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ChocolateTuesday, June 7, 2005
Chocolate Sunflower Seed DropsName: Chocolate Sunflower Seed Drops These were a huge surprise. I was in Trader Joe’s over the weekend, enjoying the fabulous views of candy in the frozen foods aisle and these little fellows just screamed “buy me!” and I did. They’re just so adorably cute, with their sunny colors and perfect sunflower seed shapes. First, I’m a little curious about the actual production of these guys. I mean, it seems like a lot of engineering went into these. The sunflower seeds have a consistent, thin coating of sweet milk chocolate on them and then over that is the thinnest sheath of candy shells. They’re all glossy and still have the little point at one end like a bare seed does.
Because the shell is so thin, they crunch immediately and release that familiar sunflower seed taste along with the sweet balance of the light chocolate. The snackability of these is amazing - I could just shovel them into my mouth all day. Whoops, I think I have! If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, these, available from Candy Warehouse may be similar. I’m not keen to find out on my own, as the last thing I need is FOUR POUNDS. But I’ll keep my eye out for the little packages.
As candy goes, they are a bit more wholesome than some other choices. A single serving (about an ounce) boasts 2 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein and 4% of your daily value of calcium and iron. No trans fats at all. Rating: 9 out of 10 POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:06 pm Candy • Review • Trader Joe's • Chocolate • Nuts • 9-Yummy • United States • Monday, June 6, 2005
Bruco Egg NogName: BruCo Rum and Vanilla This is some lovely packaging. The box is matte cardboard with gold embossed names and a beautiful artisan quality to it. Inside the box is a mylar package with the bar with scoring for four servings. There’s also a little booklet in there, one side in English, the other in Italian. The brochure details the mission of BruCo which is to mix the finest chocolate with the finiest spices and essences to produce innovative combinations. The Man brought this back from Portland, Ore as a gift. He picked it up in a gourmet deli (more review to come of the other gifts this week). This bar has a wonderful rich, roasted and sweet aroma upon opening the mylar. It’s followed by a lingering rum essence that compliments the alcoholic finish of chocolate. The bar is very dark, nearly black. The chocolate is a little sweet, but yields quickly in the mouth, melting easily. It has a slight fluffy grain to it (hard for me to describe) - the bar feels light on the tongue, where some feel heavier than they look. This chocolate has a cooling effect in the mouth and the rum flavor is very pronounced. However, I could not get beyond the taste of egg nog as the most overpowering element. It’s odd because nutmeg is a spice that I associate most with egg nog and this is purported to be vanilla flavored. Overall, the bar is nice and I found myself gravitating towards it all weekend (it’s gone now). I don’t know if I would buy it again, with the price being the prohibitive part of this. However, if offered to me, I would certainly eat it again. I’ll have a review of their Arancio Cannella one later this week, which might prompt me to seek out this manufacturer again. Rating: 8 out of 10 Friday, June 3, 2005
Hershey Bites: York, Reese’s Peanut Butter and KitKatDovetailing with my earlier post about revisiting classics with new interpretations, Hershey’s recently launched “Candy to Go!” It’s just smaller packaging of their previously introduced Bites, but what I found interesting is that I thought most candy was packaged for going ...
