Monday, October 11, 2010

Cadbury Flake

Cadbury FlakeThe Cadbury Flake has been made for 90 years by Cadbury and has a clever little story to go with it. The story goes that a line worker in the Cadbury factory noticed that the over-run of the one their molds made little folded sheets of chocolate that was a tasty way to eat the chocolate. They’re billed as The crumbliest, flakiest milk chocolate..

I’ve had a few of the Flake bars over the years and never quite understood them (and preferred the versions that were dipped in chocolate). They seemed chalky and sweet but not chocolatey. So I thought I’d give it another try. I got a hold of a very fresh bar (expires February 2011).

The ingredients are similar to all of the Cadbury’s UK milk chocolate offerings. This bar was made in Ireland and contains: Milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fat, emulsifier, flavoring. Milk solids are listed at 14% and the cocoa solids are 25%. So it’s a lot of chocolate and milk ... but there’s also a little bit of vegetable fat in there, which by United States FDA standards means that this doesn’t qualify as real chocolate.

Flake

Again, I’m coming to this bar with an outsider’s perspective. I didn’t grow up with it and I’ve never seen any advertisements for the bar. So taken at face value, the idea of a bar made of chocolate shavings is interesting, I like it when I find a pile of chocolate shavings on my dessert. The reality of the bar isn’t quite as attractive. It reminds me of elephant skin. It’s about six inches long and holds together well.

It smells a bit like cheesecake instead of milk chocolate. The dairy tang is like yogurt or cream cheese. It’s a bit crumbly upon biting, but not as bad as I’d feared. The texture is soft and chalky, but not quite fudgy. It dissolves more than it melts. It’s not sticky sweet, I think the milk notes cut that, but the cocoa isn’t quite as apparent for such a high cacao milk chocolate (as far as American chocolate goes for comparison).

The crumbly texture doesn’t feel decadent or indulgent to me, it just feels old or stale. The sour note to the milk wasn’t pleasant (though I can imagine becoming acclimated to it).

The bars are marketed as a low calorie, highly pleasurable experience. But they’re hardly low in fat, they’re about normal at 150 calories per ounce for chocolate, it’s just the portion that’s small at only 1.13 ounces per bar.

Flake PralineThe Cadbury Flake Praline is similar to the classic Flake, except it sports 7% hazelnuts. It’s also partially covered in chocolate.

This bar is just a little shorter than the plain version, about 5 inches. It’s also made in Ireland.

Flake Hazelnut Praline

The scent is a little nuttier, but still have the dairy note. This one also had a little more cocoa to it.

The bite was softer and the hazelnut was immediately apparent. There were little hazelnut bits and a nice roasted flavor overall. It seemed a bit moister and a bit fudgier ... but it also felt sweeter. So much so that my throat was seared by it after consuming half the bar.

I understand that these bars are remarkably different than others, but it’s just not something that appeals to me. The dryness just takes away all the fatty mouthfeel for me. I’m not keen on the fact that they’re not real chocolate, considering how expensive they are in the States, for that money I’ll get something that really pleases me.

Related Candies

  1. Nestle Aero 70% Dark
  2. Elite Aerated & Lotte Airs
  3. Cadbury Twirl and Snow Flake
  4. Flake Dipped
  5. Aero


Name: Flake
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: Mel & Rose Wine & Liquor
Price: $1.50
Size: 1.13 ounces
Calories per ounce: 150
Categories: Candy, Cadbury, Mockolate, 5-Pleasant, United Kingdom


Name: Flake Praline
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: Mel & Rose Wine & Liquor
Price: $1.50
Size: 1.32 ounces
Calories per ounce: 155
Categories: Candy, Cadbury, Mockolate, Nuts, 5-Pleasant, United Kingdom

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:45 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyCadburyMockolateNuts5-PleasantUnited Kingdom

Comments
  1. Are you nuts??? Flake = Wonderful! **sigh** I wish I had a Flake this very instant. I don’t know that I can trust any of your candy reviews! Your taste buds are broke! :oP

    Comment by Cat on 10/11/10 at 5:24 pm #
  2. It smells a bit like cheesecake instead of milk chocolate. The dairy tang is like yogurt or cream cheese.
    ...
    The sour note to the milk wasn’t pleasant

    The above sounds really bad to me.

