Milo – the powdery malty-chocolate stuff you mix in with milk – is very popular here in Australia. It’s a different mixture from what I remember getting in the UK – less powdery and a lot more crumbly and packs a real chunky punch in a milk drink. As a kid I tended to bypass my mother’s instructions of only two teaspoons per glass of milk and would instead fill up half the glass with Milo, ending up with a wickedly delicious ‘mud’ mixture that was heaven on earth.
Also, during university I remember knocking on my best mate’s door and opening it, to catch her red-handed leaning over her Milo tin with a heaped spoonful half way up to her mouth. I’m happy to stake my left butt cheek on the statement that every Aussie would have resorted to eating it straight from the tin during times of sheer boredom or when there was no chocolate in the house.
About ten years ago, the Nestlé folk released it as a chocolate bar. The bar is essentially compressed Milo encased in a nice milky chocolate layer and has the scatological attractiveness of the Chokito. But – wait, there’s more – as they say on the shopping channels.
Yes, contain yourselves dear readers, but the Milo mixture is studded with chocolate-flavoured rice crispies and there’s a small layer of caramel (not unlike the Star Bar mentioned a couple of blog articles ago) resting reverentially on top of the Milo. The perfect yin and yang combination in my view.
The overall effect is firstly a pleasantly chewy malty-chocolate sensation followed by a few delightful rice crispy crunches and a tingle of caramel before the chocolate coating seals the deal. At 50g, the inner pig that has been carefully nurtured inside of me always squeals for another but if I can find the 80g King-Sized version then we’re both reasonably happy. If there was a way of coating the bar in something un-meltable then they would be ideal carbo-rich food for hikers and bushwalkers. Or indeed, desk jockeys.
These are definitely one of my favourite every day snack chocolate bars to buy and are one of our ‘quiet achievers’ in that they are rarely advertised but are available in every deli and roadhouse in the country as reliable sellers. There’s an entire row dedicated to them in our uni café so the students must be constantly fortifying themselves with the lovely logs in an effort to enhance their study breaks to avoid them entirely.
If you see one, buy it. And eat it with a glass of fresh, ice cold milk for the perfect flavour combination. In fact, buy two.
Well this is a pleasant surprise. When I first saw this in the shop, I wasn’t expecting a great deal. Yet another crispy caramel chocolate bar. The Terry’s (aka Kraft) branding didn’t do much to inspire confidence either.
But this is a bit different. It’s actually nice. Very nice.
Caramel Bite is two thick bars of milk chocolate, chocolate biscuit, caramel and puffed rice. It has just the right combination of crunchiness, chewiness and crispiness and it tastes pretty good too.
I’m not normally a fan of biscuits in chocolate bars, as they often end up a bit dry, but the biscuit in Caramel Bite is just right – quite light in texture and chocolate flavoured – and more to the point, there’s not too much of it.
The caramel is standard fare – not as flavourful as something like Green & Black’s Caramel, but infinitely better than Aero Caramel. It’s obviously there to add chewiness rather than flavour, as the overwhelming flavour comes from the chocolate.
The puffed rice is barely noticeable, but it does add something. When you bite into Caramel Bite, you get the crispness first, followed by the crunch of the biscuit, then the chewiness. Someone has clearly put some thought into the experience of actually biting into this, and that makes a refreshing change from the “let’s stick all our spare ingredients in a big bowl and see what happens” attitude that you often get from large chocolate makers these days.
At 56 grams, this is quite a big bar, but after finishing it I just found myself wanting another. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m just off down the shop to buy another.
I interrupt our chocablog jet-setting and whisk you all the way to the local newsagents/corner shop. I guide you to the back of the confectionary display; that’s it, all the way to the back, tucked away in the corner… You got it – a good old Cadbury Starbar. 
I forgot all about the Starbar until recently. Once re-discovered I immediately purchased with the intentions of reviewing. I devoured it on the way home. Needing to now buy another so that I could take a photo I bought three. I proceeded to eat all of these without first grabbing the camera. The third lot I bought were eaten by my son. Finally I managed to buy a bar, lock it in the cupboard (the one that muffles the sound of chocolate screaming “eat me now!”) and this morning I managed, tough as it was, to take some photos ‘prior’ to eating.
This is one of those bars that makes you wonder how you could have ignored it all this time. I think the deluge of posh chocs, new variations of the standards have made it easy for us to miss the good old favourites.
