Echo and the Honeymen (Fox's Echo Bars)

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	Fox's Echo Bars
Date:	03/07/03 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's chocolate

Disadvantages: It's an insult to honeycomb

OK, I'll admit it. I have very weak defences when it comes to chocolate biscuits. Well, biscuits in general, come to think of it. I should also mention at this point that I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to shiny new things in the supermarket. So, what do you think happened when I was faced with this, a new type of chocolate biscuit in a shiny gold wrapper on a special introductory offer in the supermarket? Did I:

a) buy a 12 pack with the intention of making a total pig of myself?
b) act more cautiously and buy a 6 pack with the intention of making an almost total pig of myself?
c) show remarkable willpower and just walk past the display?

All those of you who answered "b" can now give yourself a pat on the back. I may not have ignored the Echo Honeycomb bars completely, but at least I kept to modest levels in my purchase. But that was more for financial reasons that any real thought of only being half a pig. ;-)


- The Packaging
Those cunning people at Fox's biscuits have made the packs of Echo Honeycomb bars in bright gold coloured foil, with a darker yellow honeycomb pattern drawn across it. So, not only does the gaudy wrapping adequately reflect the contents, but it also appeals to the unwary shopper's inner magpie. Damn them for use of such trickery! Across this golden background, the word "Echo" screams out at you in bright red, bubble writing in a way that makes the whole thing seem a little childish and makes you want to start reaching for your sunglasses. But hey, since when has the immature appearance of a product ever put me off? It is chocolate, after all.

Within the wrapping, you get 6 (or 12) little gold foil wrapped bars, each weighing in at 25g. The individual bars are deprived of the honeycomb design, poor things, but they do get their very own scaled-down red bubble writing. These Echo bars are not your usual shape for chocolate biscuits I might
add, being high and narrow (rather than wide and flat like a Kit Kat, say) in a way that makes them look like baby ingots.

In each bar, you get what is described as: "honeycomb flavour bubbly white chocolate on a crunchy biscuit, wrapped in milk chocolate". Now, I should say at this point before any of you have chance to get any false hopes up, that when they say "honeycomb", they don't actually mean the real honeycomb that comes out of bee hives. They mean honeycomb in the sense of the yellow stuff you get inside Cadbury Crunchie bars - or what the more mature amongst you will know as cinder toffee. Taking this honeycomb and a line of reasoning know only to the Powers That Be at Fox's, they decided to mix it up with the bubbly white chocolate (think white Aero) that adorned the original Echo bars, and then released this hybrid in its golden wrapping on an unsuspecting public.


- The Taste Test
Right, now we come to the important part. The Echo Honeycomb bar, although only small in size, is actually quite a dense, substantial snack - Fox's seem to have packed a lot into a little space. They have also taken care to ensure that a sizeable 54% of the bar is made of thick, creamy good quality milk chocolate, so that chocoholics everywhere will not feel hard done by. But what does this decidedly odd combination of flavours actually taste like?

The short version: Like an out of date Crunchie bar.

The longer, consumer-friendly version: Echo Honeycomb bars have quite a pleasing combination of textures when you are eating it. You get the crunchiness of the base contrasting well with the smoothness of the milk chocolate and the soft, bubbly texture of the white honeycomb middle bit. Now, I quite enjoyed the original Echo bars, partly for this reason and partly for the lovely creamy combination of the white and milk chocolates. The bizarre white chocolate/honeycomb flavoured stuff though is
simply awful; there is no other word for it. Let me try and explain. The flavour of honeycomb, although being confectionary, is somehow quite sharp. Sharp flavours work well with milk and dark chocolate - think about how well they combine with mint and orange. Sharp flavours do not, though, work well with the very creamy nature of white chocolate; the sharpness tends to make the white chocolate taste almost sour. This is why Terry's Snowballs have by and large stayed on the shop shelves where they belong. And why is has taken me a fortnight to eat just three of these bars, an almost unheard of phenomenon in any household in which I live.

That is not the end of the bad news, either. Each of these bars will set you back 130 calories and 6.8g of fat. They also cannot be eaten by anyone who has to cut gluten, wheat or cow's milk out of their diet - although I can-t really say whether this is a bad thing or not! Vegetarians are safe to eat them, though (and I'm sure you are excited by that thought).

So would I recommend them to you? Umm, no. As good as the biscuit and milk chocolate is, the centre of the bar is an insult to honeycomb. If Echo bars ever come up for offer in your local supermarket, I would strongly suggest you go for the original ones.


- The Details
Echo Honeycomb bars are made by Fox's biscuits:
Fox's Biscuits
PO Box 10
Batley
West Yorkshire
WF17 5JG
Tel: 01924 444333

email: info@foxs-biscuits.co.uk

www.foxs-biscuits.co.uk

A 6 bar pack costs around 80p, with a 12 pack at around £1.55. They are widely available at supermarkets.

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