Monday, March 1, 2010
Wonka Exceptionals ScrumdiddlyumptiousNestle has wisely decided to up their support for the Wonka brand. The Wonka brand of candies was launched shortly after the release of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. They were originally made by Sunline but Nestle bought up Sunline (also the maker of SweeTarts and Pixy Stix) in 1988. At that time the Wonka brand consisted of a combination of candies mentioned in the book, such as Everlasting Gobstoppers but mostly fanciful original creations such as Peanut Butter Oompas (picture here), Super Scrunch (picture here). They later focusing more on profitable and successful sugar candies such as Wacky Wafers (picture here), Dweebs, Runts, DinaSour Eggs (picture here) and of course Nerds. The early Wonka Scrumdidilyumptious bar was a “chocolately caramel crisp” - the format was rather long, thick and narrow. (See this counter display.) Nestle is reinvigorating the brand, both the sugar candy side (new gummis like Sluggles & Puckerooms, sour filled licorice like Kazoozles and chocolate popping candy like Tinglerz). Their chocolate line called Wonka Exceptionals capitalizes both on the imaginative side of the Wonka character from the Roald Dahl books as well as the quality aspect which has been largely lacking in previous chocolate products. The launch is with three different bars and foil wrapped pieces: Scrumdiddlyumptious, Domed Dark Chocolate & Chocolate Waterfall. This new version of the Wonka Scrumdiddlyumptious Bar is spelled slightly differently: diddly instead of didily. It’s listed on the back of the package as Bar No. 17 and described as Milk chocolate with scrumptious toffee, crispy cookie & crunchy peanuts. Sounds good! No one else is making a bar quite like this, so it’s exciting to see them creating something original instead of a different packaging format of an existing product. The little foil wrapped pieces are cute. They’re 1.25” long, 1” wide and about .33” high. They smell lightly chocolatey, but not as peanutty as I expected. The texture of the milk chocolate is super smooth and silky - a far cry from the waxy stuff in other Nestle products. It’s exceptionally sweet though, so too much of it and it burned my throat. The inclusions were little bits of graham cracker like cookies (digestive biscuits is perhaps more appropriate for comparison), little buttery toffee nuggets and peanut bits. The variations in the nuggets meant that some pieces and bites were more interesting than others. The toffee had a good crunch to it and a salty note. The peanuts were not deeply roasted and were more grassy but still gave a different chew. The cookie pieces were mild and gave a malty cereal note to it. The chocolate quality is a huge upgrade from the Wonka Bar (which is now discontinued - these will replace it). I don’t think I’d spend the premium for this in a bar format mostly because the Green & Black’s Peanut bar is truly scrumptious, similarly price but also organic & soon to be Fair Trade). However, foil wrapped pieces are different enough to warrant consideration. Each piece is less than 50 calories, so if you have trouble controlling portions with a large bar, these are a nice option. The packaging is fanciful, though definitely cluttered and not that easy to read as most of the colors are the same value. The holographic plastic is a bit of overkill as far as I’m concerned (and probably resource intensive) but I’m guessing the bags without the “Golden Ticket” giveaway will be a bit clearer. I was most impressed with the fact that they were even creative with the bar code on the package. The product line is expensive, we’re talking Dove or Hershey’s Bliss level, not the ordinary Nestle Crunch prices. The bags I picked up hold 9.5 ounces and were $4.99 each. (The press release from the company said retail is $4.49 and I’m guessing there will be sales where you can find them for about $3 a bag.) The bars are 3.5 ounces and retail for $2.49 each. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:39 pm |
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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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I’m glad to hear the chocolate has improved. I’d be curious to see the ingredients (which you often post). I seem to recall that the Wonka Bar was close to mockolate (and very…. bleh). This is certainly more tempting.
KateC - I’m happy to provide them. (It was a very long post.) They’re almost all-natural.
Sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, peanuts, milkfat, lactose, butter, rice flour and less than 1% of palm oil, soy lecithin, corn flour, modified corn starch, salt, natural flavors and high fructose corn syrup.
I don’t like that there’s the HFCS in there, but as it’s the last ingredient, I think it’s forgivable.
I am happy to hear their chocolate quality is improving. The Wonka bar was atrocious. I wish they would make the Wonka bars taste as good as they sound in the books.
Long, but excellent, as always! Thanks for the ingredients . Definitely an improvement.
I didn’t like these very much at all. Considering the legacy of the name - and the amount of really great chocolate out there now, I’d never buy these over the small companies’ offerings at the same price. Just mho.
I just bought these at Walmart in Michigan- $2.97 for 9.5 oz (regular price) and they’re not too bad. Nice for a little chocolate pick me up in the car!
Maybe they’ll eventually add a return of some adequate version of the old Scrunch bar. A lot of people would love to see a return of that ... even if in smaller pieces, rather than a whole bar.
Forget any flavor guys, girls, these wonderful bars have been discontinued for many years sadly like every other chocolate bar from Wonka (and this being owned by Nestle no less) :rolleyes:
At least when most of the above was written we still got to HAVE a Wonka bar…now it’s jnust “kool” sour candies (my apologies).
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