Chocolate not soo lovelyy! (Galaxy Instant)

Member Name: nickbrown60

Product:	Galaxy Instant
Date:	28/02/09 (338 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste's okay, Smells quite nice.

Disadvantages: Not worth the money, too strong, not very thick

Oh who doesn't love a hot chocolate every now and then? Maybe there's a few people who don't but I certainly love them! But I am very fussy with my hot chocolates, they must be perfect. I found this 'Galaxy instant hot chocolate', in Tesco when shopping one evening and I thought we would give it a go. Especially because the price was so low, it was on offer for £1.43 which seamed good for a 400g pot, in the trolley it went!


Packaging
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The tub is rather large standing about 9 inches tall and as wide as a jam jar top. It is brown and a sort of orange colour and has the recognisable Galaxy symbol written on it made to look like chocolate. Its made from flexible plastic so unfortunately I cannot reuse it as a glass unlike the Nutella spread jars! The tub was easy to open, the lid twists off very easily and inside is the usual freshness seal that comes off with ease unlike most products we have tried.


The tub looks very nice and stands out extremely well on super market shelves so it should be extremely easy to find.


Now! Time to make the hot chocolate drink....

How to prepare the beverage
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Now it is very simple to make hot chocolate. Add 4 heaped teaspoonful's of Galaxy hot chocolate into a mug and add water and stir... That's it! Easy. I am not a fan of a hot chocolate without fresh milk in it. I always add half water and half heated milk. There is dry milk in this product but it is never the same!


The powder mixed pretty quickly, there were a few lumps while stirring but they were easily broken up with a Bash with a spoon! The drink was a nice chocolate dark colour and it did not feel to thick when I made it with just the water and no milk. Galaxy describe this drink as being thick and creamy, I did not find this. Its just slightly thicker than water and when I say slightly I mean slightly! But when I added the milk it definitely improved the texture. Galaxy does not say to add milk but it seems to taste okay. The smell is also a lot nicer when milk is added.


How does this hot chocolate taste?
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Well, I'm not too sure if I am an absolute fan of this hot chocolate, it doesn't taste bad! But its not as nice as some other brands I have tried, such as the Aero hot chocolate. The galaxy hot chocolate is very dark in colour and that means its very strong tasting of chocolate. More like the cocoa powder than a drink when made using water, with the milk I use it does improve the taste slightly. The chocolate sometimes comes out quite frothy which is nice.


Considering this is made by Galaxy I would have thought it would taste like Galaxy milk chocolate. It tastes almost exactly the same as the Tesco Value hot chocolate that costs just 23p! Nothing like Galaxy at all which I was quite disappointed with.


How to store
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As with most powdered products it should be stored in a cool and dry place, also out of direct sunlight so a cupboard should be just fine. We keep our on the window sill in the kitchen, it's still fine!


Healthy or not?
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I would say most probably not? I really am not sure. In the 400g pot, each cup of hot chocolate drink made with water contains 3.2g of Fat!!! Whoa! I'm not adding milk to this stuff any more, that is pretty fattening. It also has 115 calories per cup which is okay I suppose, I was expecting less and wished I hadd read this Galaxy tub before this review! I have drank 30 cups over 4 days! Ouch.


The drink is made using water so it is very hydrating, that's a good thing. It also contains 484kJ of energy per cup.


Allergy advice
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This product is not suitable for any milk and soya free diets. There is no meat in the powder so it should be suitable for most vegetarians however I cannot find anything on the tub so please do not count on that!


For more product information visit: www.drinkgalaxy.com


Overall this product is okay for the price I paid. It is usually £2.69 in Tesco, I would definitely consider buying the Tesco Value first as it tastes almost identical to me. But if the Galaxy is on offer I would say give it a try. The taste is quite average and definitely does not taste like Galaxy chocolate. It is also quite runny but with a bit of milk added the consistency is improved.


Thank you for reading!
Nick, nickbrown60

Summary: Buy the Tesco value!