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March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Almond Eggs

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Almond EggsAlongside the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Eggs on shelves this year are the new Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Covered Almond Eggs.

They’re not something particularly Easter-themed, as chocolate covered almonds are already rather egg shaped. But they’re still a welcome item, since some chocolate covered nuts sound less sweet than the many other marshmallowy, sugar-crusted and white chocolate items that typify the holiday fare.

They were expensive, as real nut items often are. I picked up this 7.1 ounce bag for $3.29, which is on par with what I’d usually pay for an item from Whole Foods ... yet I bought this at Target.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Almond Eggs

They look great. Dark and glossy. They varied in size quite a bit, from a peanut all the way up to an almond in the shell. I expected this, because almonds themselves vary.

The chocolate itself is Hershey’s tangy, cheesy, fudgy chocolate ... it’s odd. But it goes well with the almonds, which are well chosen, nicely crunchy and good quality. I ate the whole bag in about two days, so I must have liked them, but I didn’t feel satisfied by any particular element. The chocolate is gritty and has that Hershey’s burp note ... the almonds are good, but the fact that I spent over $3 on less than half a pound of a Hershey’s chocolate product was a little odd.

Hershey’s had a version of these in their Pieces line that had a candy shell which added to the texture experience, but I haven’t see those in stores for a while.

If you’re a lover of the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almond bar and wanted an Easter version, I think these ratios are good.

The allergen warning only says that these may contain traces of peanuts. They are made with soy, dairy and almonds as well. There’s no note on gluten or wheat at all.

Related Candies

  1. Ritter Sport Winter Edition Caramelised Almonds
  2. Starbucks Salted Almond Chocolate Bites
  3. Toblerone Crunchy Salted Almond
  4. Valor Milk Chocolate with Almonds
  5. Trader Joe’s Almondictive Bits
  6. Hershey’s Special Dark with Almonds
  7. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Almonds


Name: Milk Chocolate Almond Eggs
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey’s
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $3.29
Size: 7.1 ounces
Calories per ounce: 145
Categories: Candy, Easter, Hershey's, Chocolate, Kosher, Nuts, 6-Tempting, United States, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:28 pm     CandyReviewEasterHershey'sChocolateKosherNuts6-TemptingUnited StatesTarget

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Pariya Pashmak Persian Orange Blossom Fairy Floss

Pariya Pashmak Fairy FlossOne of the top candies on my list to buy when I was in London was not actually a British sweet, it’s Persian. It’s Pashmak Persian Fairy Floss.

Pariya is an Australian company that imports Iranian confections and distributes them around the world. Since I live in Los Angeles, a lot of Persian favorites are actually made locally, such as Turkish Delight, confetti and Persian-style Nougats. The confections often use pistachios, rosewater, cardamom, saffron and orange blossom as ingredients. However, I have never found Pasmak before.

Pashmak is a form of cotton candy, but made in a different way. Traditional fairy floss or cotton candy is made by spinning melted sugar to create long threads. In Persian (and Asian) confectionery traditions, they made the impossibly thin threads through pulling. This tutorial of how to make it with sugar beautifully illustrates the mathematics of it all ... just pull, double over your coil of melted sugar and repeat until the strands are as thin as an angel’s hair.

The big difference with this Pashmak, though, is that it’s made with sesame paste. So it’s not just spun sugar, it’s a lighter-than-air halvah. The ingredients list is very short: sugar, sesame, flour, vegetable oil, orange blossom extract and natural colors. It’s triple packaged, inside the thick, frosted zipper bag is a sealed cellophane and then another bag inside there. Moisture is the enemy of this candy.

Pariya Pashmak Fairy Floss

So, what is this impossibly light halva actually like? It’s impossibly light, but strangely dense and heavy.

The fibers pour out of the bag in clumps, it’s as if an edible pashmina shawl has been shredded and pulled into packets of strands. It’s not sticky in the slightest, and has a light orange blossom scent to it, mixed with a note of nigella seeds.

The texture is like cashmere, soft but heavy. The strands stay together, though don’t stick. It dissolves quickly with a light floral flavor, a slight bergamot note towards the end. The sesame flavors are light and clean; it all feels a lot more substantial than pure sugar cotton candy. Late in the dissolve, there’s a little creamy but grainy residue, which I’m guessing is the sesame. It leaves it a little more filling than just a plain sugar candy.

One of the drawbacks of this is how difficult it is to eat and how messy it is. I loved the flavor, but there’s no real way to portion it easily. My method for consumption was to pull out a bit with a fork and put it in a little bowl (as shown) and eat it with my fingers or that fork. I shouldn’t end up with dirty dishes when I’m done eating my candy. I can see this is being used as an ingredient with other confections more than a confection on its own. The package suggests layering it with berries in a martini glass. I could see using it on top of a teacake as well.

It was very expensive, so not something I’m likely to buy again, even though I was curious about the other flavors. It comes in chocolate, pistachio, saffron and vanilla.

