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Mockolate

A faux chocolate product that contains some but not all the components necessary to be considered true chocolate. Mockolate is most often missing cocoa butter, which creates a frustrating illusion of chocolate but little of the taste or mouthfeel.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Delight Peeps (Raspberry and Lemon)

Raspberry Delight PeepsJust Born continues with their Peeps limited edition flavors. This season they’ve released three new Delight versions which are fruity flavors dipped in a white confection tinted and flavored to match.

I found two varieties and picked them up: Raspberry Delight and Lemon Delight Peeps.

The Raspberry Delight Peeps package shows both red and blackberries, though the description isn’t any more specific than simply raspberry.

DSC_0525rb

The face that the inside and the outside of the Peeps are color-coordinated is oddly unsettling. The sugar crust is sparkly and a rather vibrant purple, but the innards are oddly dead looking.

The texture is exactly what you expect with a Peep, a crusty sugar shell, a light flavor and bouncy marshmallow texture. I actually enjoy slightly stale Peeps, so I let these packages sit open for a week after taking the photos of them. (So I ate one in its fresh state and the others in their stale state.) The raspberry is very mild, floral and a little jammy. There are little sour crystals in the crust and maybe in the fudge. The fudge is sweet, but also lots more flavorful than the marshmallow. I can’t say that I liked it, but it did add a textural difference and a little creamy note to the whole thing.

In this instance I liked this better than the Candy Corn and Pumpkin Spice Peeps, but not by much.

DSC_0512rbLemon Delight Peeps are lemon flavored lightly yellow Peeps dipped in lemon fudge.

The lemon flavor is mostly sweet and has a “cleaning product” sort of vibe, with the light citrus scent but very little nuance. The flavor also has a few hints of salt and sour, which does give a little respite from the sugary notes. Overall, they’re perfectly edible, but the fudge element is grainy and sweet and waxy.

The Lemon didn’t work as well as the Raspberry, but still came off as a decent piece of candy. I find these little dipped Peeps to be ridiculously expensive for the type of candy they are. I buy them because they’re novelties and there weren’t many other new Easter candies this year. In the future, I’d prefer to just find a good small confectioner that makes their marshmallow in house and uses high quality, high cacao chocolate.

Related Candies

  1. Peeps for Halloween: Caramel Apple, Pumpkin Spice and Candy Corn
  2. Russell Stover Lemon Cake Egg
  3. Peeps Minis Vanilla Creme
  4. Peeps Sweet Lemonade Chicks
  5. Bubble Gum Flavored Peeps
  6. Tootsie Roll Raspberry Cremes
  7. Peeps inside a Milk Chocolate Egg
  8. 3 Musketeers Cherry & Raspberry


Name: Raspberry and Lemon Delight Peeps
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Just Born
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $1.99
Size: 1.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 107
Categories: Candy, Easter, Just Born, Marshmallow, Mockolate, 5-Pleasant, United States, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:26 pm     CandyReviewEasterJust BornMarshmallowMockolate5-PleasantUnited StatesTarget

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Russell Stover Strawberries & Cream Mix

DSC_0382rbRussell Stover, the classic American boxed chocolate maker was bought by Lindt & Sprungli about 18 months ago. I was looking forward to Russell Stover becoming, well, better.

This year Russell Stover jumped on the strawberry trend quite well. They already make a Strawberry Cream Heart for Valentine’s Day, but this year they’ve also added at least three new items with the strawberry theme. I picked up two. The first is the Russell Stover Strawberries & Cream Mix which the package says is strawberry and white pastelle hearts combine for a rich strawberry and cream taste.

The pink package sports lots and lots of hearts, including a few that show the size and shape of the candies. And it’s actually pretty accurate, they do look like little drawings of hearts colored in off white and palest pink. It’s a white confection version of the iddy biddy Santas and Bunnies they do in milk chocolate. (Though they mercifully sell those in little single-serve packages.)

