Cadbury Boost can best be summed up in two words. “Broken” and “Starbar“.
The branding may be completely different, but as you can see when we cut the Boost in half, it looks quite similar to the Starbar:
The only difference is that Boost has had all the good stuff taken out and (from a quick glance at the ingredients) replaced with all sorts of artificial rubbish – that doesn’t taste particularly nice.
The peanuts and crisped rice of the Starbar have been replaced by copius quantities of an overly-sweet, glucose-syrupy-truffle substance and bits of “biscuit”. The result is a heavy – almost stodgy – and sweet bar, which is quite hard to eat, and doesn’t taste of anything much.
Cadbury use the strapline “Charged with glucose” on Boost, which in itself is a bit odd. Roughly translated, this means “packed full of sugar”. I can only think they’re positioning it as some kind of energy bar. It’s pretty high in calories (310 / bar), so that’s possibly the only way they can sell it.
According to Wikipedia, Cadbury have changed the branding and ingredients of both Boost and Starbar over the years, which would seem to indicate they don’t quite know what to do with them. I can see why.
I don’t have anything against Boost. But when your unique selling point is that you’re loaded with sugar, it’s hardly surprising Cadbury don’t know how to position it.
MillyMoo gives her opinion from Down Under of a rather squashed Cadbury Double Decker
My gorgeous work mate Jessie recently rather selfishly decided to return back ‘home’ to England with her hubby so that her (so far) un-born baby could be raised as a hopeless cricketer who bathes on only days beginning with ‘sun’.Despite her unfortunate decision, Jessie understood that my love of chocolate and the never-ending quest to try any new types are my reasons for existence. As such, she excitedly emailed to tell me that I just had to try the Cadbury Double Decker bar which is curiously not available here in Australia.
A few days later, a little air-mailed parcel arrived. With my hands trembling with anticipation, I opened it, to discover this gorgeous package:
It promised me the world: Cadbury milk chocolate, nougatine (I assume that means soft nougat as opposed to the teeth-shattering variety), caramel and crispy cereal pieces (sort of like rice bubbles?). When it came to opening up the bar, my heart sank, for what I unpeeled was this car-crash of a confectioners’ nightmare:
It may not be in the best focus, but please excuse that due to my disappointed sobs making my hands unsteady and tears fogging up the lens. I could only surmise that ‘our’ little-big-man Jonathan Coleman had accidentally sat on it during his flight back from his UK radio stint. Despite that lingering and rather unsavoury mental image, I was still determined to try it – one never looks a gift chocolate in the mouth and Jessie’s judgment has always been reliable when it comes to chocolates (amongst other things). Besides, looks aren’t everything – as Jonathon Coleman himself would attest.
Lucky for Double Decker because what it lacked in looks and presentation it more than made up for in taste. The chocolate is still the distinctly milky sweet Cadbury we all know and love and the melted nougatine stuff had a pleasantly chewy texture tasting faintly of coffee and burnt toffee (in a nice way). As I write this, I’m hoping that those two flavours are naturally in the bar and not as a result of Jonathon Coleman’s rear-end adding extra ambience….
Surprisingly too, the crunchy bits were still crunchy and the thin caramel layer was intact and gorgeously sticky. I could quite easily understand why Jessie is inhaling these as part of her motherhood preparations and won’t be surprised if her first born is called something like Dudley Dexter or Dorothy Debra out of respect. This is the kind of chocolate I’d take along to watch the Adelaide Crows Football team on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Or maybe four – one for each quarter of play.
As anyone who has ever flown out of Ireland will tell you, every Irish airport plays host to the Guinness ministore, home to a plethora of merchandise designed to show your allegiance to the ‘dark stuff’. I have glanced at the selection of tat on offer before – you can buy, hats, fridge magnets, postcards, clothing, keyrings and crystal souvenirs, and now chocolate.
Yes, in a somewhat bizarre move, those lovely Guinness folks have allowed the Irish Chocolate Company to manufacture a dark chocolate bar “Enhanced with the flavour of Guinness® Beer”. Naturally, I had to buy a bar just so I could share this marvellous news with you all.
A couple of things swiftly became apparent. One – no percentage of cocoa given on the packet, and Two – 0.1% Guinness beer content. Granted, the bar also contains floral hops, mixed spice and hop extract but perhaps ‘Guinness Beer’ might be another example of the world famous blarney?
Anyway, a first sniff at the bar and yes, it smells chocolatey (probably a good thing, after all, do we want chocolate that smells like a pub in the morning?). The initial taste is, if anything, a little smokey on the palate, with the more floral hop tastes coming in as the chocolate melts. There is a certain beery aftertaste to this bar but I’d be hard pressed to confirm it as being Guinness (and believe me, I know what Guinness tastes like).
I daresay that, like myself, most of the people who buy this bar will do so for the novelty value, or as an interesting alternative to the Irish Cream Truffles and other ‘local’ confectionery on offer (there are also Truffles available, a box of which were given to me for my birthday, so expect a review soon). The chocolate itself is fairly unremarkable save for the hoppy, beery flavour. Worth a try, and probably likely to be better received than a pair of Guinness socks or a toucan tiepin.
When I bought this, it was warm and sunny and I was in the mood for ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to review it straight away, so it went into the freezer. It’s now pouring with rain outside, I’m cold and I have to review ice cream. Typical.
Luckily, this is a particularly nice ice cream, so it shouldn’t be too much of a chore.
I’ve always liked Magnum anyway. If you’ve not seen it before, the formula is very simple. A good quality ice cream lolly, coated in chocolate. There’s been many variations on the theme over the years. Usually they just change the flavour ice cream or the chocolate coating, but the basic formula always stays the same.
This is one of the simpler variations, but it’s one of my favourites, simply because the chocolate is so nice. At 62%, it’s certainly not the darkest chocolate we’ve ever reviewed, but you probably wouldn’t want it much darker in an ice cream. After all, you’re going to have to eat this all in one go.
The chocolate both smells and tastes divine. This is definitely proper chocolate. It’s rich and smooth and breaks with a satisfying crunch when you bite into it.
The bittersweet flavour is perfectly complemented by the soft, subtle vanilla ice cream. Although it’s not the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, it’s the chocolate that’s the star of the show here, and the ice cream works perfectly with it
If the ever sun comes out again this year, I’ll certainly buy this again. But with the current state of the British weather, I won’t be holding my breath.
