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 Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyCaramelChocolateCoconutMockolateNougatPeanuts5-PleasantTurkeyHighlightRadio Interviews99 Cent Only Store

Comments
  1. Great show!  I’ve listened to a lot of different snack-review podcasts, but sweet is all I’m interested in, so this podcast is just perfect!  I’m always looking forward to the next one, keep up the great work :]

    Comment by Amanda on 3/07/15 at 5:37 pm #
  2. FYI “Almond Joy without the almonds” is a Mounds.  “Almond Joys got nuts, Mounds don’t”. Just a small thing, not trolling. Like the site, thanks.

    Comment by Ed Schmitt on 3/13/15 at 2:26 pm #
  3. Cybele's avatar

    Ed - well, not quite. Almond Joy is milk chocolate, Mounds is dark chocolate (keep singing the song in your head, you’ll get to that part).

    Since the bars are based on Mars products, there is a milk chocolate Bounty. However, there is no Bounty with nuts (which is too bad, because I’ve always wanted a dark chocolate Almond Joy.)

    Comment by Cybele on 3/13/15 at 2:29 pm #
  4. I recently got two of the faux-Snickers bars for $1 at 99C Only.  They are not as good as Snickers, of course, but they were pretty good.  At 2 bars per package, they are 4 bars for $1, you can’t beat that deal anywhere.

    Comment by Jay Melo on 6/10/15 at 8:21 pm #
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