They say that food is the key to a man's heart, but in my honest opinion I wholeheartedly agree. However, to be more specific in my case, the key to my heart is chocolate.
Valentine's Day, Easter and Christmas are always looked forward to in the Morris household, because I know there'll be an abundance of the good stuff floating around in one way or another.
With that being said though, the current cost of living crisis has forced me to strip back on my intake of sweets and junk food, and I'm sure that many of our readers feel the same way.
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But I wanted to know if you have to go quids in on premium chocolates like Cadbury's and Galaxy to truly get a rich and fulfilling bar, or if cheaper, supermarket own-brands hit the spot without hitting your bank account harder.
So I headed down to a couple of my local supermarkets and shops, grabbed some cheaper chocolate bars and put them to the taste teste against the nation's favourite Dairy Milk. I also wanted to make the perimeters as wide as possible, so alongside the benchmark Cadbury's, I purchased chocolate from a high-end supermarket, a budget supermarket, and a dirt cheap bar from my local off-licence.
Here's what I found.
Dairy Milk - £1.35
Size - 110g
While prices differ up and down the country, a standard 110g bar of Dairy Milk at my local Morrisons set me back £1.35. This was initially supposed to be £1.75, but a special offer knocked some of the cost off to my delight.
Now, I'm sure you've all had a bar or two of Cadbury's chocolate in your lifetime, and I don't need to go into detail as to why it's Great Britain's go-to. Rich and creamy, not to overbearing or sickly, and made with 100 per cent sustainably sourced cocoa - Cadbury's is the benchmark.
I still personally don't know if I rate it more than Galaxy chocolate, as I often bounce between one or the other, but in my eyes you can't go wrong with the big purple bar.
Rating - 4/5
Sainsbury's - £1.30
Size - 200g
Coming in 5p cheaper than Cadbury's is Sainsbury's own brand milk chocolate. And while you may think, for the sake of 5p you may as well get the premium choccy, it's almost double the size - weighing in at 200g.
As well as the bar being bigger in totality, the individual chunks of Sainsbury's own brand are also much larger than Dairy Milk's offering - but bigger isn't always better. Taste wise, the chocolate is middle of the road at best, with a slightly cheap taste to it, despite being labelled with the Rainforest Alliance insignia.
I could still happily eat it, but it simply doesn't give the same pungency as your premium lines do.
Rating - 3/5
Lidl - 55p
Size - 100g
Lidl is notorious for their cheap and cheerful products at slashed prices, so it was the first place on my mind when I thought about budget chocolate bars. What I will say scouring the aisles is that their selection is fantastic, with everything from white chocolate to toffee and nut filled treats.
To keep it fair though, I went for the 55p bar of Alpine Milk chocolate - coming in with a weight of 100g.
In terms of taste and quality, this one really took me by surprise. While it was the cheapest on this list in terms of price, it certainly wasn't the cheapest in terms of taste, and I'd say it's definitely on par, if not better than Cadbury's.
What's more in terms of value for money, you could buy 3 of these bars (300g) for the price of one Cadbury's bar (110g not on special offer) and probably end up more satisfied. I could have easily polished off the full bar of Lidl's chocolate, but had to refrain as it was 11.00am when I was writing this article.
Rating - 4/5
Euro Shopper - 59p
Size - 85g
Right, so please let me know if I'm alone in this one - but I'm fairly certain you used to be able to get a massive bar of Euro Shopper chocolate for 35p back in the day? It gives me fond memories of my time at school where I would get £2 for my dinner money.
I'd buy a pasty from Greggs and spend the rest on sweets, with a bar of this exact chocolate from my local Premier or Costcutters usually being a common feature.
I was actually really excited to try this one for the nostalgia, so I tore open the wrapper of the 85g bar and tucked in.
And I have to admit that I was severely disappointed with what I found. My taste buds at the tender age of 13 must not have fully developed as this was absolutely rotten. It tasted like it had far too little sugar in it, and was more bitter than it was sweet (and no, I didn't mistakenly buy dark chocolate).
The texture when chewed up was also weirdly sandy instead of smooth and rich, like all of the other chocolate bars on this list - and the most shocking part in my opinion is the price.
Euro Shopper was my first thought when I thought of dirt cheap chocolate, but it's been sadly outperformed in weight, price and taste by Lidl on this one, with the budget supermarket's offering heavier, cheaper and by far tastier.
Rating - 1/5
So there you have it, you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of money on chocolate bars to get the taste you're craving, Lidl will probably be my go to in terms of sweet goods from now on, and I can't wait to make my way through their other dessert-like snacks.
What's your favourite chocolate bar? Let us know in the comments.
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