| Product: |
Silver Spoon Milk Chocolate Treat |
| Date: |
09/06/07 (318 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Really quite nice to eat
Disadvantages: Not healthy
Back on pancake day this year, my mum returned home with two Askeys Treat! sauces. Apparently they were being heavily promoted as an ideal sauce for pancakes, although I myself was much more keen to stick to the traditional golden syrup or jam.. or maybe both, I don't want to come off tubby. The two dessert sauces she brought back were strawberry, and the one that I shall be reviewing today - milk chocolate. I remember when I was little I used to love having sauce with my ice cream, then mashing it all up in to almost like a milkshake. With these sauces back in my household, I think it's time to return to the past. Askey's claim their sauces 'create a little magic', but is this one magician you wouldn't want to go see?
Since the picture was taken that Ciao show of the sauce it appears they have changed the bottle a bit, still keeping its curvy shape (and if you have too much of this, that is probably what will happen to you) it doesn't seem to be as tall as the bottle previously was. Still, holding 325g should be enough to last quite a while. The trademark Askey colour seems to be a dark blue, and then depending on what sauce it is the bulk of the bottle is a colour to represent the colour of the sauce. For example, the strawberry sauce is a red colour and the milk chocolate sauce is brown. The company seem to have got their style down to a tee, writing 'treat!' all in lowercase letters as the largest text on the bottle, you can't help to think this is somewhat aimed at children - not that parents wouldn't like to get in on the action too.
In the picture the sauce is shown in sort of a dripping fashion that curls around at the bottom, well now Askeys have upgraded and have just a big dollop of the sauce in almost cartoon fashion in the centre of the bottle. On the subject of cartoon, it appears their gimmick is magic and on the front of all their bottles they now have their little mascot. This character is a little yellow star with eyes and a big grin, holding a magic wand that has stars coming off towards the sauce. Unlike previously, the lid of the bottle no longer matches the colour of the sauce, and is just navy in all cases. It is still the traditional flip top however.
To try and make people ignore the unhealthiness of the whole product it brags on the front of being free from artificial colours, flavourings and preservatives. The back of the product recommends you try it on other things like fruit and rice pudding, whilst also instructing you to keep in a cool place.
Ingrediants: Invert sugar syrup, milk chocolate crumb [milk, sugar, cocoa mass], hydrogenated vegetable oil, dried glucose syrup, fat reduced cocoa powder. CONTAINS MILK.
Nutritional information, per 100g;
Energy 1580kj/375.1kcal
Protein 1.1g
Carbohydrate 66.8g
Fat 11.5g
This information is included on the bottle in incredibly small text, probably hoping someone won't read it. The text actually made me have to squint and bring the bottle closer to my eyes when copying it down. They also include the guideline daily amounts for both men and women. The best before date is included on the top of the cap, and reads JAN2009 on my product so it generally seems to last about 2 years. You have to unscrew the cap and remove the foil before use just like any good product, and Askeys are based in Peterborough, which is actually quite close to me. But hey, lets get to the important part now - taste!
Squirting the product out over my ice cream, it does seem to be of a very runny texture. You can make nice lines over your ice cream with it because of the tiny nossle, however these lines run out of shape quickly. Definitly not the thickest of sauces, because if you don't turn the bottle back so it's vertical again the sauce will keep running and running out. As well as putting it over my ice cream, I've put a load on my spoon so I can give you a comment on the sauce and sauce alone.
Funnily enough, although the sauce I put on my spoon turned into a little puddle, the sauce has now turned thick after a few seconds. There is a truly fantastic milk chocolate taste there, that wouldn't make you think this product is any less than Cadbury's, there isn't much of an after taste but the taste when eating it goes well. The product is quite sticky, so if you got any on your chin I'm sure it would annoy you and it's definitly a product that could get your kids in a mess. Why it turns so thick after being on the spoon for a little while I have no idea, because perhaps it goes from being too runny to being too thick. The flavour is not too strong, and it is quite milky infact, although it makes you feel bad for your health when eating it.
With ice cream, whilst you can taste the flavour, it seems that unless you get the ice cream and sauce proportions equal you're going to be nowhere near having chocolate ice cream. But now for the mash up test. When mashing up with ice cream, the colour goes from being this light brown, melted chocolate-looking, colour to being primarilly ice cream coloured. Once again this all depends on proportions, but I didn't over do it nor under-do it with the sauce. The smell of the product is being cocoay, and a pleasure to smell. You may find that when mashing it up with ice cream you get bits of sauce that want to stick to the bowl because of the sticky nature of the sauce, however if you scratch these off with your spoon it will soon dissolve into your liquidy mixture. The chocolate sauce goes really well with the half ice cream/half milkshake mixture that can be made, so whilst it may not give off the most chocolatey colour it does give off the taste.
Lets face it, in a time and a place where we are now where the world is getting fatter and fatter, sauces like this is the last thing we need really. The sauce does work as a nice treat though, and I guess that's the route of the name - not that some people won't eat this for more than a treat. I don't find the sauce addictive at all, and one serving is enough for me. As this isn't an ice cream specific sauce, I'm sure there's chocoholics out there that will find this as an excellent topping for things like biscuits and the such. It's thin then hardening affect should work brilliantly for that. If you're looking for a chocolate sauce as an added extra, you don't have to look much further than this.
Summary: You could pick a much worse brand.
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