Nestlé Club Classic Mixed Berry

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on June 12 2008 | Leave A Comment

Not to be outdone by Cadbury’s revamp of their dark chocolate Old Gold range, Nestlé too are still proudly flogging their ‘Club Classic’ dark chocolate varieties, and have introduced a ‘Mixed Berry’ flavour to the supermarket shelves.

I really love Nestlé’s dark chocolate (especially their Club Cappuccino) but that doesn’t mean it escapes my attention that this block is a mere 180g compared to either their usual 200g or Cadbury’s 250g blocks that sell for about the same price. Either the ingredients are more expensive and are hidden by reducing the size or they want to increase the price but not so that it’s noticeable. Whatever the reason, it is sneaky and annoying and put me in a slightly negative frame of mind when it was time to try the stuff.

Luckily for Nestlé Club, the second the wrapper was ripped open my nostrils were assailed with a gorgeous berry smell and the sweet, rich scent of dark chocolate. Bad mood, what bad mood? What was I complaining about?

The chunks of berry pieces aren’t very distinguishable from the dark chocolate and could almost be mistaken for sultanas until you bite into a square or two. This was a truly delicious combination, with the chewy berry flavour complementing the slowly melting dark chocolate and lingering afterwards to a satisfyingly sweet finish.

The proportions looked good at first reading – 40% cocoa solids, with the bar comprising 85% dark chocolate and 15% ‘berry pieces’. The picture on the front of the wrapper shows a strawberry, raspberry and blueberry, but how were they incorporated? The answer, alas, wasn’t too comforting, and here in Australia the ingredients must be listed in order of volume first:

  • Concentrated apple puree (no percentage listed)
  • Strawberry puree 0.7%
  • Plum puree (no percentage listed, but obviously 0.6% or lower)
  • Elderberry juice concentrate (what the…? And no percentage)
  • Blueberry puree 0.2%
  • Raspberry juice concentrate coming in at a whopping 0.1%

Hmm. Now that the block was demolished, my bad mood was returning. If I dust off my high school calculator and work out that the ‘berry’ was only 15% of the block and the key ingredients of strawberry, blueberry and raspberry only comprise one percent of that, then Nestlé has a bit of cheek in putting them on the front wrapper when they only comprise 0.15% of the ingredients!

Ah well, it tastes good and I know I’ll be buying, eating and enjoying it again.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Oliver

    Here in the UK theres three key wordings to how something is incorporated into a product – EG strawberry yoghurt could be either branded “Strawberry Yoghurt”, “Strawberry FLAVOUR” or “Strawberry flavourED” – I forgot exactly what they are but either flavour or flavoured has to have actual pieces of strawberry, whereas the other needs only to be identifiably tasting of.

    So, so long as it tastes right, I guess you can call it whatever you want. Sort of like crab paste, which has crab listed after mackerel (sp?).

    Could be worse. Could be a “Chocolate flavour Candybar” that I am sure many chocolate bars in America should really be called..

  2. VICKI BECKER

    I WAS IN AUSTRAILIA RECENTLY AND DISCOVERED NESTLE PLAIN DARK CHOCOLATE CLUB AND AM NOW WONDERING IF IT IS AVAILABLE IN MY AREA OF REDMOND,WASH 98053?

  3. Will Dearborn

    There is no need to yell on the internet, Vicky.

  4. Di Howarth

    I was in Australia recently and became ‘addicted’ to Nestle Club mixed berry chocolate…….can I buy this in the UK…if not why not and are there any plans for this range to be made available in the UK? It’s amazingly good !

  5. – Die Farben sind wunderbar. So firsch. Analoge Fotos finde ich jedes Mal wieder spannend, man weidf nie genau, was man letztendlich nach dem Enwickeln zu sehen bekommt.March 26, 2012 4:33 pm

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