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Chocolate

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Frugal Swedish Sweets

Thanks goodness Ikea’s proclivity for sassy names does not extend to their treats at the food section. I have enough trouble buying candy shaped like rats that looks like the felt pulled out from a highlighter pen that I don’t need it to be further called Bjarf, Puke or Funkis.

Name: Licorice Boats
Brand: Aroma
Place Purchased: Ikea (Burbank, CA)
Price: $1.69
Size: 5.2 oz
Calories per ounce: 94
Type: Licorice

 

I gave these to Russ to try the other night and he agreed that, “The licorice in my licorice boat had already set sail.” These are definitely sweet - you just open the bag and the sugary smell permeates the air. But there’s no there there. The jelly center has a bit of a licorice perfume to it, but no bite. I think I’ve come to expect molasses with my licorice as it’s a good anchor for the flavor.

Name: Jelly Rats
Brand: Aroma
Place Purchased: Ikea (Burbank, CA)
Price: $1.69
Size: 5.2 oz
Calories per ounce: 94
Type: Jelly

 

They’re rather scary looking, and I’m telling you that’s the actual color - some sort of slightly translucent-neon hazard color. They also have a strong sweet smell infused with violet which didn’t thrill me, but biting into them I found a nice, tart and fruity jelly candy. The flavors aren’t complex or strong, but just nice. If I am planning on having a Swedish jelly candy though, I really want some Swedish fish.

Name: Marabou Milk Chocolate with Nuts
Brand: Marabou (a Kraft Foods division)
Place Purchased: Ikea
Price: $.99
Size: 2.4 oz
Calories per ounce: 128
Type: Chocolate/Nuts

 

This was the positive find in the whole experience. They’re little chunks of milk chocolate with crushed hazelnuts. Really creamy, very sweet with good nuts. The chocolate is smooth and the toasty taste of the nuts infuses it well.

It’s simple and satisfying. The roll is easy to share and I might make a point to pick these up at the start of my shopping experience at Ikea as a little boost. I ate them all before I finished typing this review.

Ratings: Licorice Boats - 4 out of 10
Jelly Rats - 5 out of 10
Marabou Milk Chocolate and Nuts - 7 out of 10

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:37 am     CandyReviewKraft/MondelezMarabouChocolateJelly CandyLicorice CandyNuts4-Benign5-Pleasant7-Worth ItSweden

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Kocici Jazycky

Name: Ko??i??í jazý??ky
Brand: Orion (Nestle)
Place Purchased: gift from Lisa
Price: unknown
Size: 50 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Chocolate

I have it on good authority that the translation of this candy is, loosely, Kitten Tongues. I suppose they do kind of look like tongues. Having never eaten a real kitten tongue (or any part of a kitten for that matter), I can’t say that they do or don’t taste like them.

The little tray box slides open to reveal an array of these chocolate tongues in a piece of wax paper. Unfortunately they taste rather like wax paper. They could be stale (after all, they’ve been passed through at least two people before getting to me). But the expiration says they’re good until October ‘05. The chocolate is slightly stale and doesn’t melt quickly. It’s sweet and milky, like most European milk chocolate, but not terribly flavorful otherwise.

It’s too bad too, because the photos of the kittens are as cute as can be (I’ve seen other photos on the ‘net and it seems that there are different kittens for different varieties of the chocolates). I have to say that if I were ever in a position to buy these again, I probably will, if only for the novelty of it. I can’t fathom where I’d be where they’d carry them (besides Prague) but at least now I’ve had them and know what I’d be buying (not like that time I tried to buy saffron in Spain and ended up with a tea for air sickness). 

See also these pages: Katzenzungen , Cokoladove  and Cat’s Tongues are Grrreat.

Rating - 5 out of 10.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:02 pm     CandyReviewNestleChocolate5-PleasantCzech Republic

Boule Chocolates and Fruit Pate

Name: Chocolate Truffles
Brand: Boule
Place Purchased: Boule
Price: $10.00
Size: 4 pieces ... maybe 2 oz total?
Calories per ounce: dunno
Type: Fine Chocolates

I know, I’ve said it before but I truly believe that candy is for the masses. I’m not sure if this counts as candy - it might be edible art or perhaps just some sort of upscale “proof of exclusivity.” They’re just chocolates, so why are they so damn expensive?

