Last month, Cadbury announced it was launching a limited-edition version of its Wispa Gold product line, with a hazelnut flavour caramel. In some sort of overcomplicated share dealing scenario, it gave 5,000 customers the chance to get hold of between one and six bars in exchange for 69p.
Frantic tweeting ensued, with customers trying to get their hands on it and with Cadbury providing daily updates on the latest "share" price (consistently followed by a disclaimer to continually emphasise customers were purchasing mythical virtual shares rather than real ones traded on the stock market).
The final "price" settled on 3rd September at six bars, and on the 4th September, a box of half a dozen Cadbury Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut bars slipped through my letterbox.
Packaging
When I got my mitts on a Cadbury Orange Twirl Limited Edition Bar, the delivery came complete with a certificate and badge.
Presented inside a long, letterbox-sized purple cardboard carton were six chocolate bars, together with a golden-coloured pin badge and a printed "virtual" share certificate.
The launch was themed around "a new type of gold", which was the message that emblazons my "shareholder" certificate. Incidently, I was lucky shareholder number 1,631 of 5,000.
The golden pin badge also read "a new type of gold." It's a nice little memento, although I wondered how many people treasured their badges and how many ended up in landfill.
The star of the show were the six Cadbury chocolate bars.
The Cadbury Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut Bar came wrapped in the same non-recyclable film you find on many Cadbury treat bars. This one was decorated in a green shade, presumably as it contrasted the palette of browns and golds on the standard Wispa Gold design.
The front of the wrapper carried the product name, a "Limited Edition" marker, a photo of luscious caramel oozing out of a Cadbury Wispa bar, the Cocoa Life logo, and a Treatwise symbol, explaining that one bar is one portion and represents 12% of an average adults daily recommended calorie intake.
The reverse of the wrapper was green, with messaging stating this bar was suitable for vegetarians, and that Cocoa Life partners with the Fairtrade Foundation.
The ingredients sat at the bottom, next to the barcode, with the nutritional information tucked away underneath the flap.
Cadbury Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut Bar ingredients:
Milk, sugar, glucose syrup, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fats (palm, shea), glucose-fructose syrup, whey powder, emulsifiers (E442, E471), flavourings, salt, sodium carbonates. Milk solids: 14% minimum (milk chocolate).
This bar may contain nuts (I believe hazelnut flavouring is used in the caramel here). Also, the chocolate used here contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter.
No cocoa content is printed on the packaging, just the milk solids value.
Nutritionally, this 48g bar is 240kcal, and contains 51% sugars.
Cadbury Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut Bar Review
If you've ever eaten a Cadbury Wispa bar, this, on the face of it looks exactly the same. From the exterior, it's identical. It's aerated chocolate coated in a shell of milk chocolate. Wispa Gold introduced a layer of caramel on the top of the aerated chocolate.
This limited edition bar follows much the same format as a Wispa Gold, except for the fact that the caramel is flavoured with hazelnut. The nutty taste is derived from a flavouring rather than chunks of hazelnut, so don't expect a crunchy texture. Quite the contrary.
Smooth is the order of the day. Smooth, sweet chocolate with a smooth sweet caramel.
Hazelnut doesn't really appear in the initial aroma though. It's a typical Cadbury chocolate aroma of sweet, buttery, lactic, notes. There's ripples of the surface of the bar but the finish is fairly matt.
Snap the bar in half and you'll release a burst of sweet hazelnut aroma. As you can see in the cross section below, the caramel makes up a good proportion of the bar itself.
The hazelnut flavour is full on in this bar. It's easily recognisable as hazelnut and its pungency means it hangs around from the very beginning all the way through long into the aftertaste. The nutty caramel dominates everything else, so the flavour of the caramel and the chocolate are both dwarfed by the enormity of the hazelnut taste. Overall, it reminds me of a chewier version of Nestlé's Quality Street Green Triangle.
I find the bar very sweet and quite sickly. I'm a fan of regular Wispa's but the introduction of a sweet golden caramel in a Wispa Gold is a step too far for me. The sweet caramel dominates the aerated chocolate, overpowering its delicacy and fine texture. The addition of the hazelnut flavour here doesn't necessarily add anything extra for me, but then again, nor does it detract.
If you're a fan of Cadbury chocolate, Cadbury's caramel, and hazelnut chocolate in general, you'll like what they've done here. If you're not a fan of Cadbury chocolate, or its sweet golden caramel, or not a fan of hazelnuts then skip this one.
Cadbury Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut Bar Review
RRP: £0.69 | Cadbury | Shop now°
This is a Wispa bar, with a layer of hazelnut flavour caramel. It's ultra sweet and fuses together the hallmarks of Cadbury's chocolate and its sickly sweet caramel together with a strong dose of hazelnut flavour. I'm not a fan, but you might be if you love Cadbury's caramel and hazelnuts. For me, I'd much prefer a regular Wispa bar.
Where to Buy Online
Bars of Cadbury Wispa Gold Hazelnut are available on the Cadbury Gifts Direct° website, and at all major supermarkets, since Monday 6th September 2021 with a RRP of 69p.
Cadbury says "once they're gone, they're gone," so be quick if you're interested. It's a limited-edition release so there's a good chance it might not hang around for long. Remember, the Orange Twirls vanished at lightening speed the first time around.
Have you spotted a Limited Edition Wispa Gold Hazelnut Bar in the wild? Let me know which shop is selling them in the comments below.
