Thorntons Little Temptations - Dark Chocolate

Tempting bites bursting with crispy flakes and fudge pieces

Thorntons are really going for it lately! Three new fairground flavours, a whole new range of biscuit and mini cake bites and "sharing sized" bags of Little Temptations in milk and dark chocolate. 

I tried the three new flavours myself and Lucy tried the biscuits, the fairground flavours seem to divide opinion and the biscuits went down like a lead balloon so I can't say I was overly excited to try these. 

The picture on the front is a bit misleading, I thought the crispy flake pieces and the fudge would be separate but they're not - they're a bit like a posher version of one of my pick'n'mix favourites the Crispy Bite. 

I quite like Thorntons dark chocolate, it's never what I'd go for if I fancied a truely dark chocolate - it's a bit too sweet for that but it's still quite tasty and I do like Thorntons vanilla fudge it has a nice flavour and a slightly crumblier texture but is still quite chewy. 

I started with the smaller clusters, sadly they didn't have any fudge in but they to be fair they were just parts that had fallen off the larger ones but they did have a very crisp, crunchy texture with a nice  flavour. The chocolate is 55% so does have a deeper, richer flavour but (for me) is still quite sweet and as each cluster is made up of mainly cornflakes I could quite clearly taste those too. 

Getting onto the larger pieces I finally found some fudge, they add a little more sweetness to each cluster but the normal vanilla fudge flavour I was expecting was overwhelmed by the chocolate and cornflakes. Some clusters had quite a few fudge cubes and they ended up being quite sweet which balanced out against the darker chocolate really well, they also added some chewiness to each crunchy bite - I didn't notice each individual piece of fudge but I could feel the difference in clusters with more. They ended up being an addictive mouthful of rich smooth chocolate, crunchy cornflake pieces and chewy sweet fudge. Separately each part might not be amazing but together they made for a very moreish mix, Mr.1T took the milk chocolate version but I don't mind, I think the contrast of the dark chocolate against the sweet fudge is what made these so moreish to me. 

7/10 

Thorntons Toffee Apple Caramel

Finally I tried the last of the three new Thorntons flavours, Toffee Apple Caramel. 'Soft gooey caramel, flavoured with apple juice and wrapped in milk chocolate'

Once again there were seven quite large chocolates in the bag, and they contain a little more cocoa solids than usual with Thorntons milk chocolate at 30%. At first all I could smell was the chocolate - it smelt slightly richer than ordinary Thorntons chocolate but still had the sweet scent of milk chocolate - it didn't smell as rich as the Rausch chocolates (review to come) despite there only being a 5% cocoa difference. Slowly but surely though a sweet apple smell appeared, before I'd even broken open the chocolate shell.

That slight increase on the cocoa percentage really shows though and the chocolate has a slightly richer, darker taste to it. The chocolate coating is nice and thick - something I actually enjoyed with all three flavours - and gives a good bite against the runny centre. 

The gooey caramel is delicious, it has a strong apple flavour alongside the usual caramel and the two go together brilliantly. The caramel is quite thick, on a few of the chocolates I bit half away and ended up pulling all of the caramel out, thankfully the chocolate was tasty enough on its own. It is quite sweet though so I think it's a good choice paired with the slightly richer chocolate, anything too sweet and it could have ended up like the Candyfloss. It made a nice change from the filled chocolates and flavoured caramels I've had recently and plays into the fairground theme brilliantly, the taste really reminded me of being at fairgrounds on Bonfire night watching the fireworks! 

In my opinion this is by far the best of the three new chocolates and the one I'll be voting to keep on the Thorntons website. 

Rating 8/10 

Thorntons Toasted Marshmallow

Following on from yesterday's Candyfloss review, today is the turn of Toasted Marshmallow. 

'Marshmallow flavour truffle dipped in dark and milk chocolate sprinkled with coconut'

Of the three this was probably the one I was least looking forward to as I'm not too keen on coconut, I find it to have a very overwhelming flavour - if there's even a hint of coconut it's all I'll taste, so this didn't bode well. 

There were seven decently sized chocolates in my bag and things started to seem a little brighter when the only scent I could really detect was a mixture of the milk and dark chocolates. The coconut sprinkles got everywhere and most fell off of the chocolate in the middle when I emptied them out of the bag so I decided to try that one first. 

