This review is less about the malted milk balls and more about gratuitous photos of cross-sections of candy. I couldn’t resist.
These malt balls are Maple flavored and from Naked Chocolate in Philadelphia, PA. I don’t know that much more about them. In fact, I’m not even sure that they are Maple flavored, there’s no label on them that says one way or another, but they taste maple-y (or maybe pecanish?) and that’s good enough for me.
They’re stunning to look at from the outside. Wonderfully glossy, these milk chocolate covered balls have a secret inside, a second inner shell of dark chocolate. This may be where the flavor is.
The malted center doesn’t pack the malty punch that I usually look for, but the woodsy smell and taste along with the crunchy center was pleasant enough for me to eventually eat the whole package.
These orange beauties are Pumpkin Spice. Again, I’m guessing here, because there were no labels. They definitely had a good pack of spice in them, some mellow nutmeg, a little allspice and a light hit of cinnamon & clove (not so much as to bother me).
The orange color took a while getting used to, as did the sweetness of the white chocolate (that looks orange). There were no pumpkin notes, but that’s okay with me (I’d already had my fill of Pumpkin KitKats before I got these).
I can’t say that I liked these as much as the maple ones, at least that’s what the evidence of me still having the Pumpkin ones around and no more Maple says. They do make my desk drawer smell fresh and woodsy. Perhaps it’s that the center of the ball isn’t malty but more like a graham cracker flavor. Which probably goes with pumpkin spices better but left me wanting my malt fix.
I’ve seen a lot of different flavored malt balls out there, peanut butter, espresso, toffee crunch, mint ... the list goes on and on. And though some of these iterations are good, they lack the malt delivery that I’ve come to expect in a sphere of chocolate with a crunchy center. So either I have to adjust my thinking about what I’m about to eat or I need to stop picking these up and hoping to get my malt on. Then they’re pretty good.
UPDATE: it looks like these are actually made by Koppers.
Related Candies
- Cafe Select Chocolate Coffee Trios
- Brach’s Fiesta Eggs
- Naked Chocolate Maltballs
- Jelly Belly Chocolate Malt Balls
- Mars Maltesers
Name: |
Naked Chocolate Malt Balls: Maple & Pumpkin |
RATING:
- SUPERB
- YUMMY
- TASTY
- WORTH IT
- TEMPTING
- PLEASANT
- BENIGN
- UNAPPEALING
- APPALLING
- INEDIBLE
|
Brand: |
Naked Chocolate (Philadelphia) |
Place Purchased: |
gift (thanks Susan!) |
Price: |
unknown |
Size: |
unknown |
Calories per ounce: |
unknown |
Categories: |
Chocolate, Malt, United States |
Pumpkin and Maple flavors are big, big favorites of mine. I’m really tempted to try these because I’d be after the flavors they “taste” of rathar than the malt. it’s be interesting to see how they rate to me. Where did you find them?
Hey Cybele - I thought of your blog today while eyeing some delicious and beautiful sweets in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, and thought I’d give you a heads up in case you haven’t already ventured there. In Vicente Foods, the fancy schmancy grocery store On San Vicente/Bundy, there is an entire aisle wall of some rare beauties. I was particularly drawn to these big fluffy rich flavored marshmallows. they came in 6 packs, with flavors covered in toasted coconut, honey maple, chocolate something…tons of stuff on the shelf! Can’t wait to see if you make it there!
Those look really good! I haven’t ever tried pumpkin flavoured candy, but it looks interesting.
I was wondering…have you ever tried Jones Soda carbonated candy or Warp energy mints (my fave is the Green-T flavour). If you haven’t, I can probably send you some samples. It’s my friend’s Toronto based company that makes the candies. They are soooooooo good and sooooooo addictive. You can check out their link on my latest blog post http://www.lifeonmanitoulin.blogspot.com . Let me know if you’d like to try them. I’m always up for spreading the news on my friend’s amazing candies! LOL!
Sera - in the little details box I always put my source on the candy (I know if you’re reading via feed you can’t see that stuff) ... in this case it was a gift from my sister in law. She got them at Naked Chocolate Cafe in Philadelphia. (She also picked up some very good halvah, which I ate and never photographed or blogged.)
caitlin - I should definitely make a trip to Brentwood and put Vicente Foods on my list. I also want to go to Compartes anyway. I really have a hankering for some chocolate covered fruit lately.
Christine - I’ll keep an eye out for the Jones stuff! I always enjoy their flavor offerings in sodas (though I don’t drink soda).
Would you like me to send you some? Just let me know where to address them, and they’re on their way
PS. I don’t drink soda/pop/carbonated drinks either….but these candies are goooood!
Hi Cybele, I just picked up some malt balls at Economy Candy here in NYC today, and they have the same inner dark chocolate - outer milk chocolate shells. Maybe manufactured by the same company? Or a new malt ball trend? In any case they are only $2.99/lb—probably cheaper than the Naked Chocolate brand!
I found plain malt ball centers at Nuts Online. I seem to recall somebody was looking for them.
http://www.nutsonline.com/chocolatessweets/malted-milk-balls/malt-ball-centers.html
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