Related Candies

  1. Las Trojes Pepitoria Brittles
  2. Joyva Sesame Crunch
  3. Fard Cardamom Sugar Plum
  4. Nory Rahat Locum
  5. Fard’s Persian Pistachio Nougat
  6. De la Rosa Mazapan
  7. Pure Fun Candy Floss
  8. Halvah and Turkish Delight
  9. Dubble Bubble Fluff

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:26 am     Candy

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Jolly Rancher Strawberry and Green Apple

While most hard candy is considered “old people candy”, Jolly Rancher really sets itself apart as an intense sweet for all ages.

Jolly Rancher Strawberry & Green Apple

Most of us encounter Jolly Rancher candies as little twist wrapped pieces in a bowl. So when I saw this little rectangular pack at Target, I thought it was an interesting way to format the iconic candy. Jolly Rancher Strawberry and Green Apple Hard Candy has 1.2 ounces and 9 pieces inside. Each is wrapped in a piece of clear cellophane, easy to carry, easy to share and with just two flavors.

Jolly Rancher Strawberry & Green Apple

The pieces are different from what I’m accustomed to with Jolly Rancher candies. They’re not little rods, they’re squares. The ingredients are also slightly different. The original Jolly Rancher hard candies are not aerated, there are no bubbles in them and they’re ever so slightly soft, like some sort of viscous solid. The ingredients list corn syrup first, then sugar. In these little squares, it’s sugar first, then corn syrup. Looking at the candies, they’re not glassy transparent either, so it appears they’ve been aerated slightly.

I started with Green Apple, because that’s the iconic flavor that Jolly Rancher is known for. It’s a tough flavor, because part of its profile is its artificiality. It was definitely tangy and caustic at first, like some sort of chemical peel for my tongue. That faded quickly into the familiar acidic green apple flavor. What was most surprising was the crunch ... I could crunch it. Because the pieces are small, you can crunch away immediately and there’s not tooth-cement issue. Still, the artificial flavor has a sort of of “sour but maybe bitter and salty at the same time” flavor going that was not as good as I recall the truly authentic version having.

Strawberry is quite tart at the beginning and reminded me immediately of sorbet (which often has an extra little pop of lemon juice in it). The flavor is bold and pretty well rounded and only has a slight note of metallic artificiality to it. It’s fresh tasting, overall. I like the crunchy, it’s not too much candy.

My roll had three Green Apple pieces and the rest were Strawberry, so the flavors are not evenly distributed. (Lifesavers always had an order to them, though you might not get a roll that started with the same flavor, they always went in the same progression once you started.) The way the package is made, you have to tear the outer wrapper to get to the inner pieces ... they seem to be glued in there.

I felt these were missing one of the key attributes of Jolly Rancher hard candies, the smooth, syrupy dissolve. Without that, the flavor was just passable, nothing terribly exciting. I might feel differently if they had the Fire Stix in this format, as there really is no other cinnamon hard candy roll out there (since Reed’s disappeared), even if they don’t have the same texture as regular Jolly Rancher. But they’re not a great value and difficult to unwrap.

These are made in Mexico. There’s no nutritional information on the wrapper and nothing, at this time, on the Hershey’s webpage for Jolly Rancher that lists it for this particular version of the product. There is also no statement about allergens, but does contain soy.

Related Candies

  1. Dilly Dally Pickle Candy and Barrels of Yum
  2. Assorted Charms Hard Candies
  3. Jolly Rancher Caramel Apple Lollipops
  4. Jolly Rancher Crunch n Chew
  5. Jolly Rancher Awesome Twosome Chews
  6. Napoleon BonBon
  7. Foxes Five Flavor
  8. Jelly Belly: Lollibeans


Name: Jolly Rancher Strawberry & Green Apple
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey’s
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $.89
Size: 1.2 ounces
Calories per ounce: 100
Categories: Candy, Hershey's, Hard Candy & Lollipops, 5-Pleasant, Mexico, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:10 pm     CandyReviewHershey'sHard Candy & Lollipops5-PleasantMexicoTarget

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Katjes Tappsy mit Schoko-Geschmack

Katjes TappsyTappsy is a line of cute candies from the Germany sugar-candy company Katjes. Katjes is know best for their licorice, but also do a great job with jelly and gummi candies, often mixed with a marshmallow texture.

The Tappsy line features a simple Panda face with contrasting ears and often nose. Sometimes they’re done in fruity flavors and sometimes in licorice. This particular version. the Katjes Tappsy mit Schoko-Geschmack are chocolate flavored.

They’re not available in the United States, or at least not easily. I got these from a candy swap with Kristian at CandyBrain.de, but I did notice that Sugarfina (more on them here) posted about them after our small quake last week

Katjes Tappsy

They smell like cocoa, like I just opened a can of Nestle Quik. The shapes alternate. Some faces are cocoa with licorice ears and noses, some are licorice faces with cocoa ears. The marshmallow faces are very easy to bite and chew. It’s soft and mild but ultimately bland. The cocoa keeps it from getting too sweet, but also gives it a sort of cardboard flavor as well. The licorice as ears is so mild, all I could tell was that it wasn’t cocoa.

When it came to the licorice faces, the chew was a little more like a Swedish Fish than the dense cross between a marshmallow and a gummi. The flavor is more intense but not great. There are anise notes and a little deep earthy flavor of molasses and licorice. The ears are good here, just a little light texture and the flavor is completely overpowered.

I found them passable, not great. They weren’t strong enough in their licorice flavor and for the cocoa part, I think I would have preferred a true licorice flavor there too, like Griotten. I’ll probably finish the package, and I’ve come to find I rather like them when they’re stale and a little more stiff and chewy.

(If you’d like a review via video and stronger language, check out CandyGurus review of the chocolate and licorice varieties.)

Related Candies

  1. Haribo Hot Sticks
  2. Sockerbit Swedish Candy Selections
  3. Van Slooten Flowers & Butterflies Mix of Sugared Liquorice
  4. Haribo Pearlico Lakritz
  5. 12 European Licorices
  6. Haribo Pontefract Cakes
  7. Katjes Saure Ananas (Sour Pineapple)
  8. Licorice Assortment
  9. Katjes Tropical Gummis & Yogurt Gums


Name: Tappsy mit Schoko-Geschmack
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Katjes
Place Purchased: candy swap with CandyBrain.de!
Price: $1.50 (approximately)
Size: 5.64 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Katjes, Gummi Candy, Licorice Candy, 6-Tempting, Germany

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:31 pm     CandyReviewKatjesGummi CandyLicorice Candy6-TemptingGermany

Monday, March 24, 2014

Brach’s Dark Chocolate Blueberry Acai

Brookside and Brach's Dark Chocolate Blueberry AcaiI picked up this package of Brach’s Dark Chocolate Blueberry Acai at Target. There are several new Brach’s products that look like they’re highlighting natural ingredients and more trendy flavors.

The resealable pouch and product depiction reminded me in no small way of the Brookside “chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces” which are really just jellies. Brookside Chocolate, a Canadian company, innovated this product, which first showed up on American shelves around 2010. Later there were other versions, such as Trader Joe’s Powerberries, which were also made in Canada, but now seem to have switched suppliers and are now made in the US with slightly different ingredients.

Though Brach’s is usually a sort of low end brand, these are priced a bit higher, I picked this up for $3.49 for the 8 ounce package. This is very similar in price to the Brookside (pictured here) which was $3.50 on sale.

Brach's Dark Chocolate Acai

The Brach’s spheres are pretty consistent in size. They’re not completely spherical, but very nicely coated with a shiny glaze. They’re the size of a garbanzo bean or perhaps a fresh blueberry as pictured on the package. Inside is a little, firm piece of berry juice flavored jelly. It’s about the size of a jujube and rather soft and flavorful.

The blueberry and acai flavors are jammy and deep, though it is coated in dark chocolate coating is it’s really not very dark or complex in the ingredients. The consistency of the jelly center is good - it’s not grainy at all and quite flavorful.

Brach's Dark Chocolate Acai

As a knockoff item, the Brach’s do very well (seen on the left here, with the Brookside on the right). There’s an extra ounce in the package, even if they were the same price. The Brookside centers are inconsistent. They’re little disks, and most morsels have two at the center, like halves of a peanut. But other pieces have only one piece at the center and others are a stack of three. They have a slight grain to them, but also a bit more of a tangy bite ...for the most part. They’re not completely the same, sometimes it’s as if they’re sanded with a little sour coating, and other times they’re rather bland. The chocolate is smooth and creamy, far better than the Brach’s.

I’d buy either again, though I find I prefer the chocolate a bit better on the Brookside. Brookside is now owned by Hershey’s. Brach’s is now owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. Folks who are looking to avoid dairy will appreciate the Brach’s.

These are positioned to be some sort of antioxidant-boosted, better-for-you, superfood candy thing. They’re not. They’re just chocolate covered jelly beans. The fact that it’s a jelly center means they’re not quite as calorically dense as a straight chocolate nugget and the Brach’s have 100% of your RDA of vitamin C. But they also contain silicone dioxide and modified food starch ... fine items but not necessarily the nutritional boosters I’ve waited for my whole life.

These contain soy. They’re made in a facility that processed nuts, wheat, dairy and peanuts. The only other ingredient of issue would be the confectioners glaze, which is usually made with shellac, so wouldn’t be vegan.

Related Candies

  1. Brookside Dark Chocolate Pomegranate
  2. Panda Blueberry Liquorice
  3. Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips
  4. Wonka Exceptionals Fruit Jellies: Grapefruit, Goji Berry & Red Apple
  5. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Powerberries
  6. Nestle Cranberry Raisinets
  7. Brach’s Gummi+Plus & Tropical Gummis
  8. Jelly Belly Pomegranate


Name: Dark Chocolate Blueberry Acai
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Brach’s
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $3.49
Size: 8 ounces
Calories per ounce: 120
Categories: Candy, Brach's, Farley's & Sathers, Ferrara Pan, Chocolate, Jelly Candy, 7-Worth It, United States, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:49 pm     CandyReviewBrach'sFarley's & SathersFerrara PanChocolateJelly Candy7-Worth ItUnited StatesTarget

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