Darrell Lea Liquorice Choc Stix Strawberry

At the start of this year, Australian brand Darrell Lea added a new product to their range: Stix. The famous liquorice makers have taken some of their favourite flavours and added a chocolate centre or outer layer. My introduction to the filled type of liquorice was actually through a New Zealand brand, RJ's, and their Raspberry Choc Logs, which we sold at my old job. Since RJs can only be found as imported stock, it's good to see an Aussie brand bringing their own version to the table.

Gossip: Whittaker's L&P Slab, New Snickers LE, New Big Boss Flavour and More

More new releases!

New Zealand chocolate brand Whittaker's is releasing a 'truly Kiwi' variety of their famous chocolate, called the L&P Slab. The small slab will be made from white chocolate infused with L&P soft drink flavour, and mixed through with popping candy. L&P is made from a mix of lemon and 'carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa'. Lemon-flavoured white chocolate? This will surely be a challenge to the tastebuds! The flavour has been available in NZ for a little while now, but soon it will be reaching Australian shores.

Remember Big Boss, the giant lolly cigars which are now just sticks? They were originally released in caramel flavour, and about five years ago we saw Tutti Fruitti (blue) released. Now a new flavour range is joining the ranks: Sours, which contain sticks in the flavours of Blackcurrant Blast, Atomic Apple, Gob-Puckering Grape and Wuss-Out Watermelon. (I love those names!) I think these may only be available as the single piece as sold in milk bars etc - I doubt we'll be seeing them in retail bags sold at larger stores. If you do manage to get your hands on them, please send me a review!

Following on from above, remember Fizzers? From the original flavours of Creaming Soda, Strawberry and Orange, the range has expanded to include lots of new flavours, and the newest is Blue Buzz Mixed Fruit.

Haribo will be launching a new product here in Australia: Mega-Roulette, a roll of small gummi pieces in assorted flavours. As with most Haribo products, Mega-Roulette is not new to the rest of the world.

It's that time of year, when Mars Snickers appears in a brand new limited-edition flavour. This year we're seeing Snickers Almond, available in both medium and king-size bars. The flavour has been available in the US for some time, but I don't think we've had it here in Australia before.

Lindt Lindor Strawberries and Cream

Lindt & Sprungli have sneakily released a new flavour to their Lindor ball range just in time for Easter and Mother's Day, in Strawberries and Cream. Head below the jump to read the full review!

Nestle Aero Limited Edition White

Nestle Aero White has been around for a couple of months now, but it's taken me a while to get my hands on one for reviewing as it hasn't turned up in supermarkets. It may be some sort of exclusive to smaller sellers - mostly the petrol and convenience sector, as that's where I found it for sale.

Head on down for more!

Gossip: Nestle Aero White

This one is actually so new, I don't have any information on it! I spotted it at the servo a few days ago and had to share though. Aero isn't usually a range that plays with different flavours, so it's good to see something new!

Image via mysweeties.com.au

Cadbury Flake Snow

Those with a sharp memory may remember spotting the Cadbury Flake Snow out on Australian shelves a few years ago. At the time it was the second seasonal Flake (that I can remember), and was available everywhere. I spotted this Flake Snow at Coles not long ago, alongside a sign that indicated it was exclusive to Coles supermarkets.

The product doesn't seem to have changed at all (made in Australia so not imported stock), and is a 'crumby Dream white chocolate Flake covered in Cadbury Dairy Milk milk chooclate.' Pretty simple, really! I have noticed that the enrobed Flakes tend to have more chocolate in the centre - but that might just be me. I do like looking at the patterns inside!

Broken down, the bar is quite simple - white chocolate and milk chocolate. Cadbury's Bubbly White is basically the same thing - the only real difference is the appearance and maybe a minor texture change at first bite. My bar was lovely and pristine: a squarish log 12cm , enrobed in milk chocolate with faint ripples over the top. My bar was not fully covered, through; some of the bottom had holes where the base did not meet the sides. Lucky for me, no white chocolate crumbs escaped and my bar was glossy and ripe for eating.

Interestingly, it doesn't smell as sweet as a block of regular Dairy Milk. There's more of a milky note there, and it's a little bit buttery too. Thankfully, the taste is exactly as you would expect - white and milk chooclate. The bar is sweeter than its scent suggests, but not so much to make my teeth hurt. I did feel a wee bit sick afterwards.

While eating this bar, I discovered that if you bite both ends off the bar, you could effectively use it like a straw due to the ripples of the Flake causing small spaces inside. So it was obvious what my next thought was - the infamous Tim Tam Slam (the art of drinking a beverage through a Tim Tam).

Readers, please go out and buy a Flake Snow, perform a Tim Tam Slam, and report back. I imagine it would be sickly sweet and therefore delicious!

Cadbury Flake Snow contains milk and soy. It make contain traces of peanuts and tree nuts.

