REVIEW - Sainsbury's Chocolate Treats

Does any household NOT have a large box of chocolates kicking around at Christmas? Even after filling yourself to the brim with turkey, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and a big helping of Christmas pudding, there always seems to be room for a handful of chocolates snaffled from the tub.

We're usually fans of Celebrations or Quality Street, however this year my mum decided to go for something a little different and bought this tub of Chocolate Treats from Sainsbury's. At 800g, it's slightly heavier than the big brand leaders and also slightly cheaper (my mum picked up this tub when it was on offer for £3.50, and I think it's usually priced at £4). There are 10 different types of chocolates inside, including well-known favourites such as the strawberry creme and vanilla fudge, but also some that are a bit more novel (anyone for a popping candy truffle?).

The tub was a bit of a nightmare to break into - although I suppose that makes it nice and childproof - but once if was finally opened we were greeted with a good array of colourful wrappers. What I thought was really helpful was the fact that each wrapper listed the name of the chocolate inside, making it easy to find and grab your favourites. All that was left to do was to give them a try!

Popping candy truffle: Being a big kid at heart, I was excited to give this one a go - but was sadly very disappointed. The chocolate itself looked good, with the dimpled effect on top promising a mouthful of popping candy; however it didn't pop at all! Both of my parents tried one as well and experienced the same thing. The one redeeming feature was the truffle, which tasted pretty good and was smooth and chocolatey, but it couldn't make up for the lack of popping candy (clearly the main feature!).

Honeycomb truffle: This was only mildly better than the popping candy truffle. Rather than being dispersed throughout the truffle, the honeycomb pieces were all sitting at the top of the chocolate and therefore you didn't really get a good overall honeycomb experience. Again the truffle was ok, but the chocolate as a whole was quite poor.

Hazelnut in caramel: Much better than the previous two. Nice outer chocolate shell, smooth caramel and a hazelnut plonked in the middle. Not quite on a par with the Quality Street classic, but ok.

Chocolate caramel: Similar to above, just without the hazelnut. Again the caramel was nice and smooth and the chocolate shell was tasty.

Strawberry fondant crème/orange crème: Not quite as good as the versions you get in Quality Street or Roses, but nice enough. The crème inside has a lovely strong flavour and is paired well with the chocolate coating. I would only say that the crème could be a bit smoother, as it's quite thick whereas I think it's nicer when it's soft.

Vanilla fudge: Tasty enough! The fudge was good - nice and soft - but it could have had a slightly creamier taste.

Chocolate fudge brownie: Another one I was looking forward to but found quite disappointing. It didn't taste like brownie at all - more just like a very very thick and slightly dry truffle.

Double chocolate éclair: Nice enough and pretty similar to the Cadbury version. The caramel was nice and sweet and not so hard that you broke your teeth.

Dairy toffee: This was ok, but would have been better if it hadn't been *quite* so tough on the jaw. It had a strong sweet flavour but I can see this being the last one left in the tin at the end of Christmas.

Hmm - overall not the best experience! I'll give them a 5 out of 10 because there were a few chocolates that were ok (the cremes and the caramels were alright) but others were pretty bad. However, the tub is bigger and cheaper than others out there, and I think if you need a tub on standby to placate any visitors over Christmas, then these will do the trick. Just don't expect too much and make sure to save all the really expensive chocolates and biscuits for yourself.