These are perfect little bites of candy bars. I picked up three at the store on the lot today. Kit Kat Bites, Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites and York Bites. Each is about the size of a small marble, more or less. The York bites are exactly what you’d expect, dark chocolate covering a mint cream center. The Reese’s bites are covering a peanut butter cup filling (not that waxy Reese’s pieces stuff) and the Kit Kat bites are like little Kit Kat cubes. Here’s my thing: I like appropriate ratios. In the case of the Reese’s bites and the York bites, the ratio of chocolate to filling is appropriate. Though the chocolate in these little poppers is slightly different - because it’s in a spherical shape, I think they toss a little resinous glaze on it. This makes for a slight waxy coating, which in one respect is good, because you can actually hold them in your hand for a moment without getting melty all over you, but it also means that you’re eating this resin and that you need to kind of get past that when you put it in your mouth. In the Kit Kat bites, it feels like too much chocolate (Kit) and not enough crisp wafers (Kat). The other odd thing about these are the portion size: 2.75 oz and that’s a full serving. Most candy bars are about 1.5 oz and have about 200 calories. The Reese’s bites have 410 calories! If you can control yourself and not eat them all at once, you’ll make it to fifty without a coronary. Me? I ate the whole York Bites and then moved on to the Reese’s and of course had to open the Kit Kat for a taste. Sadly, all that’s left now are some of the Kit Kats. Name: York Bites Good chocolate, nice mint, pretty much a tiny spherical peppermint patty. The only problem I had with these was the variation in quality. Some were soft and fresh, but others were rather hard. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’re spoiled, maybe the chocolate didn’t seal in the filling completely and they dried out. Name: Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites Okay, of the three, these smelled absolutely divine when I opened the package. A wonderful roasted peanut scent with the sweet overtone of chocolate. Really, these smelled awesome. They taste good, and I think I’d buy them again, especially as something to eat when at the movies, but I still prefer the miniatures for the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter. Name: Kit Kat Bites My least favorite of the three, but I’ve always been fond of Kit Kats and buy them often. But my favorite thing about Kit Kats is deconstructing them while I eat, which means prying off each layer with my teeth. That’s not really feasible with this iteration, so I’d just have to eat them and where’s the fun in that? I’m not always fond of miniatures or giganto bars, but I think that Hershey’s really did a nice job of inventing these as candy that stands alone without the other versions. As always, freshness helps, if these were old and had bloomed or something, I’d find them absolutely unappealing. But I find these to be the perfect movie food or good to tuck in your bag to share with others. Ratings: UPDATE: It looks like these didn’t go over very well and have been discontinued. The remaining inventory can still be found at discount stores like 99 Cent Only. (But be sure to look at the expiration date before you take a chance.) POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:53 pm Candy • Morselization • Reese's • Review • Hershey's • Chocolate • Cookie • Discontinued • KitKat • Mints • Peanuts • 5-Pleasant • 6-Tempting • 8-Tasty • United States • Thursday, June 2, 2005
Newman’s Own Sweet Dark Espresso & OrangeName: Sweet Dark Orange and Sweet Dark Espresso I probably shouldn’t buy chocolate bars called “sweet” and expect something other than sweet. And this being a candy blog, I should probably stop mentioning that I find candy sweet. I’m just calling them like I taste them. These bars are of excellent quality. Smooth and without grain. The chocolate has good flavor, not much vanilla essence, mostly a roasty, robust chocolate flavor. Each has a flavor added to it. The Espresso has an excellent rich coffee flavor and of the two, I liked the mix of flavors best. It’s not as sweet, and stays true to espresso’s smoky vibe. The orange one has a wonderful orange peel aroma to it, but the chocolate flavor gets lost in it and of course, I found it a little too sweet. The chocolate yielded well, melting smoothly on the tongue. Of course it helped that it was very hot over that weekend that I picked them up. I took the bars next door and Amy and Robin agreed that the espresso was the best. It should probably be mentioned that Newman donates all proceeds from sales to charity and the products are, to the best of their ability, fair trade and organic. But for a high priced “gourmet” bar, I expect just slightly better flavor balance and meltiness. Rating: Espresso - 7 out of 10 POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:09 pm Candy • Review • Newmans Own • Chocolate • Coffee • 6-Tempting • 7-Worth It • United States • Whole Foods • Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Nestle Crunch Dark, White KitKat & Milky Way MidnightI can’t fault the candy manufacturers trying to tweak their most popular candies instead of reinventing the wheel. Sometimes they arrive at something that’s as good or even better than the original. In the spirit of my recent review of the White Chocolate Reese’s, I picked up a few other reduxes. Name: Nestle Crunch Dark Very fresh, the crisps were crunchy and the bar was glossy and smooth. The chocolate was not waxy, but didn’t really have the melt-in-your mouth feel. The chocolate content was pretty good, but not quite enough to soothe me completely. Maybe it was a little sweet. On the whole, I think crunch bars are perfect the way they are. Milk chocolate and crisped rice are perfect together. Why mess with it? Name: White Chocolate Kit Kat Again, there was nothing wrong with the original Kit Kat. This white Kit Kat seems a bit saltier, which helps to balance the bland sweetness of the white chocolate. It’s not something that I’d be interested in again. Name: Milky Way Midnight First, I congratulate them for spelling midnight correctly. This bar was very fresh but reminded me that I never cared much for Milky Ways because they’re too cloyingly sweet. I like Snickers, mostly because they mixing sweet and savory. Also, I don’t like candy bars that are too much sugar and not enough fat (and maybe a little protein thrown in). So, in that respect the dark version is much more successful. The richer taste of the chocolate balances the caramel and bland nougat much better. I have to say, after having plenty of imported candies and things from the remainders at the 99 cent stores, having fresh candy really makes a difference. Even a middle-of-the-road candy like Hershey’s Kisses are better when they’re fresh. Candy’s a treat - if you are going to use those “discretionary” calories on something with no nutritional value, choose something fresh and satisfying. Life too short for bad dessert. Ratings: POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:03 pm Candy • Review • Hershey's • Mars • Nestle • Caramel • Chocolate • Cookie • KitKat • Limited Edition • White Chocolate • 6-Tempting • 7-Worth It • United States • Saturday, May 21, 2005
ChocoCherriesName: Milk Chocolate Covered Cherries First, I’m not fond of cherry anything. Fresh cherries are just about the only cherry thing I will eat. Maraschino cherries are absolutely not something I care for, they’re so artificial. My tastes have matured over the years and while I’m not fond of a lot of foods, I’ve grown accustomed to being able to assess them for what they are and even get some enjoyment out of them. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way ... These morsels are soft cherries covered in milk chocolate. No clingy syrup, just cherries and chocolate. The cherries are soft and chewy with a strong maraschino. I like that there is not syrup to get in the way, and that the chocolate is thick. However, the sweet cherries have no tangy/tart bite to them and the milk chocolate, though smooth, is entirely too sweet and perhaps a bit waxy. If mixed in with another bunch of chocolate covered goodies, I could see this being a fair contrast. Put it in a mix of nuts, perhaps brittles and pretzels and some good bitter chocolate and it might work out okay. Rating: 4 out of 10 (I didn’t finish the package) POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:52 pm Candy • Review • Queen Anne • Chocolate • Kosher • 4-Benign • United States • Friday, May 13, 2005
Chalky BitesName: Botticelli Bites I was excited to see these at Big Lots. I’ve been buying something called “Cookie Joys” made by Harry London Chocolates from Trader Joe’s for a few years now. I assumed that these were the same thing. And they probably were - about four years ago when these were probably manufactured. I guess this is one of those things you learn the hard way from buying at the closeout stores. Chocolate is not something to buy on the cheap. Most often I am sorry when I do. These came in three different flavors - Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Double Chocolate. Only the Mint Chocolate ones did not have a bloom on them. The Chocolate Peanut Butter looked fairly good (as they do in the photo) but the peanut oils must have gone rancid. The Double Chocolate were just plain white and chalky and I tossed them after sorting through to see if any of them were good. Wholly disappointing. However - if you ever find the Harry London varieties, I heartily recommend them. Hershey’s introduced a mint cookie bar a few years back which I was positively addicted to. This is the new replacement for it. EDIT: Since writing this review I’ve found out that Botticelli is owned by Alpine Confectionery that also owns Harry London. They’re the same thing, just different packaging. Obviously these were stored improperly and were past their prime, thus got a poor rating. Rating: 2 out of 10 (because I actually ate some of the mint ones, otherwise it’d be a 1) POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:23 pm Candy • Review • Botticelli • Harry London • Chocolate • Cookie • Peanuts • 2-Appalling • United States • Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Chocolate PockyName: Pocky (Chocolate) I love Pocky. Can I just start with that? What a perfect candy. It’s got the savory crunch of a biscuit and the smooth velvety flavor of chocolate. Opening one of the foil packs I was met with the overwhelming scent of dark chocolate. The sticks were nicely coated (not too much) with chocolate, and leave a little uncoated spot at the bottom where you can hold it without getting chocolately fingers - something they don’t do with chocolate covered pretzels. The coating is a thin sheath, but because of the richness of the chocolate, it’s the right proportion. The biscuit or pretzel part is bland - it’s not salty nor sweet, but the perfect bit of crunch and crispness for the chocolate. The portion size is huge. Half the package (250 calories, 90 from fat but only 20 mg of trans fats). I wasn’t able to eat that big of a portion - that’s 22 sticks. I think they’re a great thing to tuck in a lunch bag or to go off on a picnic (provided your pack doesn’t get too hot and they melt and stick together). Easy to snack on, easy to share. Rating: 9 out of 10 See earlier review of Green Tea Pocky. |
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