Mc Vities Digestive Chocolate Creams

The good thing about being a chocolate blogger is that chocolate never goes out of fashion. There is never a dearth of new chocolate-based products, because chocolate can never go wrong... or so the brands like to think. It's like a company wakes up one fine morning and says, Hey, I need to increase sales...let's slather some chocolate on an existing product and bingo! Well, because there are chocolate fanatics like me, the idea works most times, but not always.

Here's a classic case in point. I really don't understand why Mc Vities decided to go down the chocolate route and dilute its Digestive category. In my opinion, Digestive biscuits, which are usually associated with healthy eating, don't really sit well with chocolate. While a lot of biscuit brands make Digestives and this is probably a good advantage over competition, it definitely does disservice to its healthy food identity.

Sadly, the end product is not great either. The biscuits are soggier because of the moist chocolate cream, taking away the characteristic crunchiness one associates with Digestives. The chocolate cream itself is also average, but much better than the kind they have in their Choco Creams product.The packaging is the only attractive thing about this product. A 100 g pack costs INR 25, which is on a slightly higher side than products in the category. But then again, one isn't sure what category to place this product in. Meh.

RATING: 2.5/5

Mc Vitie's Choco Cream biscuits

McVitie's is over a century-old biscuit-making company, with a global presence. But they're now part of the UK-based United Biscuits group and are produced and marketed in India by them since 2009. McVitie's has a small-ish range of biscuits in India and I daresay they aren't the best ones around. There has been some aggressive marketing going on with freebies on offer, but a basic lack of quality can't take one too far.

Especially sad are their chocolate cream biscuits that they called Mc Vitie's Choco Creams. Insipid chocolate cream inside equally insipid chocolate biscuits makes for (no prizes for guessing!) insipid chocolate cream biscuits. The pack claims the product has no artificial colours, which might explain the lack of 'character'. While it is a good thing, tasteless and colourless food just isn't appealing.

They make up for it with their packaging, though. Bright colours and yes, Doraemon on the packet make it an easy pick-me-up. The INR 10 pack weighs 63 g and has just about six biscuits and a small Doraemon jigsaw puzzle. Cute, but the pieces and interest are easily lost.

Chocosophy product launches: McVitie's, Valrhona, Tayto

McVitie's launches The Big One - a Jaffa Cake that really is a cake

McVitie's world-famous Jaffa Cakes, that the company started selling as long back as 1927, now has a much bigger twin. Called the Big One, these Jaffa Cakes are really 'cakes' with the characteristic chocolate top coat and orange jelly layers in a sponge cake base. The recipe, named after Jaffa oranges, is replicated and sold by many other brands such as Cadbury's and Tesco. Typically, Jaffa cakes are biscuit sized and are also sold as bars or small packs.

The Big One is priced at GBP 7 apiece and is being sold in the UK in Asda and Morrisons. Importers in India, do you hear me?

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Crisps maker Tayto introduces limited edition chocolate

The more I learn about chocolate, the more I'm convinced that the possibilities with chocolate are endless. Here's an example that may sound like sacrilege to some. Renowned Irish crisps maker, Tayto, has turned their popular Cheese & Onion crisps into a limited edition chocolate bar!

Images such as these of plain chocolate bars with a typical Tayto packaging have been doing the rounds of the Internet for a while now, but the real thing was made and put out in the market for sale only recently. This milk chocolate bar is infused with bits of the company's famous Cheese & Onion crisps.

The company is reportedly making only 10,000 such bars, which are much in demand and are expected to be sold out soon. Would you like crisps in your chocolate?

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Valrhona's Dulcey is world's first blonde chocolate!

Love it or hate this, this is one chocolate innovation you gotta sit up and take notice of. French chocolate company, Valrhona, has introduced the world's first 'blonde' chocolate as the Dulcey bar in what looks like a wonderful union of the sweetness of white chocolate and the smoothness of milk chocolate. Blond chocolate was discovered quite by accident by Frederic Bau when he left white chocolate in a boiler for 10 hours. The long roasting gave the chocolate a unique colour, aroma and flavour. The creamy chocolate smells like roasted almonds and tastes like mildly salted shortbread.

Although just introduced, Dulcey has already won two distinguished awards: Le Grand Prix de l’Innovation (Grand Prize of Innovation), at the world renowned SIRHA food trade show in Lyon, France and the Readers’ Prize from La Toque, a magazine for artisan bakers, pastry chefs, chocolate makers, confectioners and ice-cream makers.

Presently, a 2.99 oz. bar is priced at $7.99. I sure want to try this one.