Cadbury 5 Star (Poundstretcher)

As you might've gathered, finding and trying new chocolate is somewhat of a passion of mine. Purse strings are rather right as a student however, and I'm a natural born bargain hunter so nothing pleases me more than a cheap chocolate find (as long as it's good quality and/or a reputable brand of course). This is why I love to trawl the Saturday markets (which have heralded treasures such as the Côte D'Or FudgeNut, Cappuccino Twix, and Milka Oreo) the Polish Delis (KarmelLove was a game changing discovery) as well as B&M and American Fizz' online clearance section (for affordable American bars).  One store that doesn't ordinarily prove successful for chocolate finds is poundstretcher, but times might be changing. Snack hunting queen Emma (@emmasfood) recently spotted these Cadbury 5 Stars in the bargain basement chain, and I hotfooted it down to my local branch the very next day. Hurrah! At 4 for £1 (or 29p each) they ticked my favourite boxes: chocolate ✅ cheap ✅ branded ✅.

"Cadbury Milk Chocolate + caramel + soft chocolatey centre + crunchy biscuits."

So basically a Boost then? We'll sort of. The 5 star is made in Ireland and sold in Cairo, and there are some differences between the two:

The 5 star comprises of milk chocolate (31.5%), sweetened filling (34%), caramel filling (30.5%) and biscuit pieces (4%), whereas the Boost contains 26% caramel and just 3% biscuits. The chocolate recipe is very different between the bars too (5 star contains a minimum cocoa solids of 25% compared to just 23% for Cadbury's UK bars). I've often heard that Irish Dairy Milk is better quality than our version, so I was intrigued to find out if this would bear truth.

Slicing into the 5 Star revealed all of the components, which unsurprisingly appeared very similar to the innards of a Boost. Biting into it brought back childhood memories of my mid-morning snacks at school (normally either a Mars Delight, Galaxy or Boost -yes I've always been this healthy 👅). The combination of truffle like centre, tough (tooth-adhesive) caramel and biscuit pieces were -and still are- an absolute winner.

The point of difference however was the quality of the chocolate, which was much more noticeable than I originally considered. The melting smoothness of the milk chocolate was far superior to the version that we're now subjected to as a result of the Mondelēz takeover. I can't help but feel extremely bitter about this given that Cadbury's originated in the U.K, so surely by default we should be producing and selling the very best that Cadbury's has to offer. Of course I'm all down for the Egyptians eating yummy chocolate, but surely we should enjoy it too? That considered, I'm stocking up on 5 Stars whilst Poundstretcher have a glut (they're in date until June next year too!).

9/10