Mars' Twix Cookie Bars

I'm pretty sure the company Mars is aiming at world domination, at least as far as chocolate production is concerned. Every second imported chocolate I pick up turns out to be a Mars product. Can't say I've seen a lot of Twix around in India, but I've 'seen' a lot of it, thanks to global television. And now, because of Chocosophy, I've turned into this compulsive chocolate buyer-eater person and recently picked up a pack of Twix to see what the big deal was all about.

And like an obsessive chocolate blogger, I read about it before I ate it. Never mind my taste experience later, but I was quite blown away by the Twix website. It is most definitely one of the most clever websites (based upon their North American 2012 advertising campaign*) I've ever seen.

So, typically a Twix is a pack of two chocolate-coated biscuit/wafer fingers with some caramel in it. They're called cookie bars and many, many variations and flavours have been made in different countries over the years. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, coconut and coffee (java) are some examples.

Twix also has ice cream bars, which have a milky, creamy filling along with caramel instead of the standard cookie insides. Even Twix ice cream flavours have made a way into the market , showing just how popular they are.

I don't see why, though. I found the classic Twix chocolates to be rather boring. Well, it might have to do with my general dislike of milk chocolate and sticky caramel, but even the whole taste experience is rather underwhelming. Let's say, I feel as much love for Twix as the home-grown 5 Star, which isn't much. I'm definitely not paying INR 50 again for a 58 g Twix pack when I can find similar boring milk chocolate-waffer-caramel combinations much cheaper.


RATING: 2.5/5

The Cocoa Trees, Mumbai

Focus Network Agencies (FNA), the Singapore based branded consumer lifestyle group, has partnered with Cosmo Fine Foods Pvt. Ltd., an Indian organization offering the widest range of international chocolate brands, to launch the boutique store range, The Cocoa Trees in India. The Cocoa Trees is a retail concept store which offers the widest range of international brands under its umbrella. Conceptualized in 2000, it has now grown into a retail chain of 36 boutiques across Asia with presence in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Cocoa Trees in India are currently in the cities of Mumbai, Pune and Goa. In Mumbai, the first store was opened at Breach Candy in 2011, and they have recently expanded with two new stores - in Nature's Basket, Bandra and at R City Mall, Ghatkopar. When I was invited to check out their new outlets, I felt exactly like Charlie must have in the chocolate factory. Upon entering the Nature's Basket outlet in Bandra, one is greeting with these huge banners to the left, which announce the presence of a dedicated chocolate section in the basement.

Down a flight of stairs, one sees gift baskets of chocolate things and exclusive shelves of mostly imported chocolate, but these are Nature's Basket properties.

The Cocoa Trees is bright section up front and unmistakable with its happy yellow interiors. Row upon row of the world's best chocolates is quite enough to drive a chocolate aficionado like me mad. In a perfect dream, I would have unlimited money and a super sized shopping cart inside The Cocoa Trees! :)

The Cocoa Trees stocks the best international and indigenous brands including Anthon Berg, Cadbury, Celebrations, Chupa Chups, Cote d’Or, Daim, Droste, Duc d’O, Fazer, Ferrero, , Gavottes, Goldkenn, Haribo, Hawaiian Host, Hershey’s, Jelly Belly, Jules Destrooper, Kagi, Kinder, Lorenz, M&M’s, Maltesers, Mars, Mentos, Merci, Milka, Ritter Sport, Snickers, Starburst, Storz, Swiss Delice, Taveners, The Belgian, Tic Tac, Toblerone. The Cocoa Trees also stocks rare brands like Frey, which are exclusively licensed to be sold only at their stores. Besides, new brands like Zaini which have all Disney characters in their edd-shaped chocolates, have been added.

I saw these cute Zaini chocolate boxes shaped like the Disney character, Lightning Mc Queen from the movie Cars and thought, THIS! my 3-year-old will love! Other kiddy touches like the Chupa Chups lillipop stand with giant lollipop-shaped containers, teddies holding candy and M & M stands shaped like their popular animated avatars make the store an altogether delightful place for young customers.

But there are plenty of things to get not so young customers like me excited too. For example, some unbelievable flavours like the Frey Lemon Pepper Dark chocolate! Lemon Pepper? But that's what one puts in their soup, right? I HAD to pick a bar up. Review will be up soon!

And then there were these Oreo boxes shaped like giant cookies that totally make you want to forget your diet and container after container of different chocolate flavours from Sorini and Ritter Sport Minis that are sold by weight. Mind-blown as I was, there was some space for heartbreak too when I noticed that the store did not have any Toblerone dark chocolate. Are you'll taking note, dear store owners?

