Ryelands Smooth Milk Chocolate
In case you hadn’t noticed, the world is currently freefalling into economic oblivion, and shops everywhere are desperate to get us to buy their stuff. Supermarkets in particular are packed with special offers and cheap, own-brand products.
Tesco is no exception, and “Ryelands” appears to be either owned by Tesco or producing products especially for them in a similar way to Cocopia.
But if Cocopia are going for the quality end of the market, Ryelands are definitely going for the bargain basement end. So here we have a pack of five 40g bars of solid milk chocolate, each in a fairly tasteful wrapper…. with a not-so-tasteful “Discount Brands At Tesco” logo emblazoned upon it. And all for just £1.17.
The back of the wrapper indicates it’s made in Poland (not necessarily a bad thing) and that sugar is the main ingredient. Mmmmm… sugar.
And unfortunately, when you put a chunk into your mouth, you can really tell. It’s incredibly sweet.
There’s also another flavour in there that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s a slightly rubbery note that I think falls somewhere between “party balloon” and “old lorry tyres”. It’s very strange and not particularly pleasant. It’s not a strong taste, but it’s noticeable, even under all that sweetness.
The upshot is, I can’t recommend this at all. It’s cheap, but it also tastes cheap.
We may all be looking to save money these days, but chocolate is an affordable luxury. If you’re going to treat yourself, there’s no point in trying to save a few pennies by buying something that you’re going to end up throwing away. So don’t buy this.
Posted by Dom on 27 Dec 2008 at 05:12 PM
| 7 Comments
Filed in Reviews under milk, ryelands, tesco, UK
December 28, 2008 : 1:04am
Damn, you call that cheap?? 200 grams for £1.17.. i’d rather have Cadbury’s Dairy Milk; lots of places have offers on 230 gram bars and even the 140s are a standard 99p
Terrible. Go with their “Value” chocolate – its like 0.01p for a bar or something
December 28, 2008 : 4:11pm
The strange thing is that I live in Poland and those bars (thankfully as I see from your review) are not available in my local Tesco or any other Tesco I’ve visited.
March 30, 2009 : 11:21am
What are the ingredients? Any soy in it?
March 30, 2009 : 12:25pm
Brian – I honestly couldn’t tell you without going back to Tesco to check!
October 5, 2009 : 8:13pm
I bought this 70% coco bar at tesco, and to be be honest its the best ive ever tasted, very,very good, my son just came back from switzerland with what he claimed was the best, but I prefered this. JMHO!
October 5, 2009 : 8:18pm
Sorry forgot to say, each strip in the packet/box wrapper thing comes in a gold bar bullion!
Nice touch!
I’m sold.
February 11, 2010 : 2:19pm
Fast-forward to 2010 & this stuff is still pretty horrid. Best bet would be to use Clubcard vouchers to buy Thornton’s choclates – you get £20 worth for every £5 in vouchers. Result!