Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Annabelle’s U-No

Name: U-No
Brand: Annabelle’s
Place Purchased: Savon
Price: $.79
Size: 1.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 167
Type: Chocolate

U-NO

Like many of the other West Coast candy bars (Rocky Road), I think I ignored this one because I didn’t know what it was. After all, if it was good, I would have tried it by now. I’d never seen anyone eating one and certainly never heard it in conversation. Now I’ve heard two different pronunciations of it. One is: You-Know and the other us Ooh! No! I have no idea which is right.

Their website describes the bar like this, “Smooth, Rich Milk Chocolate truffle-like center, covered with Milk Chocolate and ground almonds.  Guaranteed to melt in your mouth!”

The bar is huge but very light for its size. It looks pretty and smells chocolatey and less sugary than many other bars. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’d like to invoke that guarantee or not, but it definitely doesn’t melt in my mouth. I bit into it, and found it soft and yielding, but not mushy. It did melt, in the sense that it spread out on my tongue, but it didn’t give itself up, but kind of rolled around in a strange oiliness. The chocolate on the outside is a different matter, just nice and chocolatey.

The flavor of the center is like a fluffy truffle with a bit of grainy salt to it (which is actually a nice way to balance the sweet). As excited as I was to see that it was a fluffy truffle bar when I was photographing it, I was equally disappointed when I read the third ingredient on the label is Hydrogenated Coconut Oil and the bar packs 11 grams of saturated fat (I have no idea how much of that is trans fat). It’s just not a bar I can recommend to those who aren’t already terminally ill. I know, it’s candy and it’s all unhealthy, but let’s face it, there are other candies out there that can be satisfying and not nearly as laden with hydrogenated oils.

I know, you think it’s odd that the candy blogger is talking about health issues, so I should make a few things clear. I’m a fit person for the most part. I keep my weight within norms and I am pretty active. So I can afford some discretionary calories on candy (usually limited to 500 calories per day). But sometimes it’s not just calories that you have to look at. A lot of candies contain trans fats, but usually in smaller amounts. A candy that contains a large percentage of hydrogenated oils just isn’t a good idea for regular indulgence. If it’s just a once or twice a year thing, I’d say you’re in the clear. (Please do not substitute candy blog advice for that of a qualified physician or dietician.)

If they, however, created a new recipe using butterfat, I am so there!

Rating - 4 out of 10.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:19 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewAnnabelle'sChocolate4-BenignUnited States

Comments
  1. I’ve had millions of these, each better and tastier than the one before!

    Looks like I better stock up, cuz I think they’ll soon be illegal!

    Comment by russ on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  2. Eww, that much oil in a chocolate bar can’t possibly be healthy OR tasty… “strange oiliness”.... Eww.

    Comment by Tindy on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  3. Thanks for thinking of my health with this review!  Not that I ever exercise or anything, but if I did, I sure would want to know…;)

    Comment by Julilla on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  4. I can’t stress enough how good U-no and Rocky Road bars are good right out of the freezer!!!! If you havn’t tried it yet DO IT NOW! My late father did this back in the 70s and it must have been an underground secret. Perv.

    Comment by Anonymous on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  5. gross-i will not eat anything if i can help it with trans fats-i read about it on http://www.bantransfats.com and now i just stay clear of it-there are so many good choices that don’t have trans fats and taste good as well.

    Comment by charlize on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  6. Cybele's avatar

    charlize - I’m planning on having a special category where I’ll list candies that have trans fats (or maybe trans fat free candies). I was also thinking of listing vegan ones too.

    Comment by Cybele on 12/31/69 at 4:00 pm #
  7. U-NO is properly pronounced “yoo’-no”  as in “YOU know!” (The hyphen in the middle gives it away.)

    This is my favorite candy bar, but will all the saturated fat, I limit myself to 3 or 4 per year. I enjoy most chocolate candy right out of the freezer, but not U-NO; the light-textured mouth feel is lost when a U-NO bar is frozen.

    I’ve NEVER had a U-NO bar with an oily mouth feel. Never ever.

    Annabelle used to make a mint U-NO bar, but I have seen one of those in several years.

    I’d rate this bar 9 of 10.

