Monte Carlo, Black Forest

I was a bit harsh on the Lamington Iced Vovo, but Arnott’s is insistent on trying to make this combination strategy work.

So what is it this time? The classic Monte Carlo, with a Black Forest gâteau, which is one of the most extravagant cakes you can picture. With the Lamington, I can see how you would approach distilling that into it’s atomic flavour elements: coconut and cocoa. The gâteau, on the other hand, is exceedingly complex: a chocolate sponge, whipped cream, Maraschino cherries, and Kirsch, a cherry-based brandy. How do you simplify those complicated, conflicting flavours to fit into a basic biscuit with some cream in it?

Experience the delicious pleasure of Arnott’s most iconic cream biscuit, reimagined with the decadent flavours of the iconic black forest chocolate cake. Two chocolatey home style biscuits, filled with vanilla & cherry flavoured cream, wrapped in a chewy jam. Two icons combined in one delicious creation.

• Arnott’s Woolies? (for some reason, I couldn’t even find this thing on Arnott’s website)

At the end of the day, I think the goal was a little too ambitious here. The result just tastes like a Monte Carlo where a little cocoa powder accidentally made it’s way into the recipe. There might be a hint of cherry added to the jam, but this is practically muted - the jam makes for such a small part of the overall biscuit, and cherry just isn’t very distinct from the raspberry in the standard Carlo.

However, this doesn’t make it a bad product. A Monte Carlo with a chocolatey biscuit is, in my opinion, actually an improvement on the classic recipe, or at least good enough to stand side by side with it. It’s just an overly ambitious marketing claim to compare it to a century-old, celebrated baking tradition.

For now, it claims the top spot on the admittedly short list, but (spoilers) it won’t hold it forever.