I have a friend at work and she said she loved Cherry Ripe from Australia. She had once lived in the country and as any of us know if you are lucky enough to live in a foreign country, you get to know not only the people but the food stuffs worth procuring. And so I took her word for it – if she would buy packages upon packages of these little chocolate covered things, “Australia’s oldest chocolate bar,” they must be good. Right?
I didn’t know what these were before trying. I assumed they would have jelly inside a slightly dark chocolate shell. Possibly a cherry goo in there. Either way, I wasn’t very interested (chocolate isn’t always my thing) and I left the one little bar that my friend could afford to let go, on my desk for 3 weeks. Finally, I had at it.
So the fun thing was I did no recon before I ate. I didn’t look at pictures, I didn’t read the interwebs, I didn’t ask people’s opinions. I just jumped in. I cut in half. I ate half.
Well cover me in whipped cream and call me pie — these things are damn good. I’m pretty sure there’s coconut in there. The inside is like a mounds or almond joy texture, so that must be coconut, with a cherry tinge that tastes like cherry pie. These aren’t chewy per se, and one might want to call it “mealy” but mealy suggests “crappy” and this little bar isn’t that.
But let’s be honest with each other – this isn’t something most people will like. For one, too many people think coconut sucks. It doesn’t, but they think that. Kids hate it. Also, fruit and chocolate is loved in places not called the United States. Plus, the Cherry Ripe chocolate covering is thin, so if you were going in because you expected to be cocoa’d to bits, you’d be disappointed.
But these little Ripes from Cadbury are tasty. Subtle nuggets where the cherry and coconut mix well together with a light chocolate (kinda milk-meets-dark) and make me want more.
Now I’m pissed I only got one.
This is a chocolate bar for those of us who want something a little different – and aren’t scared of old things. Or old people. Or what old people like. Or just oldness.
Old’s the new young.
Not sure if these are Australia’s oldest chocolate bar, but they have been around for a while. The chocolate, to my understanding used to be dark but now it’s more like what you guys call semi-sweet. Glad to hear you liked them, there are lots more goodies in Australia to eat!!
Marketers DO tend to lie… so… it may not be the oldest, however, wikipedia – which I’m sure is never wrong – says they are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Ripe_(chocolate_bar)