PRICE: £1 for a 400g jar

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (per 15g serving):

Calories: 84
Kj: 350
Protein: 0.5g
Carbohydrate: 9.1g
(of which sugars): 8.4g
(of which starch): Trace
Fat: 5.0g
(of which saturates): 0.8g
(of which mono-unsaturates): 3.0g
(of which polyunsaturates): 1.1g
Fibre: 0.2g
Salt: Trace
(of which sodium): Trace

INGREDIENTS:

Sugar, rapeseed oil, palm oil, lactose (from cows' milk), fat reduced cocoa powder (4%), skimmed milk powder (4%), whey powder (from cows' milk), soya lecithin, vanilla

ALLERGY/DIETARY INFORMATION:

Suitable for vegetarians
Contains milk
Contains soya/soya beans

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Chocolate spread is something I rarely buy. On one side of the coin the reason is that it's something I can scoff straight from the jar until the whole lot has vanished down my throat (that's if it's nice) and together with it being very bad for me, it gets used up too quickly......on the other side of the coin, it's rare that I can find a chocolate spread I really like.

Being lured by the Belgian chocolate claim a few weeks ago whilst aimlessly wandering around Sainsbury's, I thought this must be OK if it's using high quality chocolate, so popped a jar into my trolley. If the worst came to the worst, I could always recoup the losses by writing a DooYoo article, should it be inedible.

Sainsbury's Belgian Milk Chocolate Spread comes in a glass jar which has a label that is largely dark blue, and chocolate coloured. Together with Sainsbury's standard logo and brief product description, the front of the jar shows an image of a few swirls of chocolate, and a slice of bread spread thickly with the product. The back of the label shows nutritional information, ingredients list, dietary/allergy advice, and Sainsbury's quality claim with their contact details.

The lid of the jar is screw-top, and the spread inside (once having removed the screw-top lid) is protected by a gold-coloured plastic seal, which I had to gouge open with a knife before I could get to the gunge inside.

The chocolate spread looked rather pleasant, though a little paler than most other brands, but it gave off hardly any chocolate smell whatsoever.

My first taste of the product was to have a generous smear spread over a slice of white bread - why does chocolate spread only seem to taste good on white bread? On digging my knife into the jar, the spread seemed firm, but soft and very smooth in texture. I dug an amount out, swirled it around the edge of the knife, and it stayed put - it didn't drop back into the jar or drip everywhere......still no chocolate smell though.

Then came the actual taste test. As I lifted the slice of bread to my mouth, bearing in mind that I'd spread the gunge thickly, none of it fell off or smeared onto my fingers. The first bite gave no chocolate zing whatsoever, and as I chewed, the spread felt unpleasantly greasy inside my mouth. It wasn't in the slightest gritty, but it was rather glutinous, and the chocolate taste was extremely weak - not that rich cocoa burst you can get from other brands of chocolate spread.

I did manage to finish eating the whole slice of bread, but afterwards didn't feel as though I'd eaten a product which is at all chocolatey. The sweetness level was what I'd call moderate to middling - not too sickly, but there's as far as I'm concerned, no point in cutting down on sweetness if the chocolate flavour is absent. I've no idea what brand of Belgian chocolate Sainsbury's used for this spread, but whatever it is - it's tasteless - or, could it be that the overall chocolate content is only 4%?

I decided that this spread certainly isn't to be used on bread, so I tried to find some other ways of using up the jar.

Firstly, I tried just eating it straight off the spoon, but the experience was the same as it was when covering a slice of bread. I then smeared a generous serving onto a couple of Ryvita crispbreads, but I found the flavour of the Ryvita totally drowned out the flavour of the chocolate spread, plus I was still getting that horribly greasy sensation in my mouth.

Lastly, and in desperation trying to gain some sort of chocolate experience from this product, I rolled out a sheet of flaky pastry, laid a banana across it which had been split down the middle, and I spooned a liberal portion of the chocolate spread across the centre of the banana. I then sealed the pastry around the banana, pricked with a fork a few times, and baked in the oven.

Result? Tasteless, apart from the banana!

The jar of chocolate spread continues to sit, half eaten, in my fridge, and I honestly can't think what to do with it that would give me any kind of epicurean pleasure, and I think eventually it'll end up in the rubbish bin once the use-by date has passed.

My recommendation would be to, if you are trotting around Sainsbury's and fancy some chocolate spread, go for another brand, or an el cheapo version, as this Belgian stuff is pretty foul.....greasy, cloying and flavourless. The product is very high in fat and calories, as would be expected from chocolate spread - I wouldn't mind this if I felt that the eating experience was worth it, but this definitely isn't.

Go back to the drawing board Sainsbury's on this one - I shan't be buying it again.

Thanks for reading!