DSC_0387rb

The pieces do smell rather sweet, mild and with a decent strawberry note. They’re soft and matte and kind of strange because they’re very quiet. They’re light and have no candy shell, so pouring them from the package means more sound from the bag than the tumbling of the candy.

When Russell Stover says pastelle, they really mean a combination of sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, partially hydrogenated palm oil, some milk solids & fats plus a few dabs of food coloring and flavor.

The effect is pretty much what you might think. Mostly waxy, rather sweet, a smidge milky and vaguely strawberry. The white pieces are supposed to be vanilla, but are really just less strawberry because of their proximity in the bag.

They’re not as sweet as I feared they would be. Mostly I’m disappointed that they’re so expensive when Mars was able to make actual white chocolate strawberry M&Ms for less for Easter this year. The one thing they have going for them is that they are pretty darn cute and would be great as a decorative element for a cake or cupcakes or just scattered on a dessert plate. Because they’re a mockolate product, not a coated candy, the colors won’t run and they’re not as likely to melt in most serving situations.

Related Candies

  1. Russell Stover Red Velvet Santa
  2. Russell Stover Eggs (2009 edition)
  3. Divine Fair Trade Chocolate
  4. Meiji Gummy Choco
  5. Russell Stover Eggs (2007 edition)
  6. KitKat Chocolatier (Strawberry & Green Tea)
  7. KitKat Tsubu Ichigo and Hershey’s Strawberries ‘n’ Creme


Name: Strawberries & Cream Mix
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Russell Stover
Place Purchased: Walgreen's (Miracle Mile)
Price: $4.99
Size: 7.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 156
Categories: Candy, Morselization, Valentines, Russell Stover, Mockolate, 4-Benign, United States, Walgreen's

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:14 pm     CandyMorselizationReviewValentinesRussell StoverMockolate4-BenignUnited StatesWalgreen's

Friday, January 22, 2016

Moon Pie Bites

Moon Pie BitesMoon Pies are a Tennessee treat, a little marshmallow sandwich featuring round graham crackers and then a thin mockolate coating. They’ve been around since 1917, though they’re a bit of a regional treat and sometimes hard to find. They’re something between a candy and a snack, because of the graham cracker element. They’re also pretty big, so I can see why it’s an appealing idea to morselize them.

Taste of Nature makes Cookie Dough Bites and a variety of other little morsel items sold in theater boxes. The Moon Pie Bites sound pretty good, “Delicious marshmallow & graham in a chocolatey coating.” Well, until you get to the coating part.

DSC_0255rb

The pieces actually smell pretty good. They vary in size, but most are between the size of a pea and a garbanzo.

The the description says it’s marshmallow, it’s actually just marshmallow flavored and there’s no gelatin in the list of ingredients. So these are fine for vegetarians and they’re Kosher. However, it is a mockolate coating, which is made from sugar and palm oil and whey and some cocoa, among other ingredients. It looks decent, but doesn’t really add a chocolate component to this combination candy.

The overwhelming scent of the pieces is graham. It’s a pleasant cereal sort of smell, kind of like vanilla and digestive biscuits and maple syrup.

DSC_0246rb

The pieces are a bit crumbly and dry inside. They’re grainy and have little crumbly graham cracker bits in them. The mockolate coating is neither waxy or greasy, so that’s kind of a blessing. It’s a little cool on the tongue but doesn’t really ruin the otherwise disappointing candy. All elements are equally bad. The center has little sugary bits, the vanilla flavor is overly fake, the graham bits have little of the crunch of real crackers and the chocolatey coating isn’t chocolatey.

Moon Pie Bites contain wheat, milk and soy. They area also made in a facility with peanuts, tree nuts and eggs.

