Wednesday 25th January, 2012 - Fry's Turkish Delight

Not really sure what I'm doing to myself this week; in the interest of science I appear to be eating lots of chocolate bars that I actually don't like. Fair's fair, though... I do have some things lined up that I'm totally looking forward too as well. Not limited to caramel either!

This isn't real Turkish Delight, I'm sorry. The real stuff has a wonderfully light texture, subtle yet delicious flavour, and is lightly powdered in icing sugar. It comes, for the most part, in 2 flavours; rose and lemon. The rose variety is made with rose water, which gives it that subtle taste, whereas this uses rose oil. The result is a sticky, flowery goo, covered in low quality milk chocolate. The jelly like inside is sugary and sticks to your teeth in a really unpleasant way. Sadly this bar has literally no redeeming features... Apart from maybe the old TV advert?

I like this ad. It's totally grown up and sexy, and does make you want to sample one. It's just a shame that the bar isn't a delight at all!

Tuesday 24th January, 2012 - Milkybar

OK I should point out right here and now... I'm not a fan of white chocolate. It shouldn't even be classed as chocolate, with a cocoa content that low...! Still, here we go!

I'm sure everyone knows about the Milkybar kid. What you may not know is that the newest Milkybar kid is a little girl. Hinetaapora Short won a competition, and is now the current face of the 'chocolate' bar. This surprised me; I'd heard they weren't allowed to have a real life Milkybar kid any more, since a black kid got denied the role. Unsurprisingly, I'm not actually able to find any evidence on this! There have been 9 Milkybar kids since the first advert in 1961, and 'he' turned 50 last year. I've got a friend who looks like the Milkybar kid :3 luckily, it's not this guy! He went out on Halloween as the Dairy Milk kid. He's controversial like that ;)

Milkybar's aren't that bad, and if I was going to have some white chocolate this is probably what I'd opt for. If nothing else, being aimed at kids they contain all natural ingredients. Very sweet, they'll also give you a good sugar fix, if that's what you're craving!

Monday 23rd January, 2012 - Wispa Gold

OK, it's really not my fault that so many chocolate bars have caramel in!

Wispa Gold is, of course, like a regular Wispa, but with a ribbon of lovely golden caramel through it. I'm pretty sure that the one you can buy currently is an improvement on past incarnations; the bar is about half caramel, whereas before I'm sure it was only a thin sliver! The bar was re-launched in 2011 for good, after much to-ing and fro-ing, like the original Wispa. It's part of the new product range that Cadbury's have released as 'Keep Team GB Pumped', in support of the London Olympics and Paralympics this year.

Much like the regular Wispa, this isn't bad but there's many chocolate bars I would rather have. I think I just prefer sold chocolate to this bubbly variety.... but I guess it's all down to personal preference!

Sunday 22nd January, 2012 - Star Bar

'I can see a caramel theme going on here' one of my colleagues said to me the other day. Here's another one just for you, Jen!

Star Bar is described as 'A chewy cosmos of peanuts and caramel'. I actually think (this is going to sound mad on account of my caramel obsession) that there is too much caramel is this. It completely overshadows the taste of the peanuts and makes the whole experience far too chewy. This was really quite difficult to eat, and coming from me that's quite a statement!

As I previously mentioned in another post, Star Bar was originally the peanut version of Boost. It's also been called Nudge, and in Ireland it's known as Peanut Moro. In Canada and Germany it's called Wunderbar. I can't think of another chocolate bar that's had so many pseudonyms/aliases! This also means it has that same weird chocolate flavoured stuff in the middle. Anyone able to confirm what that is yet?!

According to Snack Check, Star Bar is one of the worst snacks, nutritionally, you can have, coming in at number 14 on their worst 20 snacks list. However, you will notice that it's not as bad for you as Diet Coke...!

Saturday 21st January, 2012 - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

So as I've mentioned a couple of times, peanut butter in chocolate is pretty damned good. Reese's are, arguably, the kings of putting peanut butter in chocolate in a variety of ways.

Randomly, my local Morrison's stocks a couple of Reese's products, and the humble peanut butter cups are one of them. Not my favourite Reese's, but certainly a classic,  you get 3 cups in this pack. Mine were a bit warm when I consumed them, which meant the 'chocolate flavoured coating' (it's not real chocolate, you can tell by the taste) was a bit melty and the middle was gooey. This made for a delicious experience, however,  it was quite hard to eat. Peanut butter is thick and sticky at the best of times, so you can probably imagine how much stickier it was. I'm also very quick at eating (some might say greedy), so I finished them in about 2 mouthfuls each :D

There's a huge range of Reese's products available; I suggest you check them out here. Let the drooling commence! There have also been numerous special editions and variations, including honey roasted, peanut butter lovers and crunchy, as well as different sized ones, though I think the giant half pound cup is probably my favourite!

Friday 20th January, 2012 - Green and Black's with ginger

I'm quite grateful that some kind soul has come up with the idea of miniature chocolate bars. I'm certain my belly is too ;)

Came home from work this evening to find a present outside my room. Love love love it. 

Although I'm not the biggest fan of dark chocolate, I do know that this is the good stuff. 60% cocoa (not too bitter) and organic, this teeny chocolate bar is also generously studded with pieces of crystallised ginger. Ginger in chocolate is an acquired taste, but this works well. The taste of ginger isn't overpowering, but definitely there. I also had a little 'squee' moment when I unwrapped it. It was moulded like a full size chocolate bar, which I thought was adorable; I even had to take an additional picture to share it! 

As you probably know, there's a whole slew of different variations of Green and Black's. Which is handy... I've been advised I may have a hard time finding 366 different kinds of chocolate, but I'm sure that's not the case with ranges like this around!

Wednesday 18th January, 2012 - Wonka's Scrumdiddlyumptious

No golden ticket, sadly, but a tasty treat nonetheless... :D

I really wish that I could take a photo that would do this packaging justice! Being a bit of a magpie, this was pretty much my favourite bit - it's shiny and holographic and pretty!

Wonka's Scrumdiddlyumptious is, of course, inspired by the 1964 novel by Roald Dahl... or, if you're not a reader, the 1971/2005 movies. Scrumdiddlyumptious is milk chocolate with pieces of cookie, peanut and toffee in. While they're not tight with these pieces, they are small, and it's hard to distinguish which is which. The overall effect, however, is quite nice- the milk chocolate is tasty and the bits give it a nice crunch and some added flavour. 

I'd like to try the rest of the Wonka bars. Apart from anything else, Wonka's are, as they state on their website, 'incomparably imaginative chocolate'. The Triple Dazzle Caramel sounds especially sexy. I remember having the Wonka bars with popping candy in when I was a kid... they were amazing, I'd love to have those again!