Each Easter (or technically every Christmas) Cadbury rolls out its Easter range, with staples including the classic Cadbury Creme Egg and those moreish Cadbury Mini Eggs. There's also a limited edition bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk I've seen appear in recent years - the hot cross bun edition.
Unlike Pump Street's Hot Cross Bun chocolate, this one doesn't contain bean-to-bar craft-made Grenadian dark chocolate. Cadbury's version uses the classic Dairy Milk recipe, and bundles in raisins, crispies and cinnamon flavour to mimic the flavour of a hot cross bun smothered with Cadbury milk chocolate.
Packaging
Being Easter-themed, it's no surprise that Cadbury included a graphic of a rabbit on the packaging, and in this case, it's everyone's favourite, Peter Rabbit. Clutching a piece of Dairy Milk and standing next to a basket laden with Easter eggs, it sets a spring scene with daffodils, a bee and a duckling along the bottom edge of the packaging.
The Cadbury Dairy Milk logo (with the glass and a half of milk icon) sits above the Hot Cross Bun product name, with the recipe details beneath it. All of this sits on the iconic Cadbury purple background.
A badge at the top indicates that this bar uses a new recipe, but I don't have anything to compare this to, so can't say what's changed in this variant.
On the reverse, Cadbury claims it uses 100% sustainably sourced cocoa through its Cocoa Life programme. Text explains the aims of Cocoa Life is to "improve education and entrepreneurship training" to "make happier farmers and thriving local communities". The bar also carries the Fairtrade Foundation logo.
The ingredients list sits at the bottom, while the nutritional information is off to one side.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Hot Cross Bun Chocolate Bar ingredients:
Milk, sugar, dried grapes, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fats (palm, shea), rice flour, salt, emulsifiers (E442, E476, E471), flavourings. Cocoa solids: 20% minimum; milk solids: 20% minimum.
As expected for a mass-produced budget-friendly milk chocolate bar, the sugar content is 56% in this bar.
The bar contains dairy ingredients as well as possible traces of nuts and wheat. It's suitable for vegetarians.
Cadbury claims the equivalent of 426ml of fresh liquid milk features in every 227g of milk chocolate in reference to its "glass and a half" claim. Curiously, there's also a disclaimer that states the raisins may occasionally be traded out for "sultanas of equally high standard", so you may find either in your bar.
The packaging still carries Cadbury's royal warrant for HM The Queen as cocoa and chocolate manufacturers.
The resealable film wrapper is not recyclable yet, which is disappointing given Nestle and other manufacturers are trialling recyclable alternatives to film wrappers.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Hot Cross Bun Chocolate Bar Review
Cadbury recommends six chunks (27.5g) as one portion in this 110g bar, meaning there's four servings in here. The resealable packaging does an okay job at closing back up, so it should keep your chocolate in a good condition ready for next time.
On the face of it, this bar looks like any other Cadbury Dairy Milk bar, with the exception of a few black speckles where the raisins touch the face of the chocolate bar mould. Underneath is the giveaway, with a smattering of raisins and plenty of crispies in the mix.
The aroma is fairly uneasy. The classic Dairy Milk fragrance is there, but the cinnamon meddles with it. It smells more like a cinnamon cake than a Dairy Milk bar, which can be a good or bad thing depending on whether you enjoy Cadbury Dairy Milk.
The snap is dull and lifeless. Despite the impression the underside of the bar gives, there isn't much in the way of visible fillings in a cross section of the segments I checked.
In terms of flavour, cinnamon dominates, masking the Dairy Milk flavour until right at the very end. Again, this can be a good or bad thing depending on whether you enjoy Cadbury Dairy Milk.
The raisins add even more sweetness to an already very sweet bar, and the crispies add crunch, so the textural elements are all there.
Cinnamon lingers in the aftertaste but thankfully not for too long.
This bar doesn't evoke imagery of a freshly baked hot cross bun in my mind as I chowed it down. It doesn't feel cohesive enough. Perhaps some citrus notes and other spices might help? Removing the cinnamon would benefit this bar, but then I don't think you're too far off creating a Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut bar recipe in that case.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Hot Cross Bun Chocolate Bar Review
RRP: £1.49 | Cadbury | Shop now°
For me, "meh" sums up this bar. It's got Cadbury Dairy Milk DNA but the cinnamon is an uncomfortable addition that just doesn't sit right. Cadbury Dairy Milk has a distinctive flavour that, as it transpires, is quite delicate, and the cinnamon effortlessly tramples all over it. The remainder of the bar will be mindlessly eaten in front of the telly, but I wouldn't crave this one again.
Where to Buy Online
I purchased my 110g bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk Hot Cross Bun in Morrisons on special offer of £1 at the end of Easter. This seasonal bar seems to appear on supermarket shelves between January and May.
It's also available at Cadbury Gifts Direct here° or as a bulk buy here°.
Outside of this period, eBay is probably your best bet°. It's also available on Amazon° too.
Would you try this or prefer to stick to the classic Dairy Milk bar? Let me know in a comment below.
