleased to say that my love of the peanut butter Chunky hasn’t lessened – it’s still a fantastic product. The levels of salt and sugar can both seem a bit intense, at times, but I think this is a good thing as it stops me from eating too many at once! I’m still waiting for a white chocolate version, though, Nestlé.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 10/10
Overall score: 8.38/10

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup

Product name: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 500ml tub (tesco.com)

Calories: 280 per 100ml serving

Given my love of all things peanut butter, I should have rushed out to buy this Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup when it was released, following many consumer requests. However, I wrongly assumed that it wouldn’t be that much different from the Core: Peanut butter me up that I tried about 18 months ago, so I waited for a price reduction and then kept the tub unopened in my freezer for a while. Let me tell you, I’m kicking myself now!

Made by Unilever for the UK and Ireland, this Fairtrade ‘peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups’ was a simpler idea to the Core variety since there was no jam. Although I’m a big fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup: Miniatures, my memory of the non-Reese’s cups in the Peanut butter me up was that their frozen nature made them a bit hard, which I guess is why I was hesitant to try a version that didn’t have the distraction of other flavours.

The tub featured the cheerful Ben & Jerry’s farmyard design and stated that each serving was the equivalent of two scoops or 86g. With a promising 20% of the product being the cups, the speckled ice cream turned out to be full of rugged chunks that actually made it quite hard to serve. I’m rubbish at scooping ice cream at the best of times but I had no chance of getting a neat portion here!

Despite being frozen, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this ice cream did have a slight peanutty scent. With 9% of the tub consisting of peanuts, and peanut flour also included, I was glad this did manage to come across.

Although 20% of the product was cream, I had been slightly disappointed to learn that the main ingredient was actually water. However, even when melted, the ice cream was quite thick and had a fairly creamy taste, as well as a slight graininess. The peanut flavour was by far the main aspect, though, with the emphasis being on salty rather than sweet tones.

Breaking up these salty hints was the star attraction: the peanut butter cups! I really don’t know what I was worried about because the chunky shells gave way to soft centres which were heavenly. The chocolate added a much-needed sugar hit and the abundance of peanut butter itself was more than I could have wished for.

 
I’m not going to pretend this ice cream was without faults. Personally, I would have liked the ice cream side of things to have had a tad more sweetness or creaminess (if not both!), but this was very good indeed and I did enjoy how the delicious cups were able to take centre stage.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10