Cadbury Strawberries and Cream

SNACK: Strawberries & Cream.

I've already covered on this blog how much I love a limited edition variety, especially when it's totally different from anything else available.  I found this block at Brookside Woolworths a little while ago, but I believe it has spread to most supermarkets now.

When I bought it the block happened to be on sale for $2.99 which I think is pretty darn good for a block of mid-range filled chocolate.  I think Cadbury are trying to make this part of the Snack range as it's got Snack printed above the name.

The centre is actually flowing, left alone it oozes.

It's a milk chocolate block of shaped squares held together on a flat base.  The squares alternate flavours, one strawberry, one cream, with two of each flavour in a row.  The columns going down are all the same flavour which I imagine would be to keep the manufacturing process simple.

The chocolate is good, it's standard Cadbury Dairy Milk which interestingly I've found to be sweeter than the UK Cadbury which tastes kinda bland to me.  The strawberry filling is great! Exactly the same as the strawberry piece in the regular Snack version, sweet and sugary with a nice strawberry flavour.  The cream square is very vanilla in flavour though oddly lacks a scent which I found disconcerting.  It has the same texture as the strawberry flavour, a sugary grain that is pleasant.

I couldn't eat too much of this in one go as it is quite sweet but I'd definitely buy it again.  Irritatingly it's not featured on the Cadbury Australia webpage, but then neither is the other limited edition flavour available solely at IGA Supermarkets at the moment, Tropical Pineapple.

The Final Verdict: 4 - Absolutely recommend this! Sweet and pleasant with great subtle flavours.

Peanut Butter and Coconut M&M's

Peanut Butter M &M's.

So we talked about the history of M&M's in a previous post while discovering the joys of pretzel filled M&M's which I still pine for by the way, in case anybody reading this has access to them and feels compassionate.

Coconut M&M's

Mars is very fond of messing with their product, sometimes it rings with the pleasant sound of success.  Other times is rumbles with the unhappy sound of failure.  Two products which regrettably fall into the latter category are the Peanut Butter M&M's and Coconut M&M's, the PB ones are a regular line feature in the USA but can be purchased in Australia at specialty candy retailers.  The Coconut ones are a limited edition that first appeared in 2009, from what I gather they had a bit of a break and came back for the northern 2010 summer.

Note the irregular shapes.

But anyway, in all honesty the PB version should have worked.  I like peanut butter, in moderation and in the correct places.  Like a satay sauce.  Or on crackers.  But what I dislike is peanut butter as an overpowering flavour and pastiness in consistency.  In fact while we're on the subject what is with the American peanut butter obsession?  Can someone enlighten me?  These M&M's had both an overwhelming peanut butter taste and a pasty middle that stuck to teeth and mouth in a most unpleasant fashion.

A gooey peanuty centre.

The candies themselves had the usual hard shell and milk chocolate interior, but beneath the chocolate was a oval of peanut butteryness that was very bland.  The end result was the pasty texture and a peanut flavour but none of the enjoyable saltiness that peanut butter normally has.  I think I ate two and gave them to my brother's girlfriend, she downed the packet in one go (bear in mind it was a little single serve packet).

For some reason I got no flowers or anything in this shot.

I got the coconut variety not long after the pretzel ones, I was initially disappointed that it was such a small bag.  Man, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise!  These are the same size as a regular milk chocolate M&M, maybe a little puffier, and feature the M on some candies and little summery images on others, like palm trees and flowers.  Unlike the PB ones which contain actual peanut butter, these contain no coconut at all except for artifical

Insidey bits - it shattered when I cut it.

flavouring.  I was hoping for some coconut embedded in the chocolate much like a coconut rough but with a crunchy sugar shell.  The only thing I got was the sugar shell.  They're pleasant, I ate more than the PB ones but after a few my throat was burning from the flavouring and I felt slightly sick.  I wouldn't buy these again.

The Final Verdict: 2 - Both were more upleasant than enjoyable, the Peanut Butter needed salt, the Coconut needed ACTUAL coconut.  Don't buy either, especially if you can't stand imitation coconut flavouring.