 

I only bought four, because they were so dang expensive. They are, from left to right - Bronte: Raspberry & Earl Grey; Maya: Espresso; Veda: Ginger and Jade: Green Tea. (I think they all had chic names.)

The raspberry & earl grey was my first try - it was definitely the one that I was most interested in. We’d started our visit with some caramel ice cream and another scoop of their black tea ice cream. These folks know how to work with botanicals. The raspberry flavoring is in an ultra-soft and creamy bittersweet chocolate center. After that melts onto the tongue, a dryness is noticeable and then the bergamot of the Earl Grey really shines. I could have used more chocolate taste though.

The green tea was next and didn’t really thrill me. The texture at first was beautifully smooth. The center on this one is a creamy, well, cream, no chocolate there. The green tea gave it a woodsy flavor but also a bit of a chalkiness (I’m guessing they used matcha instead of an essence).

Espesso was definitely coffee-ish. Predictable - but dependable. Smooth, woodsy, strong and with a slight smokey quality and a caffeinated charge with bits of espresso beans on the top.

The only milk chocolate choice I made was the ginger one (which the woman at the counter said was her personal favorite). Upon biting into it, the ginger was wonderfully fragrant. It didn’t smell like powdered ginger, it was fresh and zesty. The milk chocolate is a great foundation for this.

All the centers were a bit too buttery for me - they needed a bit more of the cocoa solids or something for it to not feel like I was eating a stick of butter.

So there you have it, my two favorites are Veda and Bronte with Maya making a good showing. Will I buy them again? Unlikely. But if someone were to give them to me as a gift, well, I’d tsk, tsk and protest that you shouldn’t have and then probably give you a kiss.

Name: Fruit Pate
Brand: Boule
Place Purchased: Boule
Price: $3.00
Size: 3 pieces ... maybe 3 oz, these were dense buggers
Calories per ounce: dunno
Type: Jelly

The other purchase, which was much more affordable were the slabs of fruit pate. Think fruit jellies and then jam twice as much flavor in them and you’ve got fruit pate. I picked up three of these flavors:

 

Raspberry, Blood Orange and something called Calamansi which is a Philippino citrus similar to a lime.

These are more flavorful and a bit fresher feeling that those Sunkist fruit gems (which I also enjoy). Of course no one’s going to mass produce uncommon flavors like calamansi so you have to go to one of these places to get that kind of stuff. In fact, the calamansi was divine. It was zesty, tart and sweet. It was like lime but also had some grapefruit notes to it. I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for this fruit in other forms. The raspberry was really flavorful, like distilled jam but the blood orange was a little bland after all that. I’d definitely buy these again and would look for some more exotic tea/botanical essences.

Ratings - Chocolate Truffles - 7 out of 10 (for $2.50 each, they should do the dishes or wash my car)
Fruit Pate - 8 out of 10

Related Candies

  1. Theo Confections
  2. Boule Hat Box
  3. Charles Chocolates
  4. Chuao Chocolatier

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:24 am     CandyChocolatierLos AngelesReviewBouleChocolateJelly Candy7-Worth It8-TastyUnited States

Monday, August 15, 2005

Cadbury Twirl and Snow Flake

Name: Twirl
Brand: Cadbury (UK)
Place Purchased: India Sweets & Spices
Price: $1.49
Size: 43 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Milk Chocolate

I think someone needs to start keeping a list of candy bar names that would also make good names for cats.

I posted earlier this month about the Flake bar, which I only kinda liked. I’ve decided that one wasn’t particularly fresh. The Twirl, as near as I can figure it, is just a paired version of Flakes. Only slightly smaller in diameter (about the size of my finger ... I have no idea how big your fingers are) than the Flake, they’re about an inch shorter. Think Twix bars - but with a different center.

Inside are curled flakes of chocolate, then they’re dipped in more milk chocolate to hold it all together. What you end up with is a lot of air, which means that it all melts much quicker and seems to emanate a chocolately aroma. It’s basically more fudgy than creamy.

