I purchased this Cadbury Cherry Ripe bar at The Stateside Candy Co before Christmas and when I saw The Snack Review's review of the 60% Cocoa version, it reminded me that I still hadn't got round to trying it. The Australian Cherry Ripe with it's shiny red wrapper is described as "ripe juicy cherries and coconut in old gold rich dark chocolate". It weighs 52g and contains 241 calories.
The bar is in one piece and has a ridged surface. When I snapped it in half I could smell very sweet coconut with only a slight hint of cherry so I expected the coconut to be the dominant flavor here. This is absolutely fine with me as regular readers will know that I am obsessed with the stuff.
The inside was a lovely bright pinky-red color and looked a bit like coconut ice with some pieces of glace cherries scattered throughout. Like coconut ice, it was quite chewy and it made the bar quite filling, in fact it was rather similar to a Bounty.
The Cherry Ripe is very sweet indeed and the inside is also similar to a Bounty in taste but with a lovely hint of cherry. One of my favorite chocolate bars is a Bounty and I have always preferred the dark chocolate version over the milk chocolate one. I have no idea what "old gold" dark chocolate is but it was very nice and definitely the right choice for the Cherry Ripe as anything else would have been too sweet against the filling.
Verdict
This is a pretty strong statement to make but for me the Cherry Ripe is chocolate bar perfection. I knew that I would enjoy it as I love coconut and I love cherry but I was unprepared for good this bar is. If you aren't a fan of ridiculously sweet things then the Cherry Ripe might not be for you but I can't get enough of this combination and I am gutted that I only purchased one bar!
