Tirol Chocolate – Winter Chocolate Mix 2023

Admittedly a little on the fashionably late side, is the 2023 version of the Tirol winter mix assortment. While I try to get things done in a timely manner, I am but a humble man with not much time, and a huge backlog of snacks. I’m starting to wonder at what point I’ll run out of physical capacity to try all these snacks…

I’ve done a very similar review of a very similar release for what was apparently 2022. The reason this caught my eye apart from having 2 less pieces, is the flavours included here.The reason I’m excited about this particular batch is that it includes some more interesting flavours. While none of them are new per se, they are enough out of the ordinary to get me excited – we’ve got the caramel coffee almond, the less common pistachio, and three flavours we got last year – crunchy strawberry, milk chocolate and white biscuit.

First off, counting all the pieces, out of the 25 the distributions appears to be 7 of the milk chocolate, 6 of the white biscuit, and 4 of the other three being pistachio, caramel toffee almond and crunchy strawberry. A bit expected since milk chocolate is arguably the easiest to make and is the pretzel of the mix, aka the filler.

Starting off with the milk chocolate, or what they refer to as soft type milk chocolate. While I love the wrapper and art here, I always feel a little misled because they show the mochi mascot here but we all know it’s just a solid block of milk chocolate. While it’s not bad, it does feel a little disappointing, at least to me. I mean they do deliver and it is a softish milk chocolate, but again, nothing to write home about.

The white biscuit is also a returning flavour and like that classic 80’s song says, this is the “same as it ever was”. It’s not bad by any means, it’s a simple combination that is executed fairly well – sweet white chocolate encapsulating a chocolate biscuit center. Truthfully I prefer the white biscuit version over the standard milk chocolate butter biscuit version.

Next up is the crunchy strawberry – as far as I can tell it’s exactly the same as last year, which is good. The strawberry flavoured chocolate, along with the crunchy cereal/waffle pieces in the center all strewn about really give it a nice texture and combination that reminds me of either a strawberry milkshake with a wafer straw, or a strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone. In general, just a winner all around. There’s a reason it was my favourite flavour from last years assortment.

Next up is a somewhat new flavour to me – caramel coffee almond. What a combo. The wrapper opens up to a strong whiff of coffee, which is promising I guess? This one is interesting both flavour and texture wise. In terms of flavour the chocolate is a coffee flavoured one, and the almond is an entire almond coated in a thin caramel coating. The strongest flavour is obviously coffee, but it works surprisingly well against the backdrop of what is essentially a candied almond. The texture is quite interesting too, since the coating on the almond gives it a nice crunch to it which contrasts well against the milk chocolate. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate, but I can appreciate the simple yet effective combination of this flavour.

Last up we have pistachio which is a new flavour to me. This piece consists of two layers – the inner layer appears to be milk chocolate while the pistachio flavoured chocolate is the pale green outer layer. It’s worth noting that this is a fairly one note piece in terms of texture as there’s no actual pistachios to be found here. The flavour though is not bad, and had the layers been reversed I think it would be much less enticing. The pistachio flavour is very prominent, and that’s saying a lot given how mild pistachio flavour usually is. The flavour ends up being a very smooth combination of nutty and chocolatey, and I still enjoyed it.

As far as rankings go, I’d have to go with the following:

1. Crunchy Strawberry
2. Caramel Coffee Almond
3. Pistachio
4. White Biscuit
5. Milk Chocolate

Unsurprisingly strawberry crunch reigns champion yet again, two years in a row. Coffee is not a flavour I enjoy, but it’s hard to deny it’s a good combination with almond and caramel, and the texture is a winner as well. Pistachio is a bit boring as far as textures go, but they deliver on flavour. White biscuit isn’t bad, I just like the other three more. Milk chocolate is the filler of the mix, so it knows why it’s there.

Overall an enjoyable mix, and different enough from the last year that I would contemplate getting this again next year if they introduce at least 2 different flavours like they did this year. See you all next year I hope!