Name: European Supreme Dark Chocolate
Brand: CandyTech
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: $.99
Size: 7 oz
Calories per ounce: 151
Type: Chocolate

Yeah, I know, you think I’m all about the expensive stuff. I’m really not. Some of my favorite candies are easily accessible and pretty cheap. I swallowed my “brand pride” and picked up this bar at the 99 Cent Only Store, just out of curiosity. I figured for 7 ounces of chocolate to be only 99 cents, it had to be bad, full of fillers.

It’s definitely sweet for dark chocolate (sugar is the first ingredient) without many dark chocolate notes (no bitterness, no smokey quality, no roasted notes). It smells good, like vanilla and chocolate, but the taste is a little bland. Though rather smooth, there are ocassional odd things, like lumps, as if it wasn’t conched long enough or was mixed wtih other less-conched chocolate. The bar was fresh and the chocolate had a lovely sheen.

I have to admit that I wanted to say that this was a fantastic bar and we should drop our pretenses that good chocolate has to be expensive. But good chocolate has to be consistent and have more chocolate in it. It might be good for something though, I can see it being good for cooking, maybe melting it and using it for those pretty zig-zags on some cookies or as shavings for the top of a cake.

Rating - 4 out of 10

Name: KitKat Orange
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: London Drugs (Vancouver, BC)
Price: 5 for $3.00 (Canadian)
Size: 50 grams
Calories per 50 grams: 260
Type: Chocolate/Crisp

I saw these on a blog a few months ago (StellaBites) ago and I was immediately entranced with the idea. Why aren’t there more essence flavored chocolate bars? (Well, while we’re at it, why isn’t there a coffee bar in the States?)

This is pretty much a regular old KitKat bar with orange in the chocolate covering the crispy wafers. (I was afraid it was going to be white chocolate.) The scent is wonderfully orangey with a lot of vanilla tones that give it a creamy aroma.

The crisp is the same as you’d expect from a KitKat but perhaps a little sweeter. The orange combines will with the chocolate - though I thought it overpowered it slightly. There was an odd tangyness to it as well, but that may be the KitKat chocolate (I haven’t tried the plain one lately).

If you’re a fan of Terry’s Chocolate Orange, this is a really good everyday bar for you. This is a great treat to have with either tea or coffee.

The interesting thing about KitKat is that it was originally a Rowntree product (the predecessor to Nestle) in the UK. The KitKat bar sold in the United States is produced by Hershey’s. Since it’s produced in the states, it tastes slightly different. Next week I’ll do my second head-to-head taste-off of the Hershey KitKat and the UK KitKat. (Holy Moly! I just looked on the Hershey site and they mention a KitKat Coffee Lt. Edition!)

Rating - 7 out of 10

Name: Wine Gums
Brand: Maynards (Cadbury)
Place Purchased: London Drugs (Vancouver, BC)
Price: unknown
Size: 44 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Gummi

Imagine a gummi candy that smells like Elmer’s Glue. It took me a couple of days to figure out what they smelled like, but it was one of those non-toxic smells that kind of get under your skin.

There are a variety of colors/flavors in this package:

yellow = lemon
orange = orange
green = lime
purple = currant?
red = cherry or maybe strawberry.

They’re random, not the systematic stacking that you can count on in a roll of Lifesavers. The flavors are smooth, not terribly tart, not terribly sweet. There is a definite musky taste to it, which is what I guess the “wine” part is. This is most noticeable in the purple one. The flavors kind of grew on me - at first I didn’t care for the purple one so I ate them first, then I was sad that I didn’t have any more.

What really suprised me is how much I liked the red ones. I’m not a fan of red candies but these weren’t too cherry or strawberry and had a nice sort of sizzly flavor to them. The only flavor I didn’t like was the green one, which tasted just like floor cleaner smells.

Next time I go to Canada or the UK, I’ll be sure to pick a roll of these up. They’re easy to carry and a good little zesty pick-me-up.

Rating - 7 out of 10

Name: Wonka Bar
Brand: Wonka (Nestle)
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store (the only place I’ve seen them in person)
Price: $.33
Size: 1.3 oz
Calories per ounce: 138
Type: Chocolate

The first time I ever saw (or even heard of) a Wonka bar was in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (I read the book a few years later). In the movie Charlie wolfs down a husky bar that costs nearly nothing. While this bar might look bulky in the photo, it’s the size of a standard playing card. I think it’s a petite version, as I’ve seen others advertised for sale that are larger than 1.3 ounces. But I couldn’t beat the price of 3 for a dollar at the 99 cent Only Store. Even so, it looks like a Wonka bar should - substantial and slick. I bought two and both came out of the package looking so dang edible.

The bar isn’t even all chocolate. There are graham cracker bits in there and it reminds me of a poor man’s version of those Le Petite Ecolier cookies that are a graham cracker cookie with a molded chocolate top (embossed with a little schoolboy) The cookies smell like graham crackers (vanilla & cinnamon) and chocolate. The graham adds a nice crunch to the bar without too much additional sweetness.

Overall the bar is a little sweet, a little waxy. But cheap and satisfying. There’s something really compelling about the ‘nilla Wafer-like graham.

Interesting fact from package: bar was made in Brazil.

Rating - 6 out of 10