That's it. I've decided that most of the chocolates and sweets I have fond nostalgic memories of as a kid are now rubbish. Quality Street are too sweet these days, so is Terry's Chocolate Orange...and even Cadbury's, who you could once rely on for good quality products have now made their Roses selection rubbish too!
I'd heard lots of murmurs in comments sections online about them being poor quality nowadays, but didn't pay them any mind. Not until I bought a box recently to see what the new coffee chocolates would taste like...
Prior to this I hadn't eaten Roses for years, since I was a kid infact. Back then we always used to have a tin of Quality Street at Christmas, and I viewed Roses as more luxury in comparison, since Cadbury's chocolate has always tasted better than Nestlé's. Well not any more! They're dire now. They taste like a cheap supermarket brand of chocolates with unimaginative varieties coated in cheap, overly sweet chocolate.
Below are my thoughts on each variety from the latest incarnation of Roses:
Brazillian Darkness:
This one had a dark chocolate coating and so wasn't quite as sickly sweet as the other chocolates in the selection. It contains a hard toffee center with little pieces of brazil nut. It tasted nice in comparison to the other chocolates, but was a little bland.
Brazillian Darkness
Signature Truffle (new!):A bland tasting chocolate with a plain truffle filling - this one is obviously meant as a "filler" chocolate.
Signature Truffle
Coffee Escape (new!):The main reason I bought these Roses is because I'd heard Cadbury were re-introducing a coffee chocolate, but wasn't sure if it would be the coffee cream one they used to do. Alas...it's just a coffee-flavoured chocolate truffle! It tasted okay, but didn't have a very strong coffee flavor.
Coffee Escape
Country Fudge:I liked the texture of this one, but it was far too sweet and without any real fudge flavor. It didn't even taste as good as the Cadbury Fudge sticks you can get for 20p, which surprised me. In comparison, the fudges in Quality Street taste much nicer.
Country Fudge
Caramel:This was a bland tasting and overly sweet toffee. I'm not sure why it's called caramel because it's simply a hard toffee. Caramel is supposed to be soft!
Caramel
Hazel Whirl:This contains a hazelnut encased in milk chocolate. It tasted rather bland - the hazelnut wasn't very fresh and didn't really provide much flavor.
Hazel Whirl
Hazel in Caramel:This is similar to the "Purple One" in Quality Street, but tastes much inferior. The caramel is overly sweet and bland and the hazelnut didn't taste very fresh or crunchy.
Hazel in Caramel
Golden Barrel:This one was okay...it was extremely sweet, but I could just about detect a buttery taste of caramel underneath all the sweetness. I remember these tasting much nicer when I tried them as a kid.
Golden Barrel
Strawberry Dream:Being a fan of the strawberry cremes in Quality Street I was excited to try this...but it tasted very bland. It was overly sweet and didn't have a very strong strawberry flavor.
Strawberry Dream
Tangy Orange Creme:This had a nice tang of orange, but like the strawberry dream it was overly sweet which ruined the overall flavor.
Tangy Orange Creme
Overall:Dear oh dear...Roses have deteriorated a lot since I was a kid. Whilst this is true of most chocolates from childhood, it's even more obvious with Cadbury Roses. The quality of the actual chocolate is dire, which is bizarre because when I was a kid Roses were perceived as special chocolates, something you would give as a gift on birthdays or at Christmas...not cheap rubbish crammed full of as much sugar and fat as possible! They just have no value any more, they're the sort of thing a stingy boss buys for their office at Christmas.
Sort it out Cadbury! If this carries on people will stop buying them, no matter how low in price they get each year...
Price: I paid £2 for a 350g box at Asda. Usually about £3.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk, nuts & soya.
Nutrition Information (per 100g): 535 Calories, 31.5g Fat, 56g Sugars.
RATING: 4 out of 10.
Do you think Cadbury Roses have gone downhill in quality? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!