Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Ritter Sport Sommer-Genuss 2010 Limited EditionsAs if Ritter Sport doesn’t have a large enough repertoire of bars, they have been introducing seasonally-themed limited editions. I tried the Fruhlingsspezialitaten 2010 that I found at a local import shop earlier this year. They included Haselnuss Krokant, Cashew in Alpenmilch and Bourbon Vanille. The summer versions were not so easy to find in the States but some Ritter Sport folks were happy to help me out with some samples. The summer flavors were: Stracciatella, Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt and Waldbeer Joghurt. The Stracciatella features 37% cacao milk chocolate and a bourbon vanilla cream filling with chocolate bits. It’s been many years since I’ve had real Stracciatella, which is a gelato (Italian ice cream) with stripes of chocolate that form little crunchy flakes or chips. In my experience it was usually dark chocolate. I recall being excited by the spring version of Bourbon Vanille, but then disappointed by the lack of rum-laden vanilla notes. Here too I thought that the kind of fudgy vanilla cream center was a little bland. It’s not fatty and doesn’t quite melt in my mouth. It also isn’t very flavorful ... but also not very sweet or sticky. The little chips in it are small and don’t really add much flavor to it. I think I would have been really happy if this was a dark chocolate bar, I think that’s the kick it needs - some really rich dark chocolate. However, plain vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips has never been a favorite flavor of mine, so this might be the perfect bar for folks who do like that. This was the only white chocolate bar in the mix. Ritter Sport does do great things with white chocolate, the key being that they use real cocoa butter to begin with. Ritter Sport is also big on yogurt. I’ve tried their Yogurt, Strawberry Yogurt and Olympia bars before. The only other country that I’ve noticed with such a fanaticism for yogurt flavored candy is Japan. The Pfirsich-Maracuja Joghurt is a white chocolate shell with a peach and passion fruit yogurt cream center. There are also little rice flakes thrown in there for texture and crunch. The bar is simple and plain, a soft and creamy yellow/white chocolate bar. When I saw the reviews of this bar, I really wasn’t interested. I like real peaches and I find passion fruit okay but not my favorite. So a white chocolate bar flavored with these ... along with yogurt (which is good stuff but not exactly a candy flavoring), well, I just didn’t think they could pull it off. But they did! It’s utterly surprising. It smells like passion fruit - a tangy and sharp floral and tropical scent that goes well with the dairy yogurt note. The peach is a faint pine and pear whiff in the background. The white chocolate is sweet but rather smooth. The rice flakes give it a little crunch, like there are freeze dried fruit bits in there. It’s milky but mostly fruity. I wouldn’t buy this often, but I do see its appeal and I’m glad that Ritter Sport is taking a few risks with outside the box flavors in their limited editions. The Ritter Sport Waldbeer Joghurt seemed positively the tamest and safest flavor of the bunch. Waldbeer is forest fruits, or basically mixed berries. The package shows blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. The format is similar to the Pfirsich-Maracuja Jogurt in that it’s a yogurt cream center flavored with fruit and studded with little crisped rice flakes. The chocolate on this bar is milk. At first glance it didn’t seem that different from the classic Strawberry Yogurt bar that Ritter Sport is already known for. It smells nice, exactly like berry yogurt - there’s the floral notes of the berries and the dairy twang of the yogurt. The flavors are pleasant and the yogurt takes a back seat as the berry flavors come forward. The milk chocolate is smooth and give a slight dairy contribution, but also keeps the whole thing from getting too sweet. The rice flakes have a little crunch, but there are also little bits of freeze dried berry in here too, so sometimes they’re tangy and sometimes they’re more of a light malty cereal flavor. Overall it’s decent. Munchable and satisfying, but not quite what I’d find myself craving. These may be available online at shops like GermanDeli.com and eBay.com. Don’t take my opinion as gospel, see: Gigi Reviews Waldbeer Yogurt, Cinabar reviews Waldbeer Yogurt, Candyholic (German) reviews Waldbeer Yogurt and Stracciatella, ZOMGCandy reviews Stracciatella, It’s All About Limited Edition reviews Stracciatella and Jim’s Chocolate Mission reviews Stracciatella and Summer Limited Editions in Mini form. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:42 pm Candy • Ritter Sport • Chocolate • Cookie • Limited Edition • White Chocolate • 5-Pleasant • 7-Worth It • Germany • |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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The knusperflake and yoghurt bars are two of my favorites from ritter, so it sounds like the latter two from this review are right up my alley.
Great pictures!
looks yummy!!
Hi.
I’ve been a fan of Ritter Sport since I was in the Air Force and stationed in Germany back in the mid-1980s, and I was über-delighted when I discovered that it was available in stores here in Chicago! My favorite was always Rum Trauben Nuss, and I was able to purchase it at Valli Produce, here in Chicago, until about a year and a half ago. I thought the store just stopped selling it, but my search online revealed comments from others that they can’t find it, here or anywhere else in the States.
Have you any info on a reason for this?
Thanks!
Tony - the Rum Trauben Nuss is difficult to sell in the States. First, it has a short shelf life because the alcohol evaporates. Second, there are many states that don’t allow it to be sold because of the high alcohol content. Third, there were some difficulties with international tariffs about two years ago and this was an easy one for Ritter to excise from their list to keep from incurring these import taxes (which were usually added on to the sales price).
I think you can get it from places that do under the table imports and I’ve also seen another package just called Rum which is like the nougatine with a rum infusion. They’re sold in small pieces in bags around Christmas at places like Cost Plus World Market and some delis that sell seasonal candy.
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