NEW PRODUCT: Aero Mousse Bar

With new products seemingly coming thick and fast from the big chocolate brands at the moment, I wasn't surprised to find this offering from Nestlé's Aero pop up on shelves. Admittedly, like the Toffee Crisp from yesterday, I was intrigued as I couldn't really remember the last limited edition/new product from Aero, plus I didn't know how much this 'mousse' layer would really add.

THOUGHTS

Packaging:

Like the Galaxy Salted Caramel in yesterday's post, this bar's design borrowed very heavily from the core offering in its general colour scheme and stylisation of the brand name. One addition though was, obviously, the 'mousse' text which nicely employed a fluid look and 'wispy' lines of varying stroke width to convey a notion of lightness and elegance that was very in line with the bars intention of targeting women. The product shot on the right kind of showed the mousse layer if you looked closely but, to be honest, to an eye scanning the shelves this would look like a picture of a regular piece of Aero. Lastly, a gold coloured 'new' graphic appeared in the top left though, by virtue of its positioning, I found the creases in the wrapper obscured the text. Indeed, the design looked nice enough and, in terms of brand design coherency, it was on the money. However, unlike Nestlé's Toffee Crisp Honeycomb design, it could be argued that it didn't do enough to differentiate itself on the shelf and, thus, give it sufficient personality in of its own right. 

The reverse provided the basic product information with light and dark colour used effectively against the gold backdrop to bring some clarity to the design. Moreover, the 'cocoa plan' graphic under the flap sat very nicely with the overall Aero colour scheme and, by virtue of its crisp text, reinforced a certain sense of smartness and sophistication about the bar.

Bar:

Even more so than the wrapper, the bar itself remained on-brand in adopting the Aero's bubble-like segments inscribed with the brand name.    

Taste:

Taking a bite, the bar's aeration delivered that classic Aero textural experience of chocolate almost crumbling away in the mouth. Trying to be very aware of the textures, I do think that there was a bit more of a contrast in textures with the addition of the mousse layer but it wasn't overly apparent. That said, I found the taste incredibly smooth and light. Indeed, I felt at the very end that the bar had more perfumed my senses with the flavour of cocoa than weighed me down with it. All in all, I don't think people will think this too different to the original bar, but I did find it pleasant enough to eat and I may well consider it again if I want a light hit of milk chocolate.

SUMMING UP

Looks-wise, both the packaging and the bar were very on-brand with a lot of very strong design nods to the core offering. Indeed, as with all Aero products, it pitched itself to a female market well with its smart, elegant appearance that reinforced the lightness of the chocolate. Admittedly, I think it was so on-brand that it lacked a bit of its own personality and, certainly, didn't stand out on the shelf as well as it probably should have. Taste-wise, this bar offered beautifully smooth and light milk chocolate; however, I feel the difference between it and the core offering would, perhaps, be a little too subtle for some.