On my fortnightly trip to the newsagent to buy Private Eye, I encountered this new chocolate bar from Cadbury's -- Boost 'with glucose and Guarana'

Boost is a well-known Cadbury's product -- a centre of biscuit bits in powdery chocolate centre, surrounded by toffee, and then coated in chocolate. The resulting feel is a chocolate bar that's chewy on the outside and crunchy in the middle.

Boosts are normally in blue packets, but Boost with Guarana is in green shiny metallic-feel plastic.

It tastes pretty weird. The original Boost bar tasted of what you'd expect; toffee and chocolate. This doesn't. Instead is an almost overwhelming sickly sweet flavour, which I presume is the guarana. It isn't nice. Despite this, I buy these bars regularly now. Why? Because of the caffeine.

The Boost Guarana is an interesting move by Cadbury's in an attempt to combine the stimulant market and the confectionary market. We don't have any other caffeinated sweets in the UK. There are essentially two products that tout caffeine as their main selling point: Pro Plus caffeine tablets, and Red Bull drink. Caffeine is beginning to become big business here.

Pro Plus are pills, and Red Bull is about £1 for a 250ml can. This makes both products niche-market only. You are unlikely to buy Red Bull for the taste (especially because it's foul). Boost Guarana, however, is more or less the same price as normal Boost; about 40p. As such, it's seen as more 'mainstream' than these other products. If you don't know what guarana is, you're quite likely to pick one up without even finding out about the caffeine thing.

Boost Guarana contains 54mg caffeine. Cadbury's claims this is the same as a cup of coffee, but they must be making pretty weak coffee. It is about the same as a Pro Plus pill. If you eat two, you are likely to get some kind of buzz. On the back of the wrapper, in small letters it says "This product is not suitable for young children and persons sensitive to caffeine". You would have thought that a not-for-children chocolate bar might be more clearly marked, given that kids are the biggest confectionary consumers.

INGREDIENTS: centre (68%) (dried glucose solids (21%) (glucose syrup and dried glucose syrup), hydrogenated vegetable oil, dried skimmed milk, shortcake biscuit (5%), (wheat flour, hydrogenated vegetable oil, sugar, salt, raising agent: sodium carbonates, flavouring), sugar, glycerol, dried whey, guarana (0.7%), emulsifiers: soya lecithin, E471 and E442, flavourings), milk chocolate: milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat, emulsifier: E442, flavourings).

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Energy: 320 kcal, Protien: 3.5g, Carbohydrate: 36.5g, Fat 17.9g

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_664619.html?menu=
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Cadbury_Boost_Guarana__Review_5317826
And a Boost with Guarana