Here’s an interesting little bar from Waitrose. I bought it because it’s plain white wrapper stood out amongst all the brightly coloured bars on the shelf.
The packaging itself is a bit weird – a rather strangely decorated sheet of white paper (I’m not quite sure what the birds and dominos signify), inserted into plain plastic, then folded into a pouch that looks like it might contain tobacco. Most odd, but it succeeded in getting my attention, so they’re obviously doing something right.
Inside, the bar itself follows a more conventional design, divided into chunks with a big ‘Rococo’ logo in the centre that reminded me of the Prestat Organic Dark bar I reviewed back in July.
I really quite enjoyed the flavours in the bar. The cinnamon adds a warmth to the creamy (37%) milk chocolate that’s particularly comforting on a cold winter’s night like tonight. It does become a little bit overpowering by the time you’ve scoffed half the bar though, so I recommend just letting a chunk or two melt in your mouth slowly, then putting it down for a while.
But the most unusual thing here is the texture. I presume it’s down to the cinnamon, but as it starts to melt away it becomes grainy. It’s not unpleasant, but I would have preferred something smoother that melted away more cleanly. Having said that, the cinnamon flavour won me over, so I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more from Rococo.
Here’s one of those curious things that you just have to try when you find it sitting on a shelf somewhere. Each of these three tins is supposed to imitate a dessert from a different country, in white, milk, and dark chocolate.
Starting with France, we have Creme Brulee white chocolate. I really like the formate The Chocolate Traveler uses: thick circles cut into “wedges” and fit into tins. You don’t seem to find much round chocolate (minus 3D truffles, of course.) The pieces are nicely sized, even with extra markings for those who just want a small taste. As far as this one’s color, it’s, well, different. Tan-colored. It’s kind of melty, too, which was consistent with all three of these. It has more of a caramel than creme brulee taste, even with some slight peanut butter taste. The texture is a little like peanut butter, too: not exactly “creamy,” but more thick and smooth. It’s… interesting, but definately candy in my book.
The Dulce de Leche milk chocolate, representative of Mexico, is a very pretty brown, soft yet dark in its essence. It has that strong vanilla flavor I’ve been finding in dark chocolates recently.
Concerning the whole milk thing, the word “imitation” comes to mind. Especially just after the Delaviuda truffles, they don’t quite nail that soft flavor here.
For Italy, we have Tiramisu dark chocolate. Coffee, a hint of raspberry, and sugar sit in amongst the dark taste. I guess it tastes good, but I always have a hard time with those “dark chocolates” that sit on the lukewarm borders between sweet and dear and deep and intense.
So they’re interesting chocolates in their own way. That is, I hesitate to call them chocolates because they’re so sweet. The eight dollar price tag definately approaches steep for just 150 grams, but I guess that’s because of the tins. Which I do love the tins, by the way. I’d say the same about the idea, but I really can’t since it wasn’t carried out terribly well. I don’t feel each country through each taste. That said, they’d still be a nice gift, being kind of fun, but you know, not as a chocolate lover’s gift.
Here at Chocablog, we don’t have many rules. One is that everything we review should be chocolatey, and the second is that we try not to repeat each other by reviewing the same thing twice. Even Ferrero Rondnoir.
Usually that just means doing a quick scan of the archives to make sure a particular product hasn’t been reviewed yet. But today… well, today, Kath and Simon both independently decided to review them.. on the same day.
Rather than send them back to psychic school, I thought I’d publish both as it might be fun to get two different opinions. See what you think…
Simon’s Review
Here we have another offering from Ferrero based on the ‘Rocher’ model, only this time it has dark chocolate origins. Imaginatively christened ‘Rondnoir’ (it’s round and it’s dark, geddit?) these little balls are the latest incarnation of the world famous ambassadorial treat.
As you can see, the wrapping has been designed to reflect the contents, a rich, dark metallic brown foil with a matching paper ‘cup’ reinforces the dark chocolate theme.
The cocoa content of the chocolate isn’t listed. Indeed, all I know is that ‘fine’ chocolate (“How’s the chocolate?” “Oh, it’s fine.”) makes up 41% of each Rondnoir. This isn’t high class chocolate at all. We’re talking vegetable oil, milk powder, flavourings and so on. Mutton dressed as lamb?
