When I spotted these Walkers "Blonde Chocolate Caramel Thins" in a 99p Store recently, my snacks radar perked up. "Blonde chocolate? What on earth is that?", I thought. Reading the box unfortunately took away some of the mystique - they're described as simply "Coloured white chocolate thins with a caramel flavor filling". Not natural blondes then!
Speaking of "Blonde chocolate", it seems to be a new term in confectionery and one I've only seen coined in the description of the new Valrhona Dulcey chocolate so far (which I'm yet to try due to the cost!) It refers to a type of caramel-flavoured white chocolate in a similar vein to Nestle's Caramac. And that's kind of how these "blonde chocolate thins" tasted - like Caramac, but much sweeter.
Opening the box they actually looked like a Caramac version of After Eights. I got quite excited as I've never seen a product quite like this before.
Unfortunately all the fun stopped when I bit into one. It tasted like a waxier, sweeter and inferior version of Caramac. Which is saying something considering Caramac itself is very sweet and waxy these days (it used to be much nicer when I was a kid!) The ingredients contain vegetable fat which may explain the waxy texture. The filling wasn't really caramel, but rather some kind of caramel-flavoured vegetable fat "paste".
Overall I was very disappointed with these. Walkers claim to have been producing chocolate since 1963 and are focused on quality...but so far my experiences with their products say otherwise. I've reviewed their Milk Chocolate Raisin Eggs previously and although they were an interesting product, they weren't great quality. Maybe I'm just being too critical though - my friend liked these chocolates and said they were "gorgeous".
So don't take my word for it - try these for yourself and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Price: 99p per 150g box at 99p Stores.
Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, vegetable fat, whole milk powder, whey powder, colour, flavouring.
Allergy Advice: Contains milk. May contain peanuts and tree nuts.