by Joy Cooke

Created on: July 17, 2010

Mikado. I'm sure you've seen the adverts, the special display stands in the supermarkets and read the numerous glowing reviews about them. Am I the only person who can't see the attraction in them? They're one of the most expensive snacks in the supermarket now that the promotional prices are disappearing, yet they taste like the cheapest item in there!

They're a clever design, you have to give them that. Like a version of the Cadbury's Finger only with a clever holding stick to stop your fingers getting covered in chocolate, and better again the stick is made from biscuit giving them the appearance of some medieval lance or fighting implement. Which, considering this is a Japanese brand, isn't so surprising really!

The thing with Mikado is that they are so bland. The chocolate isn't creamy or rich in any way and it puts me in mind of the kind of chocolate you find in cheap advent calendars, it's quite a thin layer on the biscuit but has a really unusual strong flavour that completely overwhelms the more bland biscuit. This makes it taste almost like the awful 'chocolate flavoured topping' you get on some inferior brands of cake, and this certainly doesn't make for a pleasant eating experience.

The biscuit isn't much better, it's solid and smooth with absolutely no crumble-ability at all. I had been expecting something similar to the biscuit inside a Finger but this has more of a cracker consistency, especially the bit on the end that isn't covered in chocolate. Actually the biscuit is very much like a pretzel without salt, and after just a few bites you will quickly discover just how dull the Mikado biscuit is.  It is a very bland biscuit with no real flavour of its own and seems as you are eating it that it needs some sort of seasoning to perk the snack up a little.

It's not a horrible snack that I'll never eat again, but there are much better products available and if the price of Mikado fell to a more reasonable price then I'm sure it will be a big hit. My granddaughters' love them, but then at that age they will eat and enjoy chocolate of any description or quality and the novelty of these sticks appeal to them - in particular my three year old granddaughter loves to sit there with a Mikado as she licks the chocolate off like an ice lollie and then either devours the stick or puts it in the bin depending on her mood.

Mikado are surprisingly sickly considering there is so little substance to the biscuit, I ate four and that was plenty for me as they quickly became overwhelming despite the fact that there isn't much chocolate on the otherwise very dry biscuit.

The price, as you can tell from above, is an issue with Mikado. A single box is priced at £1.99 almost everywhere, although if you're quick you might just find a tail end of one of the half price promotions in the supermarket. This is an outrageous price for these cheap tasting chocolates, especially when you can buy a large selection box of cheap chocolates in Poundland and they will be at least as good taste wise as these, if I were the marketeers for Mikado I'd price them at around 79p - 89p tops and frankly this is what they are worth.

It's a great advert though!

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