A few years back now, when Cadbury introduced a "Coffee Escape" chocolate to Roses I did a scathing review of them...I was shocked at how much the quality had deteriorated since I last ate Cadbury Roses. So it may come as a surprise to readers that I'm reviewing them yet again...to be honest, I only bothered buying them as they were on special offer and I needed a fix of cheap chocolate! I was also curious to see what the new addition of "Almond Caramel Bite" tasted like. I presumed it would be a bit rubbish...but actually it turned out to not be as bad as expected!
The boxes have been redesigned again, with a slightly different shape and logo. I like them, they're eye catching, in fact the new shape means they look somewhat taller than boxes of Celebrations and Quality Street. They've also started using sealed packaging for the chocolates, before it was plastic twist wraps but they're now completely sealed. I have to say I think it's a good idea, they seemed a tad fresher tasting, although maybe I'm imagining it...I probably am!
All the classics are here, the Strawberry Dream, Orange Creme, Brazillian Darkness, Country Fudge, Golden Barrell, the Coffee Escape and Signature Truffles, as well as the new Almond Caramel Bite. I thought this would just a regular hard caramel with a few chopped almonds thrown in, but turns out it actually contains some bits of wafer too! This was a nice surprise, the wafer is the soft chewy type rather than crunchy, and added a nice differing texture to the harder chewy almond caramel. Colour me pleasantly surprised! A new chocolate that tastes nice and is a bit different, well done Cadbury!
Most of the chocolates were of course rather sickly and certainly not up to the standards Cadbury used to have, but when compared to the state of Quality (!) Street and Celebrations they're the best of a bad bunch. I still think it's a shame they have so many bland chocolates, they could do with taking out the chocolate truffle and replacing it with Turkish delight or even another fruit cream, just something a bit more exciting! As it stands though the Almond Caramel Bite is a nice addition, although I'm not sure most people will even notice that it's new.
