ABOUT

FEEDS

CONTACT

  • .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
  • Here are some frequently asked questions emailed to me you might want to read first.

EMAIL DIGEST

    For a daily update of Candy Blog reviews, enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

CANDY RATINGS

TYPE

BRAND

COUNTRY

ARCHIVES

June 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Nestle Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp

Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp Peanut ButterI don’t follow ice cream much, I can’t eat that much dairy and if I’m going to have some I’ll make it cheese. But I have seen a line of low calorie ice cream products called Skinny Cow (this concoction used to be called ice milk, which was an accurate description, but the FDA later caved and allowed it to be called low fat ice cream). Personally I’m put off by the appearance of emaciated & bony cows. It reminds me of images of drought and famine; it’s never something I would think any farmer would cultivate nor something I would associate with a healthy choice. The frozen dairy line is made by Dreyer’s, which is owned by Nestle.

The natural extension of removing calories and virtually all of the actual cream from a product that contains the word cream within its name would be to tackle chocolate. The Skinny Cow confectionery line was introduced a couple of months ago with four products. I’ll tackle their Heavenly Crisp bars today. They look and sound like they might be chocolate, but do not in fact contain any of the stuff. They come in two flavors, Milk Chocolate Flavor and Peanut Butter Flavor. I was given a sample of the milk chocolate version a few months back was honestly wasn’t that interested based on the packaging. But then I saw the whole line at the grocery store last weekend, especially the Peanut Butter Flavor and thought I’d give it a try.

Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp Peanut Butter

The Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp Peanut Butter looks more like a nutrition bar than a candy bar (though there isn’t much nutrition in there either). The package itself is small, thin and light. The bar is only .77 ounces and the package says that it’s only 110 calories. There’s an accurate depiction of a cross section of the bar and lots of female friendly swoops and curves along with pink accents.

The bar is 4.5” long and 1” wide. It’s also quite thin, at less than a half an inch.

Skinny Cow Peanut Butter Bar

The bar smells good, like peanut butter and sugar, a little like the center of a Butterfinger bar. The bite is crisp and crunchy, the wafers are flavorless, but light and dissolve quickly. The cream between the layers is a salty and smooth peanut butter concoction. The chocolate coating, well, that’s a chocolate flavored coating along with a few ribbons of something yellow that I’m guessing is actually made with peanut butter. The coating melts quickly and has very little flavor that’s able to shine above the peanut butter. It’s sweeter than the peanut butter center, and of course the lighter, creamy texture provides a nice blanket to the rest of the elements.

The combination is quite tasty. There’s a lot of texture and the thinness of the bar means that there are lots of bites to it. For 110 calories, it feels like there’s more to it than a single finger of a Twix which is about the same calories. But let’s not kid ourselves, there’s not much to this, it’s mostly air. The calories per ounce are on par with any other chocolate candy out there, including most actual chocolate candies like Snickers bars, Twix or just plain chocolate.

Nestle Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp

The Skinny Cow Milk Chocolate Flavor Heavenly Crisp package looks similar to the peanut butter, naturally. I only had one bar of this to try, as it was a sample that I received before they were on store shelves.

The package describes it as delicate wafers layered with delicious milk chocolate creme. It makes no mention of the outer coating, and why would it, it’s mockolate. The ingredients for this bar are dismal for a diet food:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Nonfat Milk, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, High Oleic Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Chicory Root Fiber, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Maltodextrin, Milk, And 1.5% Or Less Of: Baking Soda, Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Vegetable Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, Sorbitan Tristearate), Salt, Natural and Artificial Flavor, TBHQ to Protect Flavor, Ground Peanuts.

Nestle Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp

The chocolate coating is a little cool on the tongue and very quick to melt. In fact, the melting was such as problem that it was hard to photograph and even hold in order to eat without becoming a sticky mess. The flavor is like a chocolate pudding, more on the milky side, but still with enough of a cocoa punch to be discernible.

It was less satisfying than the Peanut Butter Flavor for some reason. It might have been that it was more sweet or that it has half of the protein.

I really resent portion control sold for premium prices, especially when the ingredients here are so convoluted from actual wholesome and tasty real ones. There’s really no reason not to use real chocolate here if overall health is the goal. Even though there’s added fiber in these bars (that’s the chicory root fiber that’s also called inulin sometimes), there’s only 1 gram per portion. A portion of 70% dark chocolate with the same number of calories has about the same amount of fiber anyway. And real chocolate is usually only four ingredients and usually half the price of this stuff per pound.

So here’s my suggestion. Eat stuff with better ingredients. Try the Q.Bel Wafer Rolls (they’re actually a little lower in calories per ounce plus all natural, about the same price and actually taste better). Trader Joe’s has some great portion control chocolate (the little Belgian Bars or even a 100 calorie Chocolate bar). Or just buy mini KitKats or Pretzel M&Ms.

Related Candies

  1. Snyder’s Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwich Dips
  2. Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz
  3. Pretzel M&Ms
  4. Glutino Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Candy Bar
  5. Q.Bel Wafer Rolls
  6. Q.Bel Crispy Wafer Bars
  7. Cookie Dough Bites


Name: Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp Milk Chocolate Flavored
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Gelson's (Silver Lake)
Price: $.99 retail
Size: .77 ounces
Calories per ounce: 143
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, Kosher, Mockolate, 5-Pleasant, United States


Name: Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp Peanut Butter
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Gelson's (Silver Lake)
Price: $4.29
Size: 4.65 ounces
Calories per ounce: 143
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, Kosher, Mockolate, Peanuts, 6-Tempting, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:47 pm     CandyReviewNestleCookieKosherMockolatePeanuts5-Pleasant6-TemptingUnited States

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranate

Brookside Dark Chocolate PomegranateIn the world of new candies, I think that names are important. They should either be descriptive of the product experience or novel enough creation that it arouses curiosity and the ability to associate that product forever with that name. Last year I tried something called Powerberries at Trader Joe’s. The name certainly doesn’t say much about what the product is, but is evocative enough that I could glean attributes, especially when I got to see the package. I bring this up because I’m now faced with a similar product that doesn’t quite have the naming mojo. They’re called Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranate.

Now there’s lots to love about that name if you happen to like a pastoral name like Brookside and the two elements of dark chocolate and pomegranate are also favorites of mine. (But I’m not so keen on eating actual pomegranate seeds, I know they do sell those, but that’s not what these are.) So while it didn’t have the sexy punch of Powerberries, I did actually buy this package.

It’s a stand up pouch that holds 7 ounces of smooth dark chocolate surrounding a sweetened real fruit juice piece made from a blend of pomegranate juice and other select fruit juices. The image on the front actually looks a heck of a lot like the one I shot below. Hooray for accuracy!

Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranate

The bag certainly smells fragrant, like a bowl of dried fruit. There are notes of blueberry, raspberry and apricots. The pieces are mostly spherical and glossy dark chocolate. Some were more like disks, about the size of an M&M.

Inside each piece were one or two little pods of this fruit juice pieces. It’s a grainy little “not quite jelly” bit. They’re quite fruity, to the point where some actually had a slight bitter note to them, like the membrane of a pomegranate can impart. The chocolate is smooth and has a good woodsy cocoa note that stands up well to the fruit.

As I mentioned in my original review of the Powerberries, these are a little strange but quite compelling. Though the actual name isn’t quite as exciting and the price is slightly higher than Trader Joe’s, they’re still a fun change of pace for chocolate. I wouldn’t necessarily say that they’re a health food, though the package stresses that there are 100 mg of flavanol antioxidants in each 42 gram serving (20% of your vitamin C as well), I’d say eat them because you like them. There are certainly more nutrients in here than the standard M&Ms, but the key is always to practice moderation.

Related Candies

  1. Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips
  2. Nory Rahat Locum
  3. Gimbal’s Honey Lovers
  4. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Powerberries
  5. Terra Nostra Pocket Bars
  6. Jelly Belly Pomegranate


Name: Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Brookside
Place Purchased: Gelson's (Silver Lake)
Price: $3.69
Size: 7 ounces
Calories per ounce: 128
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Chocolate, Kosher, 7-Worth It, Canada

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:57 pm     All NaturalCandyReviewChocolateKosher7-Worth ItCanada

Monday, June 13, 2011

Dove Swirl Bars

Dove SwirlDove Chocolate which is made by Mars continues its focus on female friendly indulgence and perhaps even positioning their products as low cost therapy to counteract the modern world.

The Dove White and Milk Chocolate Swirl bar is no different, as the copy on the package indicates: bites of chocolate relaxation that create beautifully swirled partings of luscious flavors which taste as amazing as they look.

The bar is a large, narrow tablet (3.5” wide and 5.5” tall). It’s 3.3 ounces, so a little lighter than the standard 3.5 ounces (100 grams). It still has that pesky portion problem that large bars have. The package says that a single serving (230 calories & 42 grams) is 9 pieces. But the whole bar is 20 squares ... so there are two bonus squares. Why not just be honest that a portion is an absolute half of the package (1.65 ounces and 256 calories)?