After walking around and gushing over all these beauties, it was time to leave. I was presented with a gorgeous hamper from The Cocoa Trees that comprised a box each of some delightful Belgian Pralines, Jules Destrooper Belgian Chocolate Thins (biscuits) and Merci assorted chocolates. I was a little disappointed to find most of these melting by the time I took them home, but then these delicate exotic things can hardly be expected to withstand Mumbai summers.

Anyhow, what's a little melted chocolate when they're so darned beautiful and mmmm...-inducing? I tried German-made Merci first, which is a collection of 20 fine assorted chocolates. The flavours include Milk Chocolate, Coffee & Cream, Hazelnut-Almond, Hazelnut-Creme, Marzipan, Dark Cream, Dark Mousse and Praline-creme. They are ideally had at room temperature, but I had to keep them in the fridge to save their form. Even when hardened, they chocolates melt quickly in the mouth and lose none of their rich delightful flavours.

At INR 550, this 250 g pack of 20 assorted chocolates makes for a wonderful gift idea, and if it is a chocolate aficionado you are trying to impress, look no further. You will say 'merci' to me for this one.

Next up was a pack of four Belgian pralines, so amazing I would have been happy only kissing them. Too bad they had melted a lot as well and needed refrigeration and eventual eating. I know, what a hard life I have. :D The Belgian pralines from... duh, Belgium, are crafted to perfection and are almost worth their price (almost 50 bucks apiece!). For those who don't know, regular pralines refer to a confection made of nuts and sugar, but Belgian pralines have a hard chocolate shell with a soft (sometimes liquid) filling. They are also referred to as chocolate bonbons or Belgian chocolates.

The four pralines in this box included a white chocolate, a milk chocolate, a dark chocolate and a dark chocolate with nuts. Delicate doesn't even begin to describe these lovelies and they were lapped up before one could say 'Bless The Cocoa Trees'.

And finally, there was a chocolate-biscuit pack from a brand that's completely new to me - Jules Destrooper. The Belgian biscuiterie (my favourite new word!) is over a hundred years old and if I've never heard of it, that must be because very few, if any, places in India import it. But that's changing, of course, because of The Cocoa Trees. The best, most exotic chocolate brands of the world are now available under one roof.

The 100 g Jules Destrooper pack of Belgian Chocolate Thins are nothing but chocolate coated crispy biscuits. The kinds of chocolate are the usual dark, milk and white, only Amazing with a capital A. The biscuits are of just the perfect hardness and crunch and taste unbelievably good in combination with the chocolate. Because these babies melted too, I have no idea whether there are 10 thins or five in that pack - they got stuck, I think. Nevertheless, they are well worth their INR 275, and I most definitely recommend it, as I recommend a visit to The Cocoa Trees.

Seriously people, whether or not you are a chocolate aficionado, make one trip to experience the unique concept of this store. Also, people who are clueless about gift ideas, The Cocoa Trees is the answer to all your prayers.

Address: The Cocoa Trees, @ The Nature's Basket, Hill Road, Bandra, Mumbai
Website: http://www.thecocoatrees.com/
Phone: 022 - 26425050, 26421122
FB: www.facebook.com/CocoaTrees

Chocosophy product launches: Tabasco, Weetabix, Maltesers

I dunno why all the chocolate action of the world should be taking place in the UK, but sigh... here it is.

This is like the ultimate fantasy for a chilli chocolate fan. Empire Foodbrokers will soon be releasing the Tabasco Brand Spicy Dark Chocolate Paint Can and Tower to mainstream grocery channels in the UK. The release will take place at the IFE 13 (The International Food and Drink Event), the largest F&B event in the UK. According to Foodbev.com, the red Paint Can contains 120 chocolate wedges. Each dark chocolate wedge is infused with Tabasco spice, containing just 30 calories and 53% minimum cocoa solids.

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In what is being touted as the "biggest UK innovation of the decade", Mars has launched Maltesers Teasers. Teasers are chocolate-coated honeycomb balls in a block format and will be available in the UK from the 26th of March, 2013. This is the first major innovation by the company since it pumped a mindblowing $ 8.9 mn into R&D last year. Mars Chocolate UK trade communications manager Bep Dhaliwal told just-food.com, "The launch of Maltesers Teasers is set to re-energise the block category and attract new customers who are looking for a treat or for sharing with friends and family."

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Cereal giant Weetabix has finally gone chocolate, and is launching a multi-million dollar cross channel campaign to promote it. Ben Cooper, group brand manager at Weetabix said the campaign launch marks a “significant” investment for the brand.

“We want to communicate that Weetabix with Chocolate is Weetabix fuel with the added taste of Chocolate, making it an ideal option for Mums looking for a chocolate cereal. This new re-launch aligns the product with the brand’s ‘Fuel for Big Days’ campaign to confirm the product is Weetabix first and foremost,” Cooper added.

