Cadbury Caramel Nibbles

Another new offering from Cadbury here – part of their “Bags Of Stuff That Are Way Too Big For One Person But Like That’s Going To Stop Me Trying” range, I think.

This 175g bag contains a large number of Dairy Milk Buttons, each filled with a small amount of Caramel. I’m not sure why they went for the ‘Nibbles’ name. They’re quite clearly Buttons and they could have gone for a record-breaking three-brand-name crossover “Cabury Dairy Milk With Caramel Buttons” monicker if only they’d thought about it.

Like their siblings – Clusters and Raisins – these need to be classed as snack food rather than anything more. For one thing, they’re made with Dairy Milk, complete with that wonderful vegetable fat, so they don’t really count as proper chocolate anyway.

But as snack foods go, they’re pretty moreish. Despite being incredibly sweet, there’s no way you could just eat one of these. Particularly when you get 83,342 of them in a single packet. (That’s just a rough estimate.)

As we mentioned way back in 2006, there’s something about the button shape that just makes chocolate taste better – even Dairy Milk. And there’s just enough caramel filling to get a bit of flavour without drowning in it. But the same stuff in a Creme Egg sized package and it’s just sickly.

As is so often the case with Cadbury products, I don’t particularly like them, but once I start eating them, it’s very difficult to stop. It’s not as though I can hide the bag, because I’ve tried that before and I know all my secret hiding places now. So I’ll leave you with a simple warning. Buy them at your own risk and never eat them alone.

Café König Spanish Pine Nut Bar

One thing I will say about Berlin’s Schönefeld Airport is that the shops have a pretty good selection of chocolate to choose from, and my eye was drawn to a couple of bars made by König. Why Spanish Pine nuts in particular I don’t know, but I couldn’t recall having eaten Pine Nuts with chocolate before, and the cocoa contant (and price tag!) hinted at a quality product.

At almost €4 a bar, this 36% cocoa milk chocolate was priced well above more familiar Swiss offerings, and so I was loking for something remarkable in terms of taste. The high cocoa content was a good start – 36% is a respectable amount of cocoa. There’s also natural vanilla in there as well, and 8% pine nuts – a not insignificant amount.

When I tasted a piece of this chocolate, I was immediately struck by the vanilla. It comes in on a wave of sweet, creamy milk chocolate and tends to dominate in the first moments of tasting. Once the chocolate begins to melt, the cocoa flavours start to develop, and they are light, soft and creamy. There’s a definite sweetness to the whole taste, and the cocoa is quite delicate, tempered as it is with the vanilla. Bite into a pine nut and you release a nutty, fresh flavour into the mix. I’m assuming that Spanish pine nuts are particularly good for flavour. These are very light, roasted so their kernels are like little puffs of nutty flavour which melt into the chocolate and vanilla giving the whole taste experience a little texture, o rnot as one prefers (you can always squirrel the nuts into a cheek for after the chocolate has gone).

In spite of the obvious ‘tourist souvenir’ wrapper, this chocolate is actually pretty good. It has a very soft. light mouthfeel, and delivers good flavour. Perhaps a little heavy on the vanilla for my tastes, but nonetheless very pleasant. There are definitely worse ways to spend your last few Euros.

Milk Chocolate Monster Puffs

Last year I reviewed a very similar cereal bar to this – Kellog’s Totally Chocolatey Rice Krispie Squares. I gave them a pretty good review – and not just because Kellog’s sent me a free chocolate fountain.

Sugar Puffs, if you don’t know, is a British breakfast cereal made from puffed wheat coated in syrup and sugar. They used to be made by Quaker Oats, but they’re now independently owned, and somehow still around. One look at this cereal bar and you can see they’re clearly copying what Kellog’s are doing with their Rice Krispie Squares.

Unfortunatley, where the Kellog’s version was actually quite chocolately, this particular bar is almost totally lacking in anything resembling chocolate.

That little squiggle down the centre is all you get. I’d estimate maybe 4 grams of chocolate at the most. So little in fact that you just can’t taste it. The sticky, syrupy wheatyness is all you get, even when you try to get a mouthful of the chocolate. It makes you wonder why they bothered at all.

I’m sure they’re simply trying to keep the calories down so parents of the kids that are going to be on the receiving end of this bar don’t complain too much, but all that’s going to happen is that the kids are going to complain and the parents will get the Rice Krispies bar instead.

Aside from the lack of chocolate, there’s not much worth writing home about either. Chew a chunk a couple of times and it disappears into nothing, ultimately leaving you unsatisfied. Perhaps there are kids out there who just can’t get enough Sugar Puffs who might like this, but there are literally hundreds of better, tastier and healthier cereal bars out there for the rest of us.

Valrhona Les Grands Crus

Here is the second out of three installments of Valrhona offererings from my generous package. The entire Grands Crus range, minus the already-reviewed Jivara, is here. Sometimes it’s just so difficult being a Chocablogger…

I like that Valrhona doesn’t stick to the same design for everything. There was one design for the Estate range, one for the flavored bars, and another for these, both inside and out. From the lowest percentage up are:

Tanariva – A 33% milk chocolate, which uses Madagascar beans and is described as “sweet & caramelized.” This pale chocolate is as nicely done as a milk chocolate should be. It doesn’t disappear instantly, isn’t weighed down by sugar and grease, and lets the Madagascar flavors come out. It tastes of berries and cream, or caramel.

Manjari – A 64%, “fresh & tangy,” with Trinitario beans from the Sambirano Valley. Fudgy, with red fruit flavors and a nice sweet/dark balance.

Tainori – Another 64%, this time “fruity & intense” with a Dominican Republic origin. I wouldn’t call it intense as the flavor isn’t too bold. It’s still deeply chocolatey for a 64%, not bitter at all, which is nice if you don’t like your chocolate to go too far on either end of the scale.

Alpaco – “Floral & oaky,” 66%, and Ecuadorian Arriba beans. I come to realize that I don’t like my chocolates floral, whether it’s the chocolate’s own flavor or anything added in. If you do, though, this bar has rich chocolate cake feel to go along with those notes of “jasmine and orange blossom.”

Caraibe – “Balanced & velvety,” 66%, and made with Trinitario beans from the Caribbean. This one is dusty, tasting very much like the smell of cocoa powder. It had me rechecking the box, unbelieving that it could be as low as 66%. The sweetness picks up, though, for the enchanting, slightly fruity finish. Very nice.

Guanaja – “Bittersweet & elegant,” 70%, and made from a blend of Criollo, Trinitario, and Forastero beans. It hits you pretty quickly with that slightly bitter taste that cocoa nibs have. Yet there’s a sweetness right in there, too. A banana flavor comes in to give it a tender finish. I’ll have to put it into the “interesting” category.

Abinao – “Powerful & tannic,” 85%, and African origin. This one seems a bit floral, also, with the bitter taste working all throughout. It’s surprising how much sweetness stays in. Don’t get me wrong, by no means is it a sweet chocolate, but the sweetness doesn’t entirely disappear in the bitterness.

These are all mostly flawless chocolate bars, with smooth and perfect melting textures. But most of them don’t stick out to me — that’s why Valrhona works well for making new chocolates with. It won’t distract from added flavors, but still delivers quality. In any case, you can hardly go wrong with the quality of the Grands Crus range. The two word descriptions provide a fairly reliable guide for choosing what’s best for you. My own favorites are the Tainori, Caraibe, and Guanaja.