Now bearing in mind this had practically no flakes of coconut, the mix of chocolates were the main flavour. I really enjoyed them together and they had a lovely mix of the sweeter milk and richer dark. It had a good flavour and was thick enough to give a nice bite and crunch against the truffle centre. The filling itself was quite thick and creamy but still managed to be fluffy with a whipped like texture. I can't say I noticed much marshmallow flavour, just a sweetness that contrasted nicely against the slightly thicker dark chocolate. There were a couple of very small coconut flakes on top, not enough to give much flavour (thankfully for me) but enough to notice the crunchiness against the creamy chocolate and soft centre. So far so good. 

Then I ate the rest. I expected the coconut to be apparent but I didn't think it would be so dominant! To be perfectly truthful I just didn't enjoy the others, the coconut is strong and there were so many pieces coating the rest of the chocolates it was all I could taste. It certainly overwhelmed the truffle centre and was as strong as if not stronger than the chocolate. 

To be fair I really don't like coconut, I'd taste it in miniscule amounts so this was always going to be an unfair review. One for the coconut lovers though. 

I want to say 5/10 but it's not Thorntons fault I don't like Coconut. So 5 to my tastes but I'll try to be fair and give it a 7/10 

Thorntons Candyfloss

Thorntons have three new chocolates out, Candyfloss, Toffee Apple Caramel and Toasted Marshmallow. All three are included in a selection box as well as in individual bags and they're being sold in the place I hate most at the moment - W.H.Smiths in a 2 for £1.60 offer. I got myself one of each and Mr.1T a bag of the Candyfloss too as white chocolate is his favourite. 

The Candyfloss chocolates are Candyfloss flavour parfait in white chocolate with pink sugar crystals. 

 I bought these at the weekend and before I had a chance to try them Kev over at Kevs Snack Reviews posted his review of the Candyfloss - read it here. Now I normally trust Kevs judgment but if you follow him on Twitter or his blog you'll know he has been sugar free, so I decided to give these a fair try as that may have influenced his opinion. 

There were eight large chocolates in the bag and they smelt incredibly sweet. The pink sugar crystal coating covered everything and they were quite sticky to touch, though that may be as I'd stored them in a quite warm cupboard. 

The parfait centre has a thick mousse like consistency and is Candyfloss and raspberry flavoured. It's extremely thick, super sweet and did actually taste like Candyfloss.

One difference I did notice between myself and Kev was that I could taste the white chocolate, this might be because my chocolates were all quite different in how thick the chocolate shell was or it could be because of Kevs sugar ban - the mega sweet centre might have overwhelmed the chocolate! Most of mine had a thick chocolate coating and it was also very sweet, every mouthful I had started with the taste of the Candyfloss filling, a short sweet white chocolate flavour then straight back to the Candyfloss/raspberry. 

The texture was a big bonus, crunchy sugar pieces, a thick chocolate shell with a decent bite and a thick creamy middle. An ideal mixture of a mouthfeel for me. 

To be honest these were nice and I enjoyed the first couple but they got too sweet too quickly. Even Mr.1T, who's motto is the sweeter the better, found them to be too sweet. I'd like these in the mixed box as one or two would be just right, especially eaten amongst some darker, richer chocolates but a whole bag - even though it's a small one and only has eight - was just too much. I'd be interested to try this filling with a milk or dark chocolate though. 

Rating

This bag as a whole - 6/10 

As part of mixed box - 7/10

Thorntons Sticky Toffee cake slices

I don't think these cake slices are new but I've not noticed them before, maybe it's new packaging. 

I decided to have one today as I fancied something sweet but even I've managed to overdo it on the chocolate this Easter. 

When we bought these we were unsure as you can't remove the cardboard without breaking it, but all 5 slices are individually packaged. It's nice manufacturers have finally cottoned on that so much nice food is wasted when you only fancy one or two sweet treats and the rest end up going stale. Not that that happens often in this house, I open something nice and he polishes them off while I'm not looking! 

The icing on the top of the cake looks pretty, has a decent toffee flavour and as it's quite thick gives a slight crunch to each mouthful. 

The cake is where my problems lay though. Maybe it's just my pack as they do go off tomorrow, but considering they're all in air tight little compartments, they're quite dry. Not stale tasting, just dry and left me needing a swig of drink once I'd finished it. 

I don't think I'd buy this version again on that basis - but there is a chocolate version available too that was returned to the shelf in favour of this, that I'd like to try. Hopefully the cake itself will be moister as Thorntons have managed the flavour. 

