Monday, June 23, 2008
Look! and Big HunkI mention summer candy every now and then and this past weekend with sweltering June heat I figured it was time to start concentrating more on it. Annabelle Candy makes a few good summer candy bars, ones that are exceptionally tolerant of the heat. The Abba Zaba is probably one of the best known, perhaps because of the name and whackable bar. The Look! bar isn’t summer friendly, but the Big Hunk is. For a long time I though that the Look! bar as just a chocolate covered Big Hunk. The Look! is a narrow and flat bar of rich chocolate covered nougat with peanuts and if that sounds like a Snickers without the caramel, it’s a bit more simple than that. Basically, as the package announces, it’s Chewy Good!. It’s about 6 inches long but only a quarter of an inch high. I’ve never had one of these. Though the appealing wrapper tells me to Look! and I do, I never buy. And what a fool I’ve been! It’s everything I love about Bit-o-Honey plus real chocolate and even a hint of molasses. The golden nougat center isn’t easy to bite, so I’ve found peeling back the wrapper and nibbling off a little bite is best (not as big a picture, please, spare yourself that drama of “will it pull out my teeth!”). The dark, creamy and smokey chocolate melts quickly into a buttery chocolate mess just as the peanut molasses chew starts to warm and soften. As the chocolate taste drifts away the lightly salty, woodsy and nutty chew comes forward. It’s smooth and pliable, reminding me a bit of Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews (except for, you know, that real chocolate part). The only thing I wish was that it was easier to eat. I need to find the snack size version. Rating: 8 out of 10. Big Hunk is exactly that. It’s 2 full ounces of chewy nougat studded with peanuts. This bar is about 7 inches long and about a third of an inch thick. Unlike the Look! bar, Big Hunk contains no molasses. Like the Look!, the Big Hunk were first made by another San Francisco-based-confectioner called Golden Nugget Candy Company. Annabelle Candy took them over in 1972 and helped to expand these regional bars to larger national prominence via placement at drug stores and discount retailers. I’ve found, though, that they’re easiest to find on the West Coast. I like to whack the bar to break it into pieces, though this isn’t always easy. It’s studded with peanut & peanut pieces, the nougat itself is a bit lighter in color than the Look!, a bit on the yellow side, I’m guessing from the peanuts. It’s easy to bend, or if you bend it very quickly it also breaks. The wrapper also suggests microwaving for 5 to 10 seconds to make it super soft, but I don’t believe that candy should ever require preparation ... that’s veering into recipe territory. However, leaving on the dashboard of the car in the summertime can have the same result. It can actually become rather stringy this way, depending on how long you leave it in there and how hot it is. It softens up quickly in the mouth, even at room temperature. It’s smooth and has a light honey flavor but mostly it tastes like dark roasted peanuts. It has far more flavor than the Abba Zaba and is a winner in my book. Besides chewing, you can suck on it to disslove it. It reminds me of Cap’n Crunch cereal milk - sweet, a little hint of malt perhaps and of course a creamy background. I’m not as fond of it as the Look!, but it’s still very appealing and as mentioned earlier, this is an ideal summer treat. No melting but still a satisfying creamy experience along with the little boost of protein from the peanuts (3 grams). It’s also promoted as a low fat bar, and the fat that’s in there comes from the peanuts ... but that also means that it’s full of carbs ... which, you know, makes it pretty darn appealing in my book. Rating: 6 out of 10. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:30 am |
||||||||||||||||||
ABOUT
FEEDSCONTACT
EMAIL DIGESTCANDY RATINGSTYPE
BRAND
COUNTRY
ARCHIVES
|
Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
|
*swoon* I cannot begin to say how much I love these two bars! The fact they’re so hard to find out East makes me cry myself to sleep.
Look is one of my childhood favorites. This candy has been around for years at least 60+. The forties candies are getting noticed again. Yeah!
The Look! sure sounds and looks like a Charleston Chew to me.
I’m pretty sure I had a Look! bar every day on my walk back from school from 7th grade on. I’m really happy you found them and enjoyed them.
Never even thought of eating them the best way, with the wrapper peeled down. I guess I was either a messy kid or a fast eater!
I’ve never heard of Look! before, but now I must track one down for J, since he loves the Peanut Chews so much.
Though the appealing wrapper tells me to Look! and I do, I never buy.
Sounds like they need to change the name to “Look! Buy!” or even just “Buy!” :^) Or maybe they need a marketing campaign…
I can remember those candy bars from years ago. I should not have looked at them. They make me fat looking at them. Now I have to go workout. It also made me hungry.
Big Hunk is a fantastic summer bar when consumed as follows:
<ol>
<li>Buy Big Hunk</li>
<li>Put Big Hunk in freezer</li>
<li>Wait</li>
<li>Take frozen Big Hunk out of freezer</li>
<li>Smack still-wrapped Big Hunk on a counter</li>
<li>Unwrap and enjoy chunks of cool, refreshing Big Hunk.</li>
</ol>
Now I really want one :(
watch for skinny hunk - 1 ounce sized big hunk with no peanuts inside. This is my favorite
Like you, I’d never tried a LOOK! before but after reading your review I decided I needed to correct that error.
Wow. Chewy, chocolatey, molasses, I’m in love.
I think the snack size of both of these are the way to go. I think I spotted them at the store. Thanks for the tip on the Skinny Hunk! I haven’t tried them yet.
Hello. So it just happens that I’m eating a Big Hunk right now and when I read my husband what you said he had to have a taste. He said it’s similar to the peanut butter taffies you get at Halloween. I taste mostly vanilla. Neither of us taste Cap’n Crunch though!:)
Got addicted to big hunks while working at a family owned toy store that sold bulk candy. Thus began the candy obsession! I can find big hunks and aba zabba bars here (east coast), but I think I only saw a Look bar once. I must find it! It looks so tasty ...
Side note: I like big hunks much more than aba zabba bars; the latter seemed to have a weird saltiness to the taffy that I did not appreciate. Maybe from the peanut stripe? I dunno—my main draw with the big hunk is the honey flavor.
It’s Not Nougat, It’s taffy.
The Only Time I Bought A Big Hunk Or Look! Was At The Movie Theater. For Five Cents You Had Candy That Would Last Throughout The Whole Movie.
Sugar DaddY And Black Cow Were Better.
i am trying to find where I can buy bags of look and big hunk bars for Halloween I know they are out here cause someone had them where my husband works last year. I love those things. please let me know if you know. I live in lake stevens wash. thank you very much
I take my look bar and wash off the chocolate under hot water put in freezer for 5 minutes and it’s ready with half the sugar and calories. One per day.
Next entry: M&Ms Premiums
Previous entry: Atkinson’s Coconut Long Boys