One of the benefits of having a life that involves a great deal of travel and moving around the world is that you get to experience foods that might be similar to what you already know, but with a local twist. This has actually allowed me to sample many interesting treats, like several different version of the milk chocolate Kit Kat, as well as some variations on KFC. If you look back on this blog you'll also find that there has been a series of posts where I compare different spreads to Nutella. In fact you're reading one right now.
My point is there are many different version of hazelnut spread out there. While Nutella is the name most people associate with this type of spread, it's not the only one. What I've learned while writing this series of posts is that there are many brands of hazelnut spread that are trying to do the same thing as Nutella, a simple chocolate and hazelnut spread. There are however many brands that are trying to do something different, pushing the boundaries of what a chocolate and hazelnut spread could be. This Baristella Rocher is exactly that kind of spread.
The interesting thing about this particular attempt, is it's not really original in its concept. Rocher chocolates are really just chocolate with crunchy bits (often rice crisps and sometimes nuts), filled with a hazelnut spread/cream. It's all flavours and textures we know work really well. So why is this the first time I've tasted a spread that's trying to copy that amazing, classic treat. You would have thought there would be hundreds of this variation out there, but nope, there is not.
Most importantly you'd think Nutella would have come up with something like this. Particularly since the brand that makes Nutella also makes Ferrero Rocher, probably the most popular rocher in the world. It actually made me think on this subject a little more, most notably, why is there not 100 different variations of Nutella out there? Is this choice because they wanted to keep their brand pure, or do they just not want to invest in research and development?
The main reason I ask this of the folks at Nutella is that while this Baristella Rocher is a creative idea, I'm not really a huge fan. There's something about the flavour of the chocolate that I just don't love. It could be the quality of the cocoa or the flavour of the hazelnuts, but something is a little off. The crunchy rice crisps are nice, but a few crunchy bits of hazelnut as well would have made this a lot better. As it stands it's a great idea with a slightly below average execution.
