Together, at last at Twilight Time (Terry's Twilight)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Terry's Twilight
Date:	10/10/05 (945 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The taste

Disadvantages: The speed in which they are finished!

For those who live outside the UK, when they think of your country together with chocolate, the first thing that comes to mind is usually "Cadbury". While I don't really have much against Mr. Cadbury personally (besides his penny pinching ways of substituting the cocoa in his confections with huge amounts of powdered milk), I've never been much of a fan of milk chocolate, which is Cadbury's most prominently sold item. So when I was recently in the UK, and looking to buy a box of some UK chocolates to bring back to the office (it's a tradition - anyone who goes away somewhere brings back chocolates when they return), I was pleased to find that the little Sainsbury's near the Golder's Green station offered up a box of Terry's Twilight. Let me tell you about it.

The Outside Package:
Never judge a book by its cover? Correct. However, I must admit that the deep green and bright, shiny gold of this item was the first thing that attracted me to this item. It seemed very tastefully designed, and quite elegant to look at. With gold stripes around the square top, with a gold diamond in the middle to highlight the Terry's logo written in shiny gold, with the word "Twilight" nice and big in the middle, and underlined, also in shiny gold. Below that, in small shiny gold print, it says "Dark Chocolate With a Crisp Mint Centre". Ooohh! Furthermore, its also not just a square box. No, the bottom of the box is longer than the top, making the sides angle out at 45 degrees, so that they could write "Terry's Twilight" on the angled sides in shiny gold, once again. Hm... This is sounding a bit gaudy, isn't it? But it isn't really.

On the bottom you'll find no more shiny gold, but rather a large matt gold square with things like the ingredients, the nutrition information and their "Quality Guarantee" written in the dark green colour. There's also a white square with the proper "best before end" date (I got mine in November 2003 and the date was October 2004, so that seemed fair), and another white square with the bar code. Above the matt gold square, on the dark green background, it again has written in matt gold the logo and name. But below that it says "plain chocolate with a mint flavoured filling and crisp sugar pieces". Very useful information, that - because now we know where the ‘crisp' comes from!

The only problem I had with this package was opening it up, since it is meant to be done by tearing the top off along perforated areas so that the cover lifts off. The perforation isn't as good as it should be and so my desire to display these gems was slightly thwarted. Its not enough of a drawback for me to lower this item by a star, however. Perhaps only half a star - we'll see.

The Inside Package:
Inside the box, you'll find two neat rows of twelve little shiny gold covered bars that say "Terry's Twilight" on them. The bars are four centimeters, by two centimeters, by about 3/4 of a centimeter high. That's pretty small, but still, haven't we always been told over and over again that good things come in small packages? And laid out there so nicely, this is very much of an attractive presentation, all those little shiny golden bars in a dark green cardboard well. Highly impressive, if you ask me.

The Look of the Product:
When you lift off the thin paper, you'll find a small dark rectangle (see above for exact dimensions) of chocolate that has been engraved across the top with the word "TWILIGHT" (yes, in all caps). Above and below that word you'll find little scored lines. Pretty simple, no? If you ask me, its deceptively simple looking.

Remember, these are small items, and it would be very easy to just pop the whole thing into your mouth and gobble them up in one bite. But I have strength of willpower and will resist the urge for the sake of this op! (Lord have mercy on my soul! Give me the strength to finish writing this op before the last bar is gone and I have no more product to do my research with!)

The Scent of the Product:
As soon as you open the paper you will be greeted with the aroma of invitingly smooth, and familiar scent of chocolate that has been gently infused with the tangy and slightly peppery fragrance of mint. This scent is not unlike that of the famous "After Eights" (are you starting to drool yet?), but with a touch more on the chocolate side. There's nothing at all, even slightly offensive in this odor. To the contrary, it is most enticing bouquet, and I'm beginning to think that if they bottled it, someone would make a fortune in the cologne market selling this as a perfume!

The Inside of the Product:
If you can still control yourself, break one of these little babies open. What you'll see is about 0.2cm of a chocolate shell that surrounds a similarly sized center of a white centre. This center isn't thin or runny, like "After Eight", but rather seems to be almost as solid as the chocolate itself - but not quite. (See above for the scent, as this now comes at you in full force. Oh, the pain of waiting for the first bite!) It is very substantial for something so small, and doesn't break easily, like "After Eight" - you do need a bit of effort here, and I'm thinking that this product would stand up a bit better than its rival to our eventual problems with July and August combined with Global Warming. (What I mean, of course, is that this doesn't seem to melt very easily at all in your hands. Got it?)

