Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Endangered Species: Peanut Butter Brittle & Rice Crisp

The lovely folks at Endanged Species thought I should try more of their bars (well, so did the lovely Candy Blog readers in the comments section). They happily sent me a small selection to try, here are a couple of the milk chocolate bars.

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Milk Chocolate with Peanut Brittle - there’s an elephant on the package! I’m guessing because elephants like peanuts. The base of this bar is a very dark, rich milk chocolate with 52% cocoa content. In fact, it’s so chocolatey that the sugar (made from water-filtered beet sugar) is third on the list of ingredients instead of first in most milk chocolates. That’s not to say that the chocolate isn’t sweet, but it also has an intense creaminess to it that I’ve found very rare in other milk chocolates. The dairy component is quite rich but it doesn’t feel sticky.

Sprinkled in there are peanut brittle chips. They have a nice salty bite and crispness and add a good peanut crunch. I’d argue that it isn’t really peanut brittle but toffee, since it’s so buttery, but I don’t feel that argument much matters.

This is a fantastic bar that may convert some folks who say they don’t like milk chocolate because it’s too homogeneous tasting but it still retains its munchability. I ate the whole bar in a matter of two days. 9 out of 10.

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Milk Chocolate with Rice Crisp - this bar has a manatee on the front. I doubt manatees have a fondness for rice though as vegetarians I don’t imagine they’d be adverse to it. This bar contains the same dark 52% cocoa content milk chocolate. This bar has a slightly smokier taste to it, which I’m guessing is added by the crisped rice. The first third of the bar, I hated it. The crisped rice tasted bitter and burnt to me. But I thought maybe I just had a bad rice crisp or two. I waited a day and tried it again. The crisped rice still reminds me of those bits of barely popped popcorn that end up in the bottom of the bowl. Very toasted tasting and with a much denser crunch.

Though the second try was more successful, I just wasn’t keen on the rustic taste of the rice crisps. There weren’t enough of them to make it a really crunchy bar and the intense flavor they added didn’t thrill me. I’m a huge fan of grains and eat a lot of them (barley is my favorite, if you didn’t already know) but this just wasn’t my thing. 6 out of 10.

Endangered Species is now based in Indiana (they moved from Oregon last year) and the make ethically traded chocolate bars in a huge variety of flavor combinations. The cool part is that the commitment to the environment goes to all facets of the production and marketing. The packages are printed on recycled paper and with soy-based biodegradable inks. The 10% of all profits are donated to animal conservation causes. Each bar is branded with a different endangered animal and the inside of the wrapper has that animal’s story. There are often coupons as well and tips for making small changes in your life to lessen your impact on the environment.

Though the bars are all natural, these are not organic (though there are other bars in their repertoir that are). Some of the cocoa beans that they acquire are Fair Trade certified and others do not have the certification but are ethically traded. Their packaging and story helps them to appeal to kids moreso than other wholesome-branded chocolates.

Name: Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter Brittle & Rice Crisp
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Endangered Species
Place Purchased: samples from Endangered Species
Price: $2.39 retail
Size: 3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 153
Categories: Chocolate, Cookie, Peanuts, Toffee, United States, Endangered Species, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:40 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I like that they use some of their profits for environmental benefits.

    Comment by claudia on 9/12/06 at 11:57 am #
  2. I thought the elephant bar was a bit sweet, but i LOVE the Endangered Species Wolf Bar! It’s a dark chocolate bar with cherries (or is it cranberries?) and almonds..it’s a great bar! I’ve also wanted to try the chocolate bars with the air bubbles in them but I haven’t found any.

    Comment by christine on 9/12/06 at 12:49 pm #
  3. Both of those sound excellent.

    Comment by Dave on 9/13/06 at 12:02 am #
  4. Someone gave us an elephant bar (as a thank you for cat-sitting) and it was tasty. I found myself thinking “is this really milk chocolate?” As far as the pictures are concerned, I don’t think they are supposed to connect to the chocolate at all, although I like your attempts to find reason in it! :^)

    Comment by Tricia on 9/13/06 at 8:55 am #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    claudia - yeah, I think it makes it all the more fun that they put all that info about the animals on the inside of the wrappers. And that they pick some more obscure animals for some of their bars instead of all elephants and wolves ...

    christine - I have a cherry bar (organic) that I’m trying now, it has a koala on it (but no nuts in it).

    Dave - I’ll have some more reviews in the coming weeks too!

    Tricia - it is definitely dark milk chocolate, which is really refreshing after eating a bunch of Reese’s miniatures over the past week or two.

    Comment by Cybele on 9/13/06 at 9:59 am #
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