Ritter Sport Pistachio - finally a decent 'Dubai Chocolate' [@NLi10]

 We love pistachios.   

We love Baklava - and the bird nest stuff is amazing.  

Dubai Chocolate combines the two, is confusingly expensive, and always disappointing - until now.

You see the one thing they never get right is that the chocolate still has to be the star.  So finally - the big brands are repackaging their Pistachio varieties and getting them into our hands for much cheaper.

I first fell in love with Ritter Sport in the 90s on trips to Germany.  There always seemed to be a new one to try and the variations all made sense.

The packaging is even fun to open properly, and it keeps everything where it belongs.  The ingredients are all here - except the lovely birds nest - but I have a shop that makes that fresh on my high-street so it's all good.

*snap* Luna approves of the smells here.

Like golden-era Cadbury's the chunks are a nice portion, always contain the novelty and the mix is always the same as there is only one size (Snickers - take note).

A lovely fragrant nutty undertone to classic Ritter Sport chocolate.

Lindt have nudged their Pistachio balls (which have been available for 5 years plus) into the limelight too - I wonder who else will join in.  First to make a legitimate chocolate version with the birds nest built in for non-import prices (and actually containing cocoa at decent rates) will win the market for sure!

 

Limited Edition Ritter Sport - Pistachio (Asda) By @Cinabar

Pistachio seems to be having a bit of a moment, it’s the flavour of the year, riding the wave of that pistachio-obsessed Dubai trend. I’ve tried a few pistachio-inspired treats recently, and while the Angel Hair chocolate wasn’t quite for me, I’m still a firm believer that nuts and chocolate are usually a winning combo.

This Ritter Sport Pistachio bar feels like a much simpler offering, and all the better for it. I snapped off a strip, and could immediately see it was generously packed with chopped pistachios.

The milk chocolate is smooth, sweet, and has that lovely creamy cocoa taste Ritter Sport does so well. What really makes this bar stand out, though, is the texture, loads of crunchy nut pieces throughout and the clever balance of flavours. There’s a hint of salt with the nuts, adding a subtle savoury edge that really makes the sweetness pop.

Honestly, I might finally be warming to the pistachio craze. This bar was absolutely delicious, satisfying, snackable, and one I’ll be picking up again before it vanishes off the shelves.

Ritter Sport Coffee Duo (Asda) By @Cinabar

I think the people at Ritter Sport may have been having a debate about which of the two new coffee flavours they had been working on should be released as a bar. Should they go with Milky Macchiato or Crunchy Coffee? I am guessing both were good, and the answer to the argument was to release both. Here we have Ritter Sport Coffee Duo, a single bar with half of each flavour. I unwrapped the bar and the aroma of chocolate and coffee was very enticing. The bar has two different logos on the chocolate pieces, showing where the change in flavour occurs. I broke a strip off so that I could try some of each.

 

Crunchy Coffee This section has a darker looking filling than the other half. I decided to start here as I do like texture. I broke off a piece and gave it a try. I really enjoyed the coffee and chocolate flavour. The coffee was strong and rich, but not overpowering, and it was well balanced with the chocolate. The chocolate chunks were very crunchy, which added a satisfying texture and made it feel substantial to eat. I loved both the taste and the texture.

Milky Macchiato I broke off one of the cubes from this section and gave it a taste. It offered creamy chocolate with a smooth, mellow coffee flavour. This was good, although it was milder in coffee than the other half. I still liked it. I think this is the sweeter and creamier part, but the coffee was still prominent enough to shine. I was also pleasantly surprised to find a light crispiness in the texture, which worked well.

I love coffee and chocolate as a combination and honestly I would happily eat either side as a new main bar. It is just nice to see some new coffee and chocolate pairings appearing on the shelves.

Ritter Sport White Cinnamon Crisp (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I’m still loving cinnamon season, or autumn as some of you may call it. My favourite spice comes to life at this time of year. I wish it was around all year, but it gives me a reason to look forward to the colder weather. Ritter Sport has a whole new bar dedicated to the spice and I couldn’t wait to give it a try. This Ritter Sport White Cinnamon Crisp is made with white chocolate rather than milk chocolate, so it should be an interesting combo. I unwrapped the bar and found the usual Ritter Sport square pieces, on a white base but packed with a darker speckle. There were more dark bits than the picture on the front of the bar, which is fine by me because I do love cinnamon.

