Battle of the Buttons.. Nestle V Cadbury

I like white chocolate buttons, I like milk chocolate buttons. I like Milkybar buttons, I like Cadbury buttons. 

But which is better? There's only one way to find out...

You wait forever for a bag of mixed buttons and two come along at once! First up -

 Nestle Milkybar Giant Buttons Milkshake Mix Up. 

A mix of giant white chocolate buttons and giant chocolate milkshake flavour buttons. 

I was pleased to find a fair mix of both flavours in the bag and wasn't too surprised at the overwhelming sweetness that I could smell, after all they might not be exclusively Milkybar buttons but there's still enough of them in there. 

The white chocolate buttons are standard Milkybar; creamy, very sweet with the typical and familiar Milkybar flavour. Not really what I'd want to eat all the time but I have a soft spot for it all the same. 

The "chocolate milkshake" buttons are a little weird. Note that they aren't actually chocolate but rather chocolate milkshake flavoured... Visibly they aren't milk chocolate with a lighter almost creamier colour. They don't taste like milk chocolate and they don't taste like white chocolate but they don't really taste like a milkshake either! I don't know, but they aren't something I think I'd want to eat a whole bag of. 

A mouthful of both doesn't improve on the milkshake aspect, both can be tasted but the strong Milkybar buttons are the greater flavour and just stopped short of being all I could taste. 

Rating:

They're O.K. The chocolate milkshake was a bit of a fail, I'd have preferred Nestle to have just used an actual chocolate button - it probably would have created more of a milkshake flavour paired with the Milkybar. That said, there's something about Milkybar buttons, I never particularly crave them and sure, they burn my throat but they're super nostalgic and they make me happy while I'm eating them! 

6/10

Next in the ring -

Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons

I know I've been swearing off Cadbury and going back on that a lot lately but I can say I've never properly slagged off my beloved Cadbury Buttons. They might not be up to much in the flavour stakes as of late but that's my childhood right there! 

Thanks to the new Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons bag, never again will I have to buy individual bags of each and mix them together. Lazy me is very pleased! 

Normally Cadbury Buttons in a sharing sized bag are the Giant Buttons but as there doesn't seem to be such thing as a Cadbury White Chocolate Giant Button, they've used the baby ones in the mixed bag. On the one hand you have to shove more in at once to get the same chocolate hit, but on the other judging by Dairy Milk lately you might be better off with not as much chocolate flavour! 

I didn't realise until I'd opened the Cadbury bag just how light coloured the chocolate milkshake buttons are - they make Cadbury Dairy Milk look like a dark chocolate! 

There too was a decent, near enough perfectly even mix of the two buttons but unlike the Milkybar bag this smelt mainly of milk chocolate with just a touch of something sweeter coming from the white buttons. 

The Dairy Milk buttons are far superior (even with the new recipe!) to the Nestle Chocolate Milkshake buttons. For starters it has a lot more of a chocolate flavour but even then its still kind of... blander or weaker than a standard Dairy Milk bar. As I said, I think this is due to the size of the buttons and while you might assume less chocolate is a bad thing, that's not necessarily the case. 

The Dairy Milk buttons don't compare to old school Dairy Milk buttons but they're much nicer than the sorry excuse we're sold today - yes there is a milder chocolate flavour than the bars and less of a milky flavour than before but this also means there's much less of the sickly sweetness the new bars seem to have. I think if I had a bar of 90's buttons and this bag side by side, I'd be disappointed but as it stands they're not bad and I'd eat them over any other Cadbury product right now. 

The white chocolate buttons are more of the same. I mean very, very few white chocolates have a proper chocolatey cocoa flavour but the Cadbury buttons are milder than the Milkybar with less of a creamy taste. Again this means less of the overwhelming sweetness too so it's swings and roundabouts - it all evens out. 

Together they're pretty good actually, a much better blend of the two buttons than previously where it was mainly about the white chocolate. 

Rating:

The Cadbury mixed buttons have positives and negatives, a milder flavour isn't great but the lack of throat tingling sugar burn is a huge positive. 

7/10 

Overall

Well done if you read all of that! If you skimmed over the pictures and ended up down here I don't blame you at all.. 

