M&S seem to do a whole range of these little bars, but I didn’t pay much attention as I grabbed one from the shelf while passing through Marylebone Station.
The wrapper describes the bar as “White and dark chocolate bar with a light lemon mousse centre on a lemon parfait base”.
And that’s a fairly accurate description. Both the parfait and mousse are extremely lemony, and despite the plethora of artificial sounding ingredients on the packaging, tastes quite natural. The mousse is light, fluffy and zesty, and the white chocolate is sweet and creamy, but not overly so.
One of the issues I often have when lemon and white chocolate are used together is that unless done exceptionally well, you often get a hint of sickliness when the intense citrus flavour and rich creaminess combine. There is a hint of that here, but it’s barely noticeable.
Unfortunately, the other thing that’s barely noticeable is the chocolate. Only at the very last second do you get any hint of the dark chocolate taste, and even then, there’s so little of it that it’s impossible to discern quality.
So this really isn’t a bar for chocolate lovers, it’s a bar for lemon mousse lovers. Personally, I found it quite delicious, but you certainly shouldn’t buy one expecting any kind of chocolate “hit” from it.
Mars Confectionery Australia continue to puzzle me, they really do. Whilst they won my heart with their introduction of dark M&Ms (now and always a Lockett family pantry staple); they stomped on it again when they said that they didn’t have the right machinery (or attitude) to make Peanut Butter M&Ms here.
And yet, they force me to consider loving them again when they introduce these, Mint-Tastic M&Ms, and even took the time to email me with the news. No actual samples, alas, just an email, which is kind of like presenting Stevie Wonder with a ‘magic eye’ drawing and asking him to explain the imagery he can find in it.
Oh well. Several weeks went by and no Mint-Tastics were found anywhere – and believe me, I looked, because dark chocolate and mint are right up in my all-time favourite flavour combinations. Finally they appeared at my local supermarket and were on special, clearly hoping to encourage the plain M&M lovin’ traditionalists to give them a try.
And so they should. Just don’t mistake these for the Crispy Mint M&Ms that were released here in Australia by a flown-out-for-a-day Pamela Anderson a couple of years ago. As I predicted at the time, they rapidly faded into obscurity. Understandably too, because they tasted like insipid chalk dust. These new guys, however, are much better. They’ve given up trying to turn the crispy biscuit bits a pale green and add a weak mint taste and instead just focused on the combination of good dark chocolate and peppermint on its own. Perhaps, too, M&Ms learned that just because they’re a mega brand doesn’t necessarily mean that they can release something as bland as crispy mints with Pammy as the lowest-common-denominator spokes-rack and expect our taste buds to accept it.
Instead, these newer, better and much-more-deserving-of-your-time Mint-tastic M&Ms are very minty – quite strong in fact. Perhaps even slightly too overpowering for some palates who may find that the dark chocolate is almost lost between the fresh breath flavour and the crispy shell. Still, it’s a nice way to freshen one’s breath after an evening meal. Or after breakfast…
Here is the dark-faced counterpart to the Starbucks Milk Chocolate, again without a cacao percentage listed. But what a handsome face it is: all those vines look nicer in dark than light.
This bar also shares the milk’s vanilla smell and taste. And you know what else? I think its just as sweet. It tastes of chocolate and sugar, with a tiny hint of bitterness. But what steps it up from other chocolates is that it maintains a smooth, yet not a sticky, texture. A quite nice one, as well.
So… it all gets back to what kind of chocolate you like. This one’s loaded with sugar, but it still manages to taste nice. It’ll suit the Starbucksers nicely, along with the milk chocolate friends and those of us dark friends who aren’t completely opposed to sugar. Because you know what, it actually is a sugar taste instead of a bizarre sweetness from who knows what.
I’ve been doing Chocablog for nearly two and a half years now, and one of the things that still surprises me is that there are still many, fairly large chocolate companies that we haven’t even talked about. Valrhona is one such company, but now their products are readily available in Waitrose, I think it’s about time we gave them a go.
Valrhona are, as the name suggests, based in the Rhône valley near Lyon, and according to the always-accurate-and-never-wrong Wikipedia, they’ve been making chocolate since 1924.
I did try to find out more information via their official web site, but alas it seems they hired the writing team from ‘Allo ‘Allo to write the content. But at least now I know that “In the light of increasing uniformisation of flavours and culinary standards, VALRHONA has decided to take action to study, promote and valorise taste in our society.”
The (rather extensive) blurb on the back of the bar itself calls it “Chocolate with a long-tasting, distinctive flavour, mild yet rich in cocoa, with notes of caramel and vanilla, deliciously set off by a touch of malt”.
Ok, so I get the general idea, but surely it wouldn’t be that difficult to hire a decent translator. Time to let the chocolate speak for itself…
Luckily, the chocolate is more than capable of standing on its own. Put simply, it’s one of the nicest milk chocolates I’ve ever had.
There’s really only one way to eat this. Place half a square on your tongue and just let it melt away and release its flavours slowly. First you get a malty, slightly nutty flavour, then the chocolate flavour slowly builds. This is a 40% milk chocolate, so that flavour is quite distinct and doesn’t get lost in the sweetness and creaminess.
The only problem is, it’s all too easy to demolish this 75g bar in a matter of minutes – and it’s not cheap. This is the kind of bar that should be eaten slowly, savoured, and preferably shared.
Alas, I have no self control, so I’m just off out to buy some more. Oh well.
