ABOUT

FEEDS

SEARCH

  • Enter search term

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

Cookie

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Ritter Sport Sommer-Genuss 2010 Limited Editions

Ritter Sport StracciatellaAs if Ritter Sport doesn’t have a large enough repertoire of bars, they have been introducing seasonally-themed limited editions. I tried the Fruhlingsspezialitaten 2010 that I found at a local import shop earlier this year. They included Haselnuss Krokant, Cashew in Alpenmilch and Bourbon Vanille. The summer versions were not so easy to find in the States but some Ritter Sport folks were happy to help me out with some samples. The summer flavors were: Stracciatella, Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt and Waldbeer Joghurt.

The Stracciatella features 37% cacao milk chocolate and a bourbon vanilla cream filling with chocolate bits.

Ritter Sport Stracciatella

It’s been many years since I’ve had real Stracciatella, which is a gelato (Italian ice cream) with stripes of chocolate that form little crunchy flakes or chips. In my experience it was usually dark chocolate.

Ritter Sport Stracciatella

I recall being excited by the spring version of Bourbon Vanille, but then disappointed by the lack of rum-laden vanilla notes. Here too I thought that the kind of fudgy vanilla cream center was a little bland. It’s not fatty and doesn’t quite melt in my mouth. It also isn’t very flavorful ... but also not very sweet or sticky. The little chips in it are small and don’t really add much flavor to it. I think I would have been really happy if this was a dark chocolate bar, I think that’s the kick it needs - some really rich dark chocolate. However, plain vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips has never been a favorite flavor of mine, so this might be the perfect bar for folks who do like that.

Ritter Sport Pfirsich-Maracuja JoghurtThis was the only white chocolate bar in the mix. Ritter Sport does do great things with white chocolate, the key being that they use real cocoa butter to begin with.

Ritter Sport is also big on yogurt. I’ve tried their Yogurt, Strawberry Yogurt and Olympia bars before. The only other country that I’ve noticed with such a fanaticism for yogurt flavored candy is Japan.

The Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt is a white chocolate shell with a peach and passion fruit yogurt cream center. There are also little rice flakes thrown in there for texture and crunch.

Ritter Sport Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt

The bar is simple and plain, a soft and creamy yellow/white chocolate bar.

Ritter Sport Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt

When I saw the reviews of this bar, I really wasn’t interested. I like real peaches and I find passion fruit okay but not my favorite. So a white chocolate bar flavored with these ... along with yogurt (which is good stuff but not exactly a candy flavoring), well, I just didn’t think they could pull it off.

But they did! It’s utterly surprising. It smells like passion fruit - a tangy and sharp floral and tropical scent that goes well with the dairy yogurt note. The peach is a faint pine and pear whiff in the background. The white chocolate is sweet but rather smooth. The rice flakes give it a little crunch, like there are freeze dried fruit bits in there. It’s milky but mostly fruity.

I wouldn’t buy this often, but I do see its appeal and I’m glad that Ritter Sport is taking a few risks with outside the box flavors in their limited editions.

Ritter Sport Waldbeer JoghurtThe Ritter Sport Waldbeer Joghurt seemed positively the tamest and safest flavor of the bunch. Waldbeer is forest fruits, or basically mixed berries. The package shows blackberries, blueberries and strawberries.

The format is similar to the Pfirsich-Maracuja Jogurt in that it’s a yogurt cream center flavored with fruit and studded with little crisped rice flakes. The chocolate on this bar is milk. At first glance it didn’t seem that different from the classic Strawberry Yogurt bar that Ritter Sport is already known for.

Ritter Sport Waldbeer Joghurt

It smells nice, exactly like berry yogurt - there’s the floral notes of the berries and the dairy twang of the yogurt.

The flavors are pleasant and the yogurt takes a back seat as the berry flavors come forward. The milk chocolate is smooth and give a slight dairy contribution, but also keeps the whole thing from getting too sweet. The rice flakes have a little crunch, but there are also little bits of freeze dried berry in here too, so sometimes they’re tangy and sometimes they’re more of a light malty cereal flavor.

