…En chocolate con leche!
Translation: Oreos Bathed… in milk chocolate
I’m not entirely sure what Spanish Oreos were doing on the shelves on my local Budgens, but as so often happens, they jumped into my basket shouting “Pick me! Pick me!” and begged to be eaten. How could I say no?
I must confess, I have mixed feelings about Oreos. I spent a year of my childhood living in the US and just the word “Oreo” brings back happy memories. But every time I’ve had them here in the UK, I’ve found them to be a bit dry and quite dull. I’m not sure if that’s down to European differences, or if I’ve just grown out of them.
I know Nabisco (Kraft) in the US produce a milk chocolate covered Oreo, but I don’t know how similar these are. For one thing, these are made in Spain, and for another, the chocolate coating is completely smooth. Looking at the web site, the US version appears to have a rippled effect. Perhaps someone out there in Chocablogland could compare the two…
As I carefully cut one in half for this photo, first impressions were pretty good. The chocolate coating is thick, and had a pleasant aroma, and the whole thing looked quite tempting with a nice contrast between the different layers.
And it tastes pretty good too. I do find the biscuit a little too hard for my taste, and on it’s own it is slightly dry, but the creamy filling and chocolate coating easily compensate for this. The chocolate is very nice and definitely improves the overall Oreo experience for me.
I still can’t say I’m a huge fan of biscuits/cookies, but I did quite enjoy these. They were especially good dunked in my tea.
Yes, I know… I’m a slob. A chocaslob.
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It’s not often we review white chocolate on Chocablog. That’s mainly because there’s just not as much of it around as there is milk or dark chocolate. But it’s also because some people don’t regard it as “proper” chocolate.
Because we don’t talk about it much, you might not even be aware how white chocolate is actually made. Basically, it involves mixing large quantities of sugar, cocoa butter, milk and flavourings in a big bowl, but leaving out the cocoa solids (liquor). If you’re really interested in the different types of chocolate, I suggest reading this and this.
By its nature, white chocolate is usually very sweet, and Dream is no exception. But the very first thing you notice when you open it is an overwhelming vanilla aroma. It’s quite a nice smell, but it’s a little too strong to be natural.
The bar is divided into chunks, in a similar fashion to Dairy Milk and has a slightly translucent, creamy colour. It doesn’t look unpleasant, but for me it just doesn’t have the appeal of a good quality dark – or even milk – chocolate.
And then you bite into it… and you’re immediately hit by something so sweet it feels like you’re being force fed 10 bags of sugar it once. It really is that sweet. There is definitely a vanilla taste in there, but it’s almost completely overwhelmed by the sweetness. It’s a kind of sweetness that hangs around in your mouth for an hour after you’ve eaten it.
The texture is smooth and creamy and pleasant enough, but for me, the sweetness is overwhelming. That’s not to say it’s inedible, but I don’t think I could manage more than one or two chunks of this bar a day. But if you have a really sweet tooth or you’re simply in need of a massive sugar hit, this might well do it for you.
Cadbury Picnic is another of those bars that’s been around forever, but I rarely buy. I can’t put my finger on exactly why – it just doesn’t appeal to me much.
According to the Cadbury web site, it’s positioned as an “on the go” snack, which may have something to do with why I’ve avoided it in the past – I’m far too lazy to be ‘on the go’.
Picnic is from the “chuck everything in a bucket and cover it in chocolate” school of chocolate making. It’s very rough and ready, and as you can see, quite nobbly looking.
Taste-wise, the peanuts and caramel are most noticeable. I couldn’t actually see the raisins at all, although there was a very slight fruitiness to it. I don’t know if I just got a dud bar, but it does make you wonder why they bothered with the raisins at all.
Overall, it’s quite edible and reasonably tasty, it’s just a little dull. Actually, scratch that – it’s very dull and feels like it’s been thrown together with little or no thought. There are so many similar bars on the market these days that I just don’t think this holds up.
If you want a tastier, more substantial crispy caramel bar, I’d recommend giving something like Lion Bar or Terry’s Caramel Bite a go instead.
