There’s a new flavor variety of Skittles out, they’re called Skittles Darkside.

There have been over a dozen Skittles varieties over the years, and still the original flavor set remains the same in the United States, with good reason. It’s a great variety. But that hasn’t stopped Mars, and now Wrigley’s the present owner, from introducing new items to the market every 18 months or so. Most quietly disappear, but some make the cut and hang around.

I learned of the existence of Skittles Darkside on The Impulsive Buy and over the weekend searched stores for them. The heart on the front led me to believe that this item would be shelved with the Valentine’s Day candy. I did eventually find it at Target, but not in the seasonal aisle (as that was still occupied by a stubborn amount of Christmas decorations) but on an endcap in the frozen food section also populated with clearance holiday blends of coffee.

The flavor set of the new mix is intriguing. The tagline of “The Other Side of the Rainbow” is a little ominous but fits with the quirky branding of Skittles. The flavors are blood orange, forbidden fruit, midnight lime, pomegranate and dark berry. The pomegranate and blood orange were the flavors that really captured my imagination.

Pomegranate (Dark Red) has a deep flavor with a good cherry and berry flavor. It’s tangy, but doesn’t have that tannic bite that real pomegranates do. If I wasn’t told this was pomegranate, I’d just say blackberry. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good blackberry.

Dark Berry (Purple) is a lovely color, just a little more red than the grape in the Fruits Skittles. The flavor is good, it’s well rounded with a floral and berry jam mix of notes and maybe a little blackcurrant.

Forbidden Fruit (Blue) tasted a bit like melon and currant to me. A fruit punch, but less generic.

Blood Orange (Coral) is not a deep red like the juice is. Instead the pieces are more of a dark salmon color. The flavor is nicely juicy, more of the juice flavor of a tangerine than the traditional orange. But it’s missing a note, an orange peel flavor to give it a true roundness. It’s also not that intense.

Midnight Lime is a puzzle. I don’t know what makes it midnight-ish. I have some Fruits Skittles around, so I tried the lime ones as well. They’re lime Skittles. There’s very little difference. The color is a bit more on the medium green side instead of bright light green. There may be less zest, but I wouldn’t say that’s a selling point.

It’s not the best mix I’ve had, partly because it’s lacking the versatility of pairings. The combinations don’t zing like the classic Fruits do and the Pomegranate and Dark Berry are too similar while the Blood Orange and Midnight Lime are too bland for something billed as Darkside. I’ll probably finish the bag, but it appears that the regular Fruits that I picked up for comparison will disappear first.

I liked the idea there are more Skittles flavor varieties to explore. I’d like to offer up a few more suggestions:

Skittles Soda Pop - root beer, cola, lemon-lime, ginger ale, and whatever that flavor Dr. Pepper is. Other possibilities would be Mt. Dew, Squirt (grapefruit), cherry cola, cream soda. Of all of my flavor mixes I’ve been mentioning, I think this one has the strongest shot. It would depend largely on whether they spend the money on licensing the soda names (like Jelly Belly does) or if they go generic. With generic names they can play more with flavors and of course keep more of the profit for themselves.

Caffeinated Skittles - these would be sold in small packages only to prevent caffeine overdose. Flavors might be coffee themed, or maybe more like energy drinks. One package would equal to about 100 mg of caffeine, this would mean that the taste would be affected too much. There would be an instant outcry from parents about the inappropriateness of the product for children ... gamers and college students would hoard them.

Skittles Citrus Mix - I’ve mentioned this before, it’s not like they’ve never existed before, there was a version in Australia for a few years that had Lemon, Mandarin, Pink Grapefruit, Lime, Orange. I would tweak that a bit and have Yuzu, Pink Grapefruit, Tangerine, Meyer Lemon and Kalamansi. Yeah, that’s going to happen.

Skittles Spicy - this is a wide open area. It could be something like the popular combination of Mango and Chili, or more like the classic spice jelly beans: spearmint, peppermint, cinnamon, licorice and clove. I predict these would be a huge failure.

Skittles Pies - you know, the flavors of popular pies, only in chewy lentil form! Banana Cream, Spicy Apple, Lemon Meringue, Cherry, Chocolate Cream.

Skittles Intense - just more flavored than the regular Skittles. Not more sour, just 20% more flavoring.

Skittles Natural - all natural colorings and flavors. Or maybe just blank Skittles, with no colorings at all. Then you don’t know which flavor is which.

Skittles are gluten free and gelatin free.

Related Candies

1. Skittles Blenders
2. Skittles Fizzl’d Fruits
3. Skittles Crazy Cores
4. Skittles Chocolate Mix
5. Skittles Carnival Flavors
6. Skittles (Fruits, Wild Berry, Tropical, Smoothies & Sour)
7. Skittles Fresh Mint
8. Skittles Ice Cream

When I was shopping at The Meadow, a quirky store in New York City that sells carefully curated selection of three things (salt, bitters and chocolate), I asked what was the best bar for munching. The gal at the counter suggested Gardini Extra Fondente Gianduia Salata. The bar was pricey at $12 for 3.5 ounces, but I’d come all that way and we’d already talked quite a bit about the glory of Venezuelan beans, so I was ready to trust her. It certainly sounded good: Bitter Chocolate and Gianduia with Sweet Sea Salt.

I’ve become spoiled over the years, though I love hazelnut paste (gianduia), I don’t care for the sticky sweetness of some of the cheaper varieties. This bar boasted a robust 54% cacao chocolate shell with hazelnuts as a the next ingredient after the chocolate (not sugar or oil). There is no listing of the nutritional value on the package, but I’m going to guess that there’s lots of fat in there to make up for the lack of sugar.

The bar is made by Gardini Chocolato in Italy and has won a few awards. If I might tease the end of this review, they’re well earned.

The bar is impressive and feels large and substantial. The segments are domed and shiny and even though the packaging is pretty much just a cellophane wrapper, it’s largely unmarred.

Each domed section is filled with a salted hazelnut paste. The paste, according to the ingredients, is made from ground hazelnuts, whole milk powder and sea salt.

The dark chocolate is in the semi-sweet range, it’s not terrifically dark but still has a lot of oomph to it. The melt is smooth and creamy with its own woodsy profile and a light hint of figs or cherries. The hazelnut center is fascinating. It’s also buttery and very smooth without that sticky feeling that some gianduias can have. The salt provides little sparks of flavor as well. The roasted profile is perfect.

This is an incredible bar, very well made and presented with nothing fussy about it except for the price. I could see eating these regularly as it’s a great combination in the perfect ratios. I would like to try other bars in the Gardini range, but part of me wonders what else could be better than this?

Related Candies

1. Pernigotti Gianduia: Piedmont Hazelnut Paste
2. Real Eggshell filled with Hazelnut Chocolate Truffle
3. Choceur Nougat Bites & Marzipan Bites
4. Laica & Caffarel Chocolate Eggs
5. Short & Sweet: Hazelnut Bites
6. Caffarel Gianduias
7. Caffarel Gianduia 1865

I’ve been looking forward to trying SOMA Chocolatemaker‘s microbatch, single origin chocolate for quite a few years. They’re based in Toronto, Canada and are sold at some fine chocolate shops across North America but they don’t ship to the US.

So I’ve scoured every chocolate bar shop that I’ve come across and was happy to see that a few of their varieties were on sale at The Meadow in New York City.

The tiny bars, which are less than an ounce, are very expensive. I paid $7.00 for my .88 ounce bar. I was hoping to find their highly regarded Chuao, but since that was not available, I consoled myself with another Venezuelan single origin. Their Black Science Carenero Superior is a 70% bar. Other than that, I know nothing. There are no ingredients listed on the package, and if the information is on the Soma Chocolate site, I could not find it easily. From The Meadow website, it appears that the ingredients are just cacao, cocoa butter and organic sugar (no emulsifiers and no vanilla).

When we first opened Soma in 2003, the very first bags of cocoa beans we received were Carenero Superior from Veneuzuela, a Trinitario cacao that has shipped from the port of Carenero since colonial times. Fast forward to 2012 with this years crop we produced a chocolate that is earthy, malty and has hints of cream and caramel.

Smoke, molasses and toffee are the first notes from the scent. The melt is slow but consistent, owing to the fine conch of the beans. The toasted notes are even stronger as it melts, with a lot of cereal and bread flavors coming through. The finish is dry with a slight acidic twang and some dried cherry flavors. It’s a little chalky at the end as well.

I’m a huge fan of Venezuelan beans and appreciate the flavor profile on this bar. But it’s missing a delightful melt, the dry texture and acidity at the end seem to erase the entire experience from my mouth. I’m still interested in trying the Soma Chuao, but for now, I’ll stick to Ocumare from Coppeneur and Amano.

Related Candies

1. Six Kilos of Felchlin Arriba 72% Chocolate
2. Chuao Venezuelan Origin Chocolate
3. Rain Republic 70% Cacao from Guatemala
4. Askinosie Chocolate
5. Domori Cru
6. Amano Single Origin Bars: Madagascar & Ocumare
7. E. Guittard Single Origin Tasting Kit

While most Haribo mixes are just different shapes and flavors of the standard gummi, the Haribo Tropifruitti is a bit different.

The gummis are a tropical flavor mix, as you’d expect. The shapes are that of pineapples, toucans, bananas and palm trees. In addition, the texture is a little softer and less chewy than the more rubbery gummis.

I picked up my bag at Cost Plus World Market. It was $1.89, but sometimes they have sales for $1.25 a bag or so if you’re a bit Haribo fan it’s worth waiting for. This particular gummi candy is made in Spain, unlike most other Haribo gummis available in the US, which are made in Turkey.

What’s most interesting about these gummis is not the flavor variety but the style of the gummi itself. It’s very different from the tough and clear version of the Gold Bears. These are muted in color and have a sort of chalky exterior. They not shiny or terribly translucent. The coating is a little like a jelly bean, it has a small crunch to it, but not the same graininess. The interior is also not as chewy as a regular gummi, it’s a cross between a jelly and a gummi. It’s soft, pliable, sticky and juicy.

Banana (Yellow) - this is an exceptionally uncommon flavor for a gummi, so I relished trying it. It’s a good flavor, it’s a little like a slight unripe banana, in that there’s a light tartness to it. But what’s missing is that overly fake banana note that comes with the too sweet artificial banana candies.

Currant (Darker Red) - has an interesting balsam note to it, it’s less about the florals and more about the woodsy seed flavors. It’s definitely not what I would consider a tropical fruit. 

Watermelon (Green) - It’s lightly tart with a well rounded juice flavor and a little dash of artificial Jolly Rancher to it.

Pineapple (Clear) - this is one of my favorite flavors, especially in Haribo gummis. This did not disappoint. It’s sweet, had a strong floral note and a distinct tartness.

Orange Mango (Peach) - tastes a bit bland, like a punch drink. It’s more citrusy than mango, but barely either.

Strawberry (Pink) - smells like cotton candy, it’s light and barely flavored, but so are many strawberries.

I like the change in texture and thought the Pineapple and Banana were really good, but the vibrant flavor profile I’m accustomed to with many other gummis was missing. So maybe this is for people who don’t like a lot of flavor ... like the Haribo equivalent of jelly beans.

Related Candies

1. Haribo Gold Bears from Turkey and Germany
2. Haribo Ingwer-Zitrone Gummis
3. Haribo Raspberries Gummi Candy
4. Short & Sweet: Tropical Flavors
5. Haribo Saure Dinosaurier
6. Katjes Tropical Gummis & Yogurt Gums
7. Starburst Baja California & Tropical

Liddabit Sweets is based in Brooklyn, New York and makes candy bars with a gourmet twist. They’re made by hand with premium ingredients and a bit more flair for decadence than the normal factory churned fare.

They’ve made a name for themselves using locally sourced ingredients and a lot of creativity to the whole genre of candy bars. From the boxes to the innovative combinations, Liddabit feels like more than a handmade version of factory favorites, they’re original from the ground up. I picked up a selection of three from their stall at the New Amsterdam Market at the tip of Manhattan. They’re also sold in stores in New York and if you check their website, at some other gourmet shops around the country. Also, they have a webstore where you can order them to be delivered right to your door.

Liddabit Sweets The Snack’r Candy Bar is their bar that most closely resembles an existing favorite, the Snickers bar made by Mars since 1930. According to the package, This chewy delight features crunchy, roasted peanuts in a golden caramel atop our creamy chocolate nougat, all covered in dark chocolate.

The bar is formidable. It’s sold in a lovely box decorated with white flowers and a diagonal label that shows the premium ingredients (though they do also have gelatin, eggs, dairy, soy and peanuts in them, they’re made in a shared facility with wheat and tree nuts as well). It’s four ounces, almost twice the mass of a Snickers. I already find the Snickers to be too much for one serving, so this was at least three for me.

The bar is lovely, though a little bland to look at, lacking the swirls of milk chocolate on the top, it’s a simple enrobing. The bars are over four inches long, 1.25 wide and one inch high.

The star of this bar is the nougat. It’s really unlike any nougat you’ll find in a commercial bar. Unlike the Mars version of nougat, which is fluffed and grainy, the Liddabit is smooth, creamy and light. There’s a chewy pull to it, not quite marshmallow but a little more whipped than an Italian torrone. There’s a note of cocoa in it, which keeps it from being too sweet. The base of caramel is chewy and salty with few peanuts, but those that I did encounter were large and crunchy. The dark chocolate pulls it all together with a smoky note.

The bar had a real boxed chocolate vibe to it, the peanuts were really the only element that brought this back into the snack territory. I started this review with the bar because it’s by far the best example of an upscale bar I’ve had.

The Pecan Pie Candy Bar is actually a chocolate pecan pie. It starts with a flaky pie crust base, a homemade pecan dulce de leche with a bourbon ganache covered in dark chocolate.

The bar is interesting in that it’s actually more like a Pecan Bar Cookie than a candy bar in some ways. The construction is this: a flaky cookie base with a layer of chocolate ganache and pecans covered in dark chocolate. The result is a decadent treat.

The ganache center is quite soft, so it’s an easy bite even though it’s a pretty tall bar. The pecans are well distributed and form a generous ratio of the center. The ganache is interesting, first because it’s not overly chocolatey ... it’s more cheesecakey. There’s a noticeable tang to it, a little tartness that gives it that baked good note of sour cream instead of whipping cream.

As a candy bar, it’s too much. It’s too decadent to eat in several sittings, mostly because the cookie crust can’t take sitting around after it’s been opened. I enjoyed it, but I don’t see myself buying another one. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t well done, but it’s not what I want from a candy bar.

The Humbug is definitely on the unique end of the candy bar spectrum. It features a cocoa sable cookie, a mint chocolate ganache, a white chocolate coating and crushed organic peppermint candies.

The sable cookie base is salty and sandy and crunchy and not at all sweet. It is a bit of a mess though, often creating a lot of crumbs if I didn’t bite it perfectly. The minted chocolate ganache is just the right texture - soft enough to bite through with a quick melt but not greasy or oily. The cocoa flavors are light with the mint shining through for the most part and the white chocolate coating giving it another little hint of sweetness and milky flavors.

Liddabit makes about a dozen different bars, and some are likely seasonal (like the Humbug). I’m interested in anything that utilizes their excellent nougat and plant to try their other bars, such as The King which features peanut butter and banana. The bars are expensive, $8 each, but they’re also huge. That cuts down on the number of different flavors I can do at a time, but now that I found a local shop that carries them in Los Angeles, I can take my time.

As a side note, I can’t help but think of the song Give a Little Bit by Supertramp whenever I hear or read the name Liddabit. That could be just me ... or maybe this video will also get that stuck in your head.

Related Candies

1. Justin’s Peanut and Almond Candy Bars
2. Double Dutch Sweets: The Ramona Bar
3. Zingerman’s Zzang! Wowza Raspberry Bar
4. Go Max Go Jokerz Candy Bar
5. Trader Joe’s PB & J Bar
6. Zingerman’s Zzang! Candy Bars
7. Trader Joe’s Lumpy Bumpy Bar
8. BonBonBars: Malt Ganache & Scotch

I hope everyone is having a tasty holiday and enjoying all their favorite seasonal sweets and perhaps starting new traditions.

Keep safe, hold your loved ones tight and if all that togetherness pushes your buttons, take a candy break.

Are you getting or giving confections for Christmas this year? I’m in charge of the stockings this year, so there will be a nice mix of American favorites and a good sampling of German candy in there as well.

A few years ago Jelly Belly introduced a mix of jelly beans flavored like popular sodas under their Soda Pop Shoppe line. They’re sold as the pre-mixed flavors or in individual packages and even in little soda bottles.

Their newest addition to that brand is their Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles which are gelatin gummis.

Each little bottle shape is about 1.75 inches long. They’re flat and lightly dusted, perhaps with starch, to keep them from sticking together instead of being shiny.

The ingredients are quite interesting. They start with corn syrup but use potato starch instead of corn starch. They do contain gelatin, but it’s Kosher gelatin (so it’s not pork, but not otherwise identified). They also contain small amounts of coconut oil and caffeine and phosphoric acid. They’re gluten free and peanut free.

To emulate soda bottles, the shapes are “full” of color, though the flavor goes all they way to the top of the bottle. They’re soft but not quite a bouncy as many other gummis. They’re like a cross between a Swedish Fish texture and a gummi bear.

Grape is fun. There aren’t really that many grape gummis around, so it’s refreshing to see it included in a mix. It’s tangy and artificial but not quite as intense as a grape SweeTart which is pretty much my favorite.

Orange is ordinary. I only got one in my mix, so it’s hard to say more than it was just like Tang.

Root Beer is a star. It’s quite spicy and intense, much more than I expected from it’s rather muted appearance. They’re sweet, a little like wintergreen and bubble gum. It’s missing that little pop of nutmeg that sassafras often has, so it came off more like Birch Beer ... not that I object.

Lemon Lime is actually more lime. Lime soda is good, and this has a lot of zest to it and a nice tangy bite. But ultimately it’s just a piece of lime candy, which always ends up as one of the last flavors I pick when included in a mix. (Which is strange considering how affectionate I normally am towards citrus.)

Cherry Cola is, well, disappointing. It tastes to me more like Dr. Pepper, but my experience with actual cherry cola is absolutely empty. The cola flavors are mostly in the background, there’s no spicy cola bite and there’s no cherry tartness, it’s more of the maraschino flavor than a black cherry.

They’re not the first candy I’d pick up, but I love the concept and the execution is pretty good, better than the Trolli version. For folks looking for American-made candy that’s gluten & peanut free and fun for kids, this is a good mix. It’s too bad they didn’t go all the way and use natural colorings and flavorings.

Related Candies

1. Tootsie Frooties - Root Beer
2. Trolli Soda Poppers
3. Kissables (Reformulated)
4. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
5. Soda Can Fizzy Candy
6. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe

While I was shopping at Whole Foods outside of Philadelphia back in September, I spotted these Nectar Nuggets Peanut Butter Cups. I’d never seen the before, but there was a little tag next to them that said “They’re Back!” so I figured they must be a local favorite.