Dove Swirl

The swirls are very consistent and make it appear that the blocks are half and half white chocolate and milk chocolate (though the ingredients say that milk chocolate dominates since it’s listed first).

The pieces are nicely formed and rather thick, which presents a wonderful bite. The bar smells sweet and slightly milky, like a vanilla pudding. The texture is like most other Dove chocolate products, a smooth and silky melt. This one has a bit more sticky sugar to it though, it’s also quite strong in the dairy flavors along with some caramel and toffee. The chocolate notes are subdued, it’s like this bar isn’t at all about the chocolate flavors, just the chocolate texture.

If you’re the kind of person who never cared much for white chocolate, this probably won’t change your mind. For me it was far too sweet on its own, but paired with some pretzels or almonds, it took the throat searing pain away.

Dove Raspberry SwirlDove pretty much sticks to tried and true flavor combinations. While this new swirl line marks a departure for them, veering off into the previously uncharted territory of white chocolate, raspberry is a common flavor in their repertoire. The Dove Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Swirl bar is also a white chocolate bar, with the twist here that it’s colored pink and flavored with artificial raspberry.

Like all of the American Dove and Mars chocolate products, the back of the package has the Mars Real Chocolate seal on it. It’s refreshing to see a big confectionery corp keeping their ingredients transparent like this, especially since cocoa butter can be so expensive. But while they do use real cocoa butter for both the dark and white chocolate, there’s also a bit of PGPR in there (which is an additional emulsifier often used in lower quality chocolate, made from castor beans). There’s also a smidge of artificial colors with Red 40 and Blue 2, which seems unnecessary considering what they’re doing with natural colors these days.

Dove Raspberry Swirl

The appearance of the unwrapped bar is impressive and lovely. However, I didn’t feel like it looked like food. It looked like some sort of plastic stuff that might make nice bangle bracelets or earrings or maybe be carved into a chess set.

The dark chocolate is the same silky smooth texture and cocoa rich taste. The raspberry scent is quite strong at first, but the flavor of it doesn’t overpower the chocolate, which is refreshing. I didn’t taste a lot of the milky notes I detected in the white & milk combo bar. It was sweet, but not cloying or sticky. The raspberry flavor was floral with a strong woodsy note of seeds.

It’s not my favorite bar, it didn’t have the flavor balance that I like, but I do have to say that the texture, melt and smoothness was excellent. I just wish their chocolate flavor was actually nuanced enough to swirl around in that.

Related Candies

  1. Wonka Exceptionals: Chocolate Waterfall
  2. Divine 70% Dark Chocolate with Raspberries
  3. Dove Peppermint Bark
  4. Cookies ‘n’ Creme Showdown
  5. Hershey’s White Chocolate Meltaway Bliss
  6. Askinosie White Chocolate (Plain, Nibble & Pistachio)
  7. 3 Musketeers Cherry & Raspberry
  8. Dove Caramels & Chocolate Covered Almonds


Name: Dove White & Milk Chocolate Swirl
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: Samples from Mars
Price: $2.49
Size: 3.3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 139
Categories: Candy, Mars, Chocolate, Kosher, White Chocolate, 7-Worth It, United States


Name: Dove Raspberry & Dark Chocolate Swirl
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: Samples from Mars
Price: $2.49
Size: 3.3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 139
Categories: Candy, Mars, Chocolate, Kosher, White Chocolate, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:09 pm     CandyReviewMarsChocolateKosherWhite Chocolate7-Worth ItUnited States

Friday, June 10, 2011

Crisp Angell Organic Candy Bar

Angell Crisp Milk Chocolate Candy BarThe final Angell Organic Candy bar in my series is probably the most mainstream, it’s the Crisp Angell Organic Candy Bar. The bar is not only organic but also made with fair trade ingredients, kosher and contains no preservatives, hydrogenated oils or genetically modified organisms.

The bar is milk chocolate with a crispy creamy chocolate center according to the package. The best way I can think to describe it is a creamy milk chocolate fudge with brown rice crispies covered in milk chocolate.

DSC_1934rb

The bar, like the others in the line, is a little small at 1.23 ounces but that also means it’s pretty slim on calories at only 170.

The scent is quite milky and maybe even a little malty. The creamy milk chocolate enrobing is quite nice, though definitely on the dairy side of the milk chocolate flavors, not much of a chocolate punch. The center is, as I mentioned earlier, a creamy fudge consistency. It’s not at all grainy except for those little crispy rice bits. The rice though isn’t as crispy and crunchy as I would have liked though, it was a little on the chewy side - so not quite stale tasting but still not my desired texture. If you’re a lover of the the milky flavors, this is a good bar to satisfy those cravings (it even has 4% of your daily value of calcium).