Overall it’s decent. Munchable and satisfying, but not quite what I’d find myself craving. These may be available online at shops like GermanDeli.com and eBay.com.

Don’t take my opinion as gospel, see: Gigi Reviews Waldbeer Yogurt, Cinabar reviews Waldbeer Yogurt, Candyholic (German) reviews Waldbeer Yogurt  and Stracciatella, ZOMGCandy reviews Stracciatella, It’s All About Limited Edition reviews Stracciatella and Jim’s Chocolate Mission reviews Stracciatella and Summer Limited Editions in Mini form.

Related Candies

  1. Ritter Sport Olympia
  2. Ritter Sport Fruhlingsspezialitaten 2010
  3. Yogen Fruz Smoothies
  4. Topps Wild Berriez Wazoo
  5. Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos
  6. Ritter Sport White Chocolate with Hazelnuts
  7. Katjes Tropical Gummis & Yogurt Gums


Name: Stracciatella
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Ritter Sport
Place Purchased: Samples from Ritter Sport
Price: $2.99 retail
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 165
Categories: Candy, Ritter Sport, Chocolate, Limited Edition, 5-Pleasant, Germany


Name: Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Ritter Sport
Place Purchased: Samples from Ritter Sport
Price: $2.99 retail
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 165
Categories: Candy, Ritter Sport, Limited Edition, White Chocolate, 7-Worth It, Germany


Name: Waldbeer Joghurt
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Ritter Sport
Place Purchased: Samples from Ritter Sport
Price: $2.99 retail
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 165
Categories: Candy, Ritter Sport, Chocolate, Limited Edition, 7-Worth It, Germany

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:42 pm     CandyRitter SportChocolateCookieLimited EditionWhite Chocolate5-Pleasant7-Worth ItGermanyComments (1)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Arcor Whisper

I picked up a handful of these enigmatic peanut butter bonbons in Ohio at the Dollar General Store. I really had no idea what they were, but at 33 cents each it was hardly a gamble.

Whisper Peanut Butter Bonbon

I was concerned they wouldn’t travel well, but they did surprisingly well considering the mileage and temperature/humidity variations.

I had to take the wrapper off completely to find out exactly what they’re called and who makes them. They’re called Milk Chocolate Bonbon Whisper. They’re made by Arcor in Mexico. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Arcor’s chocolate candy. But since I already had these in hand I tried to keep an open mind.

Not only is the package vague, but it also leaves out the most important part about this candy, the peanut butter. The domed chocolate pieces are about 1.5 inches in diameter. Nicely formed, they’re glossy and rather cute. I picked up four of them and three made it back in good shape (and even the smashed one was still edible).

The construction is simple and rather familiar. There’s a large sphere of peanut butter surrounded by a light wafer then covered in milk chocolate. It reminds me of a New World Ferrero Rocher (swapping peanut butter for hazelnuts). There are no crushed nuts on the outside though.

The piece is about .7 ounces, so about the same heft as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It smells lightly like peanut butter, a little hint of a grassy note instead of the dark roasted flavors of Reese’s. The chocolate looks light and milky, and though I was concerned that it wasn’t real chocolate but the ingredients listed cocoa butter and I think the soybean oil is in the peanut butter filling.

The chocolate isn’t fabulous, it holds everything together and is rather soft, but it’s not overly sweet or grainy. It just doesn’t have much of a cocoa punch. So the focus of the bonbon becomes the center. The peanut butter filling is smooth and fresh. It’s not greasy but feels a little empty at moments, like there’s a filler in it (maybe that soybean oil that’s so high up on the ingredients list). It’s sweet and salty and has a good overall peanut flavor. The crispy wafer is overshadowed a bit but still provides a nice crunch.

The wrapping is just a large piece of mylar. It wraps the piece very well though, even though it’s not completely sealed. The ingredients and manufacturing information was nearly impossible to read. The mylar is gold and the printing is blue. I ended up taking photos of the info and then blowing it up on the computer and adjusting the levels in order to read it.

It’s an odd little candy. It’s a great idea, but it lacked a bit of oomph and balance of textures with the flavors. It needs better chocolate and I think it could use little bit more crunch. But the price is certainly decent and the originality of the candy is a plus.

