| Product: |
Marks & Spencer Whipped Vanilla Fudge |
| Date: |
27/03/06 (174 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Gives you a sugar rush
Disadvantages: Too sweet, no vanilla flavour, chocolate is not nice
We have all been there. Standing in a long queue at the supermarket check out, being bored and impatient, surveying our surroundings. Next thing we know, we start picking up the various sweets that have been conveniently placed at eye level in the check-out bay. Sometimes we manage to be good and resist, other times we give in to the temptation and throw the unnecessary calories into our shopping trolley – only to devour them on the way home and to feel guilty about it… . This familiar picture was indeed painted a few months ago when my fiance and I went into Marks & Spencer’s to get soup and bread. Next thing we knew, we were walking out with soup bread, midget gems – and a bar of whipped vanilla fudge.
***The product ***
This species of chocolate is no more than 10 cm’s in length and weighs in at 43 g. It is clothed in a wrapper of different shades of orange and displays an image of itself in the middle of the wrapper – a rectangular shaped dual-coloured chocolate bar with a brown milk chocolate coating and an off-white fudge centre. In the middle of the bar fat letters spell out the word “fudge”. In the top left hand corner, the Marks & Spencer logo is shown in hardly noticeable white lettering. Just beneath that, also hardly noticeable, it says “whipped vanilla”.
The back of the wrapper displays all the usual nutritional information and warns allergy sufferers that the product contains cows milk, eggs and soya. There is also a note that the product has been made in a factory using nut ingredients – so nut allergy sufferers should clearly stay away from this species of chocolate.
***Our experience***
My boyfriend unwrapped the bar and broke it in half. When looking at it, I noticed that the surface of the bar was much like the one of a mars bar, except that it was not as high: a rich milk chocolate colour with ripples across the top. I was slightly surprised to see that the milk chocolate coating was a lot thicker than I expected – but when checking the wrapper again, I discovered that a mere 65% of the bar actually consists of fudge – the rest is milk chocolate.
I sniffed the bar and immediately noticed that it was pretty much odourless. The wrapper itself smelled of milk chocolate – however, it was more in the nature of cheap “milk chocolate coin” than of a luxurious treat. Not much to whet my appetite for this species of chocolate and fudge.
I took a first bite of the fudge – and started chewing. The consistency was very 'pasty' - much like play-dough or cookie-dough. It was very sticky – and I could feel the individual sugar granules grind against my teeth, hurting them in the process. For a few moments I considered letting the fudge melt in my mouth rather than exposing my poor teeth to this rather painful experience, but I quickly noticed that the fudge then turned into some kind of slimy consistency that did not appeal much to my taste buds and tongue at all. Consequently, I started chewing the bar again.
The taste itself was not too bad. As I had already expected from the smell, the milk chocolate was bland and not very creamy. The fudge itself was very very sweet, too sweet, even for a sweet tooth like myself. The other thing that I noticed was a clear absence of vanilla flavour. When I purchase something that prides itself to have ‘vanilla’ in it, I expect something of a rich vanilla bourbon nature. Instead, the fudge tasted a lot more like a chewy caramel square – like Werther Originals chewy soft caramels. I checked the ingredients label again – and it surprised me to see that there was actually no mention of vanilla flavouring or anything similar in this fudge. I am no fudge maker – but I would have expected something of the sort to give it the advertised flavour.
I only had about half a bar, and my stomach felt sick, due to its sweetness. I certainly could not have finished the whole bar on my own.
***Price and Availability***
This fudge bar is only available at Marks & Spencer and costs £0.39.
***The verdict***
Next time you are in a Marks & Spencer’s and tempted to buy a treat at the check out counter, I suggest you choose something else – unless all you are looking for is an instant sugar rush. You will surely get one from this. While the vanilla fudge bar is not disgusting or unpleasant, it is certainly nothing special either. Neither myself nor my boyfriend feel compelled to buy this one again.
***Further information***
Marks and Spencer PLC
Baker Street
London W1U 8EP
www.marksandspencer.com
Summary: A nasty piece of fudge with little pleasure to be gained.
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