    Comment by You know! on 2/02/06 at 6:38 pm #
  8. First off…I am a Pre-Med major from Idaho State University, and have a pretty good idea about Trans-Fat/Heart Disease…If everybody looked around at their gene’s and seen if Mom, Dad, Granda Pa and Ma and all their uncles and aunts had a propensity to dying of heart failure, then you have a pretty good chance of doing it too!  Now about the U-No bar’s and death!  I would literally die happy eating a U-NO and having a Myocardial Infarction!  Yes the Bar is that good!  As a matter of Saturated vs. Transfat, my Great Aunt died of Cholesterol Poisoning at the age of 103!  She would fry her eggs in the bacon grease, all fluffy and yummy!  She even cooked them for me!  I’m 63 year old Disabled Veteran from the United States Coast Guard, and the V.A. says I am so healthy that it is sickening!  Ha Ha!  Now, just remember…an ounce is 29 grams!  Do the math!  Ninety U-NO candy bars per month will have only one ounce of saturated or unsaturated Fat.  Yummy!!!  ENJOY!

    Comment by James Humberg on 3/31/14 at 8:08 pm #
  9. Hmm… a trans fat apologist.  Now I’ve seen everything.

    No one should eat ninety candy bars a month, which averages out to about three a day.  Health risks aside, seriously- only the basest hedonist wouldn’t have a problem with that much self-indulgence.

    Comment by Paul on 4/01/14 at 12:51 pm #
  10. Gad!  Some people just don’t get it!  Whether it be an Anabelle’s U-NO candy bar, or a 747 crashing through your roof…Understand this…I was just doing a tongue in cheek parody on what Obsessive Compulsive Health nuts think about!

    Really!  And also remember this Death is Permanent! And nobody will get out of this life alive! Soooooo…Eat well! Stay Fit! Die Anyway!  Go Annabelle!  You Rock…ER…U-NO!

    And sir, unless you are one, don’t try flexing your verbal moroseness, over this one salient point I am trying to make, because it will eat you alive!  So, I have proved your own inability to see humor! And what did you do to my dissertation on the health benefits of the U-NO bar, You go and get so O.C. that people who read your comment, will say there goes Crazy O.C. Paul with his Annabell’s Protest shirt on!  And Yes!  If they havn’t started calling you crazy Paul, they will get around to it!  It is Only a CANDY BAR!  Get over it!  So be it!

    Comment by James Humberg on 4/01/14 at 3:18 pm #
  11. This candy bar was one thing I loved as a child/teenager.
    I would bypass the bag of nickle candy I could buy for the wonderful experience of this melt in your mouth candy bar. To this day I love chocolate truffles. I give the u-no bar credit for this. I moved away from the west coast over twenty years ago and greatly miss this candy bar. However it would not be the same anyway, the recipe has changed and so has the taste. It does resemble the same bar but the decadence is just not there. RIP u-no you are missed.

    Comment by Dena on 1/24/15 at 10:06 am #
  12. My sister and I took a 10-day road trip to visit family and friends from our childhood. One of the best parts of the trip was rediscovering our childhood delights which included snacks and candy we used to love… Munchos, Bugles, Zingers, Hostess cakes, Mountain Cherry Bars, Rocky Roads, and my number one love of all times, the U-No bar. (And yes, we had the “ooo-no” vs “you-know” debate and “U”-nanymously agreed on on the latter.) 

    We savored the bites and the memories that came with them, and yes, in some cases we enjoyed the moment and that was enough. But with our beloved U-No and Rocky Road bars, we stocked up whenever we found them and indulged without guilt.

    Approaching our golden years, we find ourselves more forgiving in that the chocolate coatings seemed a little skimpy, but hey, the reality is that very little has improved in taste since the good old days. 

    What childhood dream would be complete without McDonald’s french fries? Which, if you remember them from 50 years ago before frying in fat was a cardinal sin, they were to die for (literally I guess if you’re talking optimal health). We were in heaven because when we were kids, there was only one size (small) and you had to pay for ketchup!

    James Humberg, I’ll take your humor over do-good downers who don’t get it smile Maybe we can meet up on our next road trip and share a chocolate dipped Foster’s Freeze cone and deep fried corn dog. (

    Comment by Ruk N'Cas on 7/20/17 at 11:03 am #
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