Cadbury Old Gold Roast Almond

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on June 10 2009 | Leave A Comment
Cadbury Old Gold Roast Almond

Cadbury has been revamping the Old Gold range. For a long time the choices didn’t seem very extensive, and Old Gold was a bit of a yawn. Been round for ages. Yawn. Let’s try something else.

I’m pleased to say that the range has grown, and some of the new members are pretty good. And the plain Old Gold Dark 70% is something we just tend to have lying around the house to munch on – good chocolate, at a good price. Not too sweet, not to bitter, it’s pretty much the Baby Bear of dark chocolates: Juuuust Right. Though I have to admit to a bias as well – I regard the Lindt 70% dark as the “Gold Standard” to which others must compare – I do think it’s better, but also more of an acquired taste. The Old Gold 70% isn’t likely to offend anyone.

Cadbury have now also revamped the packaging, and the cheap looking plastic wrapping is gone – replaced by cardboard and foil (taking another leaf out of the Lindt book?). Even though it doesn’t contribute to the contents, just having the packaging look a bit less cheap does automatically make this feel like a more up-market product.

So, today, it’s time to try the Old Gold Dark Roast Almond. I was quite looking forward to this – after both Dom and I have taken forays into chocolate-with-nuts in the Wawel Gorzka Krakowska and Mr Goodbar

Cadbury Old Gold Roast Almond

Oh dear, I’m a little disappointed. Firstly, opening the pack and checking the back reveals what seem like lots of nuts, and the pack does state Almonds at 16% of the total.

But it’s just not very nutty. It’s kind of sweet – and that’s borne out again from the ingredients list where the dark chocolate is only 40% cocoa. How is that dark? What happened to the 70%? The number 1 ingredient is sugar – and it shows. This is inoffensive – there’s nothing wrong with it, and the rest of the family think it’s not too bad. But they do agree that it’s sweet. We all agree that almonds don’t have a particularly strong flavour, so getting it to be really nutty might be difficult. But it should be better than it is.

After some of the others in the range have lifted the bar – this one is a bit of a disappointment. Unless you like sweet, then you’ll love it.

I have a use for the rest of this block… it’s perfect for this recipe.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Ah yes, of the Old Gold, only the one actually marked as 70% (plain) is 70%. The rest are 40%. Still, as you say they’re run-of-the-mill, always-reliable, inoffensive and affordable. Kind of like the ‘quaffing wines’ of the chocolate world.

  2. Christine

    Damn, I love dark chocolate and almonds too. At 40% I think I’ll give this one a miss.

  3. Hunt down one of the others. If you can find someone who brings in Polish chocolate, get a Wawel Gorzka Krakowska. It’s good. Really good.

  4. Adrian

    “Revamping the packaging” included resizing the bars from 250g down to 200g but keeping the price the same, an effective 25% price increase! Cadbury and a lot of the other manufacturers in Australia are desperate to sneak all their underhanded price rises in before December when unit pricing laws mean stores will have to display how much everything costs per kg, regardless of the size of the bars, 185g, 200g, 220 or 250g.

    A complete underhanded con and there has been a consumer backlash against them as a result.

  5. I have to agree. That and changing the formulation.

    I *must* try and get a before and after block and do a side by side comparison – if my local supermarket still has any of the “before” blocks left.

    I have to admit, though, that Cadbury is off my shopping list now.

  6. I am eating it right now, and I agree that it’s ‘too’ sweet for a dark chocolate. I prefer ones with really bitter taste.

    I was also disappointed when the first ingredient listed was sugar. =(

  7. Haha that’s great that you were honest. I got the email from them but the offer didn’t aeappl to me at all. I think their marketing people, whilst it’s good that they’re thinking of talking to bloggers, just have it all wrong. Send it to us and if we like it we can talk about it but entering a comp if we write the most gushing review about it is just wrong. Just my 2c of course

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