Belgium Means Belgium

A review of Co-op’s Belgium chocolate cookies.

Did you know that Belgium is one of a number of countries in the world beginning with ‘B’?

I don’t know exactly what number, but I do know that Birmingham is another one. Along with Bagpuss.

For whatever reason, the Co-op use Belgium chocolate in their triple chocolate cookies, branded as “irresistible”. So, they’re never going to be a hit with Nigel Farage. But, then again, he’s so working class that he probably just eats coal for every meal every day.

Still, I’d rather eat coal than Cornflakes.

Immediately, Co-op’s cookies fitted the bill: there were three types of chocolate chunks (dark, milk and white) welded into Belgium chocolate dough.

The biscuits also hit my expectations for how cookies should be made: they were all excessively large, of effectual thickness and – crucially – completely random sizes.

All of the varying chocolate chunks (of which each biscuit was stuffed full of) tasted wonderfully exquisite on their own and combined even better when mixed into the whole product. The pieces were soft, which moulded excellently into the softness of each cookie.

Each cookie’s chocolate formation was spectacularly rich, sticky and deeply filling – not that that would ever prevent you from eating the entire pack of four in one sitting, of course. The consequence of such richness, however, was that the chocolate became rather overpowering and occasionally masked the cookies’ other elements. Noticeably, the first cookie provided an underlying singed flavour.

As uncommon as the idea of luxury cookies might be (why would you choose biscuits when the traditional form of luxury treats usually comes in the form of boxes of chocolate or some kind of original chocolate creation – like the Lindt Easter bunnies), Co-op, on appearance at least, does seem to have pulled it off – at a relatively bargain price of £1.75 a bag, too.

But the issues surrounding the taste were apparent, suggesting that the “irresistible” label is (as is usually the case) baseless marketing.

Final review rating: a reasonable effort to take power from Brussels, but one that was ultimately overly ambitious – 3* out of 5.


Review by JAMES LEWIS
Wanderer, wonderer and editor of the Chocolate Dissection blog (which will ideally melt hearts rather than brains). Reliable with sarcasm, less so with a scalpel. Twitter: @IdeasJimbound


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