Name: Flake Snow
Brand: Cadbury (UK)
Place Purchased: India Sweets & Spices
Price: $1.49
Size: 37 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Milk Chocolate/White Chocolate

 

Revisiting the Flake, this version is filled with white chocolate curls coated in milk chocolate. I’m so glad it wasn’t coated in more white chocolate. Upon opening it I could definitely smell the sweet white chocolate and then a hint of the milk chocolate. It all had a dried milk tinge to it. The bar was much fresher than the one I got from Cost Plus, so that’s a plus. But it was sweet enough to make my throat hurt. It wasn’t really chalky, but it wasn’t really smooth. For some reason the Twirl bar was much more creamy. This one was definitely not old and the store kept them in the fridge ... so I’m guessing that this bar is just like this.

Ratings - Twirl - 7 out of 10
Flake Snow - 5 out of 10

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:26 am     CandyReviewCadburyChocolateWhite Chocolate5-Pleasant7-Worth ItUnited Kingdom

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Curly Wurly

Name: Curly Wurly
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: India Sweets & Spices
Price: $.99
Size: 26 grams
Calories per ounce: dunno
Type: Caramel

Upon reading Steve Almond’s Candy Freak (one of these days I’ll put up a comprehensive review), I found out that the discontinued bar from the 70s called Marathon is kind of available in the UK as Cadbury’s Curly Wurly.

The concept behind this bar is simple. A loosely braided caramel plank is covered in milk chocolate.

And they did it beautifully. The bar smells of carmelized sugar, very sweet. The caramel is soft but plenty chewy. I find it’s important to give the bar a good bite or else you’ll end up with little bits of chocolate flaking off on your clothes.

Now, with that out of the way, does anyone else know what curly wurly means? I’m familiar with it from the lyrics to Blinded by the Light:

And go-cart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside.

And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride.

Tell me, what is this curly wurly that Early Pearly is riding in?

Rating - 8 out of 10 (it’s gotta be easier to find for me to give it tops)

Related Candies

  1. Dolfin Chocolate Bars

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:40 am     CandyReviewCadburyCaramelChocolate8-TastyUnited Kingdom

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Tadelle

Name: Tadelle Wafer
Brand: Sagra ?
Place Purchased: India Sweets & Spices (Los Feliz)
Price: $1.49
Size: 1.23 oz
Calories per ounce: 155
Type: Wafer

There’s a cookie that’s practically a candy that I really enjoy called Chocolatiers, made by Lu. They’re little wafer sticks with chocolate cream coated in sweet dark chocolate.

This is like that, only instead of just being a chocolate cream, it’s hazelnut cream. Yummy. The description on the package says “compound chocolate coated wafer with crocant filling.” Not as appetizing as it tastes. In fact, the label is in a multitude of languages. The bar itself is made in Turkey, but the ingredients are translated for the entire United Nations: English, German, Russian, Czech, French, Arabic and I think Romanian. They must send this bar everywhere.

The bar feels very light, as it’s mostly air. The wafers are crisp and light and bring a lot of air into the tasting of the bar, which help the hazelnut aroma penetrate the chocolate and sugar. The chocolate is not a highlight here, as it’s not even real, but the crispy wafers are delicate and star in this bar. I’m a sucker for wafers and hazelnuts ... if only it were better chocolate, I would follow this candy to the ends of the earth.

From the wrapper: “none of our products contain pork fat”

Rating - 7 out of 10

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:06 am     CandyReviewChocolateCookieNuts7-Worth ItTurkey

Monday, August 8, 2005

Vosges Exotic Candy Bars

Name: Exotic Candy Bars (Red Fire, Black Pearl & Naga)
Brand: Vosges
Place Purchased: Neiman Marcus (Beverly Hills)
Price: $6.50 each (yee!)
Size: 3.3 oz
Calories per ounce: 160
Type: Chocolate (flavored)

A kind reader, flickerfly, emailed me a few weeks ago to point me to Vosges, specifically their Red Fire Bar. Their website is sure sassy but the prices are pretty darn, well, pricey. If you have a moment, browse their website. It’s an odd combination of haute, indulgence, health and yoga. I’m not going to be in Chicago or New York for a while, so I figured I’d see what they had at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills (I’d actually never been to the Neiman Marcus there before). 

The woman behind the counter was on the phone pretty much the whole time I was there and all I saw of interest were three of the bars that they offered, and even though they were $6.50 each, I picked up all three. The back of each tells me how to eat an exotic candy bar (which is apparently different than eating other bars). You can read that here.

The first is called Naga Bar and is milk chocolate with Sweet Indian curry powder and coconut flakes. Upon opening the mylar package inside the box, the curry is quite pronounced along with a sugary smell and a slight aroma of chocolate. The chocolate itself is very milky and sweet. After sitting on the tongue for a moment, if bursts with the curry. The milk and the muskyness of the curry is a good blend and the choice of milk chocolate over dark is the right impulse. The curry leaves a little burning feeling on the tongue and throat. The coconut added a nice little texture to it, but I never got the flavor of it.

Next was the bar that I was most looking forward to, Red Fire Bar. It’s Mexican ancho and chipotle chili and cinnamon in dark chocolate (55%). The cinnamon is the top note on this bar. I’ve always enjoyed the combination of cinnamon and chocolate and usually use it in my hot chocolate. The next thing I taste is that it’s a very sweet bar, though buttery smooth to melt there’s a slight grain to it, which I must assume are the spices. Then the chili hits. It’s not so much a flavor as a feeling. A burning on the insides of my lips and my throat. There’s a bit of a smoky note to the bar as well. It’s a really nice combination, though not one I could eat a lot of in one sitting because of the fire element. Of the three bars, this is the one I finished first.

 

Last was a bar I wasn’t quite sure of. Called Black Pearl Bar, it’s Japanese ginger, wasabi and black sesame seeds in dark chocolate (55%). There was little scent to this bar, a slight woodsy note which I figured was the ginger and of course the chocolate. Upon melting in the mouth, this bar had none of the grain that the fire bar had, just a few sesame seeds (which I could have done without, thank you). The ginger is nice and earthy with a slight burn to it - or was it the wasabi. The horseradish notes didn’t really stick out, but the combination of wasabi and ginger is spicy without a painful throat burn.

As with many of these gourmet bars, I found the price to be a bit prohibitive. As a treat, I certainly plan on going to one of their shops in Las Vegas, Chicago or New York (whichever city I get to first). The Aztec truffle collection would be the first thing I’d try. Of course this riot of flavors has inspired me to try some different things in my own candy next time I whip up a batch of truffles.

Ratings - Naga - 6 out of 10
Red Fire - 7 out of 10
Black Pearl - 6 out of 10

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:31 am     CandyReviewVosgesChocolateCoconut6-Tempting7-Worth ItUnited States

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Whoppers Twosomes

Name: Twosomes - Whoppers
Brand: Hershey’s
Place Purchased: 7-11
Price: $.85
Size: 1.4 oz
Calories per ounce: 150
Type: Malt/Milk Chocolate

CANDY MAKERS, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?

Ahhh, my pursuit of the ideal malted chocolate candy may have come to an end. Hershey has introduced a series of limited edition candy bars under the heading of TwoSomes - basically Hershey’s extra creamy milk chocolate (read: dairy milk judging by the 6 grams of cholesterol in this bar that must come from milkfat) combined with another flavor from another popular Hershey product.

The line at the moment consists of Twosomes Heath Bar which is bits of toffee in milk chocolate (which sound suspiciously like the pre-existing Symphony bar), Twosomes Reese’s Pieces and this phenomenal Twosomes Whoppers.

What makes this a good bar? First, the chocolate is not the same as you’re used to. Those people who have problems with Hershey’s slightly yogurt taste to their milk chocolate will not find that here. This is their “extra creamy” milk chocolate which is the perfect tabula rasa for the strong flavor of the rice crispies that are imbued with malty goodness. The rice crispies give us some crunch (which was missing in that Maltimus Maximus bar I reviewed at the start of Candy Blog) and a little air which is needed for a good malt taste.

This bar is far superior to Hershey’s Whoppers, which are coated with a chocolate-like wax product (or at least it seems that way). There’s a great chocolate/malt aroma upon opening the package, the chocolate melts easily on the tongue where the sweetness and malt play well together.

Please, please Hershey’s give this bar a new name and add it to your repertoire. While you’re at it, create a Nuggets version of it. I’ll buy this by the pound. I had quite a bit of trouble finding this bar, having first seen it on The Impulsive Buy and then searching liquor stores, drug stores, grocers and convenience stores all over Los Angeles to find it (only some 7-11s seem to stock it).

Rating - 10 out of 10 (I will weep if this is not added to their regular production)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:13 pm     CandyReviewHershey'sChocolateDiscontinuedLimited EditionMalt10-SuperbUnited States

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

 

 

 

 

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