Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 41g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 225 per bar
Country of origin: UK

As much as I love Oreo cookies, I’ve only ever had Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo once before as it was originally only available in a large bar format which wasn’t convenient on my diet. As a result, I was delighted when Mondelez released this new individual portion size, although it’s taken me until now to eat one!

The ‘milk chocolate with a vanilla flavour filling (36%) and biscuit pieces (17%)’ came in the expected purple wrapper which also featured an Oreo logo and image. The bar was divided into six pieces which, unusually, didn’t feature the Cadbury logo, although the simple decoration it did have bore a striking resemblance to the Milka Leo. The cookie pieces gave a speckled effect to the chocolate (containing 23% milk solids) and, inside, the bar was full of the creme and biscuit pieces.

The Dairy Milk had the familiar scent but with a slight element of vanilla mixed in. The taste wasn’t quite as I remembered in that it wasn’t noticeably of Oreo at all – the filling wasn’t quite sugary enough and the biscuit didn’t have the hint of bitterness I’ve come to expect. However, it was still sweet and creamy with an added biscuit flavour, so a general cookies and cream theme was present within the chocolate.

Texturally, the bar was very crispy but soft too. As usual, the chocolate had a nice melt, although this was combined with the bitty biscuits. I found the size of these cookie pieces to be perfect as it provided a great crunch and the feel of eating proper biscuits, without losing the cushioned feel of the vanilla filling.

This bar was nothing short of delicious. I did struggle to connect its flavour with the Oreo brand but, nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable product which I’ll definitely be buying more often now it’s available in single servings!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Tesco Ice Creams: Cookie crumble

Product name: Tesco Ice Creams: Cookie crumble
Purchase details: £1.50 for a box of three ice creams (Tesco)

Calories: 273 per 100ml ice cream
Country of origin: UK

I wanted to try these new Tesco Ice Creams: Cookie crumble all Summer but never quite got around to it. Thanks to The Orchard, though, I’ve finally managed to do so...for free!

The picture of the ‘vanilla ice cream with dark cookie pieces coated in white chocolate with dark cookie pieces’ looked phenomenal on the icy blue box, with an abundance of ‘cookie crumble’ (8%, in fact). The reality wasn’t too dissimilar but the Belgian white chocolate (34%) did look pretty yellow which was a shame.

Due to being a frozen product, the ice creams didn’t produce any kind of scent when removed from their very simple plastic wrappers. However, I was pleased to find there was more going on in the taste test. The chocolate was very sweet and quite creamy, and it had a great snap, as well as a solid crunch from the cookie pieces. This cookie was an ever-present since it could also be found throughout the ice cream, although the moisture had softened it, here.

I was a little disappointed by the ice cream itself. The crumbs from the cookie had caused the ice cream to be on the grainy side which, in itself, wasn’t a big issue, but I also found it was watery rather than thick so the quality didn’t feel wonderful. Furthermore, whilst it had a slight milky flavour, it wasn’t creamy, unfortunately.

Overall, I felt a bit torn by these Cookie crumble ice creams. The cookie crumbs themselves didn’t noticeably add a specific flavour but the overall experience was in-line with the flavour inspiration. I also really enjoyed the white chocolate shell but the quality of the ice cream meant I felt unable to give the product a higher score.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 6.63/10

Nestlé Kit Kat

Product name: Nestlé Kit Kat
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of four four finger bars (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 233 per 45g bar
Country of origin: UK

I ate a lot of two finger Kit Kats growing up but the four finger kind has always been a much rarer treat. I definitely prefer the depth of chocolate on the Kit Kat: Chunky, these days, but I figured I might as well review the original.

This bar contained the famous red branding and a nice image of the bar, but I did find it a bit strange that the fingers on the wrapper were completely smooth, rather than containing an imprint of the product logo – not very realistic! The packaging also followed suit with the other varieties by being made of glossy plastic rather than the paper and foil of my childhood.

Like most (if not all?) Nestlé products these days, the ‘four crispy wafer fingers covered with milk chocolate’ contained no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. As well as this, the chocolate (66%) was part of their Cocoa Plan, and the cocoa, sugar and vanilla used in the recipe were all Fairtrade.

The rectangular bar was uniform in appearance but I did notice that the chocolate was a lot thinner on the base, where the wafer was clearly visible. What made me smile to myself, though, was the way that I’m now so familiar with the Chunky bars that I see these standard ones as a smaller version of them rather than the other way around!

Understandably, the sensory experiences on offer were largely unchanged from the Kit Kat: Chunky. The aroma was identical and the flavour was also the same, although I found it had a slightly metallic element to it. As for the texture, the wafer remained incredibly crispy but I found myself missing being able to bite off the chocolate layer on its own. However, this thinner outer lay didn’t detract from the overall chocolatey flavour, so I was very pleased about that.

You’ve got to love a classic like the Nestlé Kit Kat. Just do me a favour and make sure you eat them properly (finger by finger) – none of this, please!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

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