Related Candies

  1. Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz
  2. Trader Joe’s PB & J Bar
  3. ReeseSticks (Revisit)
  4. Lindt Lindor Truffle Eggs
  5. Peruvian Candies
  6. Garfield’s Chocobites


Name: Whisper
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Arcor
Place Purchased: Dollar General (Youngstown, OH)
Price: $.33
Size: .7 ounces
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Candy, Arcor, Chocolate, Cookie, Peanuts, 6-Tempting, Mexico

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:55 pm     CandyReviewArcorChocolateCookiePeanuts6-TemptingMexicoComments (1)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Cloetta Kex Choklad

Cloetta Kex ChokladSweden’s best selling confectionery product is available at Ikea stores around the world: Cloetta Kex Choklad.

Kex was introduced in 1921 as Five O’clock but was renamed Kex around 1941. Kex, in Swedish, means simply biscuit (or cookie to Americans). The Kex line from Cloetta is pretty extensive with all sorts of chocolate covered cookies and biscuits. But the chocolate covered waffle crisps are by far the most popular. Even the regular Kex comes in a few variations, currently it’s available in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and a summer raspberry version.

The reach of this bar must be pretty wide, there are 18 translations of the ingredients on the back of the package. (Probably more of a testament to Ikea than Cloetta.)

Kex

The bar is a nice size, 13 grams (.46 ounces). They’re flat and thin, about 2 1/3” long and 1 1/4” wide. So it’s like a snack size version in the bag. The ingredients say that it’s a chocolate flavored coating, but as far as mockolate goes, it has real cocoa butter just an additional bit of vegetable oils (palm and/or shea nut oil).

They smell milky, again, the ingredients say that milk is the second ingredient in the chocolate flavored coating. The wafers are light, airy, very dry and crispy. They filling between them is hardly noticeable. There’s a light malt note to the bar and a strong dairy component. The cocoa is barely discernible as a flavor but the texture of the coating is creamy and smooth. Since the cookie is front and center and the coating is really just there to contain it all, it’s more like a cookie than a candy.

They’re mildly addictive. I held back five for review and shared the rest with coworkers and found that I ate my five without realizing it. However, I didn’t find them wholly satisfying. The chocolate wasn’t chocolatey enough, which I guess is why I kept eating. (Clever!)  The Tunnock’s (yesterday) was a bit more filling but still not quite what I wanted either. (Yes, it’s the Q.bel bars that I crave at this point.) But I see why these are so popular in Sweden and at Ikea.

Related Candies

  1. Glutino Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Candy Bar
  2. Q.Bel Double Dark Chocolate Wafer Bar
  3. Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Delights
  4. KitKat Inside Out
  5. Cajeta Elegancita
  6. Tadelle


Name: Kex Choklad
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Cloetta
Place Purchased: Ikea (Burbank)
Price: $1.69
Size: 5.82 ounces
Calories per ounce: 145
Categories: Candy, Cookie, Mockolate, 6-Tempting, Sweden

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:47 pm     CandyCookieMockolate6-TemptingSwedenComments (1)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Tunnock’s Caramel Milk Chocolate Wafer

Tunnocks CaramelTunnock’s is a Scottish biscuit company located in Uddingston (outside Glasgow), Scotland. They make a wide variety of baked goods but those in North America are probably most familiar with their teacakes (a digestive biscuit with a marshmallow on top, covered in chocolate) and their Tunnock’s Caramel Bar. I got this bar from my friend Ernesssa, who went to Scotland a few months ago. I liked it a lot so when I saw a package of four at Cost Plus World Market, I thought I’d buy it again so that I could do a complete review and see if the Scottish & American versions were different. (Turns out both are made in Scotland, though Tunnock’s has a factory in Canada.)

The only difference, as far as I could tell, between the American & Scottish was the packaging. The Scottish ones, shown here, are in a simple thick foil wrapper. The package I bought in Cost Plus has a big more substantial wrapper. It was a light mylar sleeve and then the four bars were sealed inside another larger mylar sleeve. The Scottish version was easier to unwrap and reseal, though I don’t think it was nearly as airtight as the American one. I was concerned that my Scottish-purchased one was a little stale.

