Annabelle's Rocky Road S'mores (American Chocolate Bar)

The Black Friday box of goodies that I ordered from American Soda contained a couple more chocolate bars that I've wanted to try for a while. One of which was the Rocky Road S'mores which One Treat reviewed a couple of months ago on behalf of Taffy Mail. She spoke highly of it, and I felt the food envy kick in so I decided to order one for myself. However, given how disgusted I was with the first chocolate I tried from my order (the Sky bar) I wasn't looking forward to it as much as I was when it arrived.  

The Rocky Road S'mores bar is a big gnarly ol' hunk of snack. If you haven't heard of them before (as I hadn't before reading OneTreat's review) they are 'Handmade fluffy marshmallow with a real graham cracker coated with milk chocolate and sprinkled with roasted cashew nuts.'

Unwrapping it, I noted that the chocolate was much darker than UK milk chocolate such as dairy milk. Fortunately however, I couldn't detect the horrid cheap chocolate smell that I experienced with the Sky Bar. 

Biting into it, I welcomed the soft, billowy marshmallow that melted away so pleasingly. It was far better than the marshmallows I'm used to (flumps) and although very sweet, didn't become sickly. Crunch came from the graham cracker on top- which was delicious-  but there just wasn't enough of it; I felt it could have really done with being both on top of and beaneath the mallow. The chocolate coating was studded with cashews (also just on top) which didn't add much in the way of flavour, but certainly offered an additional texture, reminding me of the coating of a 'Feast' ice cream. The chocolate was much better than expected, and although it's not as good quality as British chocolate, certainly outshines most of the US chocolates I've tried. 

I enjoyed this bar, and I'd buy it again! 

8/10

New ASDA Rocky Road Cheesecake Slices

After writing yesterday about the similarity between the McVities Caramel Digestive Slices base and the biscuit layer of cheesecake I felt the urge to eat my favourite dessert. I went to ASDA with the intention of buying their Maple Waffle Cheesecake slices but -alas- they don't seem to be stocking them anymore. The space previously accommodated by the Waffley variety has been replaced with a brand new cheesecake: Rocky Road.

As you may have ascertained I have a huge amount of love for chocolate and so I was particularly  eager to sample ASDA's Rocky Road Cheesecake. I was imagining that the cheesecake itself would contain marshmallows and biscuit chunks...mmmm... The strap line itself was enough to have me salivating in the aisle  as it reads 'Our road to chocolate heaven! Creamy, crunchy and chewy pleasure.'

The slices looked a little worse for wear in their plastic sleeves (I definitely prefer the packaging of their Extra Special cheesecakes) but looked much more appealing once presented in a bowl. Each had three distinct tiers: a chocolate biscuit base topped by a cream coloured layer (I kept my fingers crossed it was white chocolate) and followed by a chocolate layer. There was an artful sprinkling of chocolate curls, chocolate sauce, mini marshmallows and a single(!) malt ball on both slices.

I tucked into the  tip of the cheesecake, a tier at a time. The uppermost layer was fairly chocolatey, smooth and creamy BUT with the oddly gelatinous texture that is often pertinent amongst shop bought cheesecakes.
I sliced into the middle, and tasted.. well not much, it was fairly bland. I'm not completely sure how to describe it- I couldn't even distinguish vanilla.
The chocolate biscuit bottom however, well that redeemed the dessert. It had a decent cocoa bite, and felt perfectly decadent. I continued through the cheesecake but I don't believe it's worthy of the rocky road title. There was no marshmallow or chocolate chunks rippled through as I had hoped, only the aforementioned sprinkle on top. It turned out that the middle layer is 'chocolate chip' but sadly you'd have trouble finding the chips.

This cheesecake satisfied my chocolate craving, and was worth the £2 for 2 slices, but I won't be choosing it above my beloved ASDA White chocolate & raspberry cheesecake in future.

7/10