Nestlé Violet Crumble
‘It’s the way that it shatters that matters’ is the traditional catch-phrase for this famous Australian bar which has been around since 1913. ‘Violet’ was the inventor’s wife’s favourite flower, and the ‘crumble’ was the honeycomb.
Apparently Mr Hoadley found that the best way of preventing his honeycomb from becoming soggy was to dip it in chocolate (now if we could only persuade the makers of popcorn, corn-chips and cup cakes to do the same……). Since then, they have been one of Australia’s most popular chocolate bars: in the 1980s, ‘our’ ** Olivia Newton John even sold them from her Malibu-based, Aussie-themed ‘Koala Blue’ shop.
No doubt you’ll be imagining that, as a proud Aussie, I’ll now start raving about this ‘classic icon’ of a bar and how poor your Right-Way-Up (as opposed to ‘Down Under’) lives are for not having any.
Nope, I can’t do it. The good old Cadbury Crunchie quite easily gives Violet Crumble the Chocolate Chomping Championship Titles butt kicking to end all butt kickings.
When you first bite into a VC it is reminiscent of trying to sink your teeth into a teacher’s blackboard – very chalky and about as orally pleasant as aurally hearing someone’s fingernails rake across the surface. Usually my first reaction on biting into one (sadly, yes, every twelve months or so I find myself eating another one to keep reminding myself as to why I dislike them so much) is to automatically spit it back out, saying “YUCK – I’d rather chomp a chalk stick.”
Also, the instant crackle to melt-on-your-tongue sweetness that is the attraction of the Cadbury’s Crunchie is sadly lacking in the Violet Crumble. Instead, it has a much denser texture that doesn’t dissolve but needs to be thoroughly chewed until it congeals into sticky, yellow strands that then annoyingly stick in your teeth and, once eaten, coat your teeth in furry plaque. Not too romantic when trying for a quick snog at the movies. My advice is to avoid them at all costs – get a Crunchie and go crazy.
It therefore doesn’t surprise me to find out that Hoadleys (and in this era of company takeovers – Nestlé) apparently sweep the floors for broken pieces of Violet Crumble and set them in cute little molds and sell them as ‘Bertie Beetles’ at agricultural and side-shows around the country. They actually taste much better this way and are also much cheaper.
** We can’t really claim that she’s an Aussie; it’s just our tendency to do so when foreigners become famous (ie Crowded House and Russell Crowe are from New Zealand). Livvy-babes was raised in England until her early teens; moved to Oz and became fairly well-known only to move to the US at the height of her ‘Grease’ fame and happily settled there in her slide into obscurity. These days she only bothers to visit Australia for the occasional well-paid appearance at a royal variety performance or ‘Carols by Candlelight’ concert.
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Posted by Kath on 05 Nov 2007 at 12:11 PM
| 10 Comments
Filed in Reviews under australia, honeycomb, milk, nestle
November 5, 2007 : 8:43pm
well that thing really looks like you could write with it on a chalk board. i am happy you reviewed this for me so i never have to buy this by mistake. i dont know if it is appropriate to do here, but i just today bought a plate of lindt hot mango chocolate for a stunning 2.70€ and i dont know if its because i am only an intermediate chocolate gourmet or what, but for me it seems a little “ordinary” despite the fact it is very tasty…
November 5, 2007 : 10:18pm
Dear Googleman81
Don’t ever call yourself an ‘intermediate chocolate gourmet’ – there is no such thing. In this world of utter chocolate adoration and inhalation, EVERYONE is a world-class expert, including you.
Hmm, the Lindt ‘hot mango’ chocolate sounds intriguing, but it’s sad to read that you were underwhelmed. I don’t think we have that flavour down here yet.
regards – MillyMoo
November 6, 2007 : 6:48am
Hello! You have created a great website about chocolate. I also love to write about chocolate, maybe you would like to take a look on my website and tell me what you think?
http://www.international-chocolates.com
Chocolate forever! :-D
November 6, 2007 : 7:49pm
dear millymoo,
thank you VERY much for calling me a world class chocolate expert, i gratefuly accept that classification. the supermarkets here in berlin are actually completely stocked with all sorts of chocolate at this time of the year (i am planning a little field trip to the kadewe which is like the german smaller, less luxurious version of harrods) and the lindt chocolate has four different flavors which are: hot grenadine, hot mango, hot papaya and hot maracuja. all filled with fruit and different sorts of hotness. if you want and it is allowed by the regulations of this blog,i would love to send you an assortment of those.
greetings
googleman
May 6, 2009 : 11:26pm
I bought the Lindt Hot Grenadine bar at Frankfurt airport last month when I was traveling back from Barcelona, and if I had known how delicious it would be, and how difficult it would be to find in the states, I would have spent all my last euros on them. I can’t speak to the Mango, but this one, made with pomegranate, is the perfect blend of tart and spicy to compiment the 70% dark chocolate. Now I need them here!
May 23, 2009 : 7:25am
I just went and bought some Violet Crumble (as we call it in our house, Violent Grumble), photographed it, and then found you’d already done it.
Curses!
Anyhow, I think they walk all over the Crunchie. Violent Grumbles forever!
The shatter and then slow gooiness of the honeycomb is what makes it GOOOOOOD!!!!
August 20, 2009 : 1:32am
I would have to disagree – the Violet Crumbles wins hands down in my opinion! I find Crunchie bars too sickly sweet, and the honeycomb tends to coalesce in my mouth into an unpleasant hard globule. Violet Crumbles tend to shatter more – a good thing – (I suppose that’s the chalky consistency you talk about?) and the honeycomb doesn’t linger in an unplesant way on your tongue.
January 8, 2010 : 3:07pm
I don’t agree with this review at all. I much prefer Violet Crumble to Crunchie any day of the week. I agree with Matt, Crunchie is too sickly sweet, and it has a strange non-honeycombed gooey center. It eats like a badly set piece of honeycomb (anyone who has tried to make it knows what I mean), whereas Violet Crumble is perfectly set like the handmade honeycomb the gourmet sweet shop makes down my way. Mm. Perfect. That’s what honeycomb is, slightly chalky, it’s made with bicarbonate after all; and when you reduce the bicarbonate like in the Crunchie recipie, all it leaves is the crumbly sickly-sweet sugar. Blech.
January 8, 2010 : 6:04pm
Crunchie doesn’t have a gooey centre!
February 28, 2010 : 1:01pm
i will look for it.