Apparently I’ve never dragged my native chocolate into this arena but it’s time at last for Cadbury’s to take on its various rivals! And the first one up is Finland.
We’ve had Karl Fazer here before, along time ago. It was my very first chocolate war back in late 2014, when I put it up against Sweden’s Marabou. Marabou fights in the Chocolate Wars a lot because you used to be able to stroll into Ikea and buy a bar. Now it’s more precious. But why I haven’t done more Fazer, I don’t know.
Karl Fazer
In the blue corner, Finland’s national chocolate. Karl Otto Fazer was a Finnish chocolatier who founded his Fazer brand in 1891. I often say that Mondelez hoovers up all the good chocolate brands and they did indeed own it, back when they were still called Kraft, but these days, it’s back to being entirely independent. It used to be a Finnish-Russian product but apparently they sold the Russian part of the business after the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
The chocolate I have here today is the iconic Fazer Blue, so-called because it comes in a shiny blue wrapper. It uses fresh milk rather than powdered or condensed and although it comes in a huge variety of flavours, I have here the ordinary boring milk chocolate version.
How is it? Well, it’s… ok. It’s fine. If I was in Finland, I’d happily buy and eat this.
Dairy Milk
In the purple corner, the UK’s national chocolate. We all know and love Dairy Milk – now a Mondelez brand too. Mondelez has good taste in chocolate. Let’s do the history too. Cadbury’s is a chocolate company founded by John Cadbury in 1824 and Dairy Milk was developed by his grandson, George Cadbury Jr in 1905. The name comes from the fact that it contains more milk than previous Cadbury bars – “a glass and a half in every bar”. Of course, that’s going to depend on the size of the bar but it still emphasises how creamy this chocolate is.
Again, I have an ordinary Dairy Milk, no extra flavourings or variants. How is it? It’s good. I think even if I couldn’t tell it was Dairy Milk from the shape, I’d know by the flavour. This is what happens when something has been your local chocolate for your entire life. That’s just what chocolate tastes like.
Which is better?
Actually, this is a slightly harder battle than I expected. I thought Dairy Milk would slay Fazer with barely a contemptuous glance up but actually, Fazer holds its own. It’s a touch lighter than Dairy Milk – perhaps a little more milk content? And perhaps that’s not quite such a good thing, because Dairy Milk is richer, more chocolatey than Fazer. In comparison, Fazer is a touch more bitter, which surprises me. Chocolate without milk is bitter but I’ve literally just said that I think Fazer has more milk than Dairy Milk, which should make it less bitter. But I think that’s my conclusion, that Dairy Milk is a bit richer and Fazer is a bit more bitter.
There’s not a lot in it. I’d happily eat both. But the fact is that I devoured the rest of the Dairy Milk after this and the Fazer is still sitting there (and it’s not just because I still have three more taste tests to do with it).