The Salted Caramel trend has been going for at least a few years now, and it seems that companies are determined to put it in everything. Galaxy Salted Caramel is a few years old, and more recently we got Salted Caramel Kettle Chips. Nestle have got in on the act too and added a Salted Caramel variety to their Matchmakers range (which now bizarrely has been lumped under the Quality Street brand, even though Matchmakers never had anything to do with Quality Street). This is no doubt a replacement for the Matchmakers Yummy Honeycomb which is still available in Home Bargains, although it could be old stock.
You can pick these up for around £1 in most shops currently - Tesco have them at half price and they're also in Poundland and other discount stores for £1.
They're described as "salted caramel flavoured chocolates with skimmed milk chocolate, dark chocolate and boiled sugar pieces". Yum - boiled sugar, sounds so enticing!
Opening the box they had a super strong butterscotch-like aroma, so strong there was no way it can be natural. It's so overpowering.
The sticks are the classic Matchmakers, perfect for nibbling on or stuffing as many in your mouth as you can fit! You get a good amount to munch on, which has always been one of the best things about Matchmakers in my opinion - they're great value for money.
They taste strongly of salted caramel, too strongly in fact. This isn't the sort of salted caramel that sits there on the fence - it's full on SALTY, strong and butterscotch like, and quite frankly after a few sticks these were too much. I did enjoy them but they become too overpowering and I think the fault lies in the strong artificial flavour (although the ingredients list "natural flavouring", hmmmm I wonder what it is?).
Overall, these aren't bad and I'm sure they'll go down a storm over the festive season if you like salty caramel flavours. They certainly make a nice alternative to the usual Mint and Orange Matchmakers. But they're a bit too much for me personally.
Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, vegetable fat, lactose and proteins from whey, whey powder, natural flavouring, emulsifier sunflower lecithin, salt.
Suitable for vegetarians.
Nutrition (per 4 sticks): 71 Calories, 3.1g Fat, 10.2g Carbohydrates, 9.2g Sugars, 0.5g Protein.
7 out of 10.