Tunnocks Caramel

The bars are large and rather ordinary looking. Each is about four inches long and 1 inch square. The chocolate coating is quite thin and light, the waffle pattern of the wafers can be seen.

Tunnocks Caramel

It’s five layers of wafers sandwiching four layers of caramel then a thin coating of milk chocolate.

Beefy and substantial looking, it’s an odd mix. The wafers are light and airy, so the bar is much lighter than it looks. But the caramel between the layers is like a glue that keeps it all intact as long as possible, no flakes escape here.

It’s sweet and only slightly milk and cocoa-ish. The chocolate coating is creamy but doesn’t contribute much flavor. The wafers are basically airy and have a lightly malted flavor, but not much else. The caramel filling is kind of like a penuche or clotted cream fudge. It’s not gooey or chewy, but does create a little bit of a softer texture. The wafers aren’t exactly stale, but they’re not dry/crispy like some other wafer bars. At first I thought that was a bad thing, but I found I liked it quite a bit, it was just a little bit more textured than a wafer ice cream cone.

It reminds me of cereal bar - you know, one of those bar cookies that you make at home, more than a candy bar. For something that’s only one ounce, it’s satisfying. So for folks watching their calories, at only 130 per bar, they’re a good option - only 5 grams of fat, which isn’t bad for a chocolate combination bar.

I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to get these again, but I understand why they’re one of the top ten bars in Scotland. They’re different from KitKat, which has more chocolate and less crisp, and the lightly toasted caramel notes add a different dimension from other more caramel-focused bars like Mars (Milky Way). I love the packages and motifs for their whole product design. I don’t think I could resist buying all of Tunnock’s products at this point, just to see how each is done.

Related Candies

  1. Glutino Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Candy Bar
  2. Buchanan’s Clotted Cream Fudge
  3. Baby Ruth Crisp & Nestle Crisp Bars
  4. Q.Bel Crispy Wafer Bars
  5. KitKat Caramel

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:31 pm     CandyCaramelChocolateCookie7-Worth ItScotlandCost PlusComments (5)

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Choceur Chocolate Crisp Bars

Choceur Chocolate Crisp BarsOn my recent trip to Ohio I was delighted to visit the local Aldi twice. I was worried there wouldn’t be much candy in the summertime, as I know that Christmas and Easter are the best time to visit Aldi’s candy section. I wasn’t disappointed with the variety of candy. I’ll have coverage in the coming weeks of many of my finds, but first the one that I was most excited about: Choceur Chocolate Crisp Bars.

This cute box holds a compact stack of little chocolate covered wafers with hazelnut creme. There are 10 little bars in there, each portion is two bars, but each finger is only 95 calories for those watching their tally.

The package describes them as crisp wafers and hazelnut creme covered in fine milk chocolate. What that amounts to is a hazelnut KitKat knock-off.

Choceur Chocolate Crisp Bars

The little fingers are nicely wrapped in a stiff paper-backed foil. They’re 4.5 inches long and about .75 inches wide. They pieces are in three distinct segments though each of those is more than a bite.

Choceur Chocolate Crisp Bars

I admit that I had a little trouble with keeping these from the heat. (No air conditioning for the first five days of my trip.) My other goods did fine, but for some reason the way I packed these wasn’t insulated enough. However, the texture and consistency is unmarred.

They smell slightly toasty and sweet with a little milky note. The bite is soft and very crispy. The hazelnut cream is a lot more forward than the cream filling in KitKats. The cream is in between the wafer layers (looks like only two layers instead of KitKat’s three) but also heaped under the domed top, too. The milk chocolate coating is sweet and has that European dairy twang to it. The crispy wafers are light and flavorless which allows the hazelnut cream to be the most recognizable note. There’s also a slight malty flavor to it all. The crisp and airy wafers along with the slightly sticky-sweet chocolate actually makes a good combination. A single bar isn’t quite enough to satisfy on its own, but again, two are the recommended dosage.