There were three varieties on the shelf, and I picked up one of each: Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and Almond Butter Cup.

The name Nectar Nugget didn’t ring any bells for me, but with the little picture of a bee in the corner of the wrapper and the word nectar in the name, I thought perhaps these were honey sweetened. That would definitely be interesting!

The packaging is quite spare. It’s just the gold mylar wrapper. There’s no paperboard card that they’re sitting on and they don’t come in a fluted cup.

The cups are of the same proportions that we’re all accustomed to, two inches wide at the top and only one half an inch high.

The chocolate used for Nectar Nugget is Rainforest Alliance certified, so it’s sustainably grown and audited to assure that no child labor or slaves are used.

It smells a bit grassy, like real peanuts but not dark roasted ones. The chocolate has a nice sheen. There’s a little bit of a cloudy spot on top of the center, but I forgive that with real peanut butter, as the natural oils tend to migrate.

The peanut butter in the Nectar Nuggets is extremely smooth but also quite thick. It has a nice melt, like chocolate or fudge. The salt is light and gives the peanut butter a sort of warm feel as it melts. The milk chocolate is quite sweet but has a much quicker melt than the peanut butter and creates a good backdrop. It’s not particularly milky, but also not very chocolately, just a nice sweet texture.

The package says that it’s Giant Size, which is 1.2 ounces ... a bit bigger than a standard Reese’s, but not what I’d call a King Size. The thick texture of the peanut butter makes it quite filling for me, so much so that I had to space out my review of this set of cups over several days (and I’ve been known to eat a lot of candy in one day).

Nectar Nugget Dark Peanut Butter Cup is, as the name would indicate, the dark chocolate version.

The ingredients include milk, so it’s not a true dark chocolate (nor vegan) item. Like the other cups, the package says that there are 5 grams of protein in each cup. This makes them rather filling without that too-much-sugar crash later.

The dark chocolate cup is tough, but in a way it’s worth it. The dark chocolate is smooth and buttery, though it starts a little waxy and stiff if it’s cold. The peanut butter feels drier than the milk chocolate version. The melt of the dark chocolate is quick and really fatty, it rolls around on the tongue quite a bit. The cocoa flavors are very deep, nutty and on the bitter side. It brings a whole smoky flavor to the cup.

The Nectar Nugget Almond Butter Cup feels like a bit more of a special item. Chocolate cups made with other nut butters aren’t that easy to find, but are becoming a little more commonplace.

I was wondering if this actually was a nut butter or a marzipan, but it’s definitely nut butter.

The Almond Butter cup is interesting. Most notably, the nut butter interior is quite salty, especially compared to the sweet and smooth chocolate. It’s 80 mg of sodium (same as the peanut butter ones) which is actually less than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Like the peanut butter varieties here, the nut butter is a little on the dry side, but not crumbly, quite smooth and fresh. Instead of the roasted and grassy flavors of peanuts, the almond butter is a bit less vivid. Instead, the textures were the focus and the milk chocolate was more noticeable.

It still lacked a pizazz for me, but that’s probably because I was indoctrinated as a child into the peanut butter culture of North America. Even so, since they’re made in a facility with peanut butter, they’re not suitable for those with allergies to peanuts.

They were good and I appreciate the attention to details with the ingredients and the portioning. The ratios are good. They’re not my ideal cup but the fact that they’re ethically sourced and have no artificial preservatives tip my opinion in their favor. So I think I might pick them up again even though they were pricey (I think they were $2.00 each or something close to that) but probably wouldn’t seek them out at a special store. (They contain soy, milk and peanuts or almonds but there’s no statement about gluten.)

Related Candies

1. UNREAL #77 Peanut Butter Cups
2. Justin’s Peanut and Almond Candy Bars
3. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
4. The Joycup Co. Peanut Butter Cups
5. Justin’s Organic Peanut Butter Cups
6. Sun Cups
7. Godiva Easter Eggs