Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Galaxy Minstrels

Galaxy MinstrelsI’ve been on a kick to find summer-friendly chocolate. M&Ms certainly fit the bill but of course that doesn’t help Candy Blog readers who are already well aware of them.

While wandering around Mel & Rose’s wide selection of imported mass-produced candies I finally found Galaxy Minstrels in single sized packs.

The package seemed light and didn’t seem to have a lot of candy in it, but I’m always game for something new to me.

Galaxy is a chocolate brand made by Mars and sold in the UK and selected parts of Europe (if the languages on the back of the package were any evidence, I’d say Greece/Cyprus and Spain). Though many folks consider Dove to be the American equivalent of Galaxy, there are a few subtle differences. (My previous Galaxy review.)

Galaxy Minstrels

Minstrels are big, about .75 inches in diameter. They’re like giant M&Ms but the proportions are more like Nestle Smarties - a bit flatter.

All of the candies are dark brown ... no color varieties here. These are serious candies, somber and easy to pick up.

The flavor is like chocolate milk, slightly weak but sweet & rich chocolate milk. It’s not strongly chocolate ... it doesn’t even have a distinct cocoa flavor, it’s more about milk. The crunch of the shell is good - crispy and without any additional flavors (like I experience with Smarties, which have a bit of a Cheerios flavor).

They’re completely different from M&Ms as far as I’m concerned, they’re more like white chocolate than milk chocolate. Looking at the ingredients list I can see that they’re not even qualified to be called chocolate in the United States, which has more stringent standards than the UK, which allows vegetable fat and whey - though it still has a strong proportion of cocoa butter as it is the second ingredient. (I’m lumping this in both the mockolate and chocolate categories.)

They’re really nice, I had two packages and ate both. There’s a slight malty tone to it, it’s milky without being sticky sweet like Cadbury and of course the bold disks make them fun to play with. If these were widely available, I’d certainly pick them up regularly, especially to pair with pretzels, Sugar Babies and almonds for a summer trail snack.

I mentioned last week that Cadbury in the UK is going Fair Trade; Galaxy in the UK is moving towards certification with the Rainforest Alliance for sustainable cocoa growing.

Related Candies

  1. M&Ms Premiums
  2. Head to Head: M&Ms vs Koppers Milkies
  3. UK Smarties (no artificial colors)
  4. M&Ms Line
  5. Revels
  6. Mars Maltesers
Name: Galaxy Minstrels
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: Mel & Rose Wine & Liquors (Los Angeles)
Price: $1.29
Size: 1.48 ounces
Calories per ounce: 142
Categories: Chocolate, Mockolate, United Kingdom, Mars

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:44 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Sera's avatar

    I see these every so often and haven’t tried them, now I’m eager to give them a go. smile

    Comment by Sera on 7/07/09 at 3:20 pm #
  2. At the risk of provoking a firestorm, doesn’t eating brown things called Minstrels give you a slight sense of ooginess?

    Comment by David A. Spitzley on 7/09/09 at 8:10 am #
  3. Oh, you know what you just MUST do? Eat them interspersed with sips of a strong Irish Breakfast or Early Grey tea…like Barry’s Gold. It’s SO PERFECT.

    Comment by Jackie Joy on 7/18/09 at 4:41 pm #
  4. Hi. i live in Australia Gold Coast. I went to england a few weeks ago and had some minstrels. Can you buy them over in Australia.. Also can you get Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream here?

    Comment by Alex M. on 8/29/09 at 7:32 pm #
  5. I am in the UK now and have a bag of Minstrels on my desk. Here is the ingredients list: smooth and creamy milk chocolate (76%) in a crisp shell - Ingredients: sugar, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, cocoa mass, lactose, vegetable fat, whey powder, milk fat, dextrin, emulsifier (soya lecithin), natural colours (curcumin, vegetable carbon, beetroot red), start, glazing agent (carnauba wax), vegetable oil, natural flavourings, naturally vanilla extract. Milk chocolate contains milk solids 14% minimum

    Comment by Leslie on 6/14/13 at 12:02 pm #
  6. Hello, I would like to know how can I buy these Minstrels, where?

    I was in beautiful England last June 2013 Liverpool, Manchester, Stroke-On-Trent and London. I never saw a bag of Minstrels the entire time that I was there. Fell madly in love with the country, and the people, but what I was looking for, was no where to be found or bought. What a sad pity.
    Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.
    Thank you.

    Comment by Diane on 2/11/14 at 5:57 pm #
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