http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/ The latest chocolate news from around the world en-gb Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:47:50 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp For those of you not following me on the twitters (@choccieman) things at Chocolate Review will have seemed quiet. However, Mrs Chocadmin and I have been clearing our backlog of chocolate and we now have over 1000 products for you to vote on or review! Also the following changes have been made: The main chocolate page also features separation of chocolate by country of origin The chocolate search is now on the home page so it's easier to find that special bar you're looking for Images for chocolate products have been resized and are now (where possible) 500 pixels wide (previously 200) We're gradually adding links for our favourite blogs and sites to individual product pages (details below) The chocolate forum has been upgraded (finally), it therefore has a better UI and will get new additions soon While only on a couple so far we're gradually adding links from individual product pages to Foodstuff Finds, Jim's Chocolate Mission, Scandybars (truly the most beautiful pictures of chocolate I've ever seen) and Wikipedia. If you know of other quality sites with reviews or mentions of products featured in Chocolate Review please send us an e-mail at admin@chocolatereview.co.uk    Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:40:51 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp It's been a long time since the last chocolate news (day job getting in the way as always), but I'm a very big fan of Cadbury's Spots (boo) v Stripes (yay) campaign and this has recently moved into its new Race Season. First and foremost to this is the new Big Race bar (replacing the old spots v stripes bar) which is well worth trying. The Stripes team were kind enough to send me some goodies along with some Big Race bars including a frisbee and some spots v stripes top trumps! The Big Race wrapper contains a code for you to enter as quickly as you can via the web site. Also on the web site (and via Facebook) are a number of race challenges such as tea making, typing, bed making etc. - it's well worth a visit, as long as you're clocking up points for team stripes! In other chocolate related news: Head of Kraft Irene Rosenfeld manages to upset British MPs even more! Mars tumbles down the list of top grocery brands in Britain (and an excellent explanation of missed opportunity from the grocer here) Heart warming story of a boy who couldn't eat chocolate! (but now can - thank goodness) Following the trend of moving chocolate production out of the UK, Bendicks sadly moves to Germany An interesting way to combat the rising price of cocoa - add air Great news, chocolate could be a 'superfood', bad news it almost certainly isn't An Easter egg actually about religion as much as the chocolate (as long as it still has the chocolate...) Thanks to MostlyAboutChocolate for giving me a kick to put out an update.   Finally if you weren't already aware Oreo Double Stuff are here in the UK (looks like primarily Asda at the moment). Go out and buy some now, or if the shops are shut read my summary on SnackSpot.   Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:16:58 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp As some of you will know I'm a big fan of Valrhona chocolate so I thought it was about time to bump up the number of their products for voting in the Chocolate Review. 12 Valrhona products have been added today and I urge you all to try as many of them as you can. In the UK some of these can be obtained from Waitrose, the rest from specialist retailers like the Chocolate Trading Co. In Europe and the USA you can go to Valrhona's online shop. If you've not visited to the site recently you'll also see new products like Twix Fino and Dairy Milk Bliss have been added for your votes and reviews. Now for some news: Italy gets in trouble for using the label 'pure chocolate' Some scare-mongers have suggested that chocolate could become rare in 20 years time The public release of the genome to the cacao tree should fix that How about a gingerbread house over 6 feet high, selling for $15000! Prestat is stopping production of organic chocolate Following our last news update with the largest chocolate bar, now we have the world's largest truffle It's no surprise to hear that chocolate sales have risen during the recession (what more do you need to cheer you up) We're all glad to hear a pay deal was reached with workers at the Tunnock's factory (no-one wants to live without caramel wafers) Finally something I'm sure you'll all want to order - chocolate covered bacon (bleurgh) Expect another big update of products to vote on soon - next time it'll be chocolate from Sweden. Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:36:20 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp The Christmas season is upon us so check out all that lovely Christmas choc in your local supermarket. It's been a relatively quiet summer but the autumn has brought some interesting chocolate news, here's a summary: A burglar has been dubbed the Milk Tray thief because he left chocolatey footprints behind Armenia has produced the world's largest chocolate bar!  Look out, the American's are coming! Hershey expected to expand UK operations in 2011 Cadbury South Africa have made a rather nifty new advert There's been a lot of fear that Kraft will ruin many things about Cadbury Although we have reassurances that Dairy Milk will remain Fairtrade The excellent Chocri is now available in the UK, go there now to build your own custom chocolate bar (official launch on Monday) Finally, Cadbury have been running their excellent Spots v Stripes campaign. If you've tried the challenge bar you can now vote on what you think of it (or write a review) on Chocolate Review. You'll also notice Chocolate Review has gone a bit stripey to show our support for the best and (hopefully) winning team :-) Sign up for team stripes here. Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:23:01 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp It's been a while since the last chocolate news update, first things first though. There's a new feature for Chocolate Review users who also use Facebook. Every bar and manufacturer now has a Like button, so not only can you vote on your favourite bars you can also show your friends you 'like' them.   Back to the news, Cadbury's been popular again - first it was nominated the nation's favourite brand, the former chief exec of Cadbury has left with a tasty £40m payout, they've launched the new Crunchie Rocks (which are sadly a bit rubbish), for some crazy reason they've also launched Wispa Duo (does anyone think this is worth while?), there's concern that Kraft's promotion of Milka will undermine Dairy Milk, although Kraft is closing it's UK HQ and moving to Cadburys HQ, as expected Warren Buffett has cut his stake in Kraft because of the Cadbury merger, Kraft has had more criticism over its pledge to keep the Somerdale factory open, the Cadburys Caramel bunny is returning to promote Caramel Nibbles and after 50 years has changed the promotion of Flake and promptly been threatened with legal action. In other legal troubles Mars is consdering action against Nestle over the Kit Kat cross your fingers campaign, but never mind that you really want to try and make your own 46000 calorie Kit Kat bar :-) and wonder why on earth they're making a Duo version of Kit Kat Chunky Caramel. Also here's a run down of the bizarre Japanese Kit Kat flavours. How about making your own chocolate bars, that's the plan from Chocomize (USA only at the moment sadly), if you prefer to be a bit more hands-on and can't manage the mega kit kat above, then how about this mega oreo, or make your own pop tarts? Finally a lovely tale about the ideal gift for the Apple fan who likes chocolate.   Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:03:49 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp Galaxy Counters are now on Chocolate Review for you to vote on (for those of you lucky enough to have already had some). Don't forget to submit 10 new or updated votes at www.chocolatereview.co.uk before midday Sunday for your chance to get a free bag of Counters for yourself. You can also increase your chances of getting free Counters by entering Cinabar's competition here or Jim's competition here.Some more chocolate news for April: Cadbury might be creating their own cafes - made even better by the possibility of giant Curly Wurlys! Good luck to Reading University who are researching into diseases that affect cocoa plants Hopefully not what we have to look forward to with Cadbury's new owners Cadbury employees also have the terrible choice of leaving the pension scheme or having a pay freeze In celebration of the World Cup Mars is changing wrappers (supposedly for the first time in 78 years) Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:09:17 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE   The 'other' great season of chocolate consumption is upon us. To celebrate we've got a little competition!   Yes Galaxy Counters will very soon be back for the first time since the eighties. To celebrate this we have a bag to give away! For your chance to win 130g of Galaxy goodness simply login to www.chocolatereview.co.uk and vote for at least 10 products between now and 12 midday next Sunday (11th April). If you haven't tried any new chocolate (shame on you) you can always review and update 10 of your existing votes. Sorry Facebook visitors aren't included in the competition this time, only votes logged at www.chocolatereview.co.uk count. The winner of the bag will be the first randomly selected from all those who have logged at least 10 new or updated votes between the above times (winner will be notified via e-mail later on the 11th). Good Luck.   