I have a terror of shopping at Ikea. The stores are so huge and there is only the one exit and pretty much only one route to get there. I always get about halfway through and wonder if I will ever make it out of the store.
Of course, if you did have to spend the rest of your life there, at least they have everything you need. There are beds to sleep in, and food to eat. You could even raise a family – the cafeteria sells jars of baby food and provides a bottle warmer.
So when I saw these chocolate bars, only my second thought was that they were nicely packaged and cheap. My first thought was “at least if I can’t get out, I won’t have to live the rest of my life without chocolate.”
But what would that life be like, for someone as devoted to chocolate as I am?
Ikea sells three varieties, dark, milk, and milk with hazelnuts. I am not that big a fan of hazelnuts, but I chose that kind anyway. At 99 cents a bar, I figured that this was not going to be the highest quality chocolate, so it would need some help. And of course, there was also the consideration that nuts have protein, and if you were lost in Ikea for life, you might need the nourishment, like in the middle of the night when the cafeteria was closed.
The chocolate itself is about what you’d expect from a relatively inexpensive European chocolate. It’s not awful, but it’s unsatisfying. With a good strongly flavored chocolate, I can eat one or two squares of a bar and stop. With this bar, I felt like I had to keep eating the whole thing – I never felt that “had enough chocolate” sensation.
The texture was a little bit waxy. There’s “butterfat” in the ingredients – it’s not all cocoa butter – which I imagine is to blame. The hazelnuts are chopped up small, unlike in some bars where the nuts are whole or large pieces. I liked this, since it means you get some nuts in every bite. This is all the more important here since the chocolate is only OK, and the nuts provide some additional interest.
The final verdict: This chocolate is good enough to keep you going till you find your way out of the maze of Ikea back to the real world. And if you’re a real chocolate fiend, it might give you just that much more inspiration to persist in making your escape and getting your hands on something better.
Thanks for this review. I shop at Ikea enough to know the shortcuts and how to get out without navigating the entire store, but might have been tempted to try these anyway. Now I know better.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:05 amThe IKEA chocolate is pretty new, and you’re right in that it’s not very good. Not bad, but it does have that cheap chocolate taste (at least the package of the hazelnut version is nicer than the one of the milk chocolate – although I’m wondering why it’s labelled Chocolate Nut in Swedish, and not hazelnut?). Anyways, if you ever manage to go to IKEA again you should try the Marabou chocolate, which is by far the most popular “budget” chocolate brand in Sweden. And it’s pretty darn good ;) Thanks for a nice blog!
July 13th, 2009 at 10:38 amas an employee of IKEA i like the Daim bars. they are like Skor candy bars with the toffee center and chocolate coating. They are made by Nestle so that has to be for something. yes the Marabou is great especially the big hogger bar WITH the Daim bits in it.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:36 pmI wandered across your blog and can’t eat milk chocolate (lactose issues) but wanted to encourage you to try the dark. It is well worth the price. I always grab a handful of them on the way out the door. they are cheaper in bulk. 2.49 for 3 i think? i am not a fan of ikea food in general (lots of lactose issues)and the baked goods (cookies, crackers) all taste burned and bitter to my unrefined american palette. the dark chocolate is my weakness.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm