Chocolate is one of the few delights that keeps the terrors of the world at bay and it's a category of food that I take very seriously.
Since times are tough and food is expensive, I decided to compare house-brand milk chocolate bars from Canada's grocery stores, and the difference between some of the offerings is wild.
For this taste test, I tried milk chocolate from Walmart's Great Value brand, Loblaws' no name and President's Choice, FreshCo's Compliments and Metro's Irresistibles that I picked up at the various stores around my apartment in the West End of Toronto.
To me, the ideal milk chocolate that gets a 5/5 for taste is Cadbury's Dairy Milk: it's creamy, sweet and smooth with a mild but pronounced taste of cocoa that consistently brings the chocolatey joy I'm seeking. Right now at No Frills, that 100-gram bar of chocolate costs $2.79, and it's the one I generally reach for when I'm craving a treat.
Here's how Canada's groccery store house brands stack up in comparison and which ones I'd pick up again.
Great Value
100 grams of Great Value milk chocolate from Walmart in Toronto.
The Great Value brand milk chocolate from Walmart boasts that it's from Switzerland, but that's about all it has going on for it.
It's quite soft and has a sort of bitter, plastic taste that hung around on the back of my tongue after swallowing. To me, it kind of tastes like the cheap spherical Dollarama chocolate balls that you get at Halloween and Christmas in those little foil wrappers that low-key seem like they've been sitting around for months, if not longer.
If it was there, I'd eat it (because sometimes you just need chocolate, even if it isn't great) but I would definitely never buy this.
Taste: 2/5 (bad chocolate is still chocolate, after all, which is why it's getting a 2 instead of a 1)
Price: $1.18 for 100 grams
No name
100 grams of no name milk chocolate from Loblaws in Toronto.
Given that I really enjoyed the no name brand cheddar during a cheese taste test I did, I had high hopes for this Loblaw brand, but it did not meet them.
While this one didn't have the plastic taste that the Walmart one did, it tastes quite chalky and sugary without any cocoa to balance out the flavour profile. It also had a bit of a sandy, gritty texture on my teeth that I didn't enjoy.
That being said, it didn't taste overly fake which is why it's getting a marginally higher rating than Great Value's offering.
Taste: 2.5/5
Price: $1.49 for 100 grams
Compliments
100 grams of the Compliments milk chocolate chips from FreshCo in Toronto.
Ok, yes, I know these are chocolate chips but I couldn't find Compliments milk chocolate in a bar form at either Sobey's or FreshCo, hence the substitution — and honestly, I quite like shovelling handfuls of the chips into my mouth like a heathen as it makes for a different but thoroughly enjoyable eating experience.
The flavour of this chocolate is great; it starts off sweet but then the cocoa comes in at the end for a nice contrast. It also coats your mouth, which leaves you with a lingering chocolate taste that therefore doesn't make me want to reach for more of the treat immediately.
Taste: 3.5/5
Price: $2.99 (normally $3.79) for 70 grams
President's Choice
100 grams of the President's Choice milk chocolate from Loblaws in Toronto.
President's Choice defintiely has the fanciest package out of all the options, but when I opened it up, I found that the squares were quite large, which I don't love — I prefer the traditional small squares that the other options have.
That being said, this chocolate is really nice. The flavour takes a while to hit, but once it does, it's very mellow and smooth, and overall just tastes like a fairly decent quality milk chocolate.
Taste: 3.8/5
Price: $2.99 for 100 grams
Irresistibles
100 grams of the Irresistibles milk chocolate from Metro in Toronto.
The packaging on this item slightly annoyed me as you tear through the paper only to be confronted with plastic, but it is what it is, and the flavour more than makes up for my irritation with that issue.
The Irresistibles milk chocolate from Metro has a nice snappiness when you bite into it that the others don't have and overall has a pleasant sweetness that tastes less artificial than the others. As well, the cocoa comes through really clearly and richly and leaves a very pleasant flavour in your mouth after you swallow.
I thoroughly enjoyed this chocolate, and it's my winner of this particular taste test!
Taste: 4/5
Price: $2.99 per 100 grams
So there you have it! Metro's Irresistibles comes in first place for my personal ranking of some of Canada's most popular house brand milk chocolate offerings, but of course, you may feel differently.
In terms of future shopping, I'd totally pick up Irresistibles, President's Choice and Compliments (either in bar or chocolate chip form) again if I needed a chocolate fix, but given that they're all around the same price — if not more — than my beloved Dairy Milk, I wouldn't necessarily choose the store brands over it given that I wouldn't actually be saving money.
If you're looking to set up some snacks for guests or for yourself and your partner for date night, the Irresistibles chocolate would be a great accompaniment to a charcuterie board, like the super fancy-looking one I recently put together for under $20.
As well, if you need some wine to round out the whole experience, there are actually some relatively cheap decent bottles of white you can pick up at the LCBO, like the Mare Di Sirena Pinot Grigio, Alianca Vinho Verde and the Toro Bravo Verdejo Sauvignon Blanc.
Happy snacking, folks!
These prices are confirmed at the time of publishing, but they can change at any time. Taxes and fees may not be included.
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