cheap as chips (I mean chocolate) (Tesco Value Chocolate Spread)

Member Name: catsfish

Product:	Tesco Value Chocolate Spread
Date:	22/08/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very good value, great for cooking, nice enough taste

Disadvantages: not as good (to me)as premium brand

My mum made a chocolate sponge cake and I commented on how nice the icing was in the middle I was really surprised when she told me that it was chocolate spread, and not only that but Tesco's economy chocolate spread! It worked so well in the cake that I decided to try it out myself.

The jar was 600g and cost 72p which was considerably cheaper than the premium chocolate spread brand "Nuttela" which I had purchased previously for around £1.70 for a jar a third smaller. The packaging consisted of a glass jar through which the product could be seen and a label in Tesco's distinctive red, white and blue value branding. Once I opened the jar and removed the inner seal I dug in with a teaspoon, the spread was thick and tasted sweet and chocolaty. It was nice for a chocolate "fix" and worked very well in the cake I later used it to make, but for me it didn't taste quite as nice as Nuttela does on toast. This spread is sweeter tasting and does not have the same depth of chocolate flavour; it is in other words the difference between Cadburys and say, cooking chocolate. I would say that the texture is also less creamy and thick and I do like the nutty addition of the premium brand. Having said this, had I not tasted the premium brand first this would have been quite acceptable to me and was particularly fine in cooking.
The products main ingredients are listed as milk, soy, sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, whey powder, carob powder, emulsifier and natural flavouring.

A tablespoons worth contains:
85 calories, 8.1g sugar, 5.5g fat, 1.1g saturates and salt trace.

So you can see that after a couple of pieces of toast the calories soon add up. I think that this factor would be common for both this and the premium brand as its not exactly a "healthy" product.

I would purchase this product again for cooking or when trying to economise as it is superb value but for me it is second best in the taste test.

Summary: Nice for the amount it costs.