Caramel Becomes CaraMELLOW (Milka with Caramel Filling)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Milka with Caramel Filling
Date:	06/09/09 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Soft and silky and sensibly sweet

Disadvantages: None

Imagine a comfortable, chunky knit jumper compared to an exquisite, fine cashmere sweater. Both have their place in your wardrobe, but for different occasions. It may be a peculiar metaphor for chocolate, but I think it's an apt one. If the first one's a Cadbury's Caramel, then the second is this Milka Caramel.

Milka is a cheap staple of the European chocolate scene, but was a late entry into the UK market, and when it did come it came at a price premium. For some years the original Alpine Milk version has been available, but it's only fairly recently that lots of the different flavours have become readily available in many supermarkets - before it went under, Woolworths was one of the best places to find it. And it was only a couple of weeks ago, that I found this one (a) rather randomly in Netto and (b) at the insane - for the UK - discounted price of 47p per bar. Bargain.

Milka Caramel comes in a 100g bar, which allegedly gives four 25g servings, if you can control yourself. Perhaps I could if I could make it look like the packet hadn't been opened, so I was interested that this claimed to be re-sealable. However, I found that it didn't seal up neatly, and there was no denying that the bar had been opened, so it quickly disappeared. New Milka bars come wrapped in a plastic covering, while the originals were in paper. It's something I miss (like when they changed KitKats) because I do think chocolate tastes better from a paper wrapper, but I wasn't going to let that put me off trying this.

Milka bars are thin compared to the likes of Dairy Milk or Galaxy but the pieces are slightly wider, which explains why a 100g bar of this compared to a 100g bar of one of those appears, well, thinner but wider. The bar comes perforated into pieces (5 rows of 3 pieces each, which doesn't help with the division of 15 pieces into 4 servings) but unlike most Milka varieties I found it hard to break it neatly, and invariably ended up with jagged pieces. We tend to eat 'a row of Milka' in this family, but it would be hard to split up like that as it doesn't snap off easily. Something I did like about it through was the way the pure caramel layer hidden at the top was thin and not too sticky, so even breaking it unevenly, your hands don't get messy.

The chocolate has three parts to it, a caramel flavoured milky cream topped with a layer of caramel and covered in milk chocolate. By far the largest part was the milky cream, with the layer of caramel making only a fleeting appearance, and the chocolate layer present but not thick. The milky cream layer was sweet, but not sickly in spite of the amount of it, while the topping was more of a burnt caramel flavour. The chocolate was your standard, silky milk chocolate Milka, but because it was only a thin layer you didn't get all of the usual nuttiness that makes Milka unique. NB: the chocolate does contain hazelnuts, and may contain traces of other nuts.

I was expecting to like but not love this bar, and was therefore thrilled by how good it was. The three parts complement each other well to give a bar that is delicately flavoured and rather smooth to eat. I will eat the caramel chocolates from Roses or Quality Street, but normally a Cadbury's or Galaxy Caramel wouldn't be my choice for a full bar as I find the caramel too thick and sticky and toffee-like, whereas in this bar they got the combination spot on thanks to the milky layer which took the edge off the sweetness.

This is more of a grown-up, mellow chocolate than a kiddie one. It has a lighter, more refined taste and can be savoured slowly rather than scoffed down. I always think some caramel bars require proper concentration, not least to stop them getting stuck to your teeth, but this isn't on a par with those. The chocolate melts on your tongue and the caramel layers then slide away. A truly relaxing experience. I would recommend it even if you are not normally a fan of bars of caramel chocolate, because it does taste that little bit different.

One portion has 136 calories, but eat the whole entire bar in one go and you'll 'only' take in 545 calories which, especially if you're sharing it will a friend, is not too dreadfully bad for something you'll certainly view as a 'binge' and try to compensate for later.

Available in normal and cheap supermarkets, usually around the 75p mark, so stock up if you see it on offer.

Summary: A wonderful bar from the Milka range