Related Candies

  1. Annabelle’s Rocky Road S’Mores
  2. Brach’s S’mores Candy Corn
  3. Sugarfina: The Chocolates
  4. Russell Stover Big Bite Dark Chocolate S’Mores
  5. Cookies ‘n’ Cream Bites
  6. Cupcake Bites
  7. Cookie Dough Bites


Name: Moon Pie Bites
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Taste of Nature
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store (Silver Lake)
Price: $1.00
Size: 3.1 ounces
Calories per ounce: 128
Categories: Candy, Morselization, Taste of Nature, Cookie, Kosher, Mockolate, 3-Unappealing, United States, 99 Cent Only Store

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:47 pm     CandyMorselizationReviewTaste of NatureCookieKosherMockolate3-UnappealingUnited States99 Cent Only Store

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Tastykake Fall Kandy Kakes: Salted Caramel and Karrot Kake

The Tasty Baking Company has been based in Philadelphia since 1914. Back in 1930 they introduced a new snack cake called the Tandy Take which was eventually renamed in 1974 to Kandy Kakes (to avoid confusion with the Tandy Company).  These were the snack cakes of my childhood. I’m not sure if I had a Twinkie until I was in college,but Kandy Kakes, I’d had plenty of those.

Their most popular item is the Peanut Butter Kandy Kake (they bake a half a million a day as of 2014), which was also my favorite of their products. The Peanut Butter Kandy Kake is a disk of sponge cake (or maybe angel food cake) with a stripe of peanut butter covered in mockolate. Their second most popular item, the Butterscotch Krimpet is also a curious creation made of a sponge cake (sort of like a Twinkie) but with crinkle cut edges and a butterscotch frosting. (Pennsylvania is kind of known for butterscotch confections, see also the Boyer Smoothie cups.)

When I was growing up there was still regionalism for baked goods, Tastykake was really a local company, though recently they expanded south and also took over production of the Hostess brands including Twinkies. This year Tastykake announced West Coast distribution for their more popular items. (Though it says on their website they’re available at some of my local stores, I still haven’t found them on shelves.)

For those of you just discovering this nostalgic brand, you should catch up with this add for Tastykake, I’d say it’s from around 1975, starring Betty White:

First off, are Kandy Kakes even candy and do they belong on the blog? Well, I’ve debated about this for a while. For the past few years when I travel to Pennsylvania, I’ve usually come back with a box (or two) of the Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes. They fit most of my rules for candy in that they’re sweet, portable, shelf stable and require no preparation to eat. However, they’re also baked (but then again so are Twix). I also have the same problem with chocolate covered pretzels. What pushed me over the edge with this review is the fact that Tastykake offered these new Fall flavors: Salted Caramel Kandy Kakes and Karrot Kake Kandy Kakes.

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First off, Kandy Kakes is a strange name. Substituting letters in a standard word is usually an indication of lesser quality, just like chocolatey denotes something not-quite-chocolate. Not only that, Tastykake and their product line has a lot of Ks in it. A lot. It’s like they’re going for something wacky (this all predates the Kardashian ownership of the letter).

Words with a k in it are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. All with a k. Ls are not funny. Ms are not funny.
Willy (The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon)

So, the name might be a bit juvenile, but maybe it’s also supposed to be delightful. Betty White said some nice things about the ingredients in her commercial in Tastykakes, but for reference here’s what’s in the Salted Caramel Kandy Kakes (yes, I transcribed all this, so forgive any spelling errors as many of these ingredients don’t come up in spellcheck):

Confectionery Coating (sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali, cocoa powder, whey powder, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavor), Sugar, Enriched Bleached Flour, Vegetable Shortening (soybean oil, palm oil and hydrogenated cottonseed oil), Corn Syrup, Water, Nonfat Milk, Eggs, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Contains 2% or less of each of the following: egg yolks, salt, modified corn starch, butter, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), caramel color, soy lecithin, corn starch, mono- and diglycerides, natural and artificial flavor, propylene glycol, mono- and diesters of fats and fatty acids, xanthan gum, brown sugar, lactylic esters of fatty acids, calcium sulfate, caramel, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, lactic acid, sorbic acid and potassium sorbate.

