Anna Mckay shares a recipe perfect for celebrating Chinese New Year
Ding Huang demonstrates the art of paper cutting
A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
Laura Reynolds looks at the habits of exam-weary students
The seven types of chocolate we tried were Cadbury's, Diabetic, Somerfield's own, Fairtrade, Vegan, Monk Bar Chocolatiers and Galaxy. We tested each one for both taste and texture, and put this against the price to come out with a final winner. Each score is out of a possible 40.
Cadbury 33 for taste, 29 for texture, cost £1 per 100g. All four of us are Cadbury fans, and we were all positive this would be the one we would recognise. However, only one of us was sure, and two of us were adament it wasn't. Despite that, we all rated it highly, commenting on the slight flakiness to start, but that the velvet texture that came in as it melted more than made up for it.
Diabetic 25 for taste, 23.5 for texture, cost £2 per 100g. The diabetic chocolate was instantly recognisable as different to normal chocolate as it was much blander and had a strange aftertaste. However, all of us liked it more than we thought we would, and although you might expect diabetic chocolate to be far less sweet, nobody commented on that at all.
Somerfield's Own 24.5 for taste, 23 for texture, cost 37p per 100g. As broke students, we all regularly buy supermarket's own brand chocolate and claim to like it. However, when we didn't know that what we were eating was good for our pocket, all of us complained of flavourlessness and flaxiness. A real disappointment!
Fairtrade 24.5 for taste, 28 for texture, cost £1.38 per 100g. Like the supermarket's own, most of the normal reasons for buying fairtrade chocolate are things you can't taste. One of us really didn't like it and complained of a coffee-esque taste. However, the rest of us didn't taste this and really liked it, enjoying how silky and rich it was. Yet the taste didn't quite live up to this, not being nearly strong enough for the true chocolate lover.
Vegan 18.5 for taste, 20 for texture, cost £1.45 per 100g. There was a whole range of different comments on the taste of the vegan chocolate, ranging from "orangey" and "nutty" to "dull". However, we all agreed on the flakiness of the texture, and none of us were big fans, despite being assured by vegan friend that the brand we bought was a good one!
Monk Bar Chocolatier 27 for taste, 29 for texture, cost £1.80 per 100g. The most expensive of the standard chocolate bars, this had some definite perks. Unlike all the others (except Galaxy), you didn't have to wait for the chocolate to melt before you got a lovely creamy texture - it was evident from the first taste. Unfortunately, however, the taste didn't quite live up to expectations, with it dying into a kind of milky insipidity.
Galaxy 31.5 for taste, 32.5 for taste, cost £1 per 100g. Similarly to the Chocolatier's chocolate, Galaxy's texture was what recieved most comments. However, unlike the above, its taste remained strong through the creaminess. Everyone recognised it straight away, which although it may have marred the results slightly, shows how distinctive it is in comparison to Cadbury's. However, two of us were concerned it was too rich, and thus almost cloying.
The Results
After we tasted them all, and added up the scores for taste, texture and cost (all weighed equally), the results were as follows:
So, slightly boringly, it seems that we do prefer what we know. Or maybe it is just that Galaxy and Cadbury have succeeded this long because, quite simply, they are the best. Buying more expensive or cheaper chocolate, may have slight rewards in one way or another, but it seems that the negatives outweigh the harms. Fairtrade may have moral benefits, but for the more gastronomically minded of us, until the taste can compete with other brands, we'll stick with our usual bar. Furthermore, although we all enjoyed the experiences of trying more unusual chocolate types, the chance of any of us willingly choosing diabetic or vegan chocolate is, to say the least, unlikely!
Despite its rather unexciting conclusion, this was nonetheless a very enjoyable test. We were all left with a variety of new chocolatey experiences, and came away with a better knowledge of what we wanted out of our chocolate bars. Even better, we spent a good couple of hours eating a lot of chocolate. Now that's never a wasted evening.
You must log in to submit a comment.