Rating 6/10 

Cookies, Thorntons and Angel Delight

Chips Ahoy Crispy Choco Caramel

These have been out for a while, at first in Asda I think but they're everywhere now and I finally picked some up. I do enjoy biscuits but cookies aren't at the top of my list, I'm quite partial to chocolate digestives (preferably dark chocolate), cookies I can take or leave. After trying the Cadbury Chips Ahoy bar and reading all the hype about the original cookie in America I wanted to try them and while we for some reason don't have the original cookie we do have this Crispy Choco Caramel version as well as a popcorn one.

The packs quite big and there are 12 cookies in each pack, while they're not that wide these are thick chunky cookies.

Chocolate is definitely the main flavour in this cookie but the caramel shines through too. This is a rich, sweet, moist cookie, sometimes I find cookies a bit dry which is why I tend to avoid them but this isn't at all and the crispy pieces add a bit of extra texture. These are incredibly moreish, I really hope Chips Ahoy bring out the original version!

Rating 8/10 

Thorntons Fabulous Fudge

This is one of two new(ish) bar from Thorntons, the other being milk chocolate with toffee pieces. As far as I'm aware they're only sold in W H Smiths at the moment and have been for a while, it's taken me this long to find a W H Smiths where they don't keep the chocolate bars only at the tills -  why do they do that? Sometimes I just want to buy chocolate and I'm not queuing up incase there's none I like!

This is a standard 100g bar, separated into even blocks of 3 apart from 1 larger block at the end which could be a little annoying if you're portioning this out but I ate it all in one go so…  

This isn't advertised on the Thorntons website and my lovely fiancée managed to throw the wrapper away before I'd even finished this so I don't have the specifics on this but I'm pretty sure it's a fudge flavoured milk chocolate with extra fudge pieces inside. The chocolate is nice and sweet and the fudge pieces are a lovely add in. Once the chocolate has melted in your mouth you're left with chewy fudge, a nice change from the usual crunch that's added to bars. I really like the flavours and textures of this, and the fact it only cost me £1 made it even better.

Rating 7/10

Thorntons Special Toffee Milk Choclolate.

I do like toffee but if it came head to head with fudge it would lose every time. Normally.

This is the other Thorntons sharing block, the basics are the same as the as the fudge bar -  once again my OCD fiancée had thrown the packet away before I'd even finished the bar so I can't give you the finer details.

There are toffee pieces dotted throughout, I had a generous and evenly spaced amount - sometimes, like ice cream, I find some parts have more and others none but that wasn't the case here. The toffee flavour is good, I enjoy Thorntons fudge and toffee anyway and I think this is the same recipe used in the bar. As with the fudge bar the chocolate melts away to leave crunchy chewy toffee pieces and for the first time this beats fudge for me!

Rating 8/10

Angel Delight Bubblegum Flavour

I absolutely loved Angel Delight as a kid, my mum used to make it for me and my sister and we had special fancy glass bowls she used to dish it up in, looking back now they were just ordinary glass bowls but I remember feeling very grown up! I still eat Angel Delight from time to time now, I'll write online it's nostalgic but really I think it's still quite nice ;-).

I picked this up in Tesco about a week and a half ago and I put it off for a while because after I'd thought about it I didn't really fancy the idea of a bubblegum flavour, it's strange to me.

Anyway I opened this up and they've got the smell spot on, it's very strong, very overpowering and very bubblegum. Infact it's so bubblegum-y that it actually put me off a bit. It smells just like Hubba Buuba, artificial and I swear you can just smell the sugar and I couldn't really see how that would be nice in a mousse/dessert/whatever Angel Delight is classed as nowadays.

Fortunately (unfortunately?)  after I made this and was leaving it for the five minutes to set someone came round so I popped it in the fridge and didn't get back to it for 2 hours. When I opened the fridge everything smelt of bubblegum, the smell had just overtaken everything and despite really not wanting this I got stuck in.

I'm not sure if it's because I left it a lot longer to set than you're supposed to or if it's because I put it in the fridge or maybe it's just like this, but the taste was extremely muted compared to the smell. This was a good thing for me! I could taste the bubblegum but it was very dull, I wonder if this is the same base as the strawberry version just with added flavour because every now and then it tasted very similar.

This was Ok but it's not something I'd buy again, if anyone has tried it and has a different experience to me please let me know as I really think the two hour gap affected it.

Rating 6/10