Nice, but fairly ordinary... (Mars Celebrations)

Member Name: Daniel K

Product:	Mars Celebrations
Date:	03/01/04 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty chocolates, Good selection

Disadvantages: Some chocolates contain nuts, Could be more variety of chocolates

There are a wide variety of boxes of chocolates available, and as ever, I received several of these as gifts this Christmas. One such type of chocolates are 'Celebrations', made by Mars, or Masterfoods. They are basically just miniature versions of Mars' selection of chocolate bars, in the same wrappers as described below. There are not that many chocolates to choose from, but each box does include the following:

- Bounty - contains dessicated coconut covered in milk chocolate. Comes in a blue and white wrapper, with white lettering.

- Mars bar - fluffy, sweet centre, topped with caramel and covered in chocolate. Comes in a black wrapper with red and gold stripes and lettering.

- Snickers - roasted peanuts and caramel wrapped in chocolate. Comes in a brown wrapper, with dark blue lettering on a white background.

- Milky Way - sweet, creamy and fluffy centre, coated in milk chocolate. Comes in a blue wrapper decorated with small pale blue stars.

- Maltesers - crisp honeycomb pieces in chocolate. Comes in a red and gold wrapper. Slightly different to regular Maltesers.

- Galaxy - a smooth, rich chunk of Galaxy chocolate. Comes in a pale brown wrapper, with dark brown lettering.

- Topic - hazelnuts and caramel wrapped in chocolate. Comes in a red wrapper decorated with nuts.

- Galaxy Caramel - a chunk of Galaxy chocolate, with a soft caramel centre. Comes in a dark brown and yellow wrapper.

- Galaxy Truffle - creamy chocolate truffle, covered in chocolate. Comes in a brown and gold wrapper.

These are the nine varieties that make up the selection in 'Celebrations'. The box or tin that they come in is a dark red colour, with Celebrations spelt out with letters from each of Mars' product logos on the wrappers. Boxes of Celebrations also have a clear window, unlike some boxes of chocolates, so you can see inside what chocolates there are - each chocolate i
s also individually wrapped in their own distinctive foil wrapper.

Obviously, if you have tried these already, you will have your own favourite chocolates; mine would have to be the Topic, Malteser, Galaxy Caramel, and Milky Way - these ones are more unique, and are chocolates not widely available in bars, particularly the Topic. My least favourites would be the Snickers and Bounty bars, as they are a bit plain and boring - also these tend to be the last ones left in each box, too! It also tells you on the box that the mix of sweets in each box varies, so you may get more of some chocolates, and less of others.

The Malteser also varies from the regular Maltesers you get in a bag, as the Celebrations ones are larger and more oval-shaped, and contain pieces of honeycomb, instead of a whole centre; the Galaxy Truffle is also oval-shaped. Other chocolates are just usual bar-shaped, and are identical to the regular-sized chocolate bars available. Some of the chocolates in Celebrations contain nuts, such as Topic and Snickers, and are therefore unsuitable if you're allergic to nuts.

Celebrations are available in a variety of different sizes, ranging from 480g boxes that cost roughly £2.79, to1kg tins, which cost about £7.99. There are also smaller boxes of about 200g that cost around £1.99. The milk chocolate in Celebrations contains milk solids of 14% minimum and cocoa solids 25% minimum.

My overall opinion of Celebrations is that they are nice chocolates, although I definitely prefer some chocolates more. They are also not as nice as either Quality Street or Cadbury's Roses, which I also prefer more, as there are not as many to choose from in Celebrations. But if you like chocolate in general, or like Mars' selection of bars, then you'll definitely like these.

Summary: