Hark! Baileys Original Irish Cream Truffle Bar

So,

I was watching my mom go through the pantry a couple days ago to fetch some tea when.. WHEN...

I SAW MY BELOVED, BUT FORGOTTEN, BAILEYS ORIGINAL IRISH CREAM TRUFFLE BAR STASHED IN THE BACK!

"Mom! Don't close the pantry door just yet!"

I salvaged my precious and looked at her (my chocs tend to be "she"s), a little sad that I had forgotten about her all these months. I checked her expiration date: October 2009. Regardless, I decided to try her. Maybe she got better with age, since she is filled with real Baileys (erm... Baileys is not wine but let's pretend it also gets better with age).

Took a bite of the darling. Surprisingly tasted similar to those NASTY IRISH CREME HERSHEY KISSES I had bought from Target last week, except not as ... chemical-y. At least this was enjoyable to a degree. From what I understand, based on the depiction on the classy packaging (cardboard box oh la la!), the inside is supposed to be a little gooey, but the moisture has since disappeared. Now the consistency of the inside is roughly the same as that of the outside -- moderately soft chocolate. Disappointing, but entirely my fault.

I did enjoy the 1% alcohol content and was amused that this choc is "not recommended for children." Heh... you know it's good.

Oh and while I'm talking about chocolates in England that I brought back to the US because I couldn't finish them, I also tried Fox's Echo bars. Very good. I loved the solid biscuit base and minty flavor -- then again, I like mint chocolates that taste like toothpaste sometimes :-/

Cadbury Apricot Crumble Crunch

Last Cadbury and chocolate I consume in England!

Okay, this was a bit of a throwback to the Fruit & Nut except instead of nut, there are crushed granola clusters and instead of raisins there are chopped pieces of dried apricot. Not a whole lot of chocolate, thus it isn't as stiff of a bar. Taste-wise, not too sweet. Kinda fancied it a bit, I must admit. I'd rank this pretty high in the Cadbury competition. But I would've liked more chocolate content.

something else that is not chocolate, and something that is

a few weeks ago, elaine and i decided to go hit up this place called moonlight on the curry mile, which we had thought looked like a very appealing sweet/ice cream place the few times we've ventured down to the curry mile for curry/kebab-age.

we both figured we ought to try something new and different, and as a result, decided to go for these things called, singularly, faluda/falooda:


does this shit look radioactive to you? because i personally found it visually intimidating. a bunch of pink worms? okay, fine i know it's vermicelli, but jeebus, couldn't you find a way to make it slightly more edible looking? it reminds me a small bowl of worms, which i find repulsive...

anyway. faluda is, according to wikipedia, "a popular beverage in the Indian subcontinent made primarily by mixing rose syrup with vermicelli and tapioca seeds along with either milk or water". except ours were mixed with some kind of ice cream.

imo, the concoction was mostly syrup, which made me feel extremely nauseated (overkill with the sugar). from what i could tell, the ice cream wasn't too bad. elaine seemed to find the vermicelli pretty decent, but if i remember correctly, she didn't feel so hot after deciding to consume the entire thing...

i, pussy that i am, was unable to deal with the oversweet/syrup-yness of the thing, and chucked it about 2/3 the way through.

oh yes, in another non-chocolate related snacking incident, elaine and i tried that thing called frozen yoghurt (yuppie/hipster food) with fruit in ireland. pretty good, if (ridiculously) overpriced.

i decided to get this in ireland, for old times's sake, because a) i hadn't seen this in the UK, and apparently, it isn't sold here, and b) like i said, for old times's sake. i think i may have moved on (mostly) from chocolate and onto another (unhealthier? debatable) endeavor - siroopwafelen and haribo tangfastics.


anyway, moro is nougat, cookie and caramel filling, and milk chocolate covering. apparently this is sold in england as star bar? eh, whatever. at least the packaging is different...

anyhow, after my long hiatus away from cadbury chocolates, my attempt to rekindle the flames of my chocolove didn't work out so well. the moro is, though not syrupy, a disturbing kind of sweet. enough to give you a sugar high, and then a nice fat sugar crash. if you tried to have two or more of these in one sitting, you ought to be concerned about contracting diabetes.

although you probably don't consume as much sugar as i do in a single week/day/sitting, so you probably have nothing to worry about.

i really can't postpone studying any longer, now can i?

damn.

