13 October 2016

Cadbury Lime Barrel Remembrance Society (@NLi10)

As office conversations go ours are pretty special. I have my own little isolation cupboard away from the main room so I miss some of the conversations. Once such partially overheard conversation was about the existence of the Cadbury Lime Barrel. You see one of our colleagues had eaten a mystery MisShape of a citrus flavour and presumed it was Lime flavoured, like the chocolates he ate as a boy. The bag was mostly a mix of orange and strawberry centred items so we presume that this was what was sampled but it got us thinking.  The lime cordial Barrel was dropped in the late 70s for being a bit old fashioned, but now with changing tastes - should it come back?


Here in our office fridge we have three carefully selected Lime chocolate brands - unfortunately not with liquid centres. At the end of our weekly meetings I added a chocolate tasting to the agenda and we passed the bars around.


First up we have the Lindt Dark Lime intense. This is essentially a big flat bar of dark chocolate with lime peel chunks and a little lemon flavouring. It truly is one for the dark chocolate fans, being a stronger flavour, and the lime is unevenly spread which I liked but didn't lend itself to one cube testing. Some said that this reminded them of lemony cleaning products, but most people haven't eaten those.

Next up we had Montezuma's Sea Dog which not only had Lime but sea salt too. To me this more tasted like lime marmalade than the standard flavour of the first bar. By our vintage expert this was declared as closest to the original lime Barrel, but very much a more grown up version. 

It would be unfair to have declared an overall winner between these two, people wholiked one liked them both.


Finally we have the GNAW chilli and Lime, a great brand not just for the variety and cool packaging but also the fact that the best place to get them is Oxfam book shops!

Here the main event was clearly the chilli, the Lime sitting as a nice afterthought. Would most people want the intense Lime of the first bars or prefer the chilli, or no Lime at all!

Our lime Barrel expert suggested that this would be better with a larger, vindaloo and pickle. He is right in that this is like the mix you get when you add all the toppings at once to your popadom in a restaurant. It's pleasant enough but for me a one or two cube sharing experience where as the lemon meringue  bar didn't make it anywhere near work.

Three of the six of us preferred the chilli to either of the lime options (one only under sufferance and would have taken almost any other choc instead). Our lime barrel expert preferred the Sea Dog and the remaining two (including me) were happiest with either of the lime options.

So not a dazzling victory for the lime then, but with other flavours on offer and the potential of just adding some zest to the top of a bar I think the market may be poised for a minor comeback.

That said we didn't find any gooey, liquid lime centres. I'm going to check the obvious places on my next visit to town - but do feel free to mention any you have seen in the comments below!


24 comments:

tahrey said...

Ah, echoes of the Crunchy Frog sketch from Monty Python... "Lime Creme, a very popular flavour I'm led to understand".

At least 25 years since I first heard that recording and I've still never had the pleasure of trying a soft-centre chocolate with lime flavoured creme in it... :(

cinabar said...

tahrey - Hotel Chocolat do a posh version if that is any help?

NLi10 said...

Yup - Thorntons and Hotel Choc are my best bets, but the small Thorntons do not have them.

Satan said...

The lime barrel should definitely be brought back as it was the best, but better still as a bar of milk chocolate with liquid lime centre !

Anonymous said...

lime barrel the best centre ever, in my opinin.

Anonymous said...

Simple answer to should the lime barrel come back? Yes, yes yes yes yes!

Anonymous said...

The two flavours I love the most Cadburys discontinued and that was the lime barrel and Turkish delight bring them back please bring them back both of them I love Turkish delight And the lime barrel

Unknown said...

bring the favourite lime barrel back. . . 👍

Anonymous said...

Lime Barrel was my fave.
We used to fight over it in our family.lol

Found nothing like it since. Ireland still sold chocolate lime bars up until about 10 years ago I used to bring some over to the UK and stock up. But alas, they stopped doing it too and replaced it with the mint choc bar...like we need 'another' mint choc bar! Bring back the Cadbury Lime Bar!

Michael said...

Lime barrel was delicious. My fav milk tray choc. Please bring 'em back.

Andrew Gott4 said...

Was there boxes of chocolates called “Good News” and “Weekend” late 60’s
Possibly??

Unknown said...

Lime barrel please yum

Anonymous said...

Another vote for the Lime Barrel, fondly remembered in NZ. - V.

Michelle said...

My mother has just alerted me to the existence of 'the lime barrel', upon the sadness of realising this strawberry heart has been done away with 😥 ...I'm intrigued by the lime barrel, we need to gain momentum!

Unknown said...

This has to make a comeback, delicious !

Anonymous said...

Wow! I miss them and I thought that I was the sad, only person who does. A bring back the lime barrel campaign must be started now!

Anonymous said...

My all time favourite the lime barrel would love to see it come back

Mari said...

Was my fave and can't find anything like it, though have tried all over Europe!

Maybe petition Cadburys :p

Anonymous said...

Please please bring back the lime Barrel 😜

Marlo said...


I want the Cadbury's Lime Barrel reinstated to boxes of Milk Tray asap.

Also, the Cadbury's Lime Bar. I last tasted one in Dublin in the early 1990s and that was the only place you could buy them at the time. Lime Bars were the business, choc-wise, and are sorely missed.

Anonymous said...

The Lime Barrel was the Absolute Fave,just so tasty,gorgeous!..Please bring back to Milk Tray..👍💞..

Anonymous said...

yes yes please brig back lime barrel and milk tray bars

Anonymous said...

Should never have been stopped. We MUST get them back!

Anonymous said...

I agree! They were so delicious 😋