Thursday, January 12, 2012

Joyva Sesame Crunch

In the history of candy, I’m pretty confident that some of the earliest boiled candy sweets created were nut and seed brittles. The genre of sesame brittles fit in nicely as one of those candies that I think has been around for a thousands of years. Early versions probably used date sugar and honey instead of refined sugar.

Joyva Sesame

The Joyva Sesame Crunch is a dead simple candy, made well and without much fuss or fanfare. It’s sold in two formats, the large single serving plank (1.125 ounces) and little individually wrapped snaps.

It has only four ingredients: sesame seed, sugar, corn syrup, honey. It’s packaged equally simply, a small paperboard card to keep the slab from breaking and then inserted into a cellophane sleeve. The logo may not be a thousand years old, but certainly looks like it could be from the 1970s.

Joyva Sesame

I’ve been eating these candies for years, and they seem to fall into the genre of healthy, judging by the number of natural food stores that carry them. They’re exceptionally durable too, since there’s no chocolate they don’t melt and the coating of sugary candy over the sesame seals them up so they don’t oxidize (get rancid).

The brittle base is just boiled sugar and some honey, the flavor is mostly from the sesame seeds themselves, which are nicely toasted and have a good oily, nutty balance with a light grassy and bitter note. The sweetness is mild, and the overall crunch and chew is long lasting. I find that when I buy these, I have a hard time not eating whatever quantity I have in one sitting. Still, my ideal version would probably have a little more candy to it, and a little more honey flavor.

Since sesame seeds are the main ingredient, there’s a fair amount of fat in the bar, though I’ve read that sesame oil is quite healthy as far as vegetable oils go. The bar is filling, but not too sweet, so it straddles the line of snack and candy very nicely. It’s filling and even has a little bit of protein, so it will probably keep blood sugar levels from spiking like other pure sugar candies might. The calories on the label say 180 for the bar, but I think that’s steep for a sesame candy that’s only 1.125 ounces. (Tahini is about 160 calories per ounce and has no sugar in it, which is lower in calories per ounce than sesame oil.)

The bar is Kosher, naturally, as well as being marked as gluten free. It may contain traces of almonds or pistachios. The package doesn’t say anything about peanuts. It’s not vegan, unless you’re the kind of vegan who’s okay with honey.

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Name: Sesame Crunch
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Joyva
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only (Miracle Mile)
Price: $.50
Size: 1.125 ounces
Calories per ounce: 169
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Kosher, Nuts, United States, 99 Cent Only Store

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:13 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     All NaturalCandyReviewNuts7-Worth ItUnited States99 Cent Only Store

Comments
  1. Wow, fantastic. Is the first time I see this sesame candy bar. I know there are Candy sesame (because we do some, hehe) and sooooome candy bars but look quite diferent and the envelope is always related to a light and healthy look (as you said), and soldin very specific places.
    I’m going to the USA in two months, so I’m going to look for this ones!
    Pere
    @configirona

    Comment by Pere on 1/13/12 at 5:54 am #
  2. Just had a Joyva Sesame Crunch about a month ago. Was tasty but a little too hard. My Hubby ate the rest of it happily.

    Comment by Melonie.H on 1/14/12 at 9:57 pm #
  3. I love these—the taste of sesame is so addictive! And no, I don’t think the packaging has changed in decades!

    Comment by Alix on 1/16/12 at 7:05 am #
  4. I HAVE TO SAY THAT CORN SYRUP IS OBJECTIONABLE; YOU MAY KNOW THAT GMO CORN IS BEGINNING TO PROVE BAD FOR THE HEALTH OF LIVING BEINGS. IT IS CERTAINLY NOT NECESSARY TO ADD CORN SYRUP TO HONEY TO MAKE THESE DELICIOUS. BUT I WILL NOT BUY THEM UNTIL HTE CORN SYRUP IS ELIMINATED. ESPECIALLY NOT GOOD FOR CHILDREN, ANYTHING MADE WITH GMO CORN.

    Comment by Naima on 10/01/12 at 12:54 pm #
  5. We love sesame crunch is addictive…..

    Comment by Vianney Ortiz on 2/05/13 at 12:54 pm #
  6. Yum yum eat ‘em up!

    Comment by Nan on 4/16/14 at 3:32 pm #
  7. SO happy to find out these delicious bits are gluten free - as I am trying to eat that way now!  AND have a new source since we moved.  Good news all around.  Love these things!  : -))  As the author says, hard not to eat the whole bag.

    Comment by Marcia on 7/18/14 at 8:21 pm #
  8. Hello.  I as well agree with previous comment by Naima - The JOIVA Company should eliminate the corn syrup if they have any care for their consumers.  I think it would be equally as tasty with just the honey as I make this snack at home sometimes using just the honey and the sesame. It seems that due the abundance of GMO corn being grown in the US, it has been factored in to most all foods and in most cases it is not needed. The fact that this snack has genetically modified ingredients turns me off from enjoying it as much as I could.  I have decided to not purchase this item until it has become GMO free without any corn syrup. Natural honey + sesame is good. Distribute more health conscious products and the healthy eaters that have supported the yummmy Sesame Crunch taste will have more respect for you as a business.  Thanks

    Comment by Joanna Nasios on 4/21/15 at 1:02 pm #
  9. Joanna,
    I was curious if you could tell me how you make the bars at home with just sesame and honey.  How do you press them and how do you get them hard and crunchy?
    Thanks
    mark

    Comment by Mark on 6/28/15 at 1:29 pm #
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