Milka

I purchased 4 Milka bars from Sainsbury way back in the day and finally finished them a couple weeks ago. I've only seen Milka sold in Sainsbury around here, but I noticed almost every grocery/convenience store I shopped at in the rest of Europe carried Milka. From what I understand it originated in Germany and capitalizes on its use of milk from alpine cows. Alpine cows are purple apparently!

Alpine Milk Chocolate Cream
Creamy, as one may guess. Thus a very soft bar. No slightly bitter aftertaste as is sometimes the case with Cadbury milk chocs.

Hazelnut
Creamy like the Milk Chocolate Cream, but with chopped hazelnuts! Delicious taste and perfect texture/composition throughout. I think this bar stuck a perfect landing in the nut+chocolate competition. Cadbury was a bit too ambitious with solid nuts in their Fruit and Nut, in retrospect.

Dark Chocolate
I know I bought 4 bars of Milka, but I'm only about 50% sure that Dark Chocolate was one of them. Thus, my appraisal of this bar will be full of maybes. If I can't remember the name, it maybe wasn't memorable. But I remember this bar being bitter maybe, but not bitter enough to be legit dark chocolate.

Happy Cows
Happy Cows is a milk chocolate bar with white chocolate spots. Being a fan of both types, I thought I was in for a delightful treat. However, this didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't taste the white chocolate, and the whole bar had a slightly bitter aftertaste. It was ok, but definitely not great. Liked the concept and name, though.

coup

right, so recently (circa denmark), i discovered two things that may quite possibly have supplanted my affections for chocolate:

2. haribo's tangfastics: these are fangtastic because, unlike sour patch kids (i have a weakness for sour candy), these do not leave the roof of your mouth in the same condition of a self-flagellating priest's back. they're lovely, soft, deliciously sour, and actually have distinctive flavours. since denmark, where i first picked up a pack of these from the airport, i have finished 4 packs total.

1. dutch siroopwafelen: also something i met in denmark (recommended to me by a friend), bought at tiger and then at fotex. found a rip-off-ish version at lidl. then, luckily, i had two layovers in amsterdam (one on the way to turkey and one on the way back), during which i bought three more packs of delicious, delicious siroopwafelen. if you haven't ever had one before, i simultaneously pity you and hope you never encounter one... more for me!

Denmark

this first one is the only truly danish chocolate in this post. it was fabulously creamy/milky, and lot of hazelnuts.


toffifee, not danish (german). elaine commented on the stickiness - the outer semi-sphere is a coating of caramel, and then there's a topping of milk chocolate button on top of nougat and a whole hazelnut.



i wasn't super enthusiastic about it at first - i'm not the hugest fan of caramel, but the hazelnut/nougat filling really pulled it together.


so i ended up finishing about 42-44 of them by myself.

Sweden: Dajm

yes, this is also available in the uk - my friend in copenhagen thinks these are delicious and insisted that i try half while we were in malmo, sweden. naturally, i could not refuse.

it's pretty much a bar of hard-toffee-like crunchy center covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate.

the milk chocolate is pretty standard (read: not great, not terrible, just average mass-manufactured milk chocolate) - it's the toffee-like crunchy thing on the inside that's interesting. from what i can tell, it's not actually toffee, but a thin layer of crunchified caramel. the caramel is pretty sweet, but it's also got a kind of dark, smoky flavour.

i like toffee (so this isn't something elaine would want to try - right? because the shit sticks to your teeth..), and i like chocolate (well, no kidding), so this is a decent combination of the two. one of those bars that i could stand to have once a week.

it is very, very sweet though, so i think maybe it would be better as a biweekly bar...