Galaxy Crispy Milk Chocolate

Mars Inc. produces just so many brands of chocolate, that it is impossible for a reviewer to not feature a mars product every few blog posts. Recently, Galaxy chocolates made quite some noise with their TVC featuring a digitally resurrected Audrey Hepburn. 

Like Snickers, Bounty and Mars, Galaxy is a huge selling brand by Mars. Established as early as 1810, Galaxy is recognised and sold the world over, albeit under different names in different countries. While it is sold as Galaxy in the UK, India, Ireland and the Middle East, the brand is marketed as Dove in other parts of the world.

The packaging and product features are exactly the same for both brands. However, Dove is famous for its cute li'l Promises messages inside every chocolate wrapper, which look like this. I wish they'd do it with Galaxy too. 

Anyhow, Galaxy chocolates are fair, with or without the messages. I bought a bar of Galaxy Crispy Milk Chocolate the other day for a review. These chocolates have been around for a while, although I'm not quite sure when they came to India first. The brand was re-launched in major cities in 2011*. 

A typical Galaxy bar looks like this with a G inscribed on the lower right corner of each of its six sections. The milk chocolate is really smooth and lives up to Galaxy's (corny) tagline of 'Why have cotton when you can have silk? It has rice crispies for the crunch, like crispy chocolate from any brand. The product is sweet like standard milk chocolate and stands out only because of its smoothness.

My only problem with Galaxy chocolates is that they melt very easily at (Indian) room temperatures. In their defence, however, they mention the ideal storing temperature as 18-22 degrees C. However, how has that stopped anyone from forgetting they had a bar in their handbag or in the office drawer just above the always on computer processor?

So one often ends up with a very messy blob of Galaxy chocolate. However, when you've paid just INR 20 for a 36 g bar of essentially foreign chocolate, you don't feel too bad.

RATING: 3/5

Mars' Bounty Coconut Milk Chocolate

Another famous offering from the Mars' stables, Bounty is a coconut-filled milk chocolate. Available in single & double bar packs and miniatures, it is sold internationally by Mars Inc.  

The typical rounded bars have a sweet and moist (thanks to the high glucose syrup content) coconut filling within some more sweet milk chocolate. Mars had apparently tried to register the rounded shape of the bars, but were not allowed a trademark by the European Union. The chocolate will be preferred either by coconut buffs or anything-sweet-goes folks. I belong to the former category. Snickers and Mars Bars are perhaps more popular of the three Mars products available easily in India.

There is apparently a dark chocolate version of Bounty too, but I've never seen it here. As always, I'd love to try it out, given my preference for dark chocolates.

Interestingly, Bounty is not marketed in the US, because Hershey's has a very similar product called Mounds. The shape of the bars, the packaging and the filling are almost identical to Bounty. This, I'd like to try too.

Bounty has, in the past, released some limited edition flavoured versions too, like Cherry and Mango, but did not enjoy much success. I guess people prefer their coconut to taste like coconut.

I wonder if Mars will ever introduce any flavoured variations in India. If nothing, they ought to bring at least the dark chocolate variant of Bounty. Priced at INR 50 for 57 g in a double bar pack, these are quite popular; at least, going by their presence in supermarket shelves.

RATING: 3/5

Mars' Snickers Original

If there is any brand that has perfected the marriage of chocolate, nougat, caramel and nuts, IT IS SNICKERS! No wonder  it sees annual global sales to the tune of $2 effin billion! A product of Mars - one of the world's largest food manufacturers, Snickers is perhaps among their largest selling products. It has been a favourite in the Western countries for the longest time (1930 to be precise), but it was launched in India in 2004. The television commercials followed only in 2008. Very recently (2012), yesteryear star, Rekha (and Urmila Matondkar) were roped in for another TVC, positioning the product not just as a chocolate but a snack.

The ad may not have garnered much attention, but Snickers bars are placed firmly in the candy shelves of every Indian supermarket. And there are surely as many loyal buyers, for example yours truly. I cannot resist a Snickers bar when I see one and the Snickers Minis  are a blessing. These bite-sized chocolates have all the goodness of taste, but merely a third of the calories.

These, however, do not stop me from buying the bigger Snicker bars ever so often. Yes, the chocolate type is milk; yes, it is sweet; yes it has nougat, but I love it. The consistency of the chocolate is smooth, the caramel inside is stringy and the peanuts are pretty crunchy. Together, they create the perfect taste and texture and make for a great chocolate snack.

A small Snickers bar (32g) has 160 calories, 15g of sugar, and 9g of fat, making it fairly sinful. Basically, don't treat it as a snack if you're trying to lose weight. But it costs only INR 15, so resisting temptation will be just that much harder.

RATING: 4/5