Hello beautiful chocolate lovers! Are you indulging in endless amounts of sweets, chocos to be exact? Let’s hope so, otherwise life will be outright stodgy, he he he. For today’s review, ohhhhhh hold on now, wait a second, what do we have here, a Great Value Brand, could this be Walmart’s own….. Yes, indeed it is! How about that!!! To make matters even more intriguing - MADE in Switzerland, the land of the cows, or yoghurt, or chocolates, or….. You are probably wondering how and why would Great Value make a chocolate, half-way across the world, and then charge only $1.00? Where is the markup, who is the middlemen, how much does this chocolate cost to produce, is it even possible? Okay, one question at a time people. Coop, one of Switzerland’s largest retail and wholesale company is behind it all. They recently opened a new production centre near Basel where Walmart’s Great Value Brand is magically formulated. It is expensive to produce the chocolate in Switzerland, and even more so since the Great Value Brand does not receive any government subsidies. Reason: in order to qualify for subsidies, under the Swiss “Schoggilaw” (Chocolate Law), only manufacturers using milk and wheat in their chocolates will be entitled to export subsidies to compensate for the high cost of these agricultural ingredients. The Great Value Brand has 60 % cacao and zero milk. No subsidy but quite Impressive! What is all of this fuss about then, how is the money made at the end of it all? Well, for starters, the Swiss manufacturing plant is certainly much more efficient when it is running 100 % of the time as opposed to 50 % for example. This means that even if they are making only a couple of cents on each bar, it is much more lucrative for them to have the factory running at full speed as opposed to 1/3 of its capacity. At the end, everyone is a happy gal, including the ones devouring. Now for the real test, the flavour. You are most likely scratching your heads wondering if this tastes mediocre or absolutely dreadful. Let me further articulate. NEITHER! The Great Value Hazelnut Milk Chocolate tastes absolutely enticing. Smooth with a pleasant crunch, creamy, and fluid. Sugar does happen to be the very first ingredient on the list but regardless, it equates to a superb sweet balance. This is due to the Cocoa Butter. The Swiss are very fond of using this highly prized ingredient in many of their chocolates. Laaderach and Lindt are both famous for the generous quantity of cocoa butter in their bon bons. As for the hazelnuts, I would have preferred for them to be the second ingredient on the list as that is what the chocolate is supposed to be defined by. In addition, the whole milk powder and/or whey powder should certainly have been more thoroughly thought through. Nevertheless, for the price of the chocolate and its simplicity, I would highly recommend it to anyone on a budget or even if you are not. It is just good enough. This bar can hold its own among the more expensive contenders. Way to go Great Value Hazelnut Milk Chocolate. Yes, I would definitely repurchase. ChocolisciouslyDelightful Rating: 4.1 / 5.0 Ingredients: Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Whole Milk Powder, Hazelnuts, Chocolate Liquor, Whey Powder, Butter Fat, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavour Contains: Milk, Hazelnuts, Soy May Contain: Other Tree Nuts, Eggs, Barley NUTRITION FACTS Amount Per 10 Squares (42) % Daily Value Calories 230 Fat 14 g 22 % Saturated 7 g 36 % (Saturated and Trans) Trans 0.1 g Cholesterol 10 mg Sodium 0 mg 1 % Carbohydrate 24 g 8 % Fibre 1 g 4 % Sugars 21 g Protein 2 g Vitamin A 0 % Vitamin C 0 % Calcium 6 % Iron 2 %
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Uhhhhhmmmm, I will honestly admit that I was a bit skeptical about the Oreo Milka “invention” since the previous Daim chocolate that I blogged about was a disaster. I thought that Milka has once again gone over their heads, and taken on something much too complex. Nevertheless, I was wrong.
