M&S Swiss Chocolate Extra Fine Mountain Bar
I was quite excited to find this bar in M&S Simply Food in Marylebone Station earlier this week. Not only is it an obvious Toblerone rip-off, but it also looks uncannily like the Mahony bar that Kath reviewed a couple of weeks ago.
In fact, if you were to go on looks alone, you would swear this is exactly the same bar. But looking at the ingredients, it does appear to be very slightly different from the Mahony bar. With 30% cocoa solids and 33.9g of fat per 100g, it’s clear what this is. It’s a generic no-brand version of the Mahony bar made by Frey with slightly inferior ingredients to distinguish it from their own bar.
But it can’t be that different, because it looks and tastes exactly as Kath described. The honey pieces don’t have quite as much flavour as a Toblerone and the chocolate is a little sweeter and creamier, but this is definitely a winner.
But here’s the kicker. One of the main attractions of the Mahony bar is that it’s cheaper than Toblerone. Well this 100g bar cost me £1.15. You can pick up a 100g bar of Toberlone for 99p. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. Are we paying a premium for the M&S brand? That wouldn’t surprise me.
In conclusion, while this is a tasty little bar to try if you happen to be passing a Marks & Spencer food store, it’s probably not going to be much more than a curiosity, simply because the “real thing” is cheaper – and better.
Posted by Dom on 18 Apr 2008 at 11:04 AM
| 5 Comments
Filed in Reviews under almond, honey, m and s, milk, nougat, swiss
April 18, 2008 : 12:58pm
toblerone?
April 18, 2008 : 1:01pm
Hi There
Now we used to love Mountain Bars where I used to work (a good 5 yrs ago) – moreso than Toblerone!
Haven’t had one for ages though – maybe they’re not as good nowadays?
Great blog by the way – photos are always good.
John
April 18, 2008 : 1:08pm
John: Oh, this was nice. But Toblerone is (in my opinion) nicer – and cheaper.
April 18, 2008 : 7:50pm
When M&S can’t do better they just imitate!
Terrible really. We had a BP garage here which was served by a small but convenient and well stocked Safeways. M&S took it over and upped the price on everything (except Lindt Excellence)
April 18, 2008 : 11:34pm
Good article as ever. Have tried this bar before but prefer Toblerone. Have you ever tried it with ice cream?
Vanilla Ice Cream (2 scoops)
A small bar of Toblerone
Method
Divide the chocolate into two.
Break half into tiny pieces in either a blender or mortar and pestal.
Blend into the ice cream.
Place back in freezer to set again.
When the ice cream is set.
Take the remaining half of the chocolate and melt either in a microwave or over hot water.
Put the ice cream in a serving dish and pour the melted chocolate over it, giving the impression of lava running down the side of a volcano.
This is delicious. I found it on a site that is worth checking out http://www.howtomakechocolates.com