Cadbury Bourneville India's line of chocolates is identical to a chain of Indian restaurants you find throughout Laos.  It doesn't matter which curry you order at this atrocious Indian restaurant.  They all taste the same.      

The Indian Bourneville line contains 44% cocoa solids and is billed as "dark," the same gimmick British Cadbury pulls.  The use of the name 'Bourneville' in Cadbury's dark line now mocks from India the British town on the south side of Birmingham that the British have already turned into a laughingstock among true chocophiles.   No chocolate tasting pro is going to consider 44% dark -- or this bar good.     

I will give Cadbury India credit for consistency. I first sampled their Bourneville Almond, then rinsed my my mouth of with soap.  The Bourneville Hazelnut is identical in every respect.  It contains the same gritty, waxy chocolate, the same emulsifiers coded with numbers, and the same skimpy amount of nuts (12%).   Even the same tasters notes which read "Bite into this unique slab of chocolate and let its intense flavour notes gradually evolve on your palate."  And for those reasons, we could give this bar no greater or lesser rating than its redneck brother.           

The most creative thing about these Indian Bourneville bars is the wrapper. The Hazelnut has red and purple associated with it, while the atrocious Almond uses a red and orange color scheme. If the best I can say about these bars is their wrapper, you know how abysmal they are.       

Should we be surprised?  In the UK and India, Cadbury is a tradition. Cadbury began its operations in India in 1948, shortly after Indian independence.  It's the brand any Indian under the age of 70 has known since childhood.  People have never bothered to ask the question: is it any good?  India has a population of over 1.2bn people.  How many of these people have been abroad and tried better chocolate?  How many of these Indians care?  With this mediocre bar costing 80 Indian rupees, which is more than the cost of an all-you-can-eat South Indian thali for lunch, and and an estimated 40% of Indians living below the poverty line, I doubt many Indians are even eating this dreck. Then again, if only 5% of Indians consider Cadbury India fine chocolate, that's still over 60m people snacking down on these bars, about the entire population of the UK, enough to keep the operation afloat.  Cadbury knew what they were doing when they set up shop in India, didn't they?        

The bar back label states that the chocolate is "best before 9 months from packaging."  I think they meant best thrown away.  Stick to samosas and pakoras when you want to enjoy caloric foods in India.