Salzburg, or: sweet mother of god, half of my soul to beelzebub for another square of this PLZ

i know, not chocolate, but a chocolate boutique, wherein loads and loads of amazing chocolates lie in wait for my greedy appetite (+ tight purse strings). why is this picture worthy?

samples. like, all over the store. the most fabulous samples of some pretty fancy chocolates. i visited it two days in a row, the first day because i needed to really think it over and set some kind of a budget for myself, the second day to purchase.

i wasn't able to take pictures of the stuff i sampled, but i can give you a short rundown. they had a lot of dark choc samples (all rich, all amazing, dark and sexy - none of that somewhat nasty weird tang of an aftertaste you can get from crappy dark chocolate), and some bizarre ones - dark chocolate + lavender (which was amazing; there were bits of lavender in the dark chocolate and i think lavender oil. i don't know if i would necessarily call it tasty, but just amazingly inventive. it's so cool to taste lavender and really good dark chocolate in your mouth... it's like eating a non-disgusting, non-alcoholic form of perfume. a really intriguing combination for your tastebuds. i came back the next day and stole a couple more samples of this one.), dark chocolate + chili (didn't like it as much as the lavender and dark chocolate, but this, though a more oft tried combination, did a good job with balance. the chili heat kind of crept in at the end of the savoring and lingered, a small pleasant fire), and dark chocolate (not very dark, like 60%) + pear (also a pretty good, though the pear flavoured-sugar on top was a bit too sweet).

here are the things i actually did take pictures of/consume larger quantities of - i don't know if it was intentional (probably not) - but i happened to purchase two rose-flavoured things. probably because they both looked so pretty:



you have to admit, the sugared rose petal in the center is pretty impressive looking. this was a really nice combination of not-too-dark-chocolate (53%) and rose oil. really fragrant, the chocolate wasn't overly sweet, and was well balanced by the sugary, but not overwhelmingly so, rose petal. i really liked tasting the rose-ness in the chocolate - again, i don't know that the rose necessarily enhances the flavour of the chocolate, but it's like eating dark chocolate and inhaling subtle but lovely-smelling rose fragrance simultaneously. the experience is highly enjoyable.

but oh wait, wait wait wait wait....

probably the divine virgin of all finds - and white chocolate, not dark! insane! - this slab of white chocolate-champagne-rose (the package reads champagner-rose gefullt; gefullt means filling - i'm not entirely sure what kind - it wasn't as sugary as fondant or extremely extremely creamy either... but anyway) - here she is, clothed:


slip:


naked and half ravished:


sorry about the awkward homoerotic metaphor. i normally am not a fan of white chocolate, but this combination (shipped in from a chocolatier based in vienna) of champagne and rose oil and rose petals was absolutely sublime. i think what i said before about the rose oil and rose petals adding not so much to the flavour of the chocolate, but the experience of inhaling roses while you eat the chocolate, still holds true.

but this time champagne got involved. and that you can actually taste. the hint of carbonated fizziness and (very very slight, almost undetectable, but necessary) bitterness of the alcohol balanced out the very pure, unadultered sweetness of the white chocolate filling (interesting, it's a light sweetness, like that of nice bottled water or of fresh air, as opposed to the heavier, richer, more intense flavour of dark chocolate - reminds me of the tea/country vs. coffee/city dichotomy that might only exist in my mind).

this is what effervescence should (always) taste like: white chocolate and champagne, with the smell of a cloud of roses.

Cadbury Double Decker and Cadbury Tasters

Mmmm... paying visits to the vending machines between classes...

Cadbury Double Decker:
Incredibly chewy nougatine upper deck and a crispy cereal lower deck. Very filling. I wasn't a fan of the chewy upper deck -- twas waaay too chewy, with an Airheads-esque consistency. Biting off a piece produced a sensation very similar to a rubber band snapping in your mouth -- mildly frightening. Also, the whole bar was borderline too sweet.

Cadbury Tasters:

They look like Whoppers, but they're really just Cadbury milk chocolate in spherical form. Indeed, each ball is only meant to give you a taste of the brand. The balls were quite hard though and not recommended for the weak of teeth.

Austria, marzipan-licious (or not)

purchased in vienna: mozartkugeln.

chocolate + marzipan.




something i quickly discovered while in austria: i cannot has marzipan. i don't know what it is about the texture - its weird congealed quality that isn't really smooth and has a bizarre, sugary/almondy taste. yes, wrapped in chocolate. but i dunno. this isn't apparently even the "original mozartkugel", so maybe that's why i wasn't so impressed. although, to be fair, it was the best that i tried that had marzipan - but i think that's mostly due to the fact that it was so small, comparatively.

poor mozart.

they've commercialized the bejeezus out of his balls.