Described as being ‘shot through with peanuts and caramel’ and (on the other side of the wrapper) Milk chocolate with caramel and peanut centre’ I reckon this is missing out the best bit. It’s a small amount of ‘best bit’ but still, a best bit is a best bit – and for me it’s the crispy rice.
You see, what happens when you bite into a Starbar is: you bite through a million different textures, okay then, about four. The chocolate coating begins to melt, the chewy caramel caresses your tongue, the peanuts prepare to leave a nutty aftertaste and the crispy rice makes you go “ooh!” I do like to go “ooh!”
The wrapper is fun, non-posh and takes me back a few years. The shape of the bar appeals to me; the centre being round rather the usual slab shape. I have no clue why this should appeal to me…I really don’t.
It’s not as filling as a Snickers and maybe it should have more peanuts – or maybe not. The peanut content is right for me but as it states the peanut content twice on the wrapper it could call for some criticism.
Right then, as I’ve just eaten this one for you I shall have to go out and buy another supply.
Well dear reader, as you know I was recently sent to the Etruscan Chocohotel for a night as part of a business trip. It will come as no surprise to learn that I spent rather a long time (and a fistful of Euros) in their Chocostore – possibly the toughest shopping trip I have made in quite some time. Only a very wealthy individual could possibly hope to buy one of each of the vast range of bars on sale, so I found myself seeking out the rare and unusual, the weird and wonderful; special treats for Chocabloggers.
This was the first bar I sampled, and if you are aware of my tastes in chocolate, you’ll know that this marks a fairly significant departure from my ‘beaten track’ of dark, delicious cocoa-rich products. My personal opinion of white chocolate has been that it is the stuff that is given to small children (vis: The Milky Bar Kid) – bland, flavourless creamy sweetness which barely awakens the taste buds, and, although not leaving an unpleasant taste in one’s mouth, leaves the eater somewhat unfulfilled.
Well, I clocked this bar in one of the many display cabinets and thought to myself “Okay, white chocolate, here’s your chance. Prove me wrong. Go ahead. make my day.” I have already sampled chilli and chocolate (both with and without peppercorns), but the thought of a Madras Curry/White Chocolate combo had me somewhat nonplussed. What on earth would this be like? A must-try.
Stainer is an Italian Marque, a company run by Andrea Stainer in Tuscany. My eye was drawn to the Stainer selections because of their beautiful packaging. Pictures of faces, flowers, scenes that evoke the origins of the bars. Very posh, as Dom might say. The prices fall close to the ‘posh’ mark as well. Stainer makes quality products, using fine ingredients, and the price reflects this. (Having said that, the Stainer bars were by no means the most expensive on offer!)
When the time came to taste, I offered the bar around my co-workers, many of whom were either unwilling or downright repulsed by the flavour combination on offer! The bar contains 30% cocoa solids (still more than many so-called ‘milk’ chocolate bars available in the UK) and was infused with Coriander, Turmeric, Chilli, Cumin, Fenugreek, Caraway, Ginger and Black Pepper. A zingy little number then!
The box was opened, the bar slid out and examined. The bar came in a translucent orange sellophane, but it was still pretty obvious that the chocolate had a distinctly yellowish hue, due to the addition of Turmeric of course. The Michalak nose (a mighty appendage) was thrust towards the open packet and a good sniff taken. Definitely curry, but with a note of milky creaminess, and therefore rather odd. Still no real hint as to how it might taste though. Ah well, time to taste.
The chocolate didn’t have the fireyness I had expected. The ground spices warmed the tongue, individual notes appearing as the surrounding chocolate melted, producing a very pleasant combination which really does taste very ‘Madras’. The chocolate itself is definitely part of the overall taste but doesn’t really come into it’s own until one’s mouth is clear of spices. As a medium for carrying the spice tastes, it does work rather well, although as a confirmed 70% + head, I still found the end taste a little milder than I would have liked.
Overall verdict? Similar to the opinion I have of Hotel Chocolat’s Chilli and Pink Peppercorn bar; it’s great to have these sorts of tastes available, they’re unusual and different and a testament to both the skills and fanaticism of the chocolatier, but this is by no means an ‘everyday’ choccy bar. The tastes are all there, wonderfully blended so that each individual flavour is available, but where it fits in to a ‘menu’ is anyone’s guess, but I hit upon the idea of a ‘chocolate smorgasbord’ as a dessert idea the other day, and that seems to work beautifully. Definitely worth a try.
