Lacta Lov’it Waffle ‘n’ Praline
I recently spent a couple of days in Athens, and of course any trip abroad instantly turns into a chance to hunt for new and unusual bars to bring to your attention. After all, most of us holiday at some time or another, and if you read Chocablog regularly you might just be interested in knowing what’s good to nibble on while you’re having fun in the sun.
This bar is made by Kraft, probably better known for their dairy products here in he UK, and it boasts a praline and wafer (the ‘waffle’ part) layer coated in milk chocolate. The praline layer is given extra texture by the addition of crushed caramelised hazelnuts.
It’s a good size, as the wafer layer is quite thick, but it still weighs in at 100g. It’s made in Greece, so I don’t know if it has counterparts in other EU countries. The milk chocolate is almost British Standard – i.e. it’s pretty low in cocoa content at 25%. The other thing I noticed when I tried it was that the whole thing is very sweet. While I was eating a piece I glanced at the nutrition information and discovered that this bar is actually slightly more than 50% sugar! Either the Greeks have a collective sweet tooth, or I just bought something intended for the younger inhabitants.
I found the combination of textures (chocolate, light, crisp wafer and nutty praline) rather pleasant, but the sugariness was overwhelming. When I tested it on the Junior Tasting Corps, they lapped it up (of course), but I was very careful not to give them too much in one sitting, lest I had to strap them down later.
Personally, I could see myself really enjoying a dark version of this bar, made with better quality chocolate, and less sugar. Perhaps Kraft might go posh and start making more adult-oriented choccies, but until then I’ll be avoiding this one.
I have had a couple of lovely holidays in various Greek islands, and I think the “collective sweet tooth” is probably the reason. There are lots of desserts and confectionary made with large quantities of nuts, syrup, honey and sugar!! Very tasty though . . .
In fact, on both trips, I saw very little evidence of chocolate at all.
Wow, that’s a lot of sugar. It hardly seems like chocolate at all! I do like those crispy wafer things, but even those cheap wafer cookies you can buy with the filling inside are overly sweet. In general, I try to steer clear of the “big” commercial chocolate making companies, they always use the most amount of sugar to cut costs.
– The Peanut Butter Boy
It’s my favourite chocolate!!! You should be avoiding it! All chocolates in Greece are filled with that much sugar you know… But we don’t have many kinds of different chocolate. I’ve been abroad…the chocolates abroad are way BETTER than here unfortunately.
Lacta’s VERY sweet, but I’m rather fond of their new cream & liquid caramel bars as well as their mousse-filled bars. Ion’s the best, though.