Tirol Chocolate – Mixed Fruit Jelly

I am the occasional enjoyer of fruit in chocolate. I can’t say I’m as thrilled at the concept of fruit flavoured chocolate, but it does intrigue me. Sometimes that’s all it takes to compel me to do something. It feels like I was a cat in my prior 8 lives. Only a matter of time before that curiosity catches up with me in this life…

Today’s flavour is essentially fruit flavoured chocolate with fruit jam or jelly in the center. Just from the description alone I can tell this is going to taste very fake and likely very sweet, but also very colourful and I’ll be damned if we don’t eat with our eyes. Also the polar bear and the general theme of the packaging leads me to believe these are meant to be chilled, like a fine wine.

These taste artificial, unsurprisingly, but in a good way, if that makes sense. If you go in expecting fruit flavours, you end up surprised in a good way. In the past there have been some not so great experiences with chocolates trying to emulate fruit flavours because they didn’t commit hard enough and the whole thing is half-assed. I went into this expecting a similar situation, but I’m liking what I’m tasting so far.

Peach is surprisingly tasty – it’s got a strong stone fruit flavour and got just the right amount of floral notes.

It doesn’t feel like I’m having a chocolate at all, and more of a candy that has the texture of soft chocolate outer shell, while encasing some flowy jelly on the inside that really drives the fruit flavour home.

Pineapple is very fruity and makes the entire thing taste like a slightly creamy pineapple candy, more than a chocolate. Combined with the fruit jelly filling, it reminds me of those hard candies that have a jelly on the inside.

This is very tasty, and it leaves no doubt in anyone’s palette about what this is supposed to be emulating.

Melon is sort of like a melon hard candy, and is somewhat lacking in the dairy flavour. It tastes more like it’s trying to be a fruit flavour than a melon ice cream or melon milkshake, which I was expecting. Though given how the other two flavours were, I guess it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

The one thing I’ll say is while it’s true to the flavour of melon, it’s got a weird floral note to it that sort of reminds me of perfume for some reason. Not a deal breaker, just an observation. Insert joke about musk melons and having a musk of their own.

The packaging indicates that leaving it in the freezer for 30 minutes is a great way to enjoy these. I sort of liked how flowy and soft the insides are, but I decided to follow instructions for once in my life and shoved these into the freezer for a while.

While unfrozen, these are typical Tirol affair with a soft chocolate outer shell housing a very sticky, but free flowing syrup I refer to as jelly. The texture is nothing to write home about, and the MVP here is all about the flavour. And the adorable polar bear mascot. But after freezing up a bit, things change a little. The outer shell goes from soft and somewhat melty to very brittle and somewhat hard, but I imagine the jelly in the middle is the reason for this – it’s no longer flowy and sticky and is more firm and becomes an almost chewy texture. Honestly, I prefer it room temperature than frozen but I can see why some might prefer it this way.

While great for the novelty, I don’t know that I would get these again. Given that they are seasonal I’m not even sure if you’ll be able to get these again. It is admittedly quite cute in the packaging and execution and I could see this being great fun for kids or a party.