Jaxx - Milk Chocolate Coated Crunches

They say it is a good idea to get out of your comfort zone now and again. Well I've gone totally out and beyond it. In fact I'm probably 4 decades outside of it. I'm asking myself if I should really be road testing these little monsters. Fortunately, I've enlisted the help of the teen in the family. I've been eating bars for such a long time that being confronted with a children's snack is a bit scary. The guys and girls from Golley Slater kindly sent me a selection of goodies aimed at the 'tween-teen' market. 

Jaxx Mouthy Chocolate has launched Jaxx Crunches, made with the richest cocoa, a layer of white covered by a layer of rich milk chocolate with a surprise crunchy centre. The product is available in three tasty variants, milk chocolate crunches, orange chocolate crunches and a double chocolate coco crunches which apparently delivers excellent value for money with larger 50g snack packs as opposed to the typical 35g. The promotional price has been set at 69p each.

Firstly they only sent me two types which isn't a problem but perhaps they can send this to me later (I'm missing the orange one). I'm not going to give you all the PR blurb but this new product is the brainchild of confectionery specialist Yehudi Lipman who has held high profile positions with Bestfoods, Unilever and Nestle for 20 years. Apparently research has told Yehudi and his team that the market wanted chocolate with attitude, something that was new and that really connected with this 'early teen' target audience. To help improve its appeal with the right age group a website, Jaxx World, has been custom built to provide games, competitions and 'webisodes'. I'm learning so many new words today! Jaxx Crunchie Chocolates are available in 3,000 stores throughout the UK and Ireland including Londis, Budgens, Scotmid and Martin McColl. The product is distributed by Bonds Confectionery Ltd.


Ingredients - Not that many 'tweens' will care about this but sugar is at the top followed by cocoa butter. The product contains gluten and is produced on a line handling nuts!


The Packaging: Overall I believe they've got the packaging spot on and my very own tween even supported me on this observation saying, they looked, vibrant, strong and cool all at the same time. Which was a revelation in itself as he usually just nods. So, we're off to a good start with both the packaging and the wording. What about the all important taste test?

Milk Chocolate Coco Crunches - Bright outer casing with a crunchy centre. When you pop one in your mouth you almost feel as you've picked up a pebble by mistake. 

The chocolate takes sometime to melt but when it does there is a good release of cocoa without too much sugar. This leaves the inner crunch effect which tastes of biscuit similar to those chocolate covered French biscuits you may have had. This is the best way to eat them. If you just chomp away on them all the flavour of the cocoa  is lost. The biscuit is pretty tasteless but overall not a bad snack.


Milk Chocolate Crunches - This has the same 'glassy' mouth feel as the Coco crunch. There is definitely a more milky taste than the other product and the biscuit finish is exactly the same. Personally I preferred the former. 

Coco Crunches come out on top for me in this comparison. But I'm not convinced they are going to compete with the likes of Maltesers. This product states that it has attitude but unfortunately I think it is a bit on the shy side. There is no real depth of flavour which leaves you with nothing at the end. This is frustrating as the information leads you to believe that the flavours are going to be more intense compared to other well known brands. However, my tween really liked them so what do I know! 


I'm not going to score these as I do with my usual bars as in my opinion they are not in the same class. Horses for courses and all that. I'm probably going to be kept up well past my bedtime as I have eaten both bags whilst writing this piece. Nom nom.