NEW PRODUCT: Nestle Blue Riband Dark with Orange

For some, Nestle's original Blue Riband (a combination of very thin milk chocolate and wafer) is considered just a bit too bland. Personally, in a very British way that has seen the likes of the Rich Tea biscuit endure, I quite like the not-too-sweet plainness of this offering. That said, Nestle has tried some flavour variants over the years to help the brand cater to those wanting a bit more from their snack bars. This newest offering, dark chocolate and orange, is a good example of this and, with the time-tested combination a particular favourite of mine, I thought I'd give it a go.

The multi-pack packaging shares the core offering's basic look with the shades of brand blue sitting behind large 'Blue Riband' text in somewhat flamboyant white font. The inclusion of brownish/orangey hues at the bottom of the design is actually quite nice and brings feelings of warmth and luxury to the overall look. Moreover, a bit of thought has been put in to the attendant text with the 'dark' font slightly more stylised for those connotations of sophistication and the 'orange' font more rounded as per the fruit's form. 

The individual bar's packaging, the multi-pack design benefits from being uncluttered as it condenses down rather nicely on to the small area of plastic. As for the look of the bar itself, I have to say that the dark sheen of the chocolate just puts this offering ahead of the original in my book.

Taste-wise, a pleasant smell of orange is apparent straight off the bat. Tucking in, that orange flavour translates beautifully with the thin layer of dark chocolate providing some deep cocoa notes on the back end. Personally, I would say it's more 'orange with dark chocolate' than the other way around as the fruit certainly leads the bar's flavour profile. In any case, the not-too-sweet basic offering proves itself a great vehicle for these flavours and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Overall, the packaging communicates the flavour variant well with the added hues complementing the core blues very well for me. As for the bar itself, I thought it was an interesting offering with a bit of role reversal: orange led the charge whilst the dark chocolate came through in the background. Indeed, for a cheap, everyday snack bar I thought this worked well.

BRAND LINKS

Nestle Website - Blue Riband Page

Nestle Twitter

Nestle Facebook

NOSTALGIA HIT: Shredded Wheat

Some classic ads again as James Bond's Jaws joins sporting legends, Botham, Clough and Charlton, in extolling the virtues of good old Shredded Wheat. Enjoy.






BRAND LINKS
Nestle Website - Shredded Wheat Page
Shredded Wheat UK Twitter

LIMITED EDITION PACKAGING: Nestle Aero by Matthew Williamson

Admittedly, my knowledge of fashion is such that the packaging's reference to a 'Matthew Williamson' was entirely meaningless to me - then again I'm not the supposed 35-54 year old female target market. Googling, I found out that the man was a notable British fashion designer and the wrapper design was an update on his signature 'butterfly' print. Personally, I loved these snazzy redesigns. They remained loyal to the general Aero look whilst delivering boat loads of interest to reinvigorate shelf standout. Indeed, I can see these playing to an even broader age range than that suggested. 

A definite thumbs up to Nestle on this one. Here are the designs in full:

BRAND LINKS

Nestle UK Website

Aero UK Website

Aero UK Facebook

NOSTALGIA HIT: Last Rolo

Here's a couple of ads for Rolo based around the brand's famous line, 'Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?'. The first one is a very charming animation whilst the second is a very funny ad featuring none other than Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Enjoy.

NEW PROMOTION: 'Pick a break, have a Kit Kat'

Just a quick bit of news on a current promotion Kit Kat is running. As part of the brand icon's new 'Celebrate the Breakers Break' campaign, the product has broken with its traditional wrapper design to amuse shoppers with different types of 'break'.  Here's just some of the breaks that came in my multipack...

For more things Kit Kat related see the current resource on my GBD website: http://www.thegreatbritishdiet.co.uk/Articles/KitKat.html

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.

LIMITED EDITION: Toffee Crisp Honeycomb

Created by Mackintosh's back in the 60's and now owned by Nestlé, the Toffee Crisp is a simple proposition combining puffed rice suspended in toffee with a milk chocolate exterior. Personally, I still love the brand and cannot help but notice its vibrant orange and yellow packaging which still feels so retro in design. Therefore, when I saw this Honeycomb limited edition offering, I was more than happy. That said, I did take pause as I realised, in a world saturated with variations on a theme, I couldn't ever remember seeing a Toffee Crisp spin-off before. Suddenly appreciating the added novelty of this happy chocolate bar encounter I just knew I had to give it a write up.

THOUGHTS

Packaging:

By retaining the brand's basic colour scheme of highly saturated colours, this offering felt vibrant and fun whilst visually connected to the original product. The striped nature of the background design was suitably indicative of a bee and, thus, supportive of the bar's key selling point. As for the added 'Honeycomb' serif-style text, like the brand name, it was centrally aligned and orientated in a standard fashion across the horizontal, thus, giving the bar a very balanced, classic look that spoke of reliability and trustworthiness. That said, some fun was injected in to the text with the 'o's' offset a little from word's baseline and a yellow honeycomb-shaped graphic positioned at the letters' centres.

The reverse provided no extra thrills in particular. Black was used very effectively to make the content stand out from the bright background, whilst further picking up on the bee connotations with the black-yellow aesthetic.

Bar:

Sporting a nicely rippled milk chocolate exterior, the bar was a decent enough size and looked appetising. Taking a bite, textural sensations immediately hit the palette with the rice and honeycomb providing a pleasant crispiness alongside the chew of toffee. Quickly, the chewy toffee took centre stage and sweet, rich tones developed. Admittedly, at this stage I thought the flavour of the honeycomb had been overpowered by the toffee. However, as I continued to chew, I was delighted to find the honeycomb flavour emerged and eventually took centre stage itself. Admittedly, with the chocolate being as thin as it was it didn't get much of a look in, bar some general sweet milky notes, but, nevertheless, this was a tasty offering full of interest both in terms of texture and flavour.

SUMMING UP

It was nice to see Nestlé giving some attention to this brand, which had been largely left to do its own thing. The packaging was identifiably Toffee Crisp but, at the same time, built on the original design to bring a vibrant, summery tone that stood out amongst competing offerings. Whilst the bar equally tacked on a new dimension with all the textural points of interest there, as per the original, plus an undercurrent of honeycomb. Indeed, I was very impressed with the way in which the honeycomb flavour gently built up and eventually took centre stage at the end to round off the experience nicely. 

BRAND LINKS

Nestlé Website Toffee Crisp Page

NOSTALGIA HIT: 90's Lion Bar 'Wild Thing'

As a child Lion Bars had a certain maturity and manliness about them that made them feel like true heavyweights of the chocolate bar world. Indeed, the following ad came from a time when this bar still felt like it could put hairs on your chest.