The Salted Caramel are described as cakes with chocolate flavored coating and salted caramel filling (naturally and artificially flavored).

DSC_9801rb

The large box (a half a pound) holds 6 of these packages of twin cakes. They’re actually a little weird out of the box because there’s no indication of which flavor it is. (So if I had the Peanut Butter version out of the box, I wouldn’t know ... that little BN initial on the package, what does that mean?)

There’s 90 calories per cake, so the pair is only 180 ... for 1.3 ounces, so not really a low calorie product, just its size helps with portion control.

Tastykake Kandy Kake - Salted Caramel

They smell sweet, but not like anything in particular. The chocolatey coating is noticeably thin and fake. The bite is nice, the cake is soft and a little dry but that’s balanced pretty well by the caramel stripe on top. The caramel is quite salty, though there are only 95 mg per pair. The mockolate is terrible, far more noticeably terrible on the salted caramel version than the peanut butter. There’s no cocoa flavor and certainly no creamy cocoa butter experience. There’s not even any milk in that fake milk chocolate.

It’s pretty dreadful. Maybe I’m not a good judge of pastries, or petit fours or whatever category these should be in, but they’re not actually good candy.

DSC_9798rb

The Karrot Kake Kandy Kakes sound good in theory. But in reality the white coating is suspiciously white. It’s not milky white, though at least this white konfectionery koating has nonfat milk in it. The coating has more titanium dioxide in it than soy lecithin.

However, they do smell good. They smell like a nice spice cake ... a little nutmeg, a little cinnamon, maybe a touch of clove and sweet milk. The bite is soft and a little more substantial than the Salted Caramel as this cake is actually carrot cake ... there’s actually carrot in there and even some raisin paste, orange puree and coconut. The white coating is filmy and there’s another creamy layer in there that’s kind of like cream cheese or perhaps unscented foot balm.

It’s a great idea but the coating completely ruins it for me. (Now, a salted caramel stripe in there and maybe an actual white chocolate coating ... but then we’re into actual petit four world, not cheap snack cakes.

The cakes are made on shared equipment with peanuts and tree nuts and contain milk, soy and coconut.

Related Candies

  1. Russell Stover Lemon Cake Egg
  2. Russell Stover Cake Assortment Chocolates
  3. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels
  4. Party Cake Peeps
  5. Russell Stover Eggs: Carrot Cake, Birthday Cake and Wedding Cake
  6. Brach’s Carrot Cake Candy Corn
  7. R.M. Palmer Cake Batter Cup
  8. Cupcake Bites


Name: Tastykake Fall Kandy Kakes: Salted Caramel & Karrot Kake
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Tasty Baking Company
Place Purchased: samples from Tastykake
Price: $4.49
Size: 8 ounces (1.3 per package)
Calories per ounce: 138
Categories: Candy, Caramel, Cookie, Kosher, Limited Edition, Mockolate, 3-Unappealing, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:56 pm     CandyReviewCaramelCookieKosherLimited EditionMockolate3-UnappealingUnited States

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Pastel Malted Milk Eggs Compared

Pastel Malted Milk BallsOne of my favorite candies is malted milk balls. Easter brings the pastel version, which is egg shaped and has a candy coating. I rounded up four of the most popular versions in stores today for a little comparison.

I have various sized bags from Jelly Belly, Necco, Brach’s (Ferrara Candy) and Whoppers (Hershey’s).

Pastel Malted Milk Balls

Though there are some size differences in the eggs, and some other sizes available from these brands, pastel malted eggs are usually larger than malted milk balls and less focused on the milk chocolate coating.

They’re generally an attractive candy, but with a large variation on the look and texture of the shell and color palettes.

Malted Milk Eggs

From left to right: Necco Mighty Malts, Jelly Belly, Whoppers and then Brach’s.