Nutffles Red Velvet

Nutffles first arrived on the Australian confectionery scene a couple of years ago. The USA-made little bite-size pieces of chocolate were vaguely similar to the ubiquitous Ferrero Rocher - a shell of chocolate, a soft creamy chocolate centre, and a whole nut in the middle. While Ferrero Rocher contains a hazelnut in the centre, and a crushed nut exterior, Nutffles are enrobed in a thin layer of chocolate. The two original flavours were Almond and Hazelnut.

Originally, Nutffles came with three pieces in a pack. At some point, this changed to four bite-sized pieces.

I picked up this Red Velvet flavoured pack of Nutffles at Target not long ago. I don't know how new they are to the market, but as I hadn't spotted them before, I picked them up for review.

Red velvet cake is, I assume, huge in America. For those unfamiliar, it's a cake that is dyed red (sometimes chocolate flavoured), and served with cream cheese icing. It's not something I had heard of in Australia. Since the recipe doesn't contain nuts (according to Wikipedia), I was very interested to see how a nut-based truffle would work with this flavouring. And no, I've never tried red velvet cake before.

The Nutffles packing is easily recognisable. They truffles are packed in a clear plastic tray inside a thick foil package. The outer colouring of the packaging changes depending on the flavour, but the packs are very recognisable. A pack of four truffles weighs 34g.

Straight away, the first difference between the Red Velvet truffles and the other Nutffles flavours is that the outer layer of chocolate is white, rather than milk. The pieces are small, about the size of a Ferrero Rocher cut in half, and they have a flat bottom. The white chocolate is slightly bumpy from the ingredients underneath, and the bottom has a few small areas where the chocolate doesn't quite cover.

Underneath the white chocolate is a thin curved layer of chocolate wafer, and then inside that is a vaguely red-looking firm centre. It's definitely not the prettiest thing to look at - but given their small size, I suspect most consumers would pop the whole thing into their mouths.

The taste is interesting. Somewhere in there is a vague hint of cream cheese, but there's not a whole lot of flavour until you reach the whole almond inside. There's very little actual chocolate flavour in the bite. It's rather bland and unexciting for a truffle. The texture combination is nice - creamy milk chocolate, the hard nut, the slightly crunchy wafer. My truffles felt very fresh.

Although I finished mine, I wondered why anyone would waste money on these. I wouldn't even consider these nice - they were much more along the lines of 'meh'.

The Belgian white chocolate layer is actual chocolate (with cocoa butter as the second ingredient), and the whole 34g pack is one serve. They contain milk, wheat and soy products, and almonds. Traces of peanuts and other nuts may be present.

Nestle Milkybar Big Round Milk & Cookies

Nestle's Milkybar Milk & Cookies is really the only white chocolate and biscuit chocolate bar we have available in Australia (not counting imported products, or blocks).It's been around for many years, and used to be available in the medium (around 50g) bar as well as the king size (around 80g) bar, as well as a 200g block, but several years ago Nestle decided to discontinue the medium bar and just retain the king bar and the large block.

The 'Big Round', I've been told by my rep, was introduced as a smaller product to be marketed at children, as kids generally don't go and buy an 80g bar or a large block. Based on the small 20g-size of other Nestle products the Mint Pattie and Coconut Rough, the Big Round is 20g of white chocolate studded with bits of chocolate biscuit.

The chocolate (I can't really call it a bar) measures 6.5cm in diameter, and 5mm thick. The top of the circle is moulded into the shape of a sheriff's star, a rather cute tie-in with the original wild west 'Milkybar Kid' from the commercials back in the 90s. On top of that is the Milkybar logo, complete with surrounding milk splash. The sheriff's star isn't as detailed as the Milkybar logo, but both are smoothly moulded with no flaws or bubbles. The chocolate is very smooth and glossy, and smells like, well, milk and cookies. It's a creamy, teasing scent.

The rear shows the biscuit pieces off better; they provide a little texture to the surface. The biscuit pieces vary from larger pieces around 4mm in size, down to tiny little crumbs that add visual interest to the piece.

Unfortunately, I didn't pick up a king size Milkybar Milk & Cookies for comparison as I was hoping to (supermarkets don't sell the king size bars I don't think), but I would hazard a guess that the density of the biscuit pieces in the Round is different to what you would find in the king size bar or the block. Despite the inspiring textured back, snapping open the bar shows a more minimal scattering of pieces throughout the white chocolate.

The snap of the bar is good; mine is nice and fresh, and it snaps with a good sound. White chocolate is the dominant flavour, it tastes as though the biscuit pieces are there more for texture than flavour. I do get very, very mild chocolate milkshake flavours, but that might be more my imagination. The crunch of the biscuit pieces is good; again, the Round seems to be nice and fresh. The pieces crumble nicely, and don't stick in my teeth. Always a plus!

Interestingly, I don't find the Round to be as sweet as the block or bar. That may be due to the thickness, but I have found in the past that the bar or block can be sweet enough to make your teeth hurt. I'm not finding that with this. I would be interested to see if the ingredients are different, or if that's just a result of the portion sizes being different.

Milkybar Big Round Milk & Cookies contains milk, wheat and soy, and is made on equipment that processes products containing peanuts, tree nuts and egg.