I gave it a try and found the bar to be sweet and spicy. Now, as someone who loves cinnamon, I was always going to like this bar, accept I’m biased on that front. There is plenty of cinnamon and it seems to be in a sort of brown sugary crystal texture to the bar. There is also rice crispy bits mixed in. This makes the bar fun to eat as it has an interesting texture. Two things struck me though, firstly that the white chocolate was fairly solid and usually white chocolate is soft. I was okay with this, it just distracted from the fun texture a small amount. The second thing was as I was eating it, I was thinking how much nicer it would be in milk chocolate, as overall the flavour was a bit sweet. I have a high sweet tolerance, so I think it might be a bit much for some. So yeah, I came a way liking this Ritter Sport White Cinnamon Crisp bar but trying to work out why I didn’t love it. It was close but somehow missed the mark.

Ritter Sport - White Mango Passion Fruit (Ocado) By @Cinabar

A warm summer’s day requires a summery sounding chocolate. What better than the new Ritter Sport bar, White Mango Passion Fruit. The bar says Buenos Dias on the packaging and is influenced by Costa Rica for its flavour choice. I took the bar out of the packet and broke a piece off. My word this is a soft bar. I know you are about to point out that the weather is hot and that is why the bar isn’t firm, but I had this stored in the fridge and it was cold to touch. It is just a soft feeling bar, it felt a bit like fudge.

The mix of flavours was lovely, the base flavour of the white chocolate was creamy and smooth, not too sweet despite being a white chocolate. There are crispy bits of dried fruit in the bar that are sharp and add a lovely contrast, and the sweet mango running through it was divine. This Ritter Sport White Mango Passion Fruit bar is such a good bar for summer, the flavours are spot on. Even if the heat does mean all my chocolate is in the fridge right now.

Large Ritter Sport - Cornflakes Edition (Lidl) By @cinabar

This time of year can be a bit hard in the search for interesting Foodstuff Finds. I call it the Christmas lull, not that many new products are launching because they are waiting till after January, the month where many people go on a health kick.
This Large Ritter Sport - Cornflake Edition bar caught my eye in Lidl, Im not sure if it is new but it is new to me. I love the idea of cornflakes with chocolate it is a flavour that tales me back to being a child and making cornflake cakes. I picked up the large bar and popped it in my basket. This is the first time I’ve seen Giant Ritter Sports bars!

I decided to try this chocolate over the weekend with it being a bit of comfort against the cold and heavy winds that were making the house rattle. The first thing I tried to do was to break a street strip off the bar which turned out to be near impossible. It is one solid bar. Next attempt was to simply break the bar in half and then to break it to pieces after that. I managed this but again a surprising amount of strength was needed, so much so I was leaning on a table and pressing down and when it finally broke I slipped and bent my nail back. D’oh. I did eventually get it into manageable sizes pieces after flexing my muscles.

Like my attempts at breaking the bar implied, these pieces are also quite tough. The cornflakes are a bit sparse too and sadly there isn’t much flavour from them. They bar is a thick solid chocolate and that makes the other taste. There is a light crispy texture which I should have liked but my motivation for the bar was wearing thin. I finished my three cubes and was left a bit disappointed. The chocolate was okay.
It definitely need far more cornflakes and despite the novelty to be a smaller bar too. Not often I get bored of a chocolate product but I guess it helped saved some January calories.

Ritter Sport - Merry Christmas Tree (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I used to love chocolate Neapolitans as a kid. We would get a box at Christmas time and it would be full of what looked like miniature chocolate bars and have a mix of flavours. It would make me happy. I noticed these disappeared some time ago, I know some makes like Marks and Spencer do something similar but I haven’t seen the blue box which I think was Nestle for a long time now. These Ritter Sport Merry Christmas Tree Chocolates made me think of them and I was hoping for something similar.