Mighty Malt EggsName: Mighty Malts Speckled Malted Milk Eggs
Brand: Necco
Size: 5 ounces
Price: $1.00
Shell: This is the only version of the assortment that doesn’t have a hard shell. Instead this is just sealed with a glaze and a little speckling.
Chocolate: This isn’t chocolate, it’s some white confection. It’s absolutely terrible. The only good thing about it was that at certain temperatures, I could peel it off. It might have been flavored, the pink one was strawberry, which actually wasn’t bad flavor-wise but I was thankful that the gritty malt center scrubbed away the waxy grease it left behind on my teeth.
Malted Milk Center: The centers redeem these eggs. The malt is so airy and crispy, but still packs a malty punch.

DSC_8857rb

Verdict: It’s too messy to eat around the awful coating, so I can’t recommend these at all for eating, only decoration.

Jelly Belly Speckled EggsName: Speckled Chocolate Malted Eggs
Brand: Jelly Belly
Size: 4.6 ounces
Price: $5.95
Shell: The shells are very thick, crunchy and pretty strong. The odd part though is that they’re also flavored. Green is lime, yellow is lemon and lavender is actually grape. It’s so strange.
Chocolate: Jelly Belly uses real chocolate in their eggs, but it’s a rather thin layer and because of the ratios, it really takes a back seat to the other flavors and textures.
Malted Milk Center: This malted center is sweet and has a strong cereal flavor and a light touch of malt and maybe honey. It dissolved well, a little grainy but not at all chewy.

DSC_8859rb

Verdict: The shells are very thick, probably too much shell for me and the flavor was not a good mix for the other flavors. I still loved the colors and have eaten two full bags so far this season. However, they’re also very expensive ... about 5 times more expensive than the Necco Mighty Malts, though imminently more edible.

Whoppers Robin EggsName: Whoppers Robin Eggs
Brand: Hershey’s
Size: 10 ounces
Price: $3.49
Shell: These look ridiculous. They look like lumps of sidewalk chalk, not like food. That said, the texture of the shells is pretty amazing, they’re very durable as in the fact that they don’t crack, but once you bite, they’re very crunchy and thin.
Chocolate: The mockolate coating on these is just so bad. It tastes like damp junk mail. It has a cool melt on the tongue and at least takes up very little in the bulk of the candy as a whole.
Malted Milk Center: The center is crispy with an excellent dissolve that rarely gets tacky or deflated. The malt flavor is the best thing about this candy.

DSC_8863rb

Verdict: The unappealing pink shells and less appealing mockolate layer just make these unbearable. I actually find myself doing the extra work on the Necco Mighty Malts instead of eating these, even though they have an excellent malt center.

Brach's Malted Milk Pastel EggsName: Malted Milk Pastel Fiesta Eggs
Brand: Brach’s (Ferrara Candy)
Size: 7.5 ounces
Price: $2.50
Shell: It’s crisp and has the texture of actual egg shells, a little bit of crumble, generally flavorless.
Chocolate: It’s passable stuff. It’s real chocolate, but not great quality. The texture is fatty and smooth, but also extremely sweet, there’s very little cocoa flavor to it.
Malted Milk Center: The texture is very dense, with a lot of milky notes but less malt than the others. It’s not overly sweet and not overtly salty.

DSC_8866rb

Verdict: Of the four, I prefer these, though they still don’t quite shine on their own merits, only in comparison. I’ve eaten two bags so far this season and do find them comforting, but I only keep eating them on the naive hope that I’ll find “a good one” as if that’s ever happened or will happen.

The result of this tour only confirms that I love the idea of a great Malted Milk Pastel Egg, but I haven’t found it yet.

Related Candies

  1. Mars MaltEaster Bunnies
  2. Sugarfina: The Chocolates
  3. Ovomaltine Chocolate Bar
  4. Brach’s Fiesta Malted Milk Eggs (2012)
  5. Target’s Market Pantry Malted Milk Balls
  6. Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Eggs (Plus a Bonus)
  7. Whoppers Milkshake Strawberry

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:54 pm     CandyReviewEasterBrach'sFerrara PanHershey'sJelly BellyNeccoChocolateMaltMockolate4-BenignUnited StatesDollar TreeTargetWalgreen's

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Candyology 101 - Podcast Episode 9 -  House Brands

Candyology_Episode_9

In this episode of Candyology 101, Maria and I talk about house brands. You know, generics or downmarket clones of popular candies.

