Candy Bar Lab

This is the second Cadbury Flake that’s been in my possession this year. The first was brought back from England and was thoroughly destroyed on the trip. Not surprising though, because this is a very delicate product. This one came from Australia and arrived in much better condition.

Structure
A long, thin bar of milk chocolate. The chocolate is layered in such a way that it creates air pockets throughout the product.

Texture
The Flake bills as itself as “the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate” and to that point, I completely agree. The Flake completely crumbles apart when you bite it. The problem is that I don’t think chocolate should be crumbly or flaky. I really hate the texture and worse, it’s messy to eat because it falls apart in your hand. You can tell from the picture above how even slicing it gently with a sharp knife causes the chocolate to explode into small pieces.

Taste
The entire bar is made of Cadbury milk chocolate, so it tastes pretty good.

Verdict
The Flake is very similar to the Galaxy Ripple, except worse. If you’re looking for a light, airy chocolate bar, grab an Aero.

In the US, the only Cadbury candy bars I ever see are the solid, molded variety with nuts and dried fruits mixed in. These bars are actually produced by Hershey’s under a license agreement. In the rest of the world though, there’s a big variety of Cadbury enrobed products like the Cadbury Boost. I suppose the Hershey’s licensing agreement might prohibit Cadbury from exporting these candy bars to the US.

Structure
The inner core is a chocolate ganache-like filling, where the bottom half has small, round bits of biscuits (cookies) mixed in. This is surrounded by a thin layer of caramel. The whole bar is enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
The chocolate filling isn’t as soft as I was expecting or would have liked. It’s slightly softer than the pure chocolate coating, but not much. The biscuit pieces are perfectly crunchy, but there aren’t enough of them. I would have liked the whole center, not just the bottom half, to include biscuits pieces. The way the caramel is layered so thin, it’s not noticeable at first. But since it’s so chewy, it lasts longer than the other components, so you end up with some caramel in your mouth after everything else is gone.

Taste
The milk chocolate, both the coating and the filling, taste good. The caramel is slightly salty, which complements the overall sweetness of the product.

Verdict
The Cadbury Boost is a reconstructed Twix bar, though it’s not quite as good. Twix has a higher proportion of caramel and it’s solid cookie bar provides more crunch than Boost’s small, round bits of cookie. That said, it’s still pretty darn good and Cadbury chocolate is tasty.

The Double Decker is a British candy bar made by Cadbury. The name is presumably a reference to those red, two-level buses that are an iconic symbol of the country. Sadly, the packaging for the product has nothing to do with the buses. Instead, it’s bright orange and purple with a big, slanted logo across the front. Personally, I’m not a fan at all of the packaging design, but I won’t let that sway my opinion of the candy.

Structure
The name Double Decker fits the structure of the bar. It has two inner layers; the bottom one consisting of rice crispie balls spread amongst milk chocolate and the top one comprised of nougat. The whole bar is enrobed in milk chocolate.

Note: When your friends bring you candy bars back from overseas in their suitcases, don’t expect them to arrive in perfect condition.

Texture
The nougat is somewhere below a Charleston Chew and above a 3 Musketeers on the chewiness scale. The crispies are harder and larger than expected. I was thinking they’d be more like the kind in a Nestle Crunch. Instead, they reminded me of the ones in a Twix ice cream bar if you’ve ever had one of those before. Together, the chewy nougat, crispies and chocolate work well together.

Taste
There’s supposedly a light coffee flavor in the Double Decker. Either my taste buds were asleep or it’s REALLY light because I didn’t notice it at all. I’m sad because I thought this bar was bland. It was of course sweet, but neither the chocolate nor the inner layers had much flavor - just vanilla. I think a stronger coffee flavor would have helped.

Verdict
I’ve heard many times in my life that British candy bars are the best in the world. The Double Decker isn’t helping that cause. While the textures were good and different from anything I’ve had before, the flavor just didn’t cut it and ultimately, that’s what matters.