Nestlé Club Classic Fruit & Nut
Nestlé have been selling “Club” chocolate in the wide brown land of Oz for roughly forever. As my colleague and fellow enthusiast Kath has pointed out, the brand has had something of a revamp. Having tried the mixed berry, the Lady Of The House though it was time we gave the Fruit and Nut a go.
Fruit and Nut (pronounced in Australia “Froot-n-nut”) is so time-worn as to have become a cliché. The best known and most likely biggest selling would have to be the Cadbury Dairy Milk. I’m sure Noah knocked up the recipe for that to fill in time when he was tootling around in that ark thing. Frankly, if you have a few almonds and sultanas, you’re all set. It can’t be hard – can it? To get it right, the nuts need a decent crunch, and the sultanas need to be soft and juicy. So it is possible to mess it up then. Stale nuts are easy to pick – the taste is a bit off, the oils in the nuts start going rancid. Bruising nuts is a sure way to get them going off before their time. And dry solid sultanas are pretty yuck as well.
The Club Fruit & Nut suffers none of those defects. The chocolate is however a touch disappointing – at least as far as its claims meeting reality. To call this “Rich Dark Chocolate”, when it is only 40% cocoa does seem a bit of a stretch. In my books that barely qualifies as dark. The texture is quite soft, and it melts quickly. This just confirms that it’s not as dark as some. In spite of this, the flavour is pretty good, but it is quite sweet. Nevertheless, the nuts are good – fresh, nutty and crunchy. They’ve been roasted and the crunch and flavour show this. The sultanas are very juicy and full of flavour.
The packaging has the usual get-me-riled health claims that it’s a natural source of antioxidants, yada, yada yada. At 40% if you really want antioxidants from chocolate, eat something darker!
This is a pleasant eating chocolate. It would make a fine introduction to something a bit dark for those who live in the land of white or milk chocolate. The nuts and sultanas are good, and it’s easy to scoff a block without trying at all. We left one sitting on the kitchen bench and the Young Gentlemen have been scarfing it down.
Idea!! A Lindt 70% Fruit And Nut block. That’s something I’d like see!
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- Filed under australia, dark chocolate, fruit, nestle, nuts.
I looked at your close up picture before reading the review and thought ‘milk chocolate – a shame’. Then I read the review and see that it’s supposed to be dark? I think they’re pushing the boundaries here…
Hi Christine. It is dark (well, darkish). It’s definitely better than a milk choccy, but even darker would be even better.
My family ate nothing but Nestles dark chocolate with fruit and nut for a long long time 2/3 large bars per week…suddenly it stopped, nothing in the shops, plenty of milk fruit and nut which we dislike…tried everywhere…where has it all gone ????
Joan Hague