The packaging is lovely, a smart looking tree with a tantalising set of chocolates inside. The base of the packaging says “assorted filled milk chocolate” which isn’t a lot of information about what the contents may or may not contain. Once the Ritter Sport - Merry Christmas Tree was opened it was clear there were only two “assorted” flavours and the variety descriptions weren’t even written in English on the chocolates. We had:

Red Pack - “A La Mousee au Chocolate” - This was a soft silky milk chocolate truffle. It was rich in flavour and was sweet and enjoyable.
Yellow Pack - “Schoko Crisp” - This was a darker chocolate with a nice rice crispy crunch. There was lots of rich chocolate flavour, and this was my favourite out of the two because of the interesting texture.

I think the packaging here is lovely, but would have liked more information about the contents and more selection too as the two varieties were quite basic. I did enjoy the chocolates and thought these were a nice stocking filler gift, they just weren’t the Neapolitan “miniature Ritter Sport” bars I had been hoping for.

Ritter Sport Cocoa Selection Nicaragua (Ocado) By @Cinabar

One of my favourite chocolate bars of all time is Ritter Sport Peppermint, and Ritter is a brand I really love. Dark chocolate is very much on trend for 2019, with lots of ordinary milk chocolate bars bringing out darker “dark milk” editions. Ritter Sport have gone with single origins cocoas in a selection of strengths of dark chocolate. First up is this Ritter Sport Cocoa Selection Nicaragua in 61% cocoa. The bar is brightly packaged in a yellow and turquoise with a cocoa pod on the front.The cubes inside are all embossed with the Ritter Sport logo and do look quite dark.
The pieces broke with a sharp snap and I gave one a try and was really quite taken aback by the flavour. The taste on this bar was rich and not too bitter. There is a pleasing sharpness from the cocoa which is immediately tamed by the a well balanced does of sweetness. The chocolate isn’t thick on the palate it leaves a lovely clean crisps feel that makes you reach for another piece. It is one of the silkiest chocolates I have tried and the balance of tastes is just spot on. Not too sweet, not too bitter I think this Ritter Sport Cocoa Selection Nicaragua might be my ideal dark chocolate. I am just loving how smooth this chocolate is. After this fab bar I am looking forward to trying the others in Ritter Sports Single Origin Cocoa range.

Ritter Sport – Peppermint [Pfefferminz] (Germany) [By @cinabar]

My dad has been travelling again, and on one of his journeys bought me back a few goodies from Germany. Amongst them was this Ritter Sport bar. I haven’t had Ritter Sport chocolate for quite some time, and so I was excited to give the peppermint edition a try.
The bar consists of squares of dark chocolate (in a square shape) filled with a peppermint cream fondant filling. The chocolate is dark and rich and really quite thick, but it still breaks easily when you bite in. The filling is super refreshing, the mint if so good and strong, and although it is sweet, it isn’t overly so. It’s like a cooler version of a Fry’s peppermint cream, but with more chocolate per piece.
I’m afraid this bar didn’t last long when I got my mitts on it as it was very easy eating, and it disappeared as I caught up on the latest Dallas! I love After Eights and the Frys’ bar but this one had the edge. The chocolate was more defined, the mint tasted more refreshing and the filling was plentiful but a little less sweet.
I so wished they stocked the Ritter range in the UK, I am going to have to see if my dad can find some other Ritter bars for me when he is next on his travels. It’s a crime these bars aren’t more readily available, and I’d forgotten just how good they are!

By Cinabar

Ritter Sport [Forest Fruits Yoghurt] Waldbeer Joghurt (Germany)

I would like to start by saying a big thank you to Franzi from Limited Edition for very kindly sending me this lovely bar to try. Ritter Sport is a big brand over in Germany, but it is one of those things that is quite hard to get here in the UK. The import shops often stock a few, but this Limited Edition is quite a find, so thank you!
I love the fact that Ritter decided to make square bars, not oblong, really makes them stand out. I have no idea why all the UK bars are practically the same shape, possibly to make it easier to put on the shelves?
This particular bar has a milk chocolate coating and a forest fruits filling. The filling was lovely and refreshing, it was sweet and fruity, filled with loads of mixed berries flavour. Strawberry and blackcurrants shone through the most, but it was a lovely berry medley. Also within the soft filling are little crispy pieces of berry flavour crystals, with add zing and texture. The milk chocolate is rich and soothing, making this a lovely summer bar. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and looking forward to trying the other wonderful things sent from Germany!