this was a gigantic truffle thing with a really fluffy chocolate inside. not so much tasty as it was ridiculously sweet.


chocolate with this weird cherry in the center. it was alright - i think they must have pickled the poor cherry to bits, because it definitely had a ridiculous amount of alcohol in it (waaay too much - i remember actually choking because it was so unexpectedly strong). and this, the day of my daughter's wedding!

needless to say, though a lot of things about vienna were disappointing, none more so than my self discovery project.

oh, wait, here's more marzipan that i have nothing substantial or useful or really even interesting to say, other than that i consumed it (admittedly, all these sans mozartkugel on the same day...):


again with the marzipan. DAMNIT!

well, i guess there's one important lesson that i learned from Austria: i do not like marzipan at all. i think my distaste for that particular variety of sweet is strong enough so that i have no right to share my opinion about any of the chocolate i consumed that contained marzipan.

Kinder Country and Ferrero/Kinder Duplo

Chocolate-eating takes no breaks, especially when touring Europe. In fact, chocolate-eating is highly encouraged whilst visiting foreign countries.

Unfortunately the chocolates I tried were just varieties of Kinder that I haven't found in the UK. But chocolate is still chocolate, even if I shop like I'm skint (used a British-ism there!).

Kinder Country
Purchased this from Penny Markt in Vienna and started eating it on the lonnnngg train ride from Vienna to Berlin via Nurnberg (Nuremburg). I took this picture, get it?! Get it?! Kinder Country with the German/Austrian countryside in the background?! Oh that's a knee slapper!

(We are also in no way affiliated with AAA, nor do we endorse their products, but their Tour Books are really damn helpful.)

ANYWAY, Kinder Country itself is your classic Kinder chocolate (milk chocolate outer with a white, milky inner), except it's laced with chunks of rice cake (you know, those Quaker rice cakes. Yea.). Personally, I think the rice cake chunks killed the feeling. Not very well-integrated and at times, just weird. Meh. Kinder chocolate still made me happy though!

I also want to note that it took me a little over 2 weeks to go through this 9er, and I was even sharing with my travel buddies. Yea, I'm pretty good at rationing chocolates. In fact, I ate two of these bad boys on the very last day because I was bored in Milan-Bergamo airport, and at Manchester airport while waiting for the bus.

Digressions, sigh.

Kinder/but originally Ferrero (methinks) Duplo
Acquired these in Rewe, a Penny Markt-esque store in Berlin and went halfsys with Ivy on this. They look like chocolate-covered logs with a wafer inside. Definitely some Nutella action going on. Wafer was not that wafer-y, but more chocolate-y. And sooo delicious. Duplos are awesome, and a cleaner eat than Kinder Buenos. Oh no, I think I might have a new favorite Kinder product...

Just did a Google search for an image and noticed that Duplos may also come in a form that looks A LOT like the Bueno. Hmms...

Mint- and Orange-flavored Kit Kats

Here in the UK and other parts of Europe, Kit Kats come in different flavors. Two of which are Mint and Orange.

All physical aspects of these Kit Kats, from shape to texture to even hardness, are identical to the ones in America so no visuals of an actual Kit Kat will be provided in this review. (Also, uploading pictures isn't a lot of fun, and neither is taking/stealing pictures of food).


Mint Kit Kat:
It's got a nice strong mint flavor, sometimes a bit too strong and reminiscent of toothpaste. Rest assured, the flavor is definitely there. This also bolsters the general opinion that mint and chocolate go really well together. Nestlé did a good job by playing it safe. (Btw, the above image is the same exact package that I bought.)
Orange Kit Kat:
Orange and chocolate, on the otherhand, aren't always a match made in heaven. Kit Kat certainly didn't orchestrate a burning passionate Las Vegas wedding between the two, but it's not awful either. Its got a sweet orange flavor that isn't sour at all, though after just having had an orange a few minutes ago, I can't say it reminded me of the Kit Kat. Meh. Still decent, but the concept is strange.

Nestlé Yorkie

I consumed a Nestlé Yorkie whilst studying for one of my midterm exams before Easter holiday.

It's apparently NOT FOR GIRLS!