Like the other bars, this isn’t just an organic knock off of another bar that’s already on the market, it’s an original. It uses some common construction formats, but creates a taste and texture experience all its own. I appreciated that the grain of choice here was rice instead of oats, but the texture was still a problem in creating a wholly decadent experience. In the case of this bar though it’s gluten free, so those folks will appreciate a chocolate bar with some crunch. Still, they’re a bit on the expensive side, I paid $2.69 for mine, but that was at Erewhon, where everything is expensive - you should be able to get these for $2 or so.

Angell Bars website says that they have another bar called Angell Classic coming soon. There’s no description of it, but it does have a few peanuts next to it in the picture ... so I’m hoping for the ultimate peanut butter bar.

Related Candies

  1. Snow Angell Organic Candy Bar
  2. Dark Angell Organic Candy Bar
  3. Justin’s Organic Peanut Butter Cups
  4. Askinosie Chocolate
  5. 3400 Phinney: Fig, Fennel & Almond and Hazelnut Crunch
  6. Zotter Candy Bars
  7. Terra Nostra Pocket Bars


Name: Crisp Angell Organic Candy Bar
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Angell
Place Purchased: Erewhon & sample from ExpoWest
Price: $2.69
Size: 1.23 ounces
Calories per ounce: 138
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Jungell, Chocolate, Cookie, Ethically Sourced, Kosher, Organic, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:35 pm     All NaturalCandyReviewJungellChocolateCookieEthically SourcedKosherOrganic7-Worth ItUnited States

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Ovation Cappuccino Sticks

Ovation Chocolate Sticks are one of those candies that you’ve probably seen before but rarely thought much about them one way or the other.

Ovation Cappuccino Sticks

I got this box of Ovation Cappuccino Sticks in a box of samples from Sweets & Snacks Expo. They’re made by Sweet Works, the same company that makes Niagara Chocolates, Florida Tropic Chocolate and Sixlets.

The box is a great presentation format for chocolate sticks. It’s hexagonal with a wonderfully colored and folded lid (that would make an excellent hat if done in felt). The colors are great and actually made me rethink my position (or lack of one) on Ovation sticks.

Inside the box are about 44 individually wrapped sticks of chocolate flavored with real coffee.

Ovation Cappuccino Sticks

The sticks are rather small (but also low in calories, about 15 calories each) at 3.33 inches long. The construction is fun, the center is a coffee milk chocolate (with plenty of actual ground coffee in there) covered in bittersweet chocolate. The effect is a strong coffee flavored stick. It’s creamy, a little on the sweet side, but with plenty of coffee punch. It’s a little bitter at times and I’m not that keen on the coffee grounds left over in my mouth. But the flavors are really good - the woodsy and deep roasted coffee, a light touch of milky cream and of course the background of chocolate.

I don’t see myself just eating these as a candy, but they are a nice accent for a dessert tray, with coffee or perhaps stuck into a bowl of ice cream.

Online these look a bit pricey. The box holds 4.4 ounces (about .1 ounces per piece) and looks like it might retail for about $5 a box. For that I might opt for a bit better chocolate bar, but for sharing, especially for a little hostess gift, this is a nice presentation and decent quality item.

Related Candies

  1. Sarotti Scho-Ka-Kola
  2. Choceur After Dinner Mints: Orange & Peppermint
  3. Javaz - Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
  4. Coffee Rio
  5. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
  6. Chuao ChocoPods
  7. Ritter Sport Capuccino and Rum Trauben Nuss


Name: Ovation Cappuccino Sticks
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Sweet Works
Place Purchased: Samples from Sweets & Snacks Expo
Price: $5.00 retail
Size: 4.4 ounces
Calories per ounce: 150
Categories: Candy, SweetWorks, Inc, Chocolate, Coffee, Kosher, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:22 pm     CandyReviewSweetWorks, IncChocolateCoffeeKosher7-Worth ItUnited States

Page 3 of 5 pages  < 1 2 3 4 5 > 

Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.

 

 

 

 

Facebook IconTwitter IconTumblr IconRSS Feed IconEmail Icon

COUNTDOWN.

Candy Season Ends

-2547 days

Read previous coverage

 

 

Which seasonal candy selection do you prefer?

Choose one or more:

  •   Halloween
  •   Christmas
  •   Valentine's Day
  •   Easter

 

image

ON DECK

These candies will be reviewed shortly:

 

 

image