Saturday 17 June 2017

Today's Review: Poundland Smooth Fruit & Nut


Poundland seem to be putting out a lot of knock off chocolate products lately, with such truly awful offerings as the Easter-themed gritty sugar-filled Spoon It Outs, and the horrifyingly designed packaging that houses equally horrifying fake M&Ms that are Choccers. I neglected to buy up their version of Minstrels, safe in the knowledge that they would be just as inedible as the M&M attempt, but on my last trip I see they're expanded to chocolate bars, taking after some of the big name brand varieties. Now, this isn't specifically stated to be made by Poundland, instead the wrapper informs me that it's made by a company called Smooth!, although the paragraph that tells me that is Spanish, despite the company being based in Birmingham. That sort of set the tone for my assumption that this would be some very low quality chocolate. I went for the fruit and nut, because even if the chocolate was bad, at least they can't screw up raisins and almonds, right?

You know, I consider it part of my job to sometimes seek out those truly awful looking products, if only to confirm what everyone thinks and to warn off anyone thinking of picking them up. Most of the time, those foods I think look awful actually are, and I can consign them to the rubbish pile and never look at them again. Sometimes, however, I am wrong, and this is the case here. This chocolate is not awful, in fact, it's not bad. Just looking at the ingredients shows that cocoa butter is a predominant ingredient, which is something some bars are lacking these days, and that cocoa presence is clear in the flavour, this is actually quite a creamy bar of chocolate. It's not perfect, but I was extremely surprised by how much I liked it. The raisins are a good addition, a nice fruity chewiness that adds some flavour, but the almonds could use a little work, they're very soft and the taste doesn't exactly shine through. What I will say though is that this bar is thick, thicker than the Dairy Milk bars of the same size, and in my opinion, a thick square of chocolate is more satisfying than a thin, drawn out one, so that's another point for this here bar. This is some pretty good chocolate, and it goes to show that gems can be hidden in plain sight. Try this out, don't judge a chocolate bar by its wrapper.

My rating: 4/5

8 comments:

  1. I can't speak for the Fruit and Nut but the Turkish Delight is awful It looks like a vague fudge mess in the middle, if you get any of that at all as most of the bar is pure unpleasant tasting stuff that I believe they are calling chocolate. ONly £1 per bar... I wasted £2. Don't go near it.

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    1. I agree with the comments about the so called Turkish Delight. It's awful and absolutely no Turkish delight in it at all. It looks like a sort of truffle gone wrong. AVOID!!!

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  2. Smooth dark chocolate is horrendous. It has a weird flavour I attribute to the vegtable fats used, rather than simply cocoa butter. Not worth a pound. Never tried the fruit and nut version though.

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  3. I got the smooth caramel one, OMG it was horrible, I literally searched up the company so I could complain ... The caramel tasted like gone off milk, rotten Stilton cheese, rotten fish and feet... And the best before date is April 2018 so it was still in date.. I cant believe something so freaking disgusting and rancid can be sold like that... How in the hell do you even achieve such a bad taste with just chocolate and sugar?

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    1. I second that. They were on clearance for 50p each, I picked up 2 cause it's so cheap. But I can't even get through 2 pieces of it...

      The caramel isn't even liquid. It's all dry and powdery, with weird white crystals all over it. Some chunks don't have any caramel whatsoever (possibly a good thing, although the chocolate is sugary vegetable wax anyway) :/

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  4. The milk chocolate bar at 50 pence is quiet nice. The caramel and the Turkish delight both want more filling and a stronger flavor. At 50 pence the bars are ideal for the car or as a one off. The price is right, the size is right and the chocolate is made in Birmingham and nice.

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    1. I boughtbplenty. I really enjoyed it. Sorry.Itsis cheap and very good.

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  5. I feel its being discontinued the whites disappeared and the last I had was really old and had all separated and gone funny and it seems there selling it all off really cheep and it seems from the comments its old stock such a shame as the white and normal when not really old and separated where genuinely my faverioute in poundland :(

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