Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Bubble Chocolate

Canada and the UK have Nestle Aero and Cadbury Bubbly bars. Israel has the Elite and Korea and Japan have Lotte Airs. Everyone else seems to have an aerated chocolate bar except for the United States. It’s not like we’ve been completely denied. Nestle did have a chocolate bar called the Choco’lite back in the 70s, but that didn’t go over well.

Maybe we’re just waiting for the right bar.

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I was really looking forward to seeing Bubble Chocolate. Mostly because they’re using higher quality chocolate. The cacao content on their dark bar is 60%. There’s apparently a lot of engineering involved with balancing the viscosity and whatnot when doing different things to chocolate, so I’ll leave that to the industrial engineers. Apparently you can’t just foam up regular chocolate and expect a great result - there are a lot of things to take into account.

Bubble Chocolate comes in three varieties: Milk, Coffee Milk and Dark 60% Cacao.

My Coffee Milk Chocolate bar got a bit banged up in the trip back, so that pile above is just of the dark and milk chocolate. Handsome, aren’t they?

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They’re huge looking, twice as thick as a normal 100 gram bar but only 80 grams. It’s kind of odd to pick them up, because it’s so surprising how light they are - 50% air ... that’s some lite chocolate. It’s kind of like pumice!

Dark Chocolate - the bar has a nice aroma that mixes berries and smoke. Despite the high cacao content, it’s very creamy and sweet. There’s a fudgy consistency to it as it melts so distinctly different than a regular un-bubbled chocolate bar. The airiness of the bar seems to make the scent of the bar carry better too, as you eat it. There’s a slight grain to the chocolate as it disintigrates, but no trace of the chalkiness I’ve complained about with other aerated bars.

Milk Chocolate - the bar is much sweeter than the dark, but also melts far quicker on the tongue. It’s a little stickier too, but exceptionally smooth. The milk flavors are not at all like the dairy chocolate I usually have from Cadbury or European Nestle. This is much more American tasting. I don’t know the cacao content on this chocolate, but it’s certainly dark looking. I was a little disappointed that there’s vanillin in here instead of real vanilla. However, if they’re keeping the bar under the $2 price point retail, I can see this as an acceptable compromise.

Coffee Milk Chocolate - this one smells like a coffee house - fresh and warm and roasty. There’s real coffee in there, but happily no coffee grounds (which is kinda a pet peeve of mine). It’s especially creamy and has a really nice melt on the tongue. This bar has no vanillin in it at all, and that may be why I’ve gravitated towards it. It’s a tasty bar, totally satisfying. The coffee isn’t fake tasting like some of the Hershey products, and it’s not grainy or too bitter. It is sweet, as it’s the milk chocolate, not the dark. But on the whole, my favorite of the three.

Overall they’re nice, munchable chocolate bars with an interesting texture that highlights the flavors. It’s not the best chocolate in the world, but it’s very tasty and enjoyable. It will never replace a good, high quality bar but I feel like it’s more than a novelty item.

As a serving suggestion, I do not advise that you let the chocolate get too warm. When it gets warm it gets fudgy and pliable and the airyness doesn’t quite hold.

Bubble Chocolate is still completing their first orders to get them in stores, but right now you can expect to see them at Trader Joe’s in September.

Interesting note from label: made in Belarus.

Name: Bubble Chocolate: Milk Chocolate, Coffee Milk Chocolate & 60% Dark
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Bubble Chocolate
Place Purchased: All Candy Expo samples
Price: unknown
Size: 2.82 ounces
Calories per ounce: 154-160
Categories: Chocolate, Aerated, Coffee, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:26 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I once had an Aero that completely melted inside the packet. All of it’s bubbles had therefore burst and so to salavage it, I remoulded it as best I could and then froze it. The end result was kinda strange, an Aero with no bubbles.

    Comment by GTO on 7/04/06 at 8:04 am #
  2. They sold Aero in the US in the early nineties—I remember putting my bare foot in one while in the back of a Chevy Blazer in the New Mexican heat.  It did not hold up well.

    Comment by eliza on 7/04/06 at 8:48 am #
  3. Speaking of Bubble Chocolate I work at the NBC Today Show and they had a special on today July 4th featuring the best new candy product trends.
    You couldn’t believe the attention Bubble Chocolate was getting before the feature aired and after they stopped filming, they only had about 5min to air the whole segment and the products were rushed through. Bubble Chocolate was the only bar mentioned I believe except for a snickers bar in the Chocolate category.

