Wawel Chocolate Bars

Wawel are a Polish company and I've reviewed a few of their chocolates before.

Polish chocolate bars are sold near enough everywhere in the UK now and all the supermarkets and smaller shops near me are rammed full of either Wawel or E.Wedel chocolate bars. Asda had a huge display on the end of the world food aisle pushing four new Wawel chocolate bars, the two I've got to review today and two which didn't really appeal to me - though most people on my Twitter at least would disagree - ordinary dark chocolate and a filled peanut butter bar. 

Fresh & Fruity 

Milk chocolate with jelly. 

This was the first bar to catch my eye. It's a 100g bar with nice thick squares as seems to be standard for Wawel, no 89/90g mucking about like Cadbury! I was suprised opening the wrapper that I couldn't smell chocolate at all - not even a tiny whiff - the only thing to be smelt was a fruity jelly. 

I tried a square which had no jelly pieces first though there was a gap where some must have been before I'd snapped it off. Strangely it had no chocolate flavour at all (the packet has stated in bold that this bar contains vegetable fats as well as cocoa butter, I wonder if that contributed) instead, it just had a hint of jelly like taste to it. It really didn't taste like chocolate. 

I picked this bar as I thought it would combine two of my loves - chocolate and jelly bean/sweets. But no these aren't jelly sweets at all, they're actual lumps of jelly! Not only did they have a weird texture, as in where's the custard to go with this wobbly jelly texture, but most had absoloutly no flavour. In the photo above you should be able to see two different coloured jellies, the red had a nice fruity flavour but most of my pieces were the clear/white jelly which was plain. 

So add the wibbly wobbly jelly on a plate texture, the mostly plain flavour of the jelly and the complete absence of chocolate taste and it all adds up to an unimpressive bar. 

I had one square with no jelly and none that seemed to be touching it and the chocolate had a little flavour there, quite milky and creamy but nothing I'd go out of my way to buy. 

5/10

Cocoa Mousse Limited Edition 

Chocolate with cocoa filling (28%) and chocolate filling (20%)

Like when I opened the Fresh & Fruity bar the chocolate scent took a back seat, instead of awful jelly there was a delicious cocoa smell this time round. 

I broke a piece of just chocolate off to see if this one had any flavour and pleasingly it did. It's 55% so not very dark but not too sweet or milky and was perfectly tasty alone. 

The cocoa filling is the star of the show though, I know mousse is in the name, and it's described as filling but this was so thick it was almost like a paste - and for once I didn't refrigerate the bar so there's no chance of it thickening up because it was cold. It has a beautiful rich cocoa flavour, I wish I knew what they used I'd like to buy a tub of purely that! 

There's also a chocolate filling, if you look carefully in the photo you'll be able to see two different colours in the paste centre. To be honest it takes a back seat to the cocoa flavour and blends in with the actual chocolate but it does add some sweetness that I didn't notice when I tried the chocolate alone. 

Overall the bar is fairly sweet but the cocoa filling is what stands out the most. It's such an intense, creamy, rich flavour but manages to stop short of being too much which I think is due to the sweeter chocolate filling balancing it out. Polar opposite to the Fresh & Fruity bar! 

8/10 

Wawel Marcepan

Can you tell Tesco had a sale on Polish chocolate? 

For this weeks Wednesday world food review its another Wawel bar, a company I've had mixed experiences with previously, from Poland and this is Marcepan 'Marzipan coated chocolate product'. 

For a bar that weighs roughly the same size as a standard (for now anyway) chocolate at 35g, it was a little on the small side but for the size it felt pretty heavy. It was a little strange smelling, I couldn't work out what was the stronger scent; the darker chocolate coating with 43% minimum cocoa solids or the sweet marzipan centre. 

I couldn't get a clean cut as the marzipan is quite thick so I ended up snapping the chocolate before I got through. Although the filling is pretty solid it melts away in the mouth and turns into a pleasant sort of creamier, grittier texture. The filling thankfully didn't taste as sweet as it smelt but for a product that states quite a few times on the wrapper that it has 31% almonds, I expected the almond flavour to shine through a bit more. 

I didn't get much of a taste of the chocolate, the coating is very thin and the marzipan drowned out any darker flavours there might have been. I think a darker chocolate was the perfect choice though to balance against the sweet centre, milk would be too sweet. 

Rating 7/10 

Wawel Maciek Adwokat

It's Wednesday so another foreign treat and another Wawel bar! This is Maciek Adwokat. I thought Maciek meant milk, as in milk chocolate but according to Google translate it means POTBELLY?!? So thanks Wawel, that's a bit offensive... This is a milk chocolate bar though with Advocaat filling, if you don't know what Advocaat is, here is the wiki on it "Advocaat or Advocaatenborrel is a traditional Dutch alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar and brandy.^[] The rich and creamy drink has a smooth, custard-like flavor and is similar to eggnog. The typical alcohol content is generally somewhere between 14% and 20% ABV. Its contents may be a blend of egg yolks, aromatic spirits, sugar or honey, brandy, vanilla and sometimes cream (or evaporated milk)" Advocaat is the alcoholic ingredient in a Snowball, which I know I've tried but it's been a while! 

If you've read my previous Wednesday posts you'll know Wawel don't muck about when it comes to the filling and Adwokat is no different, the filling takes up 45.5% of the bar and actually contains 2% alcohol and 1.8% egg yolks so quite authentic on ingredients. I purchased this on a Tesco self service till and even got I.D'd for it! 

