Rebecca, Mitch and Siena try to guess which chocolate spreads they're eating.
Follow NZH Lifestyle's Trial and Error series where we try out the latest in food, viral trends, and beauty hacks so you don't have to.
This was one of NZH Lifestyle's top stories for 2017
For anyone that's a fan of Nutella, news of a new range of chocolate spreads will be sweetness to your taste buds.
The spreads are based on six classic Mars and Cadbury chocolate bars which our panel sampled in a blind taste test.
Slathering spreadable Twix, Bounty, Dairy Milk, Maltesers, Caramello and Crunchie on pieces of Vogel's, could our trio of chocolate lovers correctly identify which is which?
Sample A) Right off the bat, Siena was "100 per cent" confident that spread A was Crunchie. However it turned out to be a Twix bar that Rebecca labelled as "gritty" and Mitch decided was "pretty good".
Sample B) Sample B was much clearer to the panel: the white spread was easily identified as Bounty, thanks to its telltale tropical scent and colour. Siena was "not okay" with this one.
Sample C) The Dairy Milk spread, which was sample C, was momentarily confused for Nutella as the panel forgot this was a chocolate bar taste test. The spread also clearly brought out the child in Mitch as he belched in front of a very unimpressed Siena and Rebecca.
The moment Mitch forgot his manners.
Sample D) Sample D tasted like "someone toasted polystyrene balls" according to Rebecca while Siena felt the correctly guessed Malteser spread had "too much texture".
Sample E) Mitch was nothing short of mind blown by Sample E, the Caramello spread: "Woah man, I reckon this is my favourite," he declared. The panel guessed this sample was either Moro or Caramello.
Sample F) Sample F caused the most confusion as Rebecca wondered whether sample F was the same as sample A and guessed that it may have been a trick. However it was in fact the Crunchie bar spread.
The verdict
While the panel decided the chocolate spreads would probably find a popular place in the market, they did pose some concerns.
Mitch had his mind blown by sample E.
Rebecca felt children would talk their parents into buying the spreads for them to put on their toast and sandwiches. Despite their high sugar content, they'd be treated as an everyday condiment rather than an occasional treat, as you would be more inclined to do with a chocolate bar.
Similarly, Siena raised concern around the responsibility of bringing such a product in to the market: "In this country we have such huge obesity rates, and this is what we decide to sell in our supermarkets."
Mitch deemed them the end of the line for kids already into sugary breakfast options: "I feel like Coco Pops are a gateway drug to these [spreads]."