Anyway, if I had my way I'd take the Milkybar buttons (in moderation) and the Cadbury Dairy Milk buttons please. Failing that, as an all round bag the winner is shockingly Cadbury! 

(But Mr.1T still claims Asda own brand are the King of the chocolate button!) 

Aero Mousse - Caramel

Last year Nestle released the Aero Mousse, I think I was alone in my enjoyment of it but I did say at the time a flavoured mousse would be nice - maybe mint, orange or hazelnut. Nestle have taken the safe route with caramel but I'm not complaining! 

Smooth milk chocolate filled with bubbly milk chocolate and a layer of aerated caramel flavour chocolate mousse. 

There is no visible difference between the plain Aero Mousse and the Caramel but the latter had a delicious caramel scent from the off. Both bars contain the same amount of mousse filling but unlike in the plain it's clear as day in the Caramel. 

For someone like me, who enjoys eating my chocolate slowly, the bar is separated into easily snappable squares.  

The fact I'd snapped it all apart affected the taste a little. I noticed the 2 squares on either end had less mousse inside, for some reason I ate these first (blame the OCD) and the unmistakable taste of Aero chocolate was nearly all I could taste. I could certainly feel the creamy mousse - the textures at play are lovely in this bar regardless of the flavours: the thick snap of the chocolate casing, the light and almost melting aerated chocolate inside and a thick creamier mousse, lovely! 

The middle four squares had more mousse and the change in flavour was immediate. The Aero chocolate was more of an after taste and the caramel was stronger. It's very nice, quite sweet but it has a strong caramel flavour. It was actually a bit strange eating it without feeling the gooey stickiness of usual caramel! 

I do think one litte change could make an improvement though, the whole time I was waiting for a saltiness that never came. I know, I normally moan everything is salted caramel flavour and I'm asking for it here! Maybe I've just got too used to it - Mr.1T looked at me like I was mad when I said it to him so that's a disagreement from him - I also just realised I wanted salt in yesterdays review too, maybe I'm deficient! 

Rating:

Very nice, improvement on the original. 

7/10 

Nestle Pick & Mix

There is nothing particularly innovative or exciting about the new bag of chocolate from Nestle, but sometimes the simplest ideas are some of the best. 

If you follow my Instagram or Twitter you might have noticed I'm a bit of a Pick'n'Mix fiend, personally I'm still mourning the loss of Woolworths but Candy King do the job quite nicely. Nestle have saved me a trip to Wilkos by taking a few favourites, Smarties, Rolos, Aero Bubbles and Toffee Crisp Bite Size and put them in a sharing sized bag named Pick & Mix. Whenever I choose my own Pick'n'Mix, Smarties and Chocolate Fudge Crunch (basically the 'cheap' version of a Toffee Crisp) are the first in my tub so I'm happy!

I don't really know why my chocolates all look like that but they all tasted fine!

There's not much point going into detail about each individual chocolate, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't tried them but they all tasted fine.

Each bag is really varied, I had a pretty even mix of all four chocolates but Mr.1T had mainly Toffee Crisps and just 1 or 2 Smarties and Aero Bubbles in his so it's luck of the draw I'm afraid!

One major takeaway from the Nestle bag is that I realised I actually prefer the Candy King Smarties to the proper ones!! Controversial I know, but the Candy Kings have much more of a chocolate flavour than their branded counterparts. Otherwise everything else tastes just the same as usual but I am left wondering why Aero chocolate tastes different to other Nestle chocolate? Not just because of the aerated texture but the flavour is completely different, normally I wouldn't notice but it really stands out against the chocolate used on the Toffee Crisps and Rolos. 

Rating:

It's all well and good, perfectly tasty but Nestle have missed a trick. They own Rowntree's. Now I like chocolate but Pick & Mix is just that - a mix. Where are the sweets? 

What're the bets that in a few months a bigger, more expensive bag is released with the Rowntree's Pick & Mix (Tooty Fruitys, Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums) mixed in? Actually.. I might buy a bag and do that myself - it'll be a lot cheaper than Candy King anyway! 

7/10

Smarties Mini Eggs

So my hunt for Cadbury Easter replacements continues. The Lindt Mini Eggs were the first contender, the Cadbury Mini Mix bag had a couple of decent flavours, the Black Magic eggs were nice but not dark and the Waitrose Jelly Eggs aren't Creme or Mini Egg like at all! If you're anything like me you'll know, we go into Easter with the best intentions - buying everyone lots of lovely chocolates but end up eating them all ourselves and having to replace them. The Lindt eggs would be perfect to give as gifts, very tasty and 'posh enough' that I wouldn't feel like a tightwad but that could end up very expensive when I inevitably end up scoffing the lot. 

I decided to try some of the cheaper bags of Easter goodies and the Nestlé mini eggs were 2 for £2. I chose the Smarties Mini Eggs and Mr.1T chose Milky Bar, of course. 

They look a bit 'off'. I didn't actually see the Milky Bar eggs but the Smarties aren't quite the proper egg shape - well I've never seen an egg with a completely flat bottom anyway! 

They were in the usual mix of Smarties colours but I only got one blue one sadly. Am I the only person who feels naughty eating blue sweets after all the hooha a few years back? I know they're all above board now but whatever!

 Round one goes to the properly egg shaped Cadbury Mini Eggs!

The ordinary Smarties ratio seems to be a bit more sugar candy shell to a smaller amount of chocolate, whereas the eggs are the other way round. It's definitely a different recipe as good old Google informs me the nutritional information is different - one sure fire way of knowing if there has been a change! Although its just a small difference, it made a big change in the taste, they don't really taste like Smarties. 

Of course there is still the sugary sweet crunchy shell but the increase in chocolate throws the flavours off. The actual chocolate is a bit pants to be honest, I'm unsure if it's the same chocolate used - it probably is or there'd be uproar, Cadbury style - but I've never realised just how.. bland? Nestlé chocolate is. 

There is more chocolate to taste than in normal Smarties but it has less of a chocolate flavour. They're less sweet than Cadbury Mini Eggs, by a long shot actually, but (and I can't believe I'm saying this) Cadbury have a much nicer, more intense chocolate flavour - even with the new recipe. Round two goes to Cadbury again! 

Rating:

Smarties Mini Eggs are tasty enough with a good crunchy texture, but more chocolate isn't always a good thing, less is more Nestlé! 

6/10 

Head To Head - Crunchie V Violet Crumble

My local Tesco have broadened their horizons and added one Australlian chocolate to its World Food aisle. Sadly it's not one of the crazy Cadbury (although I should be boycotting them for tax evasion and crimes against flavour) bars but Nestles version of the Cadbury Crunchie - Violet Crumble. 

It was expensive but I suppose it has travelled halfway round the world and it does weigh 10g more than a Crunchie.

Top Violet Crumble, Bottom Crunchie 

The bars look very similar from the outside with the rippled effect in the chocolate but the Violet Crumble is quite a bit darker. Even though I'm not really a Cadbury fan anymore, I only really eat it through habit or nostalgia, I still usually prefer it to most Nestle chocolates. I was very suprised to find (though thinking about it, I shouldn't have been) the Violet Crumble smelt a lot more like real chocolate than the Crunchie which just had a sugary sweet scent. 

Crunchie 

While the bars looked similar from the outside, the insides looked nothing alike, the Violet Crumble being a lighter, more compacted honeycomb. There would be no chance of mixing these up at all. 

Violet Crumble 

I started the head to head with the Crunchie, I needed to refresh my memory! It soon came flooding back - super sweet, super crunchy with the distinct Cadbury chocolate aftertaste. Eating the Violet Crumble afterwards was a massive disappointment. The centre has a completely different feel, the texture was just wrong, it started off hard and crisp but kind of ended up softer, not soft soft it is still honeycomb after all, but it doesn't stay as consistently crunchy. Honestly, it felt like a stale version of the Crunchie. 

Shock horror, the chocolate was nicer in the Crunchie too! I could clearly taste the chocolate, OK it was after the honeycomb had almost melted away but it was definitely chocolate. I barely noticed it at all in the Violet Crumble. There was one thing to be said about the Violet Crumble which was an improvement on the Crunchie, and that was that it is nowhere near as sweet. Back in the day when Cadbury chocolate was actually chocolate not fatty chocolate flavoured sugar, the super sweet centre probably didn't impact too much on the overall bar but it seemed a total sugar overload against the quite plain tastes of the Violet Crumble. 

Even so, I couldn't help but compare the Violet Crumble to a supermarket own brand/cheap shop rip off of the Crunchie. The texture isn't quite how it supposed to be, there's not much in terms of actual flavour and even forgetting the Crunchie exists, it's just bland and boring. The one small silver lining is that less sweetness is an improvement, though I think I'd take the sugar just for some flavour.

Sorry Australia it's 

5/10  

A word of warning - don't try this at home! Wow my teeth ached afterwards and not because of the crunch! Although I couldn't taste the 33g of sugar in the Violet Crumble alone my teeth sure noticed it - they stung afterwards! 

Kit Kat Extra Creamy

I had a conversation with @eveningtreats on Twitter a couple of weeks ago about these Kit Kat Chunkys. We'd both spotted them with the 'NEW extra creamy!' label on them but were a bit confused - we hadn't heard anything about a new Kit Kat and Google was no help so I decided to grab one the next time I saw it. 

One thing that threw us both was that the front of the wrapper is in English, so surely these are made for the UK? But looks are deceiving and the packet is confusing! Some parts are English - the new label, the parts about UTZ certified, cocoa farmers, contact information and all the trademarks but the rest is Polish. So from what I can gather this isn't a new bar for the UK but one made for Poland - just with half the wrapper in English? 

Anyway it looked and smelt the same, I expected for an extra creamy maybe a slightly little more chocolate in between the wafers but there didn't seem to be.

The chocolate itself did taste slightly creamier, I'm not a great fan of Nestle chocolate, normally I prefer Cadburys as its a bit milkier. This did seem to have a creamier, smoother flavour - nothing major though and I'm not sure if it really does or it's the power of persuasion. 

Either way I enjoyed it but it's really no different to an ordinary Kit Kat Chunky, I wouldn't go out of my way to find this specific bar but I'd buy it again. 

Rating 7/10 

Caramac Giant Buttons

Well I must say I'm surprised I even got to try these, my husband is a Caramac fiend, we bought three bags last week and I hid myself one of the bags. He had a good look for mine after he inhaled two bags but I obviously hid well! 

This is the second new Caramac product I've tried in as many weeks which is quite intriguing after so long with no new Caramac products at all, maybe we're going to see a whole host of new stuff. 

They're giant buttons so nice and big but I had a few sneaky small ones! The smell was unmistakably Caramac, very sweet and caramel-y. 

They tasted as they should, fans of Caramac will be pleased especially with the amount you get in a bag compared to the size of a normal Caramac bar. They are nice and creamy with both a good bite and thick melty mouthfeel. Nowhere on the packet is Caramac described as chocolate - just caramel flavoured buttons - so these are just sugar and fat basically and I really noticed, compared to any type of chocolate button, that they melted a whole lot quicker and I ended up with Caramac covered hands! 

Don't get me wrong I found these addictive and I polished off the sharing sized bag in one go but they weren't quite as moreish to me, as chocolate buttons. I also regretted eating the whole bag as by the end they'd become pretty sickly, I'll eat them again but not quite as many at once! 

Rating 7/10 

Breakaway Caramac

A short and sweet review this afternoon, just like the bar itself! 

This is Breakaway Caramac, a Breakaway bar covered in Caramac chocolate. 

Breakaways aren't a usual buy for me - in small, snack type chocolate covered biscuit bars, I'm normally much more tempted by others but my husband loves Caramac so I picked these up for him and stole one for myself, naturally. 

Caramac, if you don't know, is basically a caramel flavoured bar - I'm not sure it's allowed to be called chocolate! It's normally quite long and thin. When I opened this, Caramac was all I could smell but when I snapped it in half I could smell the digestive biscuit too. 

I'm not sure what more there is too say other than it tastes of Caramac! Caramel-y and very sweet, but I did actually prefer this to the normal bar. The digestive biscuit is sweet but still plain so you get all the caramel flavour just with added crunch. Perfect! 

A tasty little snack. 

Rating 7/10 

Aero Mousse

I had a tough decision to make today, which chocolate bar to eat - the new Aero mousse bar or an imported Kit Kat hazelnut cream. The aero won by a smidgen due to the fact it's not only a new bar but as far as I've really seen, a different style too. I've never had a chocolate with an actual mousse, not a cream or yoghurt filling. The aerated chocolate mousse takes up 30% of the bar. 

It looks very similar to the original and has the unmistakable scent of an Aero too (why is the Aero smell so identifiable? I reckon I could tell the difference between that and any other Nestle chocolate blindfolded). 

I split the bar along the indentations provided and could see a little mousse at top of the square but it's not until you split each bubble in half that you can see it properly.

The flavour is again the same as your run of the mill plain chocolate Aero but is noticeably creamier and thicker tasting. I'm not sure if this is the same mousse as the little pots you buy, I'm leaning towards it not being as obviously they are refrigerated and the pack of the Aero mousse actually states best served at room temperature, but it tastes like it! 

I do enjoy an Aero but I think this is actually an improvement on the original, that's all well and fine if you're craving one but when you're hungry sometimes the aerated chocolate doesn't feel like enough. This just feels more substantial, is a lot creamier and each mouthful has a lovely mix of crisp chocolate shell, light bubbly filling and thick mousse. Hopefully if this flavour does well we'll see mint, orange or the limited edition hazelnut variety. 

Rating 7/10

Toffee Crisp Honeycomb

I am so late to the party with this chocolate bar! I'm pretty sure I've read online that it's only being sold in more independent style, smaller shops - none of the big retailers and as I very rarely carry cash on me (I spend it far too easily!), I normally miss these shops but I finally managed to grab one. 

It's literally what it says on the packet, a Toffee Crisp with honeycomb added to it. One big difference I noticed is that this bar is a lot less nobbly than the usual, it looks too smooth to be a Toffee Crisp! 

But it was still just as messy when I tried to snap it in half!! 

I can't complain though as that is my favourite part! I've looked at the ingredients on a standard bar and crisped cereal is 11%, whereas in the honeycomb it's only 6%. That explains the smoother look and it's also noticable in the texture, it's less crunchy and more chewy which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm not too sure at the moment which I prefer. The toffee is still quite a dominant flavour but I did notice a lovely honeycomb aftertaste with every bite. It's sort of a burnt honeycomb and I really enjoyed it. 

I'll be getting another one of these I think. 

Rating 7/10 

White Lion

Bit of a random one today, I found this white Lion bar in Home Bargains, grabbed one for my fiancée and thought I'd get myself one while I was at it. 

It weighs in a bit smaller than a standard Lion bar at 42g and my wrapper is polish. Strangely some version of caramel (?) - karmelemis (PL), karamele (LT), Ar karameli (LV) etc is listed at 34.5% while the English is just white chocolate 41.9%. Weird! 

Anyway despite being smaller this is still a sturdy bar of chocolate. It looks quite impressive taking it out, big crispy pieces sticking out all over the place and a white finish that doesn't look like chocolate it's so thick! 

It's a creamy chocolate but let's be honest, it's white so it's very sweet! I do like Lion bars as they remind me of my pick and mix favourite Chocolate Fudge Crunch just on a much bigger scale, that chewy crispy gooeyness and that's still here in abundance. So much so it actually gave me a jaw ache! 

This made a nice change from milk chocolate and while it's not something I would crave and eat regularly I did enjoy it. I liked having something a bit different from the new trends like salted caramel and super dark organic bars. 

Rating 7/10 

Blue Riband Coffee Cream

There are tonnes of 100 calories or less biscuit bars on the market at the moment, and to be honest I avoid buying them as im trying to put weight on at the moment, not lose it but these caught me eye - not only because of the shiny new label but coffee! 

For the sake of the review, I'll quickly go over the biscuit itself though most people will have tried the original variety. It's mainly wafer with quite a thin layer of basic nestle chocolate. Its not bad chocolate but its not really a chocolate you'd eat in a bar by itself, still for the purpose of coating the wafers its fine. Even though it only contains 99 calories it tastes more substantial and filling than other bars like this that I've tried such as the Aero biscuit bar.

The coffee smell was certainly noticable when I opened the wrapper and thankfully the taste was just as clear. This definitly has more of a coffee flavour and isn't overwhelmed by the chocolate or biscuit at all. A good buy and one I'll make again for sure. I'd really enjoy this as a proper chocolate bar, maybe Nestle could put the flavours into a Kit Kat Chunky! That would be amazing. 

