The Approachable Rock or The Rocky Approach? (Ferrero Rocher)

Name: TheChocolateLady

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Product:	Ferrero Rocher
Date:	18/03/06 (1498 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Elegant looking

Disadvantages: Nuts get stuck in your teeth, expensive, slighly awkward to each, not the best chocolate

I'm sure most of you have heard of these chocolates, but I bet you don't know that the French noun "rocher" literally means "rock", did you? Now, if you take a look at this word, you'll find that it is also the root for the verb "to approach". So what do we have here? An ‘approachable rock' made by the Ferrero company? Or perhaps, its Ferrero's ‘rocky approach' to chocolate. I thought that the significance of this would be very interesting to all of my readers (and certainly be something new for an op on a well-reviewed item). Let me further investigate this significance below.

The Initial Approach:

These are usually presented in some sort of box. The last one I got had a full 25 of these (and probably set my boss back about £6, if not more - even at a duty free shop). They are carefully laid out on a tray with specially shaped indentations that resembles an egg carton. That tray is usually placed inside a clear plastic box and closed shut with gold tape and/or gold elastic ribbons. You'll usually find in the middle of the clear plastic top, the gold, brown and white logo that clearly states "Ferrero Rocher" in all caps (they really don't have to shout it, but still… ).

Upon first sighting the nodules inside, you will be faced with a crumpled, semi-shiny, gold foil-covered, globe-shaped item, which has been placed into a brown coloured, crimped paper cup. There's a little label on each one as well, and when you try to separate the round gold ball from the brown paper, you'll find that they've been stuck together with a touch of some sort of wax or glue. No matter, the wrappings will come away from the product with just a bit of effort, to reveal the treasure inside.

Just Beneath the Surface:

Is where you'll find the truth. And what truth do we have here? That this really does look very much like a rock. From the looks alone, one might believe that Ferrero went out of their way to make this treat as rock-like looking as possible. What we will find in front of us is a brown, lumpy looking ball. But why judge this book by its cover (or this confection by its looks)?

This lump can be broken down into no less than five different layers. These are:

§ Milk chocolate coating - this is what is on the surface of these balls. If you take a lick of this, you'll find that the milk chocolate is smooth, milky (well, duh!) while not overly sweet. The chocolate has a nutty undertone, which complements the rest of the ingredients, but there's also a slightly grassy aftertaste, which I find a touch off-putting, as the freshness of the grassy flavour doesn't blend well with nuts. However, the texture of this chocolate is velvety smooth, and not at all waxy or hard like Hershey's.

§ Crushed hazelnuts - just beneath that chocolate coating you'll see that there are small bits of bumps on this. These are the crushed hazelnuts which the coating seems to glue onto the surface. For some strange reason, these bits of nuts are amazingly uniform in size - not too large, not too small. I've always wondered how Ferrero does that, haven't you? And if you pull one of these nuts off and eat it, it will get caught in your teeth. Wait… I didn't mean to say that. Well, actually, I did mean to tell you this, but I meant to tell you that only after I said that these are slightly salty and have a nice roasted flavour to them. They also aren't too hard and don't crunch or crack your fillings out, but also aren't mushy like a peanut - they are a perfect firmness which, yes, do tend to get trapped in the crevices of your teeth.

§ Wafer Sphere - now this has to be one of the finest examples of edible engineering known to man today. Two half spheres of wafer are joined together to make a hollow circle. The wafer itself is only slightly sweet and fairly bland tasting, with a papery aftertaste, but has a lovely crunchy feel in your mouth.

§ Cream Filling - inside the sphere you'll find a rich, semi-dark creamy chocolate nougat. This is very smooth and has a soft texture that melts into your mouth. The taste of the nougat is mostly nuts, but there's an undertone of cocoa, which has a touch of a woody aftertaste, which I don't find at all unpleasant, but would have liked it more if the chocolate covering had a similar woody taste instead of the grassy one.

§ Whole Hazelnut - and buried deep in the center of that nougat is a whole, roasted hazelnut with a lovely bite to it, not too soft and not too hard and again, very willing to get caught in your teeth. This hazelnut has been perfectly roasted, giving the tiniest hint of a smoky flavour to the mixture, which again doesn't properly compliment the grassy aftertaste of the chocolate covering.