Not exactly sure what the official reason is, but I would guess because it is very filling. The Yorkie is a essentially a solid chocolate bar from outer appearance, but inside, there is a slab of biscuit about one-third the thickness of the entire Yorkie lining the bottom of the bar and the remaining two-thirds is raisins and chocolate. All of this is really densely packed together. I bought a bar with 5 breakoff-able chunks. This bar got me through Math Finance and afterward, I didn't need to eat lunch anymore. It was that filling, even more filling than the Cadbury Picnic, and also much sweeter because it has a higher chocolate content.



I really liked the Yorkie. Of course, I'm a fan of any chocolate candy that has raisins in it that can trick me into thinking it's good for me in some way. This is probably the most overwhelming bar of its size that I've ever eaten because of the biscuit and dense chocolate action. Chocolate quality was standard milk chocolate, not very memorable, but not bad at all.

I also tried the Nestlé Yorkie McFlurry a while back, and it tasted nothing like the candy bar. I'm not even sure that there were raisins in it.

Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry

Before I went on break, I tried a limited edition Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry due to a tip I got from a loyal reader. (Yes, we have loyal readers! Plural!). Aside from trying as many chocolates as possible, usually the commercial stuff (Ivy "specializes" in the high class chocolaterie-type chocolates), I've also been trying to get every limited edition McFlurry.

I've never had a Cadbury Creme Egg before, so I don't know how "faithful" this McFlurry was to the candy. However, you can see that it looks like what I imagine a cracked and crumbled Cadbury Creme Egg sprinkled over McDonald's soft-serve ice cream. Here's a little secret I'll let you in on (but you could probably figure it out): this McFlurry was made by sprinkling pre-crumbled chocolate pieces and squirting caramel (or whatever the "yolk" is made out of) in a seemingly irregular fashion -- in other words, no Cadbury Creme Egg was actually used! This isn't supposed to be surprising, but I felt like sharing anyway.

Back to the taste. It was a little melty since I waited until I got back to my room to consume this (after, of course, taking multiple pictures of it). But it was the typical run-of-the-mill McFlurry. It probably didn't taste much like a Cadbury Creme Egg mixed with ice cream; at least, this was the case with the Yorkie McFlurry I had ages ago (tasted NOTHING like a Yorkie!). But I digress. The chocolate flakes were quite flaky, and a little powder-y? As for the "yolk," it tasted like caramel (is that correct for the yolk?). In the typical McFlurry fashion, the chocolate flakes and the yolk were weaved throughout the ice cream, but there wasn't a lot of either, so the McFlurry tasted like someone took a sundae with toppings added on and just stirred it with a spoon for a bit, as opposed to, say, chocolate and caramel ice cream.

Overall, good dessert for £1.19. It certainly is what you pay for.

Koruna Pralines

so i went to prague and bought belgian chocolates. alas. i guess at least there was something that was sort of local-ish (the becherovka truffel).

i miss the cheapness of the czech republic. really. all this for about... oh, i think it was 7 usd:


the bestseller:


almond truffle: cream with chocolate in milk chocolate and almonds. apparently, the best-selling truffle by koruna pralines. and it was amazing. as you can see, there are a whole host of fabulous almond sliver stuck to the milk chocolate outside, and the inside is filled with this heavenly, heavenly chocolate whipped cream, which tastes pretty much like a chocolate cloud. frothy, light, balanced by buttery almonds. deeelish.

so good that my mouth almost orgasmed.

yeah.


honestly, i bought this mostly for the shape. mushroom: nougat content. the outside was a mix of white and milk chocolate - a thin shell of it, and the inside was some nut nougat (like milk/cream with nut flavouring) and that was pretty good, if not outstanding.


walnut cream: pecan cream in dark chocolate. honestly, not entirely sure what the walnut is doing there - b/c there isn't any. but the cream does have a very distinct pecan flavour (a tad oversweet in my opinion), but the dark chocolate outside is pretty damn sexy. it's got that bitter aftertaste, but it's sooo smooooth. again, i think the entire thing could be improved if the pecan cream were just a trifle less sugary.


Baileys: "The original Irish cream in hot chocolate". i think, when the translation reads "hot", it actually means dark. anyhow. is there anyway this could taste bad? elaine has already pretty much established that baileys tastes good with just about anything. and now we're adding (well-made) dark chocolate to the equation?

sweet jesus my tastebuds have died and gone to heaven.


Champagne truffel: "Cream flavored with champagne in white chocolate". not bad - could barely, barely taste the champagne, but like i said, not bad. but i have something to compare this to in a future post, so just you hold on. white chocolate and champagne are preferable combination to champagne and regular chocolate.

so yeah, i don't know about giving people both (either milk/dark chocolate + champagne) as gifts now.


apologies, i don't remember wtf the above is. it was good and chocolate-y.


Cointreau praline: "Duplicate content - with the cream liqueur". yeah, that's probably not a very good translation. cointreau though - i prefer this to the grand marnier liquor filled i'ved tried in the past (this doesn't burn as much). i know, not the same thing, but still. not outstanding though.


Krokant bitter nougat: "Nougat filling with pieces of nuts nadrcenými in bitter chocolate". now i remember why it's taken so long for me to update. because i keep on getting about this far everytime and i'm like, do i even really remember what this shit tasted like? no. which means it wasn't exceptional enough for me to take note of. eff this.


Rum truffels: "With rum cream filling coated in bitter chocolate". eh, not a huge fan of rum, but again, x liquor + x well-made dark chocolate just tends to work out pretty well.


becherovka truffels: becherovka in bitter chocolate. um, wow. for those of you who don't know, becherovka is a uniquely czech liquor. the first restaurant where we had dinner served me and my friend a free shot of becherovka, and i must say, that's probably one of the tastiest shots i've ever had (not that i'm drawing on an abundance of experience, but that's not the point). becherovka kind of has that nice jagermiester bite to it, but it's also very slightly sweet. i tried it again at a more traditional czech pub/brewery/restaurant called u fleku, and it was much stronger, but still quite good. becherovka truffels taste effing divine. combined with the bitterness of dark chocolate, the becherovka cream filling tasted like a cloud of the liquor, which balanced the bitter dark really well.

if i could, i would go back and buy another box of these for myself. and maybe a nice-sized bottle of becherovka too.

The Chocolate House: Cappuccino Bar

I just remembered I had this bar whilst cleaning my desk drawers and I figured I should treat myself to real chocolate (Orange-flavored Kit Kat bars don't count. More about this at a much later date.) I bought this little number at the farmers' market in Brecon, Wales. What a lovely farmers' market that was -- so many pretty and unique desserts, and of course, the ciders! But I digress...

This little bar has restored my faith in excellent chocolate and also proves that homemade chocolate will always have a more natural taste to them than, well, mass-produced chocolate.

I feel like this bar has a personality that mass-produced chocolate simply do not. For one thing, I bought her (I've totally decided it's a she) from a farmers' market, which in itself is quite telling of how we spent most of our weekend in south Wales -- eating. And for a good reason -- the Welsh do place importance on food and at least try to have some semblance of a cuisine (unlike the English).

Additionally, when I was breaking off the first chunk of this bar, I noticed she required more force and finally cracked with a satisfying thwap. Clearly, she's meant to be taken seriously. After breaking super pliant Kit-Kats all week, I knew I was in for a treat.

I took a bite into a chunk. The coffee flavor just took over. Wow, what a strong presence. This is not a wimpy bar with just a whiff of coffee. Far from it, the coffee dominates the chocolate. Also, this bar was not particularly sweet, which is nice because added sugar is a killjoy. Since it wasn't so sweet, I wondered if it was dark chocolate, but research on The Chocolate House's website shows that it is just milk chocolate. Wow, I have realized your potential, milk chocolate.

This is a bar that I'll keep stashed away and consume only when I can fully appreciate it. She's not a whore like those Cadbury bars, consumed without much thought. She's so classy and deserves to be treated as such.

Cadbury Picnic

I bought a 4 pack of these for £1 when I was in Sheffield earlier this month. They look like turds, especially so since I got the full size bars (texture AND size resembled a turd!). However, they make up for their appearance in their taste.

It's got a bit of everything that might be good for you: peanuts, raisins, and cereal. Thus, eating a Picnic is like eating a Quaker Chewy bar, except covered in milk chocolate (and OK, there's some caramel inside to reaffirm its classification as candy and not health bar). Due to the caramel, the bar is quite chewy and moist, and not as crunchy as a granola bar. The raisins are well integrated in the bar -- I can taste them and their squishiness exploding in my mouth, but when I look at the cross section of the bar, I can't find them! Then again, it is quite a mess of cereal+caramel+peanut+raisin deliciousness.

