Nestlé Heaven Caramel
A few aeons ago I wrote about ‘Heaven’ milk chocolate that started life in the corner shop freezer as a high-end ice-cream and mutated into a decidedly delicious bar instead. Even though my first sample bar had melted a few times and turned white, I absolutely loved it.
Well, since then I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Heaven’s new cousin, Chocolate Caramel, more than once (and hope to continue the relationship on a much more regular basis). Luckily the ones I’ve ‘met’ have been un-melted, remained the acceptable brown colour and have tasted even more delectable than their plainer relative. These Heaven bars are a bit more expensive than your run of the mill Cadbury and Nestle bar ranges, but worth finding an extra few twenty cent pieces (10p?) for.
Please allow me to digress for a minute about my issue regarding the Heaven ‘family’ blocks. Why do quality ‘family blocks’ have to be so stingy? In the case of Heaven, they weigh 140g compared to Cadbury’s 250g blocks, so it begs the question of exactly what ‘families’ they are aiming at. It’s my view they’re for well-off, single-person households as opposed to families of more than one person. Side by side, the two blocks look about the same height and width but Heaven’s are much flatter; obviously designed in the hopes that the average shopper won’t notice the weight and will be prepared to shell out double the price.
No matter. As you can see, I consider Heaven Chocolate Caramel the ideal companion with a strong cup of coffee at morning break time. These seven luscious squares of almost-Lindt-level chocolate filled with a thin layer of runny, rich caramel really hit the spot at 10:30am. (Oh who am I kidding; this photo was taken at 8:30am and the coffee and chocolate imbibed a few seconds later). It was a relief to discover that the caramel filling is not the burned condensed milk mess that is often found in cheaper bars but a clearer, runnier style that resembled a more toffy-like, brown-sugary texture.
Yes, dear Dark Side lovers, Heaven Chocolate Caramel is a milk chocolate bar, but done extremely well. Even if your preferences do go to the Dark Side (as mine do), it is still easy to appreciate how superbly Heaven’s chocolate complements the caramel filling. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that some day, some how, someone here in Australia (or the UK) will perfect a dark chocolate and caramel combination that will be good enough for me to overlook the Scroogy size of their ‘family’ block.
I don’t know if you get any Whittaker’s chocolate over there in Oz, but they have just released a new caramel block here in NZ, and the caramel is much as you described there, plus there’s lots of it, which I like. Also the whole block is standard family size. And the even better news? It comes in both dark and milk varieties!