Chocolate

[The Picnic Wasp]

I love most forms of the stuff, but there must be a scientific reason why a Flake is so much better than a straightforward bar of Cadbury's milk chocolate. Also, why does the centre of Lindor chocolate feel cooler in the mouth than the outer coating?

[David L]

I've been into dark chocolate for years now. I started with 70% cocoa and occasionally dipped my toe in the higher cocoa content stuff. Trouble was, it was always too bitter for my taste. However I've now found that Lidl's J D Gross 85% is the chocolate for me. Of course, it's healthy too! (As long as you eat in moderation as part of a calorie-controlled diet!). Cheap too!
I like all my confectionery to be of the dark variety too nowadays including Kit-Kats, Tunnocks bars, chocolate buttons, Leibniz biscuits etc.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Yes, I prefer anything coated to be of the dark variety too, but I have to watch out for the higher caffeine content in solid bars. I quite miss a really high cocoa content chocolate these days but not worth the worry. I've not tried anything from Tunnocks with a plain chocolate coating yet. Their caramel wafers  must be good. I deliberately don't buy dark chocolate digestives anymore as a whole pack just disappears in no time. Memories of Tesco deliveries of too much alcohol and plain chocolate digestives take me back to the darkest days of lockdown.

[Slim]

Is a Flake made out of the same stuff as a regular bar of Cadbury's chocolate? They do taste better, I have to agree. There must be something in the way they're shaped like that - perhaps longer exposure to heat - that makes them different.

But the consistency and texture of it could make it taste different, as well - it could perhaps deliver the taste to your tastebuds in a different way, a bit like a fizzy orange drink tastes different than when it's flat.

As a kid I used to eat the local dark chocolate in Spain when we were on holiday there and that was amazing, very intense and almost powdery. If it melted in the sun it was somehow even better once it set again.

I only eat chocolate on long bike rides now, and only on a minority of those. Apart from the chocolate coating on those little crispy balls that you get in a Muller yoghurt.

I used to buy white chocolate occasionally, Tesco own brand was great.

[The Picnic Wasp]

A colleague once visited Ghana and brought back the local chocolate. I can't find the correct adjectives to describe its texture. Brittle yet unyielding initially is the best I can come up with. Presumably it is manufactured that way due to the climate.

[Slim]

Nestlé have caused a bit of a stir by introducing simpler, recyclable waxed paper wrappers for Quality Street, to replace the shiny cellophane ones they've used for decades (pictured below)

[David L]

....and reducing the size of the sweet within at the same time, no doubt

[Slim]

A logical thing to do would be to sell them in cardboard packaging, rather than the big plastic tub that replaced the old metal container.

Seems bizarre to make a disposable metal container for something like biscuits or chocolates, not sure if anyone still does that now.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Agreed. Whenever I see the great walls of Quality Street, Celebrations, Roses and Heroes lining the supermarket foyers from now until Christmas, it sometimes triggers the thought about where those containers all end up. Peter Kay's auntie can only store a certain amount of buttons.

[Slim]

Since I did a bike ride of greater than 50 miles distance today, I was entitled to a chocolate bar. I chose a Fry's Peppermint Cream.

The Fry's Chocolate Cream and its variants are my favourite chocolate confection of all since childhood and I'm happy that they still exist, all these years later. Except that my very favourite version, the Fry's Five Centres, was discontinued 30 years ago.



I'm not sure I was aware that Fry's was a Cadbury's brand until this evening. But in fact Cadbury's acquired the brand over 100 years ago. Glad they've kept the original branding.

The only other Fry's product I can think of is Turkish Delight, and I never liked that much.

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/frys-peppermint-cream-11325

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/frys-chocolate-cream-11326

According to this Wikipedia article there exist also Fry's Raspberry Cream and Fry's Orange Cream, can't say I remember seeing either of them.

[The Picnic Wasp]

My goodness, Fry's Five Centres a real blast from the past. My mum liked Fry's chocolate and I can remember when I was really young she used to give me a milk chocolate bar called Fry's Five Boys. I remember it had pictures of young lads on the wrapper with various expressions, but I can only recall that one of them was crying, which I seem to remember I found a bit disconcerting. It must have disappeared in the 60s. I also miss Cadbury's Bar Six which I usually think about when I have a Kinder Bueno, but they're not as good. So many good sweets have disappeared over the years. No one I know can remember the Suchardette which I loved.

[Slim]

I remember Bar Six well, I quite liked that one but I don't miss it. It was a bit like a Blue Riband, which does still exist. A bit like a Kit Kat as well I guess.

Here's one that, I was surprised to see, still exists: Cadbury's Old Jamaica.



https://www.snacksonline.co.uk/products/cadbury-bournville-old-jamaica-dark-chocolate-rum-raisin-100g

But it didn't have the Bournville designation when I was a kid; the wrapper was much more inviting:



I remember buying one from a vending machine at Hartlepool Railway Station in about 1971. Cost either 10p or 2 shillings (same coin) which seemed a lot then.

They seemed bigger then but in fact 3⅜ oz (as shown on the old wrapper) is slightly less than 100g. They were actually a little smaller.

[David L]

I loved Old Jamaica. I think it was discontinued for a while, good to see it back but it wouldn't cut the mustard in as far as cocoa content goes.
That classic rum and raisin combo is a favourite of mine and I really like a couple of scoops of R&R ice cream every once in a while.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Old Jamaica! I think the pirate in the TV ad used to pronounce it Jamaikay. I liked it although it wasn't a regular for me. I don't think I've seen it on the shelves although the wrapper might have foxed me. Ive seen Fry's Orange Cream recently though. Perhaps there's regional tastes and consumption for certain things. I believe Amazon sell the five centres variety. I'd like it if the Amazin bar came back. Texans, Trophies and the like. Quite a number of items I liked or at least used to buy which didn't have the staying power. Recipe changes are a bugbear of mine though. Milky Ways aren't as good now (Flytes were more like an old MW but I don't see them now) and Double Deckers were fantastic originally but now seem designed to break teeth.

[David L]

Picnic are one of my favourites. I think they got the blend of ingredients just right with that one. The texture is perfect too