The price is great, they’re $1.79 for the box of 10, which means that each bar is about 18 cents. That’s a crazy good deal for a real chocolate product. (It also says on the package that there are no preservatives or artificial colors - but it’s not like it’s all natural or a particularly great list of ingredients which include fake vanilla and palm oil, albeit low on the list.)

Related Candies

  1. Ritter Sport Neapolitan Wafers
  2. Choceur Nougat Bites & Marzipan Bites
  3. Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Delights
  4. Choceur Luxury Mini Chocolate Bars
  5. Short & Sweet: Hazelnut Bites
  6. KitKat Temptations: Hazelnut & Coconut


Name: Chocolate Crisp Bars
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Aldi
Place Purchased: Aldi (Youngstown, OH)
Price: $1.79
Size: 6.3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 127
Categories: Candy, Aldi, Chocolate, Cookie, Nuts, 7-Worth It, Germany

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:33 pm     CandyReviewAldiChocolateCookieNuts7-Worth ItGermanyComments (0)

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz

Butterfinger SnackerzNew Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz are crispy bite-size candies with a smooth Butterfinger-flavored center.

They come in a rather petite package, it weighs only 1.28 ounces, which is a pretty remarkable difference compared to the standard Butterfinger bar which clocks in at 2.1 ounces. Of course that does mean that there are fewer calories per serving, here a bag is only 170 calories (133 per ounce) while a bar is 270 calories (129 per ounce).

The package is a simple pouch, a little taller than a bag of M&Ms and in a bright yellow and orange with blue accents.

Butterfinger Snackerz

The Snackerz look every bit as appealing as the actual Butterfinger bar. They’re a bit chalky and smell like sugar and fake butter. They’re about 1.25 inches long and .75 to 1.00 inches wide. They’re decorated with little zags of orange icing confection. They’re an irregular puff shape, there’s a little pocket of Butterfinger creme in there.

Butterfinger Snackerz

The crunch is like a sweet version of Fritos or a breakfast cereal. Inside the sweets, salty and buttery flavored cream has a little hint of roasted nuts. The cereal and peanut butter combination is fun and different enough. The mockolate coating is a joke, it’s fresh so there’s no hint of rancid cocoa or anything that I get from Butterfingers now and then. But there’s no rich cocoa to go with it.

A few years ago I tried something called Butterfinger Stixx, which were a little wafer tube filled with a similar creme, but the difference there was that they were covered in real milk chocolate. That was a great idea. This is mediocre at best ... a smaller portion than most candies offer at this price but sub par ingredients.

After seeing what Nestle did with the Wonka line to create products with better ingredients, this is just plain disappointing. I know they can do better.

Made in Mexico, no Kosher statement on the package.

Related Candies

  1. Baby Ruth Crisp & Nestle Crisp Bars
  2. ReeseSticks (Revisit)
  3. Whoppers Reese’s Peanut Butter Flavored Candy
  4. Twix PB
  5. Butterfinger Stixx


Name: Butterfinger Snackerz
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: sample from Sweets & Snacks Expo
Price: $.89 retail
Size: 1.28 ounces
Calories per ounce: 133
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, Mockolate, Peanuts, 4-Benign, Mexico

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:46 am     CandyReviewNestleCookieMockolatePeanuts4-BenignMexicoComments (8)

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Hershey’s Drops: Milk Chocolate & Cookies n Creme

Hershey's Milk Chocolate DropsLast year Hershey’s announced their new expanded Hershey’s Pieces line at National Confectioners Association’s Sweets & Snacks Expo. This year the new product line is Hershey’s Drops.

Hershey’s Drops are billed as Hershey’s Happiness in a little drop of milk chocolate without a candy shell and featuring a light, shiny, mess free finish. They’ll be on store shelves starting in December 2010, starting with King Size packages of 2.1 ounces.

The packages I got to try are just sales samples, in little .6 ounce packets with ingredients listing but no final nutrition panel (which isn’t that surprising since they won’t be available for another six months).

Now your family can have all the goodness of bite-sized chocolate without the candy shell.

HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate DROPS have a light shiny finish, so there’s no mess. They’re perfect for snacking and sharing anytime, anywhere!

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Drops

The drops are larger than the Pieces about as big around as a nickel. Brits may be familiar with the size and shape, they’re rather similar to Mars’ Galaxy Minstrels, except without the shell - in fact, they’re exactly like the re-released Galaxy Counters (which I haven’t tried, but Chocablog did a nice review of a couple of months ago).

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Drops

Some may wonder if the light coating is like that on M&Ms Premiums. There is a light waxy coating on there, but it’s thinner than the latexy and colorful stuff on the M&Ms Premiums. It’s more like what you’d find on Junior Mints or Whoppers. Just a simple glaze that melts away quickly.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Drops

The flavor is pure Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, not much else. A little tangy and fudgy, sweet and milky. The coating keeps them fresh and smooth, I’ve found that Kisses can taste a little rancid when left out of the bag, even though they have a foil wrapping. Of course I didn’t have these candies for very long, so I can’t say for sure that they’d be like that if left out in a dish.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme DropsThe second item in the Drops line is a bit more inventive, Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Drops.

The confection is made of a white chocolate with cookie bits like Oreos mixed in. The white chocolate ingredients are a little muddy, the label says “cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil” so I don’t know how much of this white chocolate is actually cocoa butter. That and/or confuses me.

Hershey’s currently offers the Cookies ‘n’ Creme in a few formats. The original is their bar but there are also Kisses from time to time, Nuggets, as well as holiday foil wrapped versions. This little morsel version with no wrapper is actually a great new take on the candy.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Drops

I have to admit they don’t look so great. They look muddy and dirty. The cookie bits show through. They’re consistently shaped, but the white isn’t quite white and not even that light yellow that French vanilla ice cream sports.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Drops

They smell especially sweet and milky. The texture is thick and a little fudgy and heavy on the dairy flavors. The crispy bits of cookie are crunchy and crumbly, with a sandy grain to them that sets off the sticky melt of the white confection very well. It’s a little salty, so though it’s sugary at times and kind of throat searing, it doesn’t stay that way to the end. It’s more like cookies and cream ice cream than a candy version of a chocolate sandwich cookie.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme DropsI haven’t been much of a fan of the Cookies ‘n’ Creme bar up to this point, but I have to say that the smaller discrete bites do help. They’re best, as far as I’m concerned, mixed with the Milk Chocolate ones to keep it all from getting too sweet.

Overall, I think this is a fun new take. I’m glad that Hershey’s is making them with the bar version ingredients, instead of going the route they did with Kissables as a “chocolate candy”. I see the benefits to getting rid of the foil wrappings and the candy shells plus making the morsels larger than a chocolate baking chip. I’m sure some folks will be happy to see that there are no artificial colors in here either, since there’s no colored shell.

The ability to combine these with other items to create a custom trail mix snack is also intriguing. I’d like to mix them with nuts, pretzels or sesame sticks. I can also see a lot of possibilities with expanding this with other candies in the Hershey’s line.

Related Candies

  1. Cookies ‘n’ Creme Showdown
  2. Galaxy Minstrels
  3. Hershey’s Nuggets Double Chocolate
  4. Kissables (Reformulated)
  5. UK Smarties (no artificial colors)
  6. Hershey Eggs
  7. Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint


Name: Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Drops
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey’s
Place Purchased: samples from Sweets and Snacks Expo
Price: $1.39 retail
Size: 2.1 ounces
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Candy, Hershey's, Chocolate, Cookie, White Chocolate, 7-Worth It, United States


Name: Hershey’s Cookies’ n’ Creme Drops
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey’s
Place Purchased: samples from Sweets and Snacks Expo
Price: 1.39
Size: 2.1 ounces
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Candy, Hershey's, Cookie, White Chocolate, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:04 pm     CandyHershey'sChocolateCookieWhite Chocolate7-Worth ItUnited StatesComments (3)

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

KitKats: Royal Milk Tea, Ginger Ale, Bubbly Strawberry, Kinako Ohagi & Milk Coffee

While the news that KitKat is now available in both Dark and Milk Chocolate is hot news here in the United States, Nestle continues to churn out fantastically inventive versions for Japan.

KitKat Assortment 2010

Japanese KitKat are getting easier to find in the United States, I picked up mine in Little Tokyo at various grocery stores. The price is a bit steeper than an ordinary KitKat, usually between $2.00 and $3.00 depending on the variety and the store. (Here’s one store in Little Tokyo.)

Royal Milk Tea KitKat (Japan)Royal Milk Tea has oodles of imperial ingredients, like palm oil and tea extract.

I get the impression that Royal Milk Tea is the Japanese version of what we know here in the US as Thai Iced Tea, a strong black tea mixed with lot of sugar and milk (in the case of Thai Iced Tea the shortcut is sweetened condensed milk).

Royal Milk Tea KitKat (Japan)

It smells lovely though, like a cross between Jasmine and Earl Grey Tea. There are sweet vanilla notes and a little roasted barley or lapsang suchong in there. The actual texture of the white confection (a mixture of milk, palm oil and sugar) is a little greasy but otherwise smooth. The flavoring of the coating is mellow and a little spicy, like a hint of chai. Inside there’s more of a darker tea. It’s quite milky, as the whole Royal Milk Tea name might imply. I’m not much for milk in my tea, so that part of the confectionery simulation is lost on me.
Ginger Ale KitKat (Japan)Ginger Ale sounded fantastic and horrible all at once. Ginger Ale is a great beverage, best served ultra cold so that it bites on the tongue with the chill, the peppery ginger flavors and the tangy/sour bite of carbonation.

I didn’t know that Ginger Ale was that popular in Japan, but I guess it must be if there’s a KitKat for it. Or Nestle has run out of ideas to make into KitKats. (Where are my Pixy Stix KitKats?)

Ginger Ale KitKat (Japan)It smells like ginger ale, right out of the wrapper. It’s amazing how they did it, it’s at once like cola, lemon and ginger.

The flavor of the white confection outside is sweet and a little lemony. Inside the cream has a warm and woodsy burn of ginger. There are little specks and pops of sour, like carbonation.

It’s a weird bar. It’s not comforting like I find actual ginger ale. But then again it’s more exciting, probably because I’ve never had a candy bar like this before. I can’t say that I’d buy it again, but I can see where it has its place.

Bubbly Strawberry KitKat (Japan)Sparkling Strawberry KitKat had a pretty package. Pink and red with a couple of strawberries set off by oodles of little soda bubbles.

I wasn’t quite sure what the actual flavor was, is there a strawberry soda that it was referencing, like those Ramune ones? Was it supposed to be like strawberries in champagne?

After opening I at least found out that it was a pink, strawberry flavored confectionery coating with the standard wafers and a tangy strawberry creme between.

Bubbly Strawberry KitKat (Japan)

The berry confection is milky and has less of a strawberry flavor than I would like. It’s kind of like the milk at the bottom of a bowl of Frankenberry. The startling and inventive part of this bar is the cream filling. There are little “pops” of flavor which emulate carbonation well. They’re not pop rocks or fizzing powder. Instead they’re granules of what I’m guessing is citric acid and/or salt. So the tongue gets lots of little explosions of intense sour or salt. It’s a good mix and fun to eat. I would have preferred more strawberry flavor or even dark chocolate (so it’d be like a dark chocolate covered strawberry with a glass of champagne).

Kinako Ohagi KitKatKinako Ohagi KitKat shows a mochi with kinako (and probably bean paste inside). The idea of converting that into a KitKat, honestly, isn’t that appealing to me. I thought the red bean KitKat I tried a few years ago was interesting, but putting all the flavors of mochi into a KitKat just seems like too much. A KitKat is a KitKat and needs to maintain certain aspects. Throwing too many things into the mix just means that something is going to be done poorly and that leads to disappointment.

Kinako Ohagi KitKat

I was relieved to see that this was at least a milk chocolate bar.

It smells deep and roasted, milky and a little like corn chips. The milk chocolate is soft and fudgy but passably good. The wafers are crisp and crunchy and the kinako is, well, like soy powder. It’s a cross between the flavor of corn meal and peanut butter - it reminds me of protein supplements. The toasty flavors go very well with the wafers and milk chocolate. But the traditional KitKat was good before. This doesn’t make it better.

Sakura KitKatThe last one confused me (and I didn’t take a picture of it, but you can safely substitute the Royal Milk Tea. It’s Milk Coffee KitKat but based on the box I thought it was Sakura Tea or something. What I also didn’t properly note was that this was on of the KitKat mailers, a box that has a little “dear” and “from” form on the back so that you can give it to a student to wish them luck on exams.

It smells sweet and milky and just slightly off. Biting into it the first time, I thought I was being poisoned and had a bad package. The center cream was just intensely bitter. Then when I caught on that it wasn’t cherry and it was coffee the bitterness didn’t seem so caustic. But still intense. Too intense to allow actual coffee flavors.

At least it was called Milk Coffee, with the milk first I was getting much more of the sweet white confection than coffee notes. Chewing helped, instead of my usual eating of the cream as a layer. It just didn’t have the rounded and complex coffee notes, it reminded me instead of what I thought coffee was when I was seven or eight years old - expensive bitterness.

Overall I was less than impressed with the heavy use of white confection instead of actual chocolate. (Nestle has been in trouble lately with animal activists over its use of poorly/unethically/unsustainably farmed palm oil - their response here.) I guess I’ve found after all this exploration (trying about three dozen different kinds over the years) that the plain old ones are great and the ones made with even better chocolate are phenomenal. They don’t need fancy flavors. But I’m not going to begrudge anyone who wants to have a little fun now and then.

Related Candies

  1. Ginger Chews: Hot Coffee
  2. Japanese KitKats: Yuzu & Red Bean Soup
  3. Vanilla Beans KitKat & Bitter Orange Aero
  4. KitKat Temptations: Hazelnut & Coconut
  5. KitKat Chocolatier (Strawberry & Green Tea)
  6. KitKat Milkshake
  7. Pocky Kurogoma (Black Sesame)
  8. Head-to-Head KitKat vs KitKat!


Name: KitKat Royal Milk Tea
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Marukai (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.08
Size: 1.26 ounces
Calories per ounce: 157
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, KitKat, Mockolate, White Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, Japan


Name: KitKat Ginger Ale
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Marukai (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.08
Size: 1.26 ounces
Calories per ounce: 157
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, Ginger, KitKat, Mockolate, White Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, Japan


Name: KitKat Bubbly Strawberry
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Marukai (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.08
Size: 1.26 ounces
Calories per ounce: 157
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, KitKat, Mockolate, White Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, Japan


Name: KitKat Kinako Ohagi
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Marukai (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.08
Size: 1.26 ounces
Calories per ounce: 157
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, KitKat, Mockolate, White Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, Japan


Name: KitKat Milk Coffee
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Marukai (Little Tokyo)
Price: $2.08
Size: 1.26 ounces
Calories per ounce: 157
Categories: Candy, Nestle, Cookie, KitKat, Mockolate, White Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, Japan

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:32 pm     CandyReviewNestleChocolateCoffeeCookieGingerKitKatMockolateWhite Chocolate5-PleasantJapanComments (10)

Page 1 of 23 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »

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

 

 

 

 



COUNTDOWN

Candy Season begins in

24 days

Read previous coverage

 

 

CandyCentral
CandyCentral.com
Amazing Candy Selection at Wholesale prices

 

VOTE IN THE POLL

Do your candy eating habits change when it gets hot?
Total Votes: 186
Yes, more ice cream/frozen desserts & less candy
71 %  35% (66)
 
Yes, more frozen desserts & more candy
16 %  8% (15)
 
Yes, I eat as much but switch to less melty kinds
26 %  13% (24)
 
No, candy fits with all kinds of weather
90 %  44% (81)
 

 

image 

image

ON DECK

These candies will be reviewed shortly:

• White Malteasers

• Goody Good Stuff Koala Gummy Bears

• Cowgirl Chocolate Mild Milk Chocolate Sasparilla

• Cedrinca Puccini

• Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme

 

 

image