Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Rich, good value |
| Disadvantages: |
A bit too sweet, rock hard pieces |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I'm not a huge fan of toffee, and as I'm not really meant to eat it anyway due to a brace but I do from time to time (if offered) indulge in a chunk or two - and generally it's Thorntons 'special' toffee, as that seems to be the most popular choice amongst friends and relatives!
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Packaging
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The packaging has quite an 'old-fashioned'-y look to it, with brown and cream colouring. It's definitely trying to appeal either to an older or more sophisticated customer, and perhaps give the impression of traditionalism. The bag is a decent size, but I still don't think a bag is the best place to store some toffee - every piece manages to get stuck to each other, which is great if you're the person taking a piece out of someone else's bag, but perhaps not so great if it's the other way around! There's also the usual blurb on the back of how they're so loyal to their customers by not putting bad stuff in, and then the ingredients etc.
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Taste/Texture/Aroma
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Toffee is always buttery, but Thorntons toffee really takes it up to the next level - as soon as you put a piece in your mouth you'll be hit by the buttery, rich flavour - rather like a giant Werther's Original. If you have a
sweet tooth, you'll love it, but if you're like me and feel a bit nauseous after eating too many sweets then you'll only be able to manage one or two chunks, depending on the size you get. The pieces are slightly sticky but smooth enough to eat with your fingers and not have to feel you need to clean them off afterwards. The aroma is just very, very buttery and, like most toffees a bit sickly. Again, your opinion on that will be down to how much you like your sweets. The pieces are actually quite hard, so you need to be careful you don't chip any teeth/take any fillings out which is actually quite possible! You need to either leave them in the sun (which exacerbates the sticking together problem, though) or just suck on the pieces for a while to let them melt if you want to enjoy them properly. Once the pieces have melted they are quite chewy and sticky and a bit easier to eat.
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Availability/Price
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I always thought Thorntons toffee was an exclusive thing, only available in the shops until I was told by a friend that you can actually buy the bags in big supermarkets. It certainly takes some of the 'traditional' mystique away from it!
Prices vary from 99p up to £1.10 for a smaller bag, and generally the supermarkets are cheaper than the shop itself. This isn't actually that bad compared to most sweets - it'll certainly last a lot longer than a bar of chocolate, for example, and Thorntons is good quality so it's certainly worth it.
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Range
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Special Toffee has quite a large range now :
Original Toffee
Chocolate Toffee
Fruit and Nut Toffee
Mint Toffee
Liquorice Toffee
Brazil Nut Toffee
Banana Toffee
Orange Toffee
Strawberry and Cream Toffee
To be honest, I think the strong flavours of the original toffee are more than enough, let alone covering it in banana or mint flavour - ones for the adventurous, I think.
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Suitability
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Rather than bore you with a huge ingredients list, I'll just say that the toffee is suitable for vegetarians, is glucose and alcohol free but not free of nut traces. I wouldn't advise giving it to small children, it's too hard and they shouldn't have that amount of sugar anyway!
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Dentist's friend?
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To answer the original question - no. A relative of mine (a big lover of all things sweet, especially Thorntons Special Toffee) recently chipped another of his teeth - needless to say, we don't know what caused the breakage exactly but I'm sure the toffee is a guilty party in the matter - so if you are prone to fragile teeth I wouldn't get too close to the toffee unless you want a trip to the dentist! The amount of sugar is bad for anyone anyway, so I would suggest only making this a weekly treat, if that.
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Conclusion
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As I said before, I'm not a huge fan of toffee - I'll indulge every now and again but I just find it a bit too sickly. If I was to choose, however, I would go for Thorntons. The flavours are rich and just how good toffee should be and aren't a bad price either - just make sure you are friends with your dentist before you try…
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