When you go to the chocolate page you'll now see (when logged in) that your number of products voted for, rank label and rank relative to other voters is displayed. Please let us know in the forum what you think of this feature (and any other features you'd like to see).   On with some news: Just as we all knew chocolate is good for you (albeit in limited amounts) Adding insult to injury the CEO of Kraft is given a massive pay rise It may not be the most attractive thing but how about a dress made from 20kg of chocolate? The Guardian reckon we're hopelessly addicted to cheap chocolate (probably true) The big four confectionary companies in the US are being sued for price fixing Easter eggs have shrunk and prices have gone down or up (depending on who you listen to), it's no big deal though is it? The Moro bar (a kind of Mars bar but made by Cadbury) is now made in Australia not New Zealand and they're asking for consumer feedback about the quality after the move (shame we're never asked such things here in Europe). That's all for now. I hope you've all got lots of lovely eggs to tuck into today. Mrs ChocAdmin and I will be munching our way through a rather lovely Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road to Caramel. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:41:08 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp Some really big chocolate news for April, Mars will continue their dominance of the 'bag' market because Galaxy Counters are coming back!! The Cadbury<>Kraft saga is still going, Kraft have had to answer questions from MPs after continuing with the closure of the Keynsham factory (despite suggestions they would not before the takeover).The result is, they're sorry. It's all the fault of Curly Wurly's apparently. Also with Cadbury, their new Flake advert will sadly never see the light of day. As it's been deemed too naughty :-) What we will see though is the new design of wrapper for Fry's cream products (quite a nice update, now if they could bring back 5 flavours). A Welsh firm (currently making novelty sweets for kids) has bought the remains of Kshocolat. Greanpeace has launched a rather savage attack on Nestle over deforestation for palm oil production. Why they've singled out Nestle and Kit Kat and not other palm oil users is unclear. Mars has started constructing a new chocolate research facility - this can mean only good things for the wonderful UK market.     Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:01:28 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp Sadly, as you will have heard, the Kraft takeover of Cadbury has been finalised. So far it looks like jobs are going and prices are going up. We wait to hear what other horrors may follow :-( In other American developments Mars are releasing 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp, sadly it's unlikely we'll get a Milky Way equivalent here. Instead Mars will start sponsoring some popular ITV programs. And in other Cadbury news, Green and Blacks will soon finally be completely fair trade - which will save me from having to correct G+B fans who kept getting this wrong (only Maya Gold was fair trade).   Now that the Krad-bury saga is closing we now have a new threat to fear. The idea that Nestle might want to make a play for Hershey! Naturally Chocolate Review is against any reduction in the diversity of the chocolate market (chocolate takeovers are only ok if a company is at risk of going out of business). You can join our Facebook group to show your support (this will probably be a long running story).   In more positive news our Chocolate Flowchart is now at version 1.5, and those nice people at Kellogg's sent me some of their latest product - called Fibre Plus and it's really not bad at all.   Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:36:47 GMT http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/news.asp Is today a black day in UK confectionery history? Only time will tell if Kraft's takeover of Cadbury is good or bad for chocolate (sadly it's bound to be bad for jobs in the UK). Cadbury is the second largest manufacturer on www.chocolatereview.co.uk with 120 products voted on, albeit with a not so great average of 6.1 (still better than Nestle though). Will this score rise or fall after the takeover? We'll have to see. No doubt many more products will be discontinued anyway (don't bet on Wispa Gold becoming permanent, despite the seemingly good sales during it's limited run last year). If you're missing Cadbury of old already, check this article on the BBC with some lovely old images.   In less traumatic news, Mars will be reducing the saturated fats in its products over the summer - allegedly without any change in taste (wonder if the price'll stay the same too?) In what must be an unfortunately timed announcement Mars will also soon be releasing Galaxy Bubbles (I guess it was only a matter of time before Mars needed an Aero/Wispa competitor).   If you're still down about the Cadbury situation don't forget our fun page - although the Dairy Milk matching game might have a limited lifespan now :-(