Since it's got real carbohydrates, this bar is quite substantial and can fill you up while giving you a sugar crash. Also, it's quite easy to fool yourself that you're eating healthy because of the cereal+peanut+raisins. Mmm... healthy chocolate... mmm I've been deceived...mmm I think I'll doze off right now...

Nut Nougat by Primadonna

i know what this looks like.

and i am sorry to confess that - yes - my elitist, chocolate-loving-self did succumb to the call of the much-cheaper-by-the-gram faux nutella manufactured by primadonna (who, incidentally, makes a lot of other chocolate products) and sold at lidl right next to the much pricier and smaller jars of nutella.

ingredients: nutella, while predominantly composed of sugar, also contains a whopping 13% hazelnut, no small feat for such a tiny 400g overpriced jar of deliciousness. nut nougat, a whopping 750g (i figured i would run out of this much less quickly than nutella), is a mere 2% hazelnut.

you might wonder whether or not that 11% makes a difference, and i can assure you, yes, it does. nutella tastes like hazelnut and chocolate heaven, while nut nougat, though not without its redeeming (read: sweet and chocolate-y) characteristics, tastes like glorified chocolate icing.

don't get me wrong - i love chocolate icing - but in terms of a nutella substitute, there's maybe only the faintest whiff of hazelnut. that 11% gives nutella a lot more leverage on my tongue than this nut nougat business. so if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to nutella and frankly, my dear, don't give a damn about how hazelnutty something is, then go for this (and if you're even more of a cheapskate, go find the asda brand. that probably has an even more miniscule %age of hazelnut).

i don't know how long it's going to be before i finish this beastly thing (i've been going through about one 400g jar of nutella per month), but as soon as i do, it's back to ferrero's nutella.

until then, i'll make-do with buenos.

Consolidation of Chocolate (Wales)

First up, Topic. I'm not even sure which parent company makes this (o - apparently it's mars), but essentially, it's whole hazelnuts (yum!), nougat, and caramel wrapped in milk chocolate. it's quite sweet, but not altogether unseemly.


i don't honestly remember what the drifter (nestle) tastes like - which probably means that a) i should have written this post as i ate it, and/or b) this isn't a terribly memorable chocolate bar. apparently there was some kind of a debacle (past-tense, thank god) about the use of transfats in the drifters. but here - crisp wafer, chewy caramel, milk chocolate cover. kind of like twix, since the wafer was especially thin/crispy. unremarkable, but not detestable:


i have a weakness for peanut butter and hazelnuts, so it seems. chocolate and peanut butter is a heavenly combination, but this particular version of kit kat is best (as i discovered) when you let it melt a little. unmelted, it's a rather unwieldy thing...:

this was quite delightful. caramel cream, chocolate cream, milk chocolate, and "crispy rippled wafer". what doesn't work so well for chocolate (in my opinion, anyway) works pretty well for wafers - the wafer in this thing was thin, and was done up sort of like the wispa or whatever other cadbury thing that involved stale-tasting chocolate-y ribbons. the ribbons seem to accentuate the crispy-ness of the sugary wafer. it's quite sweet, but not excessively large, so i thought it was rather nice.



this was purchased at the market in brecon, where elaine/jessica/ and i spent an inordinate and disproportionate amount of time consuming sweets (see elaine's somewhere photos of before and after dessert carnage. it's intense and disturbing, but you should all be used that degree of indulgence/excess by now).

this chocolate is made by chocolate house, which is a welsh chocolate house. i'm not entirely certain what it's called, but it seems to be a bar form of this dark cherry and kirsch (fruit/cherry brandy) in dark chocolate. i really, really enjoyed the bar. it was a perfect combination of dark chocolate and creamy fondant/cherry flavour - and of course, the slight bite of the trace alcohol didn't hurt either. i think i see a trend...:


also, i tried asda's version of nutella.

not even remotely legit.

it was mostly just sugary - the cocoa taste was there, but faint, and it was missing the most important aspect of nutella - the hazelnuts. so it was just ella, in effect.

and not to be misogynist or anything, but that really just sounds like pussy to me (thank you, lil wayne).