Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Nips: Caramel & Dulce de Leche

NipsI was surprised at readers’ passion for Nips, so I thought I’d try a few more varieties.

I found Nips Caramel and Nips Dulce de Leche at the Rite Aid for only 99 cents (same price as the 99 Cent Only Store, see you don’t have to look far for a bargain).

Though the candy is described as rich & creamy hard candy on the front of the box, I don’t think it quite qualifies as hard since it’s not crunchable. It’s also not a caramel, because it’s not chewable. It’s just a Nip, I guess.

Caramel Nips

Caramel Nips look pretty similar to Coffee Nips, but just a smidge lighter in color. They have the same ultra smooth texture, light burnt sugar flavors and slow dissolve.

They’re creamy and milky without being cloying or sticky. They fit well in the mouth, too.

It’s taken me a while to retrain myself when eating Nips that they’re not like Werther’s Originals, I can’t crunch them, instead I’d end up cementing my teeth together.

Overall, not quite as good as the Coffee ones, but that’s a personal preference thing, these are still quite tasty and an excellent candy that belongs in everyone’s candy dish. (Except in really humid climates.)

Dulce de Leche Nips

Readers were lamenting that they thought that the Dulce de Leche Nips were possibly discontinued. I was quite happy to see a large inventory of them at Rite Aid, so I’m just guessing that they focus on regions where dulce de leche is a more recognizable. (Large Latino populations - I’m guessing because the packages for both of these are in both English and Spanish.)

I was a little nervous about these, I do remember having the chocolate parfait ones years ago and not caring much for the grainy and flavorless filling (but that could have been a bad or old batch). There’s no real description on the box either, just the banner that says dulce de leche (which means milk candy and is usually made from sweetened condensed milk boiled slowly to caramelize both the sugar and the milk sugars and served either as a sauce or fudge).

In this case it’s a shell like the Caramel Nip but inside is a layer of a sort of creme like the filling of an Oreo, a little grainy, sweet and chalky.

The overall flavor here is not really caramelized milk to me, instead it’s maple or pecan. It’s woodsy and sweet and nice, but doesn’t really enter into the dulce de leche zone for me. So if they’re looking for a way to make these appealing to other regions, maybe in New England they’d call it Country Maple and in the South they’d call it Toasted Pecan.

The cream made the candy disappear much faster, which wasn’t as fun either. They weren’t as consistent, some had a little cream sticking out of the sides. I’ll stick with the solid ones.

The other flavors still out there: Butter Rum, Chocolate Parfait, Peanut Butter Parfait and Mocha.

Related Candies

  1. Crown Nuggets Borrachitos
  2. Caramilk Maple
  3. Milk Maid Caramel Candy Corn
  4. Nestle Turtles
Name: Nips: Caramel & Dulce de Leche
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Rite Aid (Echo Park)
Price: $.99
Size: 4 ounces
Calories per ounce: 121
Categories: Caramel, United States, Nestle, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:31 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. You need to retry the chocolate parfait.  I am in love with the creamy filling.  I would buy it by itself if I could (But then again I’d also buy the filling from Oreos…).  Chocolate parfaits are delish!  Now I can’t wait to find other flavors.

    Comment by Juice on 8/20/08 at 3:54 am #
  2. I adore Nips. I highly recommend you seek out the Butter Rum flavor next. It’s solid, unlike those other remaining flavors (except for mocha, I believe). It’s not quite as good as Coffee, but still delicious.

    Comment by Ogawa on 8/20/08 at 10:26 pm #
  3. I’m addicted to the Dulce de Leche ones. And I like them even more BECAUSE of the name. I feel like I’m eating an exotic candy.

    One problem: I’ve been finding mishapen, partially unwrapped and stuck-to-the-box Nips lately. Not just one or two, but enough to make me notice. That can’t be a good thing.

    I’ve just found you and you have a beautifully written blog about a very important subject. It’s funny how candy bringss back so many great memories.

    Comment by Sue on 8/23/08 at 4:34 am #
  4. As coomenter # 2 says, please try the butter rum flavor Nips. PLEASE! If you like butter rum lifesavers, butter rums nips are 100% better. it’s a savory milky butter rum taste. The only other Nips I enjoy are the coffee flavor. Most def try butter rum, you will not regret it.

    Comment by Kristin on 8/28/08 at 7:18 am #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    Kristin & Ogawa - I’m still looking for Butter Rum, but I found Peanut Butter Parfait yesterday and will have that up for review soon.

    Sue - yes, I did find a few unwrapped & stuck ones in the Dulce de Leche, but the “non-parfait” ones seemed fine. Maybe it’s something about how sticky they can get.

    Juice - well, now that I’m reconsidering I haven’t seen them!

    Comment by Cybele on 8/28/08 at 10:57 am #
  6. bettyfelon's avatar

    I had two flavors of nips for the first time today

    caramel and chocolate parfait

    I ate the chocolate one first thinking it would just be a chocolate flavored caramel but when I got to the center it was a very plesant surprise
    I wasn’t expecting that at all

    so I ate three more

    Comment by bettyfelon on 9/05/08 at 12:46 pm #
  7. I love the caramel flavored nips but my favorite was the licorice mint which is no longer made.  Any chance of them making a come back.

    Comment by Darlene Adamski on 8/20/09 at 5:40 am #
  8. I believe nip candies are being phased out at least down here. They are very hard to find and when found only a few boxes remain and the price is great. 3 boxes for $2.

    Comment by Tom Campbell on 7/13/11 at 12:27 pm #
  9. Oh eM Geeee

    Comment by Shimmys on 3/25/12 at 8:21 pm #
  10. Whoa i did not know this. This article touched me. It inspired me to make lemonade out of milk.did you know cows drink blood every 999 seconds cause their cannibals. I read this on a snapple cap. I recomend making KFC boxes into funny hats.

    Comment by Rarity on 6/18/12 at 1:27 pm #
  11. Help!  Where in Toronto can you buy Nips? (NOT the sugar-free kind.) I’ve looked and looked, and am down to the last dozen I imported from the States.

    Comment by KMacKenzie on 7/15/12 at 12:46 pm #
  12. Me gustarĂ­a saber donde puedo conseguir los caramelos de dulce de leche gracias por la respuesta y DIOS los siga bendiciendo.

    Comment by Marcela on 8/09/13 at 2:20 pm #
  13. I’am looking for the candies because mi Mon, loves.

    Comment by ana e castillo on 10/07/13 at 8:44 pm #
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