Great Balls of Stolen Chocolate (Nestlé Aero Bubbles)

Member Name: Joker25

Product:	Nestlé Aero Bubbles
Date:	16/02/06 (642 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: If you like mint Aero bars, you'll love these.

Disadvantages: Nestle don't have the best track record. Expensive.

At around about 3pm, every day without fail, I get a major sugar craving. It has been patiently explained to me by people who care about these things that if I ate a proper lunch (as opposed to a slice of toast with marmite and a handful of peanuts) this would not happen. However, I'm really not the kind of girl who spends quality smoking time making sandwiches in the morning, so generally, I resort to a quick-fix solution for my mid-afternoon slump.

However, just after I arrived in work on Friday I found that I'd managed to forget my usual stash of chocolate. So off I went and had a wee poke around the other classrooms to no avail - the best the Primary 2 teacher could offer was some dried fruit. Obviously, I turned my nose up at that.

By 9.30, I have to confess that I was getting a little panicky - we were in the middle of textile printing activities, I had paint in my hair, a special needs child had drunk half a pint of blue poster paint, a glue spreader had vanished (and one of the kids had a suspiciously swollen and red nose) and I needed the security of knowing that I had some kind of chocolate within my reach.

What to do? Well, here comes a bit of an admission. I packed the kids off at 10.30 to the playground and…….

rifled through all of their lunchboxes for the nicest chocolate I could find. Teachers, I'm thinking, should not really be admitting to this kind of stuff publicly, but we all do it (and more than you'd think. If you have a child aged 11 or under and all the nice bits out of their lunchbox keep vanishing, chances are it's not bullies doing the dirty deed, it's the 'professional educators')

Anyway, now that shameful secret's out, let's press on shall we? On that particular day pickings were mighty slim, but I did manage to find an inviting packet of Aero bubbles, which I duly swiped. (To make matters worse, the kid in question was devastated when he realised they'd gone missing, and I actually lectured him about 'taking responsibility for his possessions' before fobbing him off with an orange. I'm going to hell. In my defence, I'm a really nice teacher, and I read great stories.)

Aero bubbles are the latest offering from Nestle and come in a packet that is white with green bubbles floating whimsically across it. The packaging for the 43g bag is roughly the same size and shape as a Skittles bag. The Nestle logo and 'Aero bubbles' are featured prominently on the front. The sweets themselves are little balls of bubbly peppermint Aero chocolate (roughly about the size of a thumbnail) surrounded by a chocolate shell that is half brown and half luminescent green.

On opening the packet you get a really strong minty whiff that's very appealing, with a very faint chocolate aroma. The first thing you notice is how light the sweets are; these really aren't a substantial snack. Once you pop one in your mouth the mint flavour kicks in immediately and gently pervades your mouth, but despite the smell it's not an overpowering taste. The outer layer is smooth and silky, with a nice balance of mint and chocolate. I found that the mint was quite a synthetic flavour that lingered around the mouth for an hour or so after consumption. I quite liked the chemical mint taste, but then again, I was raised in the '80s and so have fully embraced artificial flavours and E numbers. Purists amongst you may hate it. The texture underneath the outer shell is the same as an ordinary Aero bar, bubbly and very slightly rough on the tongue and again, I felt the combination of mint and chocolate was well-balanced. Because of the bubbly texture, these sweets are less dense and rich than a normal bar of chocolate, making them perfect for a quick treat, rather than a real indulgence.

I stole my packet (and I'm not even sorry!), but the website informs me that the normal retail price for a 42g bag is 43p and £1.49 for a 147g bag. I'll not bore you with all the ingredients, suffice to say that predictably, these are high in sugar and fat and a whole host of other chemicals. They're available in all good children's lunchboxes everywhere, and also major supermarkets, confectioners etc.

They get 7 out of 10 from me. They're jolly nice, but they're quite dear for a little packet, and you don't get an awful lot of sweets (just 14 in my bag).

(Also posted on Ciao by me)

3&12, 2010

Summary: Mini balls of minty goodness.