Whittaker’s Creamy Milk Caramel

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on August 29 2009 | Leave A Comment
Whittaker's Creamy Milk Caramel

It seems as though someone in New Zealand has been listening to our pleas because Whittaker’s seem to be slowly-but-surely releasing a few more flavours in their blocks here in Australia that had previously just been enjoyed by fortunate Kiwis and tourists. Here is one of the latest goodies to have made the trip across the sea.

This is about the closest competitor we have to Cadbury’s best-selling and much-loved Caramello block. The Whittaker’s version contains 33% cocoa solids – Cadbury’s is around 27% – and identifies where the cocoa is sourced from – Ghana. Question: do any of Cadbury’s products state what country their cocoa is from?

Back to the golden block in my hot little hands. Whittaker’s dark chocolate tends to be a bit on the gritty side but their milk chocolate delivers a much softer and creamier mouth feel. Trying some of it filled with runny caramel on a rainy night in was an exciting prospect.

Whittaker's Creamy Milk Caramel

As you can see, Whittaker’s blocks consist of solid, chunky rectangles that would definitely pack a painful punch if used to wallop someone (what a waste of good chocolate that would be) and promise a ‘satisfying feed’ rather than a ‘gourmet taste’.

Before biting into it, I erroneously read the back ingredients panel and found to my dismay that the caramel has – amongst the expected stuff like glucose, condensed milk, flavour and syrup – the rather unappetising ‘confectionery fat’. Another question: what kind of ‘fat’ is confectionery fat? Is it called something else on other labels to make it sound better?

These niggling queries were soon thrust aside when I tasted the flowingly sweet and distinctly honey-tinged caramel. Deeee licious!

Love Chunks is a Caramello King from way back and reckons that Cadbury still edges out Whittaker’s but I’m not so sure if that’s just loyalty or a superior palate because I’d certainly struggle to able to tell them apart if blindfolded. Whittaker’s Creamy Milk Caramel packs a very flavoursome and sugary kick that needs to be eaten with a drink of coffee, tea, water or milk to rest the tastebuds and allow you to reach for more.

It also ‘eats’ very well, as in like a quaffing wine – it goes down far too quickly, and a 250 gram block disappeared in one evening between two consenting adults. Oooops!

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Comments On This Post

  1. I had a bad experience with Caramello when aged about 12 or 12 or something like that (as in… ate a large block in an evening and spent the next 8 hours throwing it all back up again). I haven’t been able to touch its since, and that was about 150 years ago.

    You’re on your own in this one!

  2. Dom (Chocablog Staff)

    It’s probably important to note that the review links to the US Caramello (made by Hershey), and that’s probably very different from the Australian one – which I believe is more like our “Dairy Milk with Caramel”…. but still different. 🙂

  3. Sounds like I’ll have to look out for this one…

    Cadbury have announced they are working towards achieving Fairtrade Certification by Easter 2010 in Australia and New Zealand – http://www.cadbury.com.au/About-Cadbury/News.aspx?newsID=45

  4. You’re right Dom – Aussie caramello is made from Cadbury Dairy Milk and Whittaker’s is a very, very close copy.

  5. John b

    Whittakers have now released a dark chocolate version of this in NZ and I hope the Aussies get a chance to try it. I had to get a a block sent to me (a kiwi in London) when I heard about it. For anyone who has ever dreamed of a dark caramello (or UK DM & caramel) it really is something else: great with black coffee, milky drinks, chilled or (naturally) on its own. I’m surprised the combo has never caught on much before as dark chocolate hard caramels are commonplace and generally a disappointment: I usually feel I’ve been conned with a thin coating of chocolate into eating a toffee. Whittakers liquid caramel in dark chocolate is a kind of luxury version of this: they’ve liquified the centre for you so that the bitter chocolate and sweet caramel get to meet and the payoff is very good. The only other examples of this I know of is in the caramel in Cadbury Old Gold/Continental chocolates box (Aus/NZ) and a memory that Trebor in the UK did something like this in the pick and mix range (and long ago in chocolate ‘logs’).

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