The All Important Texture and TASTE:
Taking my first nibble, if find that the chocolate is pleasantly firm and the crisp sugar pieces give the mint filling a lovely delegate crunch as you chew. If you bite into this, you'll hear a very welcoming soft click as you do so. If you can control yourself long enough to suck on this, you'll find that the chocolate, being dark, has a touch of an edge on it - not acidic but rather with an almost woody undertone to it which brings out the chocolate flavour perfectly. As this dissolves, you'll get to the mint centre which is closer to spearmint than peppermint, so it isn't too sharp but it also isn't too sweet. Sucking on these will, of course, make the pieces of sugar crisp melt - which is a good thing, since it doesn't leave your mouth with a feeling like you're eating grains of sand. As the combination goes down your throat, you'll feel first the warmth of the chocolate and then the refreshing mint afterwards which makes you feel like your mouth is waking up from a lovely dream. If you have no willpower and you bite and chew these, you'll find that the combination of the chocolate and mint is absolutely perfectly balanced with neither taking over too much from the other. However, you may also get that slightly grainy feeling in your mouth afterwards as the crisped sugar pieces are so minuscule that they take some time to leave your mouth. But you'll still have that lovely lively feel in your mouth.

The Price:
Yes, well, one must mention that one box of these 24 tiny bars costs almost £2 - or a whole 8 pence per bar. With a net weight of 175gram, that means that each bar is only 7 grams. If I did my math right, that means these cost £0.875 per gram!? I don't know... The overall price isn't really all that much, but you also don't get a whole lot for your money. Still, it will be a bit less expensive than a similar sized box of fancy chocolates from a shop (I'm talking about real, hand-made, gourmet chocolates - not Thornton's. However, these might be less expensive than Thornton's as well, I'm not sure). I'm debating if this is enough to drop this item by one star or not.

The Bottom Line:
I have to say that these are really lovely jewels, and I'm glad I found them. They are quality through and through, and I adore them - they are, in a word, absolutely, deliciously gorgeous! If you buy them as a gift, the recipient will truly feel that you've given them something special, if small. That means that you won't feel like you're putting too much out of pocket, but you've put some nice thought into the gift. Your friend might not think you too cheap to be believed, but neither will they think you overly generous - well, it's the thought that counts, isn't it? So, because of the price/size dilemma as well as the problem with the opening of the box, I've decided that despite the high marks in taste and texture, I'm giving this one only 4 stars.

Would I buy these again? Certainly. Would I buy them instead of After Eight? Most probably. Give them a try and tell us what you think! It won't break the bank and I think you'll like them.

Thanks for reading!

~~~~~
Technical Stuff:

Terry's are most famous for their chocolate covered oranges, but I'm not crazy about that particular combination, so I've never tried any Terry's before. Terry's Twilight are made in York by Terry's Suchard, POB 1767, Cheltenham, GL50 3ZQ. Tel. 01904 653090


I couldn't find a web page for them on their own. However I did find out that Terry's Suchard, operating within Kraft Jacobs Suchard group, which in turn is part of the Philip Morris Group. Oh, dear! Another small and exclusive company that's been taken over by a conglomerate. First Rowntree and now Terry's. Sad, isn't it?

Terry's Suchard are considered suitable for vegetarians by the Vegetarian Society UK, but all chocolates may contain traces of nuts. It certainly contains Soya Lecithin, Whey Powder and Butterfat, all of which might cause allergic reactions to those sensitive to these items. However, it has no artificial ingredients but it does have "flavourings" listed as being Peppermint Oil and Vanillin - only the latter of which isn't totally natural.

The plain chocolate in this product contains 40% minimum cocoa solids - that's less than your average dark chocolate bar which is usually over the 50% mark.

I thought you might be interested in Terry's Quality Guarantee, as it appears on the box: "This product should reach you in perfect condition. If you are dissatisfied for any reason please return the pack and contents to us stating where and when it was bought and the full best before date and code. We shall be pleased to send you a voucher to cover costs of purchase and postage. Your legal rights are not affected (U.K and Ireland only)". Tell you what, you don't like it, send it to me. You won't get anything in return except my thanks, but aren't I worth it?
~~~~~

Summary: Terry's version of After Eight, with a twist... er... crunch