You can download the file directly: MP3.

Here’s a quick review to go with the podcast.

In preparation for the episode, I picked up the 99 Cent Only Store version of the popular Mars candy bar array. The cross sections are shown in the image above. They’re all packaged by Momentum Brands in Turkey. Though the wrappers said that they were milk chocolate covered candy bars, the milk chocolate actually contained dairy whey, which is considered a filler in the United States and cannot be labeled chocolate here. In general whey is used in place of extra sugar in cheaper milk chocolate. Think about it, if you want to make an inexpensive chocolate, you’re going to use as little of the most expensive ingredient as you can. So the cacao content (not even listed) is probably not more than 20%. Then there’s milk, which is usually milk fat and milk powder (which includes both the milk proteins and milk fats) ...and sugar. Too much sugar and the chocolate is unappealing and too much milk fat and the chocolate won’t set. So, milk protein does nicely as a filler that has a slightly malty flavor but is generally benign.

Choco Coco (Bounty) are like Almond Joy without the almonds. The coconut was very firm, but thankfully not that sweet. The milk chocolate has an odd malty flavor to it and a sort of “vitamin” note. Overall, satisfying for a cheap candy ... there were three little bars in the package for 60 cents.

Choco Duo (Twix) - This was a smaller package instead of the king size versions of the others. The sticks smelled malty and sweet. The biscuit base was very hard with a sort of graham cracker or digestive note to it, instead of the exceptionally bland version in the US Twix. The caramel was quite stiff but ultimately chewy ... much chewier than a Twix. The texture of the whole was more within my preferences than actual Twix. But it still isn’t in my arena of candy bars.

Coco Nut (Snickers) were also a king sized package that had two not-quite-full-sized bars. Mine were bloomed (all others were shiny) and I noticed right away that they’re much flatter than Snickers. The ratios are completely off and the peanuts taste foreign, as if they’re a different variety from the US bars. It’s not very peanutty, the caramel and nougat had the same chew ... it was fine for eating, but did not scratch the same itch that a fresh Snickers does.

Coco Nougat (Milky Way) is not at all like a Milky Way. This is actually more like the Milk Munch (also make in Turkey) that I had years ago. Very malty, a little too stiff and not fluffy enough.

I’ll stick to paying full boat for my Mars family of bars, especially when for a similar price, the 99 Cent Only Store sells those snack package with 6 or 8 little bars for a dollar anyway.

Don’t forget you can check out the show notes for Candyology 101 and my previous “Designer Imposter” reviews.

Related Candies

  1. Good and DeLISH Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds
  2. Walgreen’s Good and Delish Milk Chocolate Cornflake Clusters
  3. Head to Head: Haviland Thin Mints vs. Maxfield’s Cream Sticks
  4. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Powerberries
  5. Head to Head: M&Ms vs Koppers Milkies
  6. Head to Head: Milky Way & Mars (Canada & UK)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:20 pm     CandyCaramelChocolateCoconutMockolateNougatPeanuts5-PleasantTurkeyHighlightRadio Interviews99 Cent Only Store

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Marabou Oreo Bar

DSC_8431rbOne of my contacts at Swede Sweets offered to send me this Swedish bar from Marabou which features Oreo cookie pieces.

Marabou is now owned by Kraft/Mondelez, so they can use real Oreo cookies and call them that on the package. I’ve had quite a few bars over the years that have Oreos in them, as Kraft also owns Cadbury, Toberlone, Terry’s and Milka. (Well, I’ve had the Cadbury and Milka Oreo bars, I’d love to try a Terry’s Chocolate Oreo-orange, once they invent that.) The bars that I’ve had were cream filled bars, that is, they were milk chocolate bars with a palm oil cream center with cookie bits mixed in. This bar is just what you’d think a cookies & chocolate bar should be.

