Snacks: 2021 Cadbury Inventor bars

The duck and I were so proud of ourselves after we had managed to do two subjective (mainly) non-chocolate snack reviews in a row that we decided it would be okay to go back to chocolate now. See, when we espied this year’s limited edition Cadbury Inventor bars (they’re called Inventor bars because they were thought up by fans), the duck and I couldn’t resist.* At first, we wanted to go with only the variety that sounded the best to us. But then we decided that we’d been surprised by flavors we thought we wouldn’t like before, so we bought all three finalist bars.Just look at how excited (or scared?) the duck was to be trying different flavors of chocolate once again. And this time, it’s not even German chocolate – what a treat! Keep reading for our specifically subjective thoughts:

Can’t say “no” to Cadbury

Even though (or maybe because?) Cadbury chocolate is a rare treat for the duck and me, it has a special place in our chocolate-loving hearts. In terms of plain milk chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk might even be our favorite. Gosh, sometimes we crave a Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel bar, even though I’ve been quite vocal on here about how the duck and my relationship with caramel is not the best. What I’m clumsily trying to say is this: We love Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate which constitutes the base for each chocolate bar we scientifically ingested for this subjective taste test. That being said, let’s taste some chocolate!

No Frownie Brownie
This was the variety that the duck and I wanted to try from the start because we love brownies, and there was no mention of any fruity flavors (which, as some of you might know, the duck and I are rather critical of). According to the wrapper, Sophie’s “No Frownie Brownie” is milk chocolate with 8% brownie pieces, 4% salted caramel pieces, and 2% biscuit pieces. Despite the hint on the packaging, the mention of caramel took us by surprise (which was not the first time this very thing had happened to us). Still, the duck and I only hesitated a tiny bit before we took our first bite.
The taste was great! We hadn’t realized until then just how much we had missed Cadbury chocolate. We couldn’t discern a particular brownie flavor, and we’re no fans of the hard and chewy salted caramel chips. The biscuit crumbs are nice, though. And some chocolate pieces only sport one or the other. Those without the dreaded caramel texture would have gotten 5/5 ducks, hands down. We like surprises, but not necessarily when it comes to whether our next chunk of chocolate will sport hard and chewy caramel chips or not. Since we still enjoyed this variety, the duck and I will award it 3.5/5 very subjective ducks, despite the caramel surprise. You know what? We’re feeling generous today. Let’s make it a visual 4 (but only because this chocolate bar made the duck and me remember how much we love Cadbury chocolate)!

Banoffee Nut Crumble
The duck and I weren’t that optimistic about Josh’s chocolate creation since we usually only tolerate banoffee-flavored sweets. I guess it’s the combination of artificial banana and caramel, two things we’re not super fond of. Still, we decided to give it a try. When we read that this chocolate bar sports a whopping 7% of banana flavor caramel pieces and 4% crunchy almond caramel pieces (that’s more than 10% caramel – oh boy!) alongside a minuscule 2% of biscuit pieces, the duck and I instantly questioned that decision.
The first thing we noticed was this chocolate’s distinct banana taste. I think the fudge-like texture of the banana-flavored caramel, which resembles that of the milk chocolate it is embedded in, has to do with this. If you’re in a banoffee mood, this is the chocolate for you! In fact, if we were to rate the execution, this would be 5/5 ducks without any question – I don’t think you can do banoffee-flavored chocolate much better than this. The duck and I do, however, have very subjective tastes. And we purely weren’t in a banoffee mood when we tried this, and we weren’t too thrilled about the crunchy caramel pieces. 2.5/5 ducks for this one. And, because we did it before – why not round it up again? This seems to be what we like to do these days.

Fizzing Cherry
This is the flavor the duck and I really didn’t want to try. But we couldn’t justify buying two out of three available varieties, so we got this one, too. According to the wrapper, Roxy’s invention sports 6% chili pepper flavored cherry pieces, 4% popping candy, and 2% biscuit pieces. Well, at least there’s no caramel. And we can manage fruity flavors in milk chocolate much better than in dark chocolate (there are combinations that have made me physically sick). We were also optimistic that chili-flavored cherry pieces might not taste too fruity. When it came to the popping candy, both of us weren’t sure what to expect.
The first bite was enlightening. The cherry pieces are chewy but not in a jelly way, which definitely is a big plus in our books. They’re also not the terrible kind of fruity and taste a lot like the sour cherry syrup we used for Phryne Fisher’s Cherry Flavored Mystery – the taste of which we were pleasantly surprised by. It’s the popping candy, though, that really knocked this out of the park for us! It had been over a decade since I’d had popping candy (I had even forgotten about its existence until the duck and I tried this). As we perceived that crackling sensation in our mouth/beak, we felt like we had rediscovered a forgotten piece of the soundtrack of our childhoods. This is chocolate with a fruity flavor, which makes it hard for the duck and me to award a perfect 5/5. In light of today’s not-very-strict-at-all reviews, we’ll gladly give this 4.5/5 ducks rounded up to a visual 5, though.*Out of the three finalists, one variety had (turns out we’re waaaay late to post this) the chance of becoming a long-term Cadbury chocolate bar flavor. The winner (“No Frownie Brownie”) was mainly decided via an online vote, with sales numbers being taken into account, too. Had the duck and I voted officially, the bar we were the wariest about, the one with – and I can’t believe I’m writing this – fruit in it, would have gotten our vote. I think we’ll need some more chocolate to get over the shock.

Did you get a chance to try the Inventor bars? If so, which one was your favorite? If not, which one would you have picked up to try (first)?