Ritter Sport – Raisins & Hazelnuts

When I picked this bar up, I had to do a double take the check if this was something I tried already. Previously I had the rum raisins and hazelnut flavour, and the packaging looks eerily similar. In fact, comparing them side by side, they are essentially the same package except one is missing the word rum and the picture of the rum filled glass.

I happen to enjoy rum raisin as a flavour combo, so it’s absence here is noticeable, but I figured I like hazelnuts, and kind of like raisins depending on context, so let’s see how this goes. At the very least I can confidently say that the texture is to my liking so at least that’s one major hurdle that’s been overcome.

I don’t know how others will feel, but the lack of rum finds this bar lacking, and I feel like I need to go out and buy a bottle and inject this bar with it. Something about removal of the rum makes this feel somewhat two dimensional – sweet and more sweet. The chocolate itself is on the sweeter side, and the raisins don’t help as they are also sweet. I feel the need to clarify that I’m not some sort of degenerate alcoholic, I just feel like the addition of rum adds some complexity to the sweet flavour so that it isn’t as one note. Without it, it just feels a little basic and simple, but not in a good way.

The texture is identical the rum raisin flavour, and it’s hard to fault the classic combination of nuts and dried fruits. That is of course, unless you don’t enjoy dried fruit to begin with. In that case this bar won’t be any better to you than the other nut and fruit bars. I personally enjoy the texture of the dried fruit – it’s not too hard, but still chewy and contrasts against the somewhat harder hazelnuts quite well. Almost like a trail mix except it’s within a block of solid chocolate.

Overall, I think this bar does ok for what it is. That being said, I imagine if I didn’t know the rum raisin version existed, I might be ok with this. But my eyes have been opened, and I’ve seen the truth – if you want to try this and are not abhorrent to the idea of rum, get that one instead. If you do want to try this one, maybe get this one first and try the rum one after and see which you prefer.