    Comment by Pete on 7/04/06 at 1:45 pm #
  4. Cybele's avatar

    GTO - yeah, I don’t think the chocolate, because of the process that it goes through, can be reconstituted.

    Eliza - yeah, I’m having a terrible time with my goodies right now. I’m saving them by putting them in the fridge, but they’re not much fun to eat cold.

    Pete - I saw the segment! (I got an email ahead of time that the segment would be on.) I was a little disappointed that it was all about kids’ sour stuff when there were so many other cool new products out there for all ages. But it was neat to see the kid correspondent. She did a nice job.

    Comment by Cybele on 7/04/06 at 4:07 pm #
  5. no Areo?  Ugg!!!! Areo is one of my favorite bars!

    Comment by janet shum on 7/05/06 at 2:58 am #
  6. i’ve always loved aero, and had some luck finding them in world market stores… i’ll definitely give the bubble chocolate thing a try (although that name is really kinda dorky)

    Comment by ruffy on 7/05/06 at 4:58 am #
  7. I am ridiculously excited for these to be available near me. I’m too lazy to go to real specialty shops, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Trader’s Joes release. It looks absolutely amazing in the pictures, so I just hope the texture and flavor holds up to my expectations.

    Comment by N.B. on 7/06/06 at 1:07 am #
  8. I can’t wait for this either.  September seems so far away right now.

    Comment by g on 7/06/06 at 4:15 am #
  9. Cybele's avatar

    Janet - like Ruffy, I’ve found the Aero bars at import stores. But I imagine they’re much fresher in the UK and Canada. There are a couple of varieties I haven’t tried yet.

    Ruffy - the original name was “Bubble Wrap” which I think I might prefer.

    NB - I hope so too!

    g - it’s already July!

    Comment by Cybele on 7/07/06 at 1:45 pm #
  10. I’m completely shocked that the US doesn’t have Aero chocolate bars. We’ve had them here for eons! What on earth made the US so standoffish about bubbles in their chocolate? hmmm… ;-D

    Comment by Nerissa on 7/08/06 at 6:08 am #
  11. In the 80s, Cadbury had an Aero-like bar here in the U.S. called Wispa - it had a lot of fun adverts alluding to how light the chocolate was. I loved them. Now I go to the British Imports shop in Plymouth to stock up on Aeros and Curley Wurleys. And Milk Tray.

    Comment by Michelle on 7/12/06 at 9:35 pm #
  12. Cybele's avatar

    Michelle - yeah, Cadbury renamed the Wispa to Dairy Bubble or something like that and it’s far less prevalent than it used to be.

    Nerissa - My guess about the bubbles thing is that it feels like the chocolate bar is cheap - that you’re being cheated when it’s half air. Americans are weird. It could also be that the ones that were introduced here were just made with bad chocolate (like the Nestle one).

    Comment by Cybele on 7/13/06 at 6:38 am #
  13. Bubble chocolate sounds so neat! I can’t not wait to try it!
    [advertising links removed by admin]

    Comment by Susan Panzica on 8/02/06 at 8:01 am #
  14. I miss the chocolite sooo much!

    Apparently popular in Russian areas too, called poristy.

    Comment by milovoo on 8/13/06 at 6:10 am #
  15. Hi,

    I left a previous post on Bubble Chocolate,well here is another.
    Guess what just rolled past my desk at NBC, a brown foot locker with a big Bubble Chocolate logo on top. Seems they are heading for Kyra Sedwick location to give her, get this $45,000 worth of stuff that is inside the rolling locker.
    I found out that Bubble Chocolate sponsered the Emmys give away and are giving Bubble Chocolate for a year to all the losers of the Emmys.
    You never know what will roll by at NBC.
    Pete

    Comment by Pete on 8/29/06 at 7:34 am #
  16. Hi, sir/ madam

    im kitchie a student, we have a group research study and our topic is about a chocolate bubble gum from cacao… can u please help us to a process of chocolate bubble gum from cacao, have a search process about the chocolate but it is not enough for study… I hope u will accpt my email and i will waiting for your responce… thank you and godbles you all…

    Comment by kitchie on 11/17/06 at 12:56 am #
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