Nestlé have repackaged their Club Dark chocolate range and some of my favourites (sob) didn’t make the transition. Farewell, dear Mandarin, Club Cappuccino and Mild & Creamy – it was nice knowing you! But a new player has arrived, Cashew Nut and Cherry. Will it be able to fill in the large void left by those venerable Club stars that went before it?
Firstly let’s talk about the packaging. Both Nestlé and Cadbury have switched from plastic/paper/foil wrappers to a thin cardboard box. However, unlike Cadbury’s envelope flap at the back:
…which can be opened, a few rows sneakily snapped off and then put back on the shelf only to be purchased by an innocent, unsuspecting shopper (ie ME). The Nestlé back flap is less likely to disguise the treachery of tampering hands:
This difference may seem minor, but it’s pretty annoying to get home, plonk down on the sofa ready for some mainstream chocolatey indulgence to find that some stranger (ie not me) has touched the chocolate and you have no idea what else they’ve done with those hands, let alone to the chocolate. Erk.
Anyhooo. Back to Nestlé Club’s new flavour, Cashew Nut and Cherry. When the foil is ripped away, a richly sweet, berryish aroma does waft gently up into one’s eager nostrils.
Yes, it’s delicious. Very much so. Smooth, creamy (even though it’s a dark chocolate) and the lovely chewy cherries and crunchy slivers of cashew are expertly partnered together. The chocolate is a lovely smooth and sweet introduction to dark chocolate and the recipe has recently changed to include ‘butter oil’ to make the darker chocolate smoother in texture.
Also it’s very addictive. Their ‘treatwise’ label on the back suggests a serving of 28 grams but it’s too easy to discover that half the block (90 grams) is gone before you realise it! Damn their easy-snap rows of chocolately heaven!
Nutrition panel-wise you’re looking at 30.5 grams of fat per 100 grams and 47.6 grams of sugar per 100 grams but hey, do we really care if we’re happily enjoying it?
The ‘red cherry pieces’ are Nestlé’s usual optimistic description seeing as they’re actually concentrated apple and pear puree with 1.4% cherry puree but they do taste nice.
There’s also a few shreds of dessiccated coconut following closely behind the cashew nut pieces which adds to the interesting texture and perhaps makes the cashew ‘crunch’ go further. Whatever the case, it’s a beautiful block.
Still, can Club Cappuccino or Mandarin come back too?
You guessed it – it’s Fake Twix Time!
Just like Marks & Spencer’s Fake Mars Bar and Fake Bounty, this bar looks exactly like the Mars original. Inside the rather dreary plastic wrapper are two biscuit fingers, topped with caramel and covered in milk chocolate.
This time I took the time to research weights and prices. At 58g, the M&S rip off homage weighs exactly the same as a real Twix, but at 40p is a penny cheaper than Tesco charge for the real thing.
Helpfully, the Tesco web site lists the percentage of chocolate (35%), caramel (32%) and biscuit (33%) – figures which are also listed on the wrapper of this bar. And I’m excited to tell you that the M&S bar contains a whole 1% more milk chocolate than a real Twix. And 2% less biscuit!
To be frank, I’d be hard pressed to tell this apart from a real Twix. I think perhaps the biscuit has a little less flavour, but if I was given this sans-wrapper and told it was a real Twix, I probably wouldn’t question it.
But like the other bars in the range, the sole reason for its existence seems to be to fill up shelf space with something that has the Marks & Spencer logo on it. But if I’m going to M&S, it’s unlikely I’m looking to buy a Twix (or would even be able to tell that’s what this is from a glance at the wrapper). And if I’m specifically looking for a Twix, I’m probably not going to go to M&S to look for one.
In fact, the only people I can see buying these are chocolate reviewers and people curious about how like a real Twix it is. Like its siblings, It turns out that it’s not bad, but now I’ve established that, I have no reason to buy it again. And now I’ve reviewed it, you have no reason to buy one at all. Sorry M&S.
Here we have yet another prize winning block from Thorntons. This Venezuelan cocoa slab earned a Bronze award from the AOC this year. It’s made from Criollo beans, which are used in less than 5% of the world’s chocolate (according to the wrapper). The flavours are typical of Venezuelan Porcelana Criollo – very mild and creamy with a buttery element. The cocoa flavour isn’t overly powerful but still delivers on flavour. Good mouthfeel and a clean finish make this yet another top notch milk chocolate.
I found this to be less sweet than the Tonka bean block I reviewed recently, but it also lacks the more complex flavours and underlying spice notes of it’s Sliver Medal winning brother. I was pleased to see that Thornton’s are keeping those cocoa percentages good and high, meaning that the customer is getting the chance to really taste the essential elements of the product.
The way Thornton’s are going, we’ll soon be spoiled for choice when it comes to good quality milk chocolate. Both this and the Tonka Bean are excellent examples of hat can be achieved without pushing the price of the product out of the reach of the average consumer. Why anyone would ever want to buy a bar of CDM with this sort of chocolate around is beyond me.
If you haven’t raided your local Thornton’s yet and you’re partial to some good quality milk chocolate, I’d make a point of visiting them soon. Your only problem is probably going to be which three to choose for the money.
Another little treasure from Premier Food and Beverages is this packet of German biscuits that Rainer tells me “Are like Germany’s version of Tim Tams – they’ve very popular.”
Now I’ve already tried and enjoyed the Waffeletten from Bahlsen before, but the ‘Chocos’ (we Aussies love to add the letter ‘o’ to anything we like) were being saved for a wintry morning when a cup of tea needed something biscuity as well as chocolatey to go with it.
They look like little picture frames and in Australia we only see this rather pretty style from European imported companies. It’s also encouraging to read that the front of the box tells us that it is ‘more chocolate than a biscuit’ and their website confirms that 63% of it is indeed chocolate – just the way we chocabloggers like it.
The biscuit itself is a rather plain affair, but maybe that is what is needed against the buttery chocolate because it is very sweet. And moreish. The ingredients panel doesn’t state the cocoa content of the chocolate but my guess is that it would be around 20-25% and has that classically European cream taste to it. Which is a good thing, because it makes me sip my tea faster and then have another bite of the biscuit…
Like the flavoured Aussie Tim Tams, there are only nine in a box, so you either need to find two friends or wrestle your loved one to see who’ll get to eat the fifth and last one. Or do what I did and eat them all by yourself and go for a run afterwards!
