I’m a relatively new fan of Rocky Road because the stuff I had in childhood usually consisted of crappy compounded chocolate, stale biscuits and rubber-hard raspberry jellies that made eating it about as much fun as feasting on bitumen. It has only been in my adult years as more quality stuff has been made available that Rocky Road became a sought-after favourite. Turkish delight on the other hand has always been a favourite (especially when traditionally made by Greek delicatessens) so when Harry from Harry’s Rocky Road sent me a hefty chunk in the mail I was keen to try it. Morning tea time saw me with a fridge-fresh iced coffee drink and this inviting packet of Harry’s Turkish Delight Rocky Road.
Generously encased in milk chocolate, the jellied Turkish delight pieces are accompanied by rice crispies, raspberry marshmallows and lines of pale pink/white chocolate. No ingredients are listed on the pack and for once I decided not to investigate further because I was hungry, eager and greedy. Also, there are times in a Chocablog Reviewer’s life when knowing the fat and sugar content isn’t going to be helpful, especially on a Monday.
The sweet vanilla berry scent of marshmallows was the first aroma to waft up after the plastic was sliced open and it was nice to see that the Rocky Road was already divided into eight generous chunks. So yes, I took three. After all, it’s my favourite number and I’ve been known to eat three Mars Bars for the sake of Chocablog.
Whew, these little rectangles may have pink as their colour scheme, but don’t let that fool you as they pack a sugar punch bigger than anything Mr. T can shoot from a tank. The milk chocolate is particularly sweet and melts almost immediately, leaving the chewy mallow to lend its softer side amongst the distinctly-flavoured Turkish delight chunks and still-crispy rice bubbles.
This is Rocky Road at its finest but it should come with some warnings or consumer advice:
- Only eat one piece at a time (I could manage two but had to put the third one back in case my head exploded).
- Always have a drink nearby to ease your zinging taste buds
- Eat only in the mornings or early afternoons if you’re a night shift worker.
- Leave all your pesky chores such as hoovering, hand-washing and car cleaning until afterwards and, trust me, you’ll certainly have the energy for it.
I wonder if their other flavours – caramel, cherry, mint, orange, vanilla, cookies & cream or coffee have the same hyper effect?
I came across this in a branch of Morrison’s (UK Supermarket chain). There was also a dark version, but I quite fancied a cocoa-rich milk chocolate so I plumped for this one.
Caley’s have been making chocolate for over a century, and marching chocolate was originally created as a ration for troops in the Great War.
Apart from being high in cocoa, this is also a Fairtrade product, with over three quarters of ingredients certified to International Fairtrade standards, so it’s bound to appeal to anyone who wishes to support the Fairtrade movement.
I’m happy to report that it’s also damned fine chocolate. Smooth, creamy, and rich with a soft mouthfeel and a clean finish, it’s everything you’d want milk chocolate to taste like.
The Caleys website shows that they produce a wide range of chocolate products, most of them Fairtrade (the site states the company’s ambition to be fully Fairtrade by summer 2008) and if the rest of the range is as good as this, I could find myself becoming a regular Caleys customer.
Highly recommended.
Today I had a Threesome.
I’ve never had one before, so didn’t really know what to expect. I admit I was looking forward to it, but having had it, I’m starting to think it wasn’t such a good idea in the first place.
But enough of that… here’s a chocolate review instead.
“Threesome” is a dubiously named bar from South Africa. This particular one was purchased in Ghana, so by the time it reached me, it was quite well-travelled. And I think that shows…
As you can see, the concept is fairly simple. Three layers of chocolate (milk, dark and white) in a standard bar shape. It’s very reminiscent of a Cadbury Top Deck, but unfortunately is nowhere near as nice. (And for the distinctly average Top Deck, that’s saying something.)
For a start, the texture is waxy, almost plastic-like. It doesn’t melt in the mouth so much as biodegrade over a period of months. It’s also impossible to tell any difference between the dark, milk and white layers – and aside from colour, I’m not sure there is any difference.
There is a distinct lack of any cocoa flavour at all here, which I find particularly sad in an African bar. But worse than that is the strong rubbery, chemical aftertaste you get from it. Perhaps that has something to do with the genetically modified emulsifiers or the mysterious “Flavour” listed on the ingredients. All I know is it just tastes nasty.
So unless you particularly enjoy the sensation of eating candle wax from a condom, then I would avoid this should you come across it on your travels.
To the non-Australian chocolate fans amongst us, the above heading might sound a bit alarming or even slightly rude, but it’s not. Pink Lady is an Aussie owned chocolate company based in Melbourne (so I’ll hopefully be paying them a visit sometime soon) and they do a range of Australian shapes including wombats, koalas and green tree frogs that are commonly found in cafes. They also do larger, hollow versions of these animals at Easter time for those of us who wonder just why the rabbit-shaped chocolate swept the world as the key shape for the holiday.
Their biggest hitter over the Easter season is the bilby. Bilbies are an endangered Australian species and the shape was developed and sold not only by Pink Lady but also by Haigh’s who donate part of their profits towards conservation efforts.
These poor little critters are marsupials that are only about 30 centimetres long (including their black tail with a white tip) that forage at night in the desert for bulbs, seeds, insects and spiders and they particularly like the yalka (bush onion) that grows in sand plains after a bushfire. Like koalas, they can do without water because they get most of their moisture needs from their food (if chocolate could do the same for me, my trips to the kitchen would be halved). The bilby’s large ears are useful for listening out for predators. Or at least they used to be – the increased incidence of domestic cats-gone-feral have made their numbers decrease markedly due to being far-too-easily caught and eaten.
Pink Lady’s 150 gram milk chocolate bilby is a rather cute looking fellow, but how does he taste? It is ironic that an edible bilby is for sale to prevent the real ones from being eaten out entirely. However in this case, what seems initially like a form of animal cruelty against an endangered species is really just for the benefit of finding out if this one tastes as good as he looks.
At a minimum of 27% cocoa solids and featuring no weird ingredients, he smells pretty warm and inviting when stripped of his outer coat. Seeing as the first ingredient is sugar, the over-riding sweetness of the chocolate isn’t surprising, but it is then toned down effectively by the confident creaminess that eventually emerges and lingers on the palate. In plainer terms, he’s pretty more-ish. This is a nice version of milk chocolate that isn’t too cloying or too oily.
I felt a bit of shame in desecrating him in such a way, but the pesky emotion soon left me as I continued eating and enjoying…
