Chocolate Twigs (Nestle Matchmakers)

Member Name: angeelu

Product:	Nestle Matchmakers
Date:	28/12/04 (3419 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well flavoured, Reasonably priced, Suitable for vegetarians

Disadvantages: Not the best quality chocolate

It's Christmas time... That means it's compulsory to receive and / or purchase at least one box of after dinner style chocolates. I was lucky enough to receive my chocolates as a gift, and they came in the form of Nestle Matchmakers.

Now, if you're one of those who boycot Nestle I guess you may as well read no further as this opinion will be of little interest to you (you can read plenty of other reviews on Nestle chocolate if you're interested in all that) - personally, I'm happy to purchase and eat Nestle products!

So, What's A Matchmaker?
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Basically, an individual Matchmaker is a thin stick of chocolate with little crunchy pieces of flavour in. Each stick is the same size and shape (unless they've become broken) and has a nobbly appearance due to the crunchy flavoured granules within the stick. The flavours available include 'Cool Mint', 'Brilliant Blackcurrant' and 'Zingy Orange'.

The packaging (of the mint variety) describes them as: "Chocolate comprising a mint flavoured blend of plain chocolate and skimmed milk chocolate and mint flavoured boiled sugar pieces". I dare guess that the other flavours just substitute the word 'mint' for the appropriate flavour.

The Matchmakers come packaged in a square, mainly black box, matchbox style, in the fact that the centre slides out of a cardboard sleve revealing the Matchmakers in their inner tray. The tray is divided into two halves, possibly to help the sticks not to move about too much and therefore not become too damaged, or possibly to help you realise when you've eaten half the box! The box contains 151g of chocolate in total - that's definitely more than one person can eat alone in one sitting without feeling a little but sick! As soon as you undo the celophane that seals the box the smell of the flavour hits you - appropriately enough the tagline on the back of the box confirms they're 'the manic munch that packs a punch'.

The Verdict
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Matchmakers have in more recent years had a 'funky' makeover - made obvious by the descriptive words accompanying the flavours (zingy orange, brilliant blackcurrant etc) and the 'in your face' Matchmakers logo. The packaging helps them attract a wide market - kids can't help but spot them on the shelves, and their relatively cheap price (around £2.29) means that they are affordable on pocket-money yet are still acceptable as a nice box of chocolates. They've been around for years, and in those years have undoubtedly captured many fans along the way.

The chocolate itself is not the best chocolate in the world I'm sure, but as an after dinner style chocolate, low in price, and great for sharing they're not far off unbeatable. The flavour is powerful, and tends to pretty much take over from the chocolate taste. As a big fan of the minty versions I can safely say they are very minty!

Nutrition wise there's 20.1g of fat / 477kcal per 100g. The mint, orange and strawberry varieties are suitable for vegetarians (according to www.nestle.co.uk) - however there's no mention of the strawberry ones still being available on the most recent packaging, and similarly there's no mention of blackcurrant flavour on the website.

Final rating - 4 out of 5 - a great chocolate for sharing and nibbling on, and a good little gift!

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