The outside of each ball is dotted with tiny pieces of dark chocolate stuff. Biting into it reminded me of the chocolate vermicelli you get on kids’ cakes. It has an almost powdery, dry quality to it, and melts away pretty quickly.
The inside is, of course, the classic Ferrero wafery orb, and within that we have a machine-injected blob of chocolatey creamy stuff which also disappears fairly rapidly. Taste wise it tends to hint at dark chocolate but is too sweet and lacking in really sophisticated dark chocolate flavours to be considered a top notch chocolate.
I can see why Ferrero have developed this product, and for those who love their Rochers, this will present an interesting alternative. Personally I can take or leave these – they don’t have enough ‘real’ flavours to excite my palate but neither do they disappoint by being overly sweet or totally bland. They’re just, well, fine I suppose.
Kath’s Review
The usual Ferrero Rocher’s have never really excited me that much. Milk chocolate, a heap of chopped nuts, a bit of wafer and what reminds me of a blob of Nutella spread in the middle. Still, they look pretty and plenty of Nannas like getting them for their birthdays, don’t they>
However, went Ferrero put these dark delights out, I was excited.
The blurb on the back of the Ferrero Rondnoir box informed me that they consist of at least 41% of dark chocolate with the rest being made up of sugar, wafer and hazelnuts. The total cocoa solids for each 10g ball is nearly 30%, with the dark hard centre being 58%. Not too shabby.
And, as we’d expect from Ferrero, they look pretty too:
Outside they look like dark chocolate truffles that are rolled and coated in those ‘ant/sprinkle’ things that nannas (yep, again with the nannas) like to put on top of their iced cupcakes. Under the sprinkles is a thin layer of chocolate covering a slightly thicker layer of wafer before the teeth hit the buttery chocolate centre inside.
However, there’s more. Inside the buttery bit is a coffee-bean like dark chocolate nugget. Quite hard, which means it’s the last thing left in your mouth and allows you to fully appreciate the sweet, dark chocolate lingering lovingly behind. Nice one Ferrero. It’s like drilling down to explore the earth’s layers and finding a better level the deeper you go down.
I was lucky enough (which means I had to share, alas) to have three guest tasters with me and sought their opinions. Delamere gave them the “Thumbs up” before then confiding in me that she USED to work for Cadbury and bring her work home. Regularly.
Nine year olds Charlotte and Sapphire were equally as enthusiastic, but Sapphire did profess a preference for “The original Ferreros because they’re golden and much more hazelnutty.”
As for me, I love these little orbs of darkness. I could quite happily scoff at least four (and of course did exactly that) Ferrero Rondnoir with a hot cup of black tea or a freezing cold iced coffee. I hope they stick around and eventually overtake the Nanna-friendly the gold hazelnut ones.
Today must be silly day. A day for leaping with delight at the thought of hopping into some frogs. But not quite as the French might.
Menz have been making confectionary in Adelaide for a long time – roughly forever. They make that other well-known delight, the Fruchoc. These little Froggys have nothing at all in common with that other well known children’s treat, the “Freddo Frog” – which originated with MacRobertsons and is now part of the Cadbury stable. The Freddo does come in a few variations, and is usually an individually wrapped little fellow that will leave any kid’s mouth all brown and gooey, and one or perhaps two are enough.
The Menz Froggys (surely that should be Froggies?] are an altogether different beast. Perhaps a distant cousin? Or perhaps these jumped off down some other part of a family tree. For these are little fellas and one or two are never enough.
Choccy Froggys things come in bags from the supermarket, for only a couple of dollars. Each bag has perhaps 20 or 30 of the little critters in it.
The chocolate is unashamedly ordinary. The finish is cheap, and there are no pretentions here at all. The pack even explicitly says it’s compounded chocolate (no reading between the lines and figuring out that “vegetable fat” means compounded chocolate), and its only 5% cocoa. These are sweets for kids. Well, Ok, for kids of all ages.
A dissection shows the inside is the same kind of sticky, gooey stuff that so many sweets or lollies are made from. But who cares? You can still sit down being an unashamedly unpretentious frog-gobbler and go through half a bag without even trying. Is half a bag of frogs called half an Army? Perhaps a battalion, or a division? Silly things these collective nouns. There is just something about these chaps though – When you’ve accidently polished off the bag, the kids come sniffing around: “Did you finish the bag of frogs?”