Opening it up the chocolate was the main smell but there was a faint alcoholic-y scent to it, I haven't had Advocaat for years so I couldn't tell you if it was true to the drink but there was a hint of booze there. The filling was once again very thick and I actually managed to separate the centre from the chocolate with this bar and eating it alone it could be quite gritty. It has a creamy flavour to it, is quite sweet and rich and very enjoyable actually. I wouldn't compare the taste to a custard though but that is me going by the Wikipedia here, Advocaat itself might taste nothing like custard to me! 

I also got to taste the chocolate alone, it has 30% cocoa solids so isn't too sweet and is quite creamy. I found my favourite way to eat this bar was like a Creme egg - bite a bit off, eat the filling then the outside - but the 'normal' way was just as tasty too. 

Even though this only contains 2% alcohol it wasn't very evenly distributed in my bar, for the first few squares I found the centre very tasty but lacking any real alcohol flavours despite the scent. I then got to the last two squares which is where all the booze had settled apparently! Those last two little blocks were like eating a square of solidified pure alcohol!! Those parts weren't as nice as the rest of the bar but I wish some other alcoholic chocolates were as strong as them! 

Of the three Wawel bars I've previously reviewed this is my favourite, and I think they also sell it in a massive 200g bar too. 

Rating 7/10 

Wawel Krówkowy mleczny

It's a Wednesday! Also known as hump day to many, pizza night in our house and the day I'll hopefully be continuing my weekly review of a foreign food. Now it just needs a catchy name - suggestions welcome! 

Carrying on with the Wawel brand from Poland, I chose Krówkowy mleczny 'milk chocolate bar with caramel filling (50%)'. It's quite a big bar, weighing in at 48g and as you can see, taking up a fair part of a side plate. 

Unlike last weeks bar the chocolate shell of the bar felt quite thin and if you look carefully at the top right of the photo you can see where it had snapped before I'd even removed it from the wrapper. This can probably be explained by the fact the caramel and the chocolate unusually have an exactly equivalent percentage here, it's not often there is literally just as much filling as there is chocolate! 

I didn't get to try unadulterated chocolate as the caramel was so thick and sticky, try as I might I just couldn't get a piece without any on and as the chocolate was quite thin when I tried to scrape the caramel away it just crumbled! 

I was slightly worried looking at a cross section as it looked just like last weeks not so impressive Toffi bar. To taste, it was better though. Despite appearances it was a lot less gritty than the previous filling, a lot smoother and creamier yet just as thick. It was still super sweet and very rich - the Polish must have very sweet teeth!! The sweetness meant I'd liked to have eaten this slowly a square at a time but the fragile chocolate didn't allow for that and I ended up with shards of chocolate and blobs of caramel all over the plate. 

The caramel flavour is pretty overwhelming, I did get a touch of milky, creamy chocolate but not enough to review. I did enjoy this bar more than the Toffi and it is quite nice but again I found it exceedingly sweet and I couldn't have eaten a bigger sized bar than this. 

Rating 6/10 

Wawel Maciek Toffi

We went a bit mad in the Tesco foreign food aisle on the 3 for £1 chocolates so I've decided to do a weekly Wednesday mini review on these! 

Kicking off with what sounded the most appetising to me Wawel Maciek Toffi, a milk chocolate with 45% toffee filling. 

The way the weather in Londons been lately (34 degrees outside and a good 10 degrees warmer in my kitchen!) I kept this in the fridge and so it's developed a bit of a bloom, but it is best by August so it could be that too. 

Snapping a square off I realised the 45% toffee wasn't an estimation, it really does fill nearly half the bar. I could tell before I'd even bitten into it that it was a thick toffee and I had my suspicions it would be super sweet - I'm sure you can see the sugar granules! 

Surprisingly at first all I could taste was the chocolate, I've tried Wawel chocolate and reviewed it a few times before and enjoyed it but I wasn't too impressed. The bloom doesn't usually affect the taste of the chocolate so I don't think it was the case here but this tasted like cheap (to be fair it was) inferior chocolate. The toffee soon announced itself and good God it was sweet. I had a slab of English toffee last night and it was chewy, buttery and enjoyable - this was grainy, thick, gooey and overpowering. I think it would be suited to a more bitter, darker chocolate or even less of the toffee in the same bar but it was just not very nice here. I didn't enjoy the sickly aftertaste it left either so not a good start really, fingers crossed the others are nicer! 

Rating 5/10 

Wawel chocolates

I have two chocolate bars in this post, I'm not sure if they're new bars completely or just new to Asda when I bought them. They're both Wawel bars and judging by the company address and language it's all written in this is a Polish brand. 

Firstly I tried (I think) the Kaszstanki bar. It's a dark chocolate which went down well, it's not too dark so I didn't feel it was too much after one or two squares but it doesn't taste milky. 

The centre has a lovely texture, it was creamy yet still crunchy and had a delicious rich cocoa flavour. 

Despite being a darker bar it's very moreish and this didn't last long at all, I enjoyed the fact it was a filled bar whereas I find the flavoured fillings are usually paired with milk chocolate and the nut/whole pieces in the darks. 

Rating 7/10 

The other bar I had is, again, I think called Krówkokwa. It's milk chocolate with 36% caramel filling (I managed to hang on to the wrapper to get the translation here!) 

The chocolate isn't great to be honest, it seemed quite greasy and waxy - not that I'd have noticed the taste against the filling - but I ended up with smeared chocolate everywhere.

The filling I did not enjoy at all at the beginning of the bar. My first few bites I couldn't taste caramel, just pure sugar. Eventually the flavour did come through a bit, it's very buttery and still extremely sweet. I just couldn't get into it as it was too sweet even for me! I think this filling could be OK if they used it in a dark bar - at least over 70%. Maybe then the sugar and bitterness could balance each other out but with milk it's just too much. 

Rating 5/10