    Milka had a version of this for Christmas in 2008 and I thought they were quite nice as they were not made with Milka’s regular Alpine Milk Chocolate (whose taste I don’t enjoy, though I like the texture), but with a milk chocolate with high cocoa content.
    picture 1: closed box
    picture 2: open box, let the chocolate be visible

    Comment by Ana on 10/11/10 at 5:40 pm #
  3. I love Flake Bars and always try to buy a tin or box of them when I fly through England, although they can be found in the States but usually at a steeper price. 

    In England mobile ice cream vendors also place shorter versions of these as sticks in your vanilla ice cream cones.  Yum.

    It may be an acquired taste though, as I grew up eating them, but I know that it isn’t a favorite for others.

    Comment by Daniel K on 10/11/10 at 10:13 pm #
  4. You say = mockolate. Maybe that’s the Ireland version but in Australia it’s made from real chocolate! I grew up eating these and these are real cadbury chocolate and totally yummy. We use them alot on cakes here or cupcakes for decorating too.

    Comment by Kelly in Australia on 10/12/10 at 12:53 am #
  5. Don’t like these much on their own, but they’re essential in a soft-serve ice cream cone. It’s called a “99” here in Ireland and in the UK.

    Comment by Bill on 10/12/10 at 2:25 am #
  6. My husband (from England) always says I’m nuts for thinking the Flake bar is gross. I could never figure out why, but there was something about it that just was not right.

    And reading this made the memories flood back. It was sour. It tasted of sour milk notes. That was the taste I could not place.

    I’ll eat all kinds of crap quality mockolate, but I could not finish the flake bar. I tried a second one a few weeks after and had that same flavor. I’m glad it wasn’t just me, or a bad batch.

    Comment by Jezzy on 10/12/10 at 2:50 am #
  7. Well it certainly doesnt look appealing.  Im intrigued though.

    Comment by Steve on 10/12/10 at 2:00 pm #
  8. I grew up eating these in South Africa.  The taste of the South African made Flake was totally different to those that I’ve had that were made in the U.K.  None of that disgusting sour milk tang that seems to be so pervasive in the U.S and the U.K.

    Comment by SteveZA on 10/15/10 at 7:15 am #
  9. Well, I like them. I’ve mostly bought them in Canada. They are hard to find my home area (Ohio), and when you do find them, they are inevitably stale no matter the expiration date.

    Fresh ones are tasty, with a delicate texture. The texture is the big thing here—it’s like chocolate curls on a cake.

    Comment by Laurel962 on 10/26/10 at 5:09 pm #
  10. OMG how I wish I had a Flake bar right now.  You’re right, this review does not give this chocolate justice.  Just crumble them on top of ice cream, and you’ll have a marvelous treat.  I had such a hard time finding these chocolates in the States, but I found a website (http://www.theindianfoodstore.com) that sells them for less than a buck!  I bought 48 the second I saw it, but now I’ve run out…perhaps during Christmas time!

    Comment by Hillary on 10/31/10 at 7:44 pm #
  11. Cadbury in Australia did try and put vegetable fat into the formulation back in 2009. But they reverted to the original recipe after it created an uproar, as was expected. Cadbury claimed that the addition of the fat would make it smoother and softer to bite. But anyone with a couple of brain cells would have known that the decision was all about saving money.

    Comment by Rob on 8/09/12 at 2:12 am #
  12. Super late, but I came back to this after trying two Flakes in a row from work and thinking they were old because of how chalky they were…I guess that’s just how they’re supposed to be?
    If you let it dissolve, there is a kind of fudginess to it; I don’t know, maybe there is a way you have to eat it lol.

    Comment by Lola on 11/20/12 at 7:50 am #
  13. There is a fantastic site where you can still get classic British Cadbury - britishcandyco.com

    Comment by Steven on 11/14/15 at 3:02 am #
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