When I visited the Chocolate Unwrapped show with Dom a while back, I picked up TCHO this bar, as well as the ‘Citrus‘ and ‘Nutty‘ bars. As my previous review states, both myself and my friend who tried the bars with me were not particularly taken by it. The Fruity bar fared somewhat better for several reasons.
But first, some background about this bar. The chocolate beans chosen for this bar apparently come from a remote savannah in Peru. Like the “Citrus” bar, the “Fruity” bar relies solely on the flavourful overtones of the particular type of bean used, rather than the addition of any form of actual fruit.
In this case, however, the beans do seem to pack plenty of flavour that seems to mature in your mouth as you bite into the chocolate, giving it a definite berry finish. The blurb lists cherry and raspberry with a raisin finish. While I couldn’t quite taste the raisin, I did definitely get the cherry feel, with a hint of the tartness of raspberry.
The chocolate itself, while dark, was actually quite creamy – almost like milk chocolate in consistency, tough obviously still dark-tasting (and so a bit too bitter for me).
While I couldn’t completely shake my dislike of everything dark chocolate, my more open-minded friend did enjoy this bar. Out of the two we tried, this one definitely won hands down.
Waitrose have a range of what I assume to be festively themed chocolates on the shelves, and being a sucker for fruity chocs, I thought I’d give these a go.
As you can see, the packaging is very pretty and that bow is lovely, but if you’re giving these as a Christmas present, it’s worth remembering that nothing says “I love you” like a box of supermarket chocolates… and there’s no escaping the Waitrose branding here.
But what exactly are “truffle boules”..?
Well if God made Smarties, this is what they would look like. They are so incredibly pretty. Finished in matt orange and pink sugar shells, they wouldn’t look out of place as decorations on a miniature Christmas tree.
Inside the colourful shell is a layer of dark chocolate, with the truffle mixture inside that. The chocolate is only 50% cocoa solids, but this is more about the the other flavours and textures than the chocolate itself.
The truffle is thick and slightly chewy, but it works well. I think a lighter filling may have been a little disappointing after crunching through the sugar shell. Once you get past that initial crunchy sweetness, the favours become much more subtle too. The orange flavour is pleasant, but I particularly like the cherry flavour which has hints of marzipan and Christmas pudding. It really is rather nice.
These are really just posh sweeties though. Leave a few bowls of them around at Christmas parties and I don’t think you’ll get any complaints. I’ll certainly be picking up some more.
I won’t make it a secret. I like Twilight. I won’t get into the reasons why I like the books/movies. Let’s just say that it’s great when two worlds collide, as chocolate and Twilight collide in this version of a Sky Bar. I might still try to defend myself by explaining that I didn’t personally buy these bars, as they were given to me, but it’s probably worse that someone would know I’d appreciate receiving them. So let’s just get on with the review, shall we?
Three is the number of the day. There are three different wrappers, each featuring either Bella, Edward, or Jacob. Then there are three segments to each bar with peanut butter, creme, and caramel fillings. I’ve never had a regular Sky Bar (I don’t think I’ve even seen one — it’s faith only that lets me believe they still exist), but it seems that here is where this version is a little different. The original has four flavors, caramel, vanilla, peanut, and fudge. I’m guessing the creme and peanut butter are the same as the vanilla and peanut. Don’t know why they cut out the fudge, though.
The peanut butter section is marked by a wolf, the creme by a “Bella” heart, and the caramel by the Cullen crest. After all the peanut butter/chocolate combinations I’ve been having, Necco was at a disadvantage. Their offering is bland in comparison. The peanut flavor isn’t too strong, but it is a nice and creamy filling, so I wouldn’t call it terrible. The creme filling is white as coconut, a little milky, a little sweet, somewhat old-fashioned/classic. The caramel is very sweet, even as far as caramel goes, but I kind of like it. It has a rather buttery taste, and its consistency reminds me of the jelly used for topping cookies. Maybe this part just happened to have the thickest chocolate, but it seemed like I could taste it best here. Necco is a candy-maker first and foremost, so their chocolate isn’t the best out there. Yet neither would I call it the worst; it just doesn’t have too much flavor.
The Sky Bar has an interesting concept — different flavors in one are nice; it tricks you into feeling like you have more even though it’s still just one bar. So I’m glad to see a nearly obsolete, average candy make a brief comeback with pop culture. Because really, no one’s buying these for what’s inside the wrapper.
I’ve always had a soft spot for chocolate coated raisins, but I don’t think I’ve seen a bag as big as this before. 200g in a supposedly resealable bag that doesn’t actually work and forces you to eat them all in one sitting. Cadbury are evil.
They taste like any other chocolate raisins you might find. Sweet, chewy and fruity – with the occasional tiny piece of seed that makes you think you’ve broken a tooth.
Of course, they’re incredibly moreish, so even if the whole ‘resealable bag’ thing had worked, they’d still have been gone within ten minutes.
As you’d expect, the chocolate is standard Cadbury fare (complete with vegetable fat). Unfortunately it also has a shellac coating which makes the raisins sticky and slightly unpleasant to touch. I’ve never been a particular fan of shellac on chocolate and (in my opinion) makes the tiny ‘suitable for vegetarians’ logo on the packet a little questionable.
But if that’s not a problem for you, then there’s no denying, Cadbury Raisins are rather tasty. I’m not sure I’ll be buying them again, but that’s mainly down to the fact that they come in such a huge bag that I would be forced to eat by myself.