On the Rocky Road:

But how many of us actually take this bump apart to eat it? Well, I do, but then again, I'm a bit strange in that area. Still, the best way to enjoy this is to gently tear away the wrappings and first give a whiff of the rock found inside. This is neither heavily chocolate nor overpoweringly nutty, but a gentle scented mixture of those two elements, combined with a light undertone of milk.

After that, the thing to do is pop this directly into your mouth - yes, all of it - and CHOMP away! You may look a bit of a slob when you do this, since this is about the same size as a table-tennis (ping-pong) ball. But once its in there, what do you care when these major items mix themselves on your tongue and start to distribute themselves around that cavity. Soon your taste buds will be assaulted with the two distinctive flavors of the chocolate and nuts, in almost total equal parts. But as the chocolate slips down your throat, you'll soon have more of the hazelnut taste left over, which will continue for some time as it will take you several minutes to clear all the little bits and pieces from the crevices of your molars. Some people would say that this is a disadvantage, but others would say that although these aren't that big, they stay with you quite a long time because the nuts will still be in your mouth long after the chocolate has gone. Unfortunately, here's where you may feel the grassy flavour of the chocolate covering, which will leave your mouth feeling, well, a bit confused instead of wanting more. Normally, a grassy aftertaste can be refreshing in a chocolate, but because of the smoky and woody flavours in the other layers, you may feel as if you have a slightly sour taste in your mouth. Its as if they're saying - "okay, you've had your rock, now shove off". In other words, I do not find these the least bit "moreish".

It should be very obvious by now that these are not suitable for those readers with nut allergies. You should also know that if you have any problems with milk, soy or wheat products, this also isn't for you. And finally, for those poor souls who are allergic to chocolate - why are you even bothering to read this op? Are you masochists or something? There are lots of crisps ops and pot noodle ops you can visit instead. Go on! Stop torturing yourselves. Sorry. Got carried away there.

The Rock Bottom:

Since each one is only 12.5 grams, you'd be surprised that they have something like 73 calories in each of them. But you'll not feel too guilty eating one or two at a sitting since the healthy hazelnut inside will make you feel like you're at least getting something good for you. My only wish is that they'd make these with dark chocolate, since personally, I'm not much of a milk chocolate fan. And even if they are a bit pricey (I've seen places where a small box of three of these is as expensive as 80p), you're not going to devour a full 25 of these at once, thereby killing off up to £6 of your hard-earned cash (or even only £4 for a smaller 200gr box)!

So, they're pricey, but definitely not the worst chocolates in the world. And as I've said, they're bit too milky and grassy for me. Still, with all that fancy gold packaging, even if you only have one, you'll feel very elegant when you open them and pop them into your mouth. (So what if you feel like and look a pig while you chew on them!). I guess that's why they're served at every classy event in every Ambassador's home across the world, right? What? That's not real? That's just the advert? Oh! Well, have one - that should be enough. Four stars and recommended, but not all that highly.

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © February 2003, updated March 2006

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Technical Stuff:

Available at most duty free shops throughout Europe, these are also sometimes found in larger department stores (like Harrods) and some larger food shops.

Online I found a 200g box at http://www.britstore.co.uk/itm00646.htm selling for £3.79, and a 300g box at http://www.britsuperstore.com/acatalog/Ferrero_Roc her_Chocolate____.html going for £6.99. By the way, they even sell them on eBay so you might be able to find some bargains there!

According to one Web Page, http://www.mind-advertising.com/it/ferrero_it.htm "Ferrero is the one of world's biggest confectioners" and no surprise that if they have Nutella and Kinder chocolates as part of their production lines.

The Ferrero UK, Ltd. Is located at Awberry Court, Hatters Lane, Croxley Business Park, Watford, Herts, WD18 8YJ, Phone 01923 690300, fax 01923 690400 - no URL or email address - sorry!
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Summary: A nice chocolate, which looks elegant but hardly the most delicious or "moreish" I've ever tasted.