This is an excellent piece of choco, and I am sure that there have been many trial and errors with the Oreo edition before it was successfully thrown into the market. Why might you ask, because it is perfect, accomplished, and exceptional. Milka experimented and prevailed. I opened up the package and wanted to only taste 6-7 squares in order to obtain the full spectrum of the chocolate but as the old saying’ goes “Once you start, you really cannot stop.” This held true in my case. The Oreo bar was gone, devoured, in ten minutes or less, yikes. As I was consuming, the words just kept flooding, and yes, I was writing. It was euphoric. The softness of this chocolate is superb, the melt is orgasmic, and what contributes to the speedy choco disintegrating is due to how incredibly moist the Oreo crumble is. Fantastic! The balance between cacao and Oreo, which has a vanilla aftertaste, is foolproof. If Milka made even one simple change while in production, it might have thrown the whole bar off. There is however, a slight crunch from the cookie but as previously mentioned, in a delicate consistency, as though you have taken the Oreo and dipped it in a glass of cashew milk. The cookie taste is quite prominent in this Milka Bar, there is no mistake there, even in a blind-folded taste test. There is a substantial amount of Oreo as you can see from the photos. I also thought that it was clever to place the cookie in first, as it was most likely dipped in the Milka chocolate thereafter. By using this “potential” method if I am correct, the Oreo will always be making the grand entrance. Would I repurchase this delectable sweet, absoluteclearly YES. Please note that the reason for the un-perfect score is due to the ingredient list. I could definitely do without quite a few fillers. No need to have glucose syrup, or milk fat for example in chocolates. ChocolisciouslyDelightful Rating: 4.2 / 5.0 Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Flavour Filling and Biscuit Pieces. Ingredients: Milk Chocolate 50% (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Skimmed Milk Powder, Cocoa Mass, Whey Powder (from Milk), Milk Fat, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Hazelnut Paste, Artificial Vanillin Flavour), Vanilla Flavoured Milk Filling 38% (Non Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm), Sugar, Whey Powder (from Milk), Skimmed Milk Powder 7%, Milk Fat (2.7 %), Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithin), Artificial Vanillin Flavour, Cocoa Biscuits 12% (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Non Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Palm, Palm Kernel), Reduced Fat Cocoa Powder (6%), Glucose Syrup, Wheat Starch, Raising Agents (Potassium Hydrogen Carbonate, Ammonium Hydrogen Carbonate, Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate), Salt, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Artificial Vanillin Flavour) Nutrition Facts Per 100 G Energy 555 kcal Fat 34.0 G Saturated 19.0 G Carbohydrate 56.0 G Sugars 49.0 G Fibre 1.4 G Protein 5.4 G Salt 0.49 G Well, well, well, where do I begin from here? Upon first glance at this chocolate bar on store shelves, I was immediately quite impressed; as though I was hit with a “love at first sight” type of a feeling! The bar does indeed have a very appealing, and “get my wallet open for purchase” kind of a demeanor. Nevertheless, the initial positive appeal is quite a few miles away from the taste, which I was negatively astonished by. The Daim choco is repulsive, vulgar, and intrusive. Let’s start the review now, shall we!
The melt takes a million seconds to dissipitate (metaphorically speaking) = it is much tooooooo gradual and lazy; get on with it, any day now! Once this cycle has completed, my palate is left with a crunch, the caramel crisps of course, which at this point, are outright aggravating. If the melt was quicker, the crunch therefore might have been somewhat acceptable, but since it starts out so wrong, the leftover caramel is troublesome. The sweetness is heavy, and that might be due to the unbalance amount of each ingredient. In addition, sugar being the first on the list explains it all. This does not provide for a confident start. Oh yeah, to make matters worse, let’s not forget the Sugared Concentrated Skim Milk ingredient. What is that repulsive add-on? I am almost vomiting!@#$%. To point something else of importance is the number of almonds in this bar - less than 1%. Cheapy wheapy! Concentrated Butter??????? Need I go on? This chocolate bar does not provide any sense of satisfaction if you are craving some sort of a sweet. If you do want to give the Daim Choco a try, please make sure that you pair it with a hot beverage of your choice, mine happens to be black coffee or white tea. Would I repurchase the Milka Daim, absoluteclearly NO! ChocolisciouslyDelightful Rating: 0.3 / 5.0 Milk Chocolate of the Alps with Almond Caramel Crisps (20%) Ingredients: Sugar, Cacao Butter, Skim Milk Powder, Cacao Mass, Lactoserum (from Milk), Palm Oil, Concentrated Butter, Almonds (1%), Sugared Concentrated Skim Milk, Emulsifier, Hazelnuts, Salt, Whey (from Milk), Flavours. Cacao: Minimum 30% from Milk Chocolate of the Alps Nutritional Facts Per 100 Grams: Energy 527 kcal Fat 29.0 G Saturated 17.0 G Carbohydrates 59.0 G Sugar 58.0 G Fibre 1.6 G Protein 5.3 G Salt 0.55 G |
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Affordable but still SavoryThis blog page is dedicated to inexpensive chocolates that are continuously, to this day, enjoyed daily by many chocolate lovers out there. I still happily delve my taste buds into a good old-fashioned, so tasty, and yet simple Mr. Goodbar. To top it off, the cost allows for a much "Sweeter" satisfaction on your fuller wallet! Archives
August 2022
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