Rating 7/10 

Rolo Dark

Another find from my Ocado shop this week was this bag of Rolo Dark, the pack says new and I haven't seen them before so I'm assuming that's true. 

They're in a standard 'sharing' bag at 126g but I've never let that stop me polishing these bags off. 

In this photo the chocolate looks a bit chalky but I'm putting that down to my flash as that wasn't the case in real life although they didn't look like dark chocolate much, more like a browner milk. 

They did taste more like dark but at 45% cocoa solids I'm not sure if it even qualifies as a dark chocolate. Either way I actually found these preferable to the milk version, it compliments the toffee inside better than the milk and because it's not a bitter chocolate it means you can eat more! 

I did enjoy these and hopefully they'll stick about. 

Rating 7/10 

Limited Edition Kit Kat Toffee Treat

Another limited edition chocolate bar! I'm quite surprised there are lots of new and limited edition chocolates out now as January is usually diet season but I'm not complaining. This is Kit Kat Toffee Treat and I'd spied it in the two finger bar but held out until I could get my hands on the four finger. 

I've had quite a few toffee flavoured things recently, I suppose it is a flavour usually associated with cold and winter, or maybe it's the new 'flavour of the month' literally! 

I was quite surprised when I got to the chocolate as I expected a normal looking, Kit Kat with the flavour on the inside as with the Kit Kat caramel but the more I think about it now I realise there isn't much space in a non chunky bar for any filling. I've just had a look at the wrapper and this is actually a blend of toffee flavoured white chocolate (53%) and milk chocolate (13%). 

Texture wise, this is your ordinary Kit Kat, no nice or nasty suprises here. But the flavour is good. It's sweet - very much so even considering this is a white chocolate but it does have a lovely creamy toffee flavour. It's nice that Nestle have kept their limited editions somewhat simple, toffee, caramel, cookies and cream, compared to the craziness Cadbury have produced in the last few years! All of the new versions I've tried have been consistently good whereas Cadbury have been a bit hit and miss. This is another delicious Kit Kat, white chocolate, milk chocolate, toffee fans will love it. Dark chocolate diehards will probably find it a bit too sweet but I will definitely be buying again. 

Rating 7/10 

B And M Buys

I love B and M, I love all the random crap they sell, I love how cheap it is for things I actually need like storage boxes but I mostly love the food aisles! I always find random chocolates, biscuits or tins of food that I never see anywhere else (sometimes I think I know the reason for that) and I can't help buying things.

My first buy was the Baileys Truffle Bar.

This bar is made by Lir and it's a funny size, while it's 80g so still bigger than your usual single serving chocolate bar and a bit smaller than a normal block or slab this is really thin so it feels smaller than it is.

It looked good getting it out albeit a bit waxy but nothing out of the ordinary.

I was dissapointed in this bar, I shouldn't have expected much considering it was cheap for a 'sharing' bar but the chocolate was very basic. It tasted to me like the cheaper chocolate you get when you buy a bar with a boy band (no names) on the front or the pound shop christmas decorations. That wouldn't have really mattered if the filling was especially good, but I didn't think it was to be honest. I got the alcohol flavouring and I think once out of the whole bar I got an actual taste of something like Baileys but very underwhelming overall.

Rating 5/10

My second purchase was the Nestle Kit Kat Chunky White.

 I'm pretty sure this isn't a new bar but I'd not tried it before and I'm on a bit of a Kit Kat kick after the Kit Kat double caramel so I grabbed myself one.

This bar is back to the three chunks and the white chocolate looks identical to Nestles other white chocolates.

The bar smells very sweet and as you can see in the picture it does have quite a thick covering of white chocolate over the wafer pieces. I bit a teeny bit off the end to see what the chocolate is like alone and it tasted just like a Milky Bar. I'm guessing (and I'll look this up or if anyone knows please comment!) that this is the same chocolate used. I'm glad I tried it alone because I couldn't taste it at all once I ate it with the wafers. This surprised me as with a normal Kit Kat Chunky the wafer/choc ratio is pretty good but even with as (sickly) sweet as the white chocolate is it just doesn't stand out enough. This is a OK bar but I won't go out of my way to look for it again.

Rating 6/10