The Chocolate Race
I like taking salted gourmet nuts and putting them in a bowl with other lollies so the salt spreads throughout, accenting all the flavours.
So sure, I tried the new Cadbury Vegemite chocolate. This is how it goes:
- Cautious bite.
- Hey, it’s just like a strongly salted caramel. It’s really not baaa—-
- Aaarrgghh!!!!! Vegemite!!!! WHYYYYYYYYY!!!!????!?!?!??!?!
- Eat something else to get rid of the taste.
- Think, “I do like salted caramel. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I should give it another chance.”
- Return to Step 1.
Today I’ll be comparing the classic “Picnic” bar and block versus the new limited addition “Pretzel and Peanut” block. All are Cadbury products.
The Picnic bar has wafer, peanuts, and caramel. It’s tricky to eat (peanuts and chocolate fragments tend to explode everywhere with each bite) but it’s delicious. “Picnic” is an appropriate name, because it’s genuinely filling (thanks, peanuts). It’s famously knobbly in appearance, and to the best of my recollection gets advertised in a “This is yummy” fashion rather than a sexy fashion, which is both excellent and a wise choice for the product.
The block version is completely regular in shape. There’s no caramel and the wafers have transmogrified into crisps (a fair trade, except in the bar they feel like a necessary stabilising element that also adds texture, whereas in the block version they mostly feel like filler). It’s a lot easier to eat, but has much less charm and taste. Don’t take my caramel, people.
The Peanut Pretzel block is a new favourite of mine. It has just a hint of salt (because pretzels) and that makes it incredibly compelling. It doesn’t have any caramel either (but I never missed it until now), and feels like it has more chocolate per piece than the picnic version.
Nice work, Cadbury. Send me review copies of your latest work anytime. I’ll be here.
Felicity Banks 