Category: Candy Bars

Michael

Wunderbar – Chewy, Crunchy, Crispy, Peanut Buttery, and Delicious

Candy Bars

Wunderbar is a classic — known as Starbar in the UK, it’s been around since the ’70s, but has apparently never been sold in the States.  This is clearly America’s loss.  It’s so good.

If you’re an American and have never been blessed with the deliciousness of the Wunderbar, it features crunchy peanut butter mixed with puffed rice that’s surrounded by chewy caramel and milk chocolate.

Wunderbar

I haven’t had one in years, but it’s just as delightful as I remembered it being.  It’s got everything you want in a candy bar: it’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s crispy, and the sweetness is perfectly tuned — it’s delicious.

The puffed rice is a stroke of genius; it gives the bar a memorable crispiness that sets it apart from something like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup.  Between that, the very chewy caramel, and the crunchy chunks of peanuts, you’ve got a bar with a really satisfying contrast of textures.

Wunderbar

The layer of decent quality chocolate on the outside is substantial enough to add a decent hit of flavour which — of course — works nicely with the peanut butter.  I mean, why wouldn’t it?  Peanut butter and chocolate are best friends.  The rich caramel only adds more flavour, and the bar