The bar is made with Rainforest Alliance certified cacao, and contains at least 30% cacao. As a European “family chocolate” it also contains whey, which is considered a filler in the US, but then again, the US products with far less cacao mass to be called milk chocolate. Whey is just milk protein, it adds bulk without sweetness or extra fat, so as additives go, it’s not detrimental, though it can make the texture a bit more gummy.

It’s a big bar, at 185 grams, which is 6.53 ounces ... about twice the size of the usual large tablet bar.

DSC_8459rb

The look of the bar is good, it’s large, so it was broken in a couple of places, but along the segmentation lines. The bar isn’t particularly thick, which means that the inclusions weren’t going to be very dense.

The segments aren’t quite square, they’re about 1 inch on the longest side. There really aren’t that many big pieces of cookies, but a bit of cookie crumb/grit to the whole bar. Marabou chocolate is quite milky, though some of it’s flavor has that powdered milk note to it, but it’s also marked by some good notes of malt and a generic sweetness.

The cookie bits are good, less sweet than the overall milk chocolate. The bits aren’t numerous enough for me, which led to a moreish quality that kept me eating it ... hoping I’d stumble upon the piece where all the cookies were.

I think a single serve, thicker bar, might mean better proportions if they continue with this. The Hershey’s density of cookie bits in their Cookies N Creme bars is a good target (it’s easy to see how much is in there because it’s a white confection with dark cookie bits). I wouldn’t pay the premium to import this if I were ordering on the internet, but if I stumbled upon this in an airport, in a regular size, I might pick it up again.

As near as I can figure, this bar contains milk, soy and wheat (but your Google Translate experience will vary, as will your ability to find the umlaut key). There’s no statement about peanuts or tree nuts.

Related Candies

  1. Bourbon Everyburger Black Cocoa & Vanilla Cookies
  2. Marabou Noblesse Crisps: Original, Dark & Orange
  3. Dove Cookies and Creme + Ghirardelli Cookies Jubilee
  4. Milka Bars, Milka Drops and some Li’l Milka
  5. Glico Pocky Cookie Crush
  6. Oreo Bitter Bar (Japan)
  7. Trader Joe’s Mint Joe Joe’s versus Mint Oreos
  8. Head to Head: Cookie Joys vs Cookies n Mint


Name: Milk Chocolate Bar with Oreo Pieces
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Marabou
Place Purchased: Samples from Swede Sweets
Price: $2.99 retail
Size: 6.53 ounces
Calories per ounce: 154
Categories: Candy, Kraft/Mondelez, Marabou, Chocolate, Cookie, Ethically Sourced, Mockolate, 6-Tempting, Sweden

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:41 pm     CandyReviewKraft/MondelezMarabouChocolateCookieEthically SourcedMockolate6-TemptingSweden

Friday, December 5, 2014

Queen Anne Chocolate Cordial Cherries

Queen Anne Dark Chocolate CherriesI have nothing against cherries. In fact, I love fresh cherries. I’m not fond of cherry flavored candies, so it stands to reason that I should actually like chocolate covered cherry cordials since they do have a real glace cherry at the center.

So a few years ago I tried the European version of Ferrero Mon Cheri ... which features a whole cherry in alcohol. That went well. But still, I’ve been hesitant to try some other varieties I see at drug store chains.

Queen Anne Cordial Cherries

Though it seems odd, I thought I’d start at the bottom. I picked up the cheapest, but most widely available line I could find: Queen Anne Cordial Cherries which are made by World’s Finest Chocolate.

The boxes varied in price between $1.50 and $2.49 for a box that holds 10 cordial cherries totaling 6.6 ounces. Queen Anne makes cherries in a few versions: Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate as well as newer versions in French Vanilla and Black Cherry Cola. They also make a cordial blueberry, but I’ll save that for another time.

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The packaging is far from elegant, but it is serviceable. There are ten candies in the box, each tray has five little plastic cups and the whole thing is sealed with a plastic film on top. The two trays are stacked in the box. The chocolates were in good shape, even though I’m guessing they get tossed around a bit en route.

Queen Anne Dark Chocolate Cherries

Queen Anne Dark Chocolate Cordial Cherries were a good place to start. The chocolate can’t be particularly dark, as sugar is the first ingredient and the chocolate itself also contains anhydrous milk fat and PGPR. The cherries are souped up in high fructose corn syrup, citric acid and some extra Red Dye #40. The ingredients also mention another “dark coating” made from partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils and cocoa along with sugar.

They do look quite good and smell like, well, cherries but the cocoa notes of the chocolate do actually come through.

They’re a messy affair if one who likes to bite and not pop. I like to grab the cherry in the first bite to make sure I get it with the least amount of sugar ... leaving the syrup behind in the remaining hemisphere. The cherry is crisp and chewy with only a lightly tart note. But it tastes realistic and not quite as strongly of maraschino as some others.

It’s all overly sweet though, especially if I was going to eat the other half that didn’t have a cherry. The chocolate is passable, not overly sweet but also lacking a good quality creamy smooth note.

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Queen Anne French Vanilla Cordial Cherries have a softer scent, definitely a hint of vanilla to them. Since it’s a milk chocolate shell, there’s less of a cocoa note to it but a little bit of sweet dairy.

Though the nutrition panel says there’s only one more gram of sugar in this version over the dark, it’s astronomically sweeter. It’s pretty much inedible for me, though I’m sure some folks will enjoy the sugary vanilla blast. The cherry flavor is completely lost on me, which is too bad because the texture was spot on.

Queen Anne Cherry Cola
Queen Anne Black Cherry Cola Cordial Cherries are

Oddly enough, this was the version I was looking forward to most. A bit of extra spicy flavor from the cola might help, and it actually did. The textures were the same, the cherries were firm and of good quality. The cola flavor was extremely mild, though. It was a little hint in the smell, and then maybe a whiff of it in the second bite. This one had the most maraschino flavor to it.

None are ever going to pass my lips again, not because they’re necessarily bad candy, but they’re certainly not the candy for me. There are better chocolate covered cordial cherries out there. A starting place will be finding better quality chocolate, as it should not just be treated like a container, but a gateway. So if I’m going to reset my brain to enjoy them, I think I should spend some time finding better ones.

Related Candies

  1. Sugarfina: The Chocolates
  2. Christopher’s Big Cherry - Dark
  3. Brach’s Cherry Cordial Nougats
  4. Gimbal’s Cherry Lovers
  5. Cherry Almondine M&Ms
  6. Wawel Chocolates
  7. Cherry Cordial Creme Kisses
  8. Pop Rocks Cherry Cola


Name: Cordial Cherries: Dark Chocolate
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: World’s Finest Chocolate
Place Purchased: KMart (Park LaBrea)
Price: $1.50 (on sale)
Size: 6.6 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Queen Anne, World's Finest Chocolate, Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, United States, Kmart


Name: Cordial Cherries: French Vanilla
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: World’s Finest Chocolate
Place Purchased: Walgreen's (Hollywood)
Price: $2.49
Size: 6.6 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Queen Anne, World's Finest Chocolate, Chocolate, 5-Pleasant, United States, Walgreen's


Name: Cordial Cherries: Black Cherry Cola
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: World’s Finest Chocolate
Place Purchased: Walgreen's (Hollywood)
Price: $2.49
Size: 6.6 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Queen Anne, World's Finest Chocolate, Chocolate, Cola, 6-Tempting, United States, Walgreen's

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:12 pm     CandyReviewQueen AnneWorld's Finest ChocolateChocolateColaMockolate5-Pleasant6-TemptingUnited StatesKmartWalgreen's

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