Whilst in Sainsbury's recently I noticed they had their own chocolate selection to rival Cadbury Roses and Quality Street. This is a bold move, since they're in the same price range; in fact, they actually cost £1 more. So naturally I expected them to taste just as good or even better in quality... which shouldn't have been too difficult, since both Roses and Quality Street are not good quality any more!
Unfortunately they turned out to be very poor. The plain box design set the tone, and the wrappers were all shiny and gauche - the sort of thing you would serve up at a cheap Christmas party. I knew these were going to be disappointing as soon as I set eyes on them!
Below are my thoughts on each flavor...
Honeycomb Truffle:
A bland, overly sweet truffle with poor quality chocolate. Not much else to say about it really!
Strawberry Creme:
This chocolate was okay and gave a very sweet, artificial strawberry hit. It has a thin layer of strawberry "jam" in the center which makes it a little different from your average strawberry creme.
Dairy Toffee:
A very hard toffee, the kind that almost breaks your teeth. It tasted bland and overly sweet with hardly any buttery flavor.
Orange Creme:
Not as nice as the ones in Quality Street, but pleasant enough. Like the Strawberry Creme this contains a thin layer of "jam" in the center.
Double Chocolate Eclair:
This is similar to a Cadbury Eclair but much inferior. The caramel tasted sweet and bland whilst the chocolate offered no flavor at all.
Popping Candy Truffle:
This truffle was sweet and crunchy, but I couldn't detect any popping candy - there was no crackling in my mouth at all. Maybe it had already "popped" during storage!
Vanilla Fudge:
A sweet and tasteless fudge. It had a nice soft texture, but little in the way of flavor.
Hazelnut in Caramel:
This one was okay as it had a slight buttery flavour, but I couldn't really taste the hazelnut. The purple ones in Roses & Quality Street are much better!
Chocolate Fudge Brownie:
This had no brownie pieces in and was more of a basic chocolate truffle. It tasted okay though, and had a decent chocolatey flavor.
OVERALL:
I have to say this is a very disappointing chocolate assortment. The price point is the same as Roses and Quality Street yet the quality is much inferior - I would've expected better from Sainsbury's! If they'd knocked a pound off the price I could understand the point of them, but they cost more than a box of Roses or Quality Street do in most supermarkets (£2). Overall, these are really not worth buying.
RATING: 5 out of 10.
Price: £3 for a carton, £5 for a large tub.
Vegetarian?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk & soya.
Nutrition (2 sweets): 110 Calories, 4.6g Fat, 12.8g Sugars.
Recommend?: Not at all. Stick with Roses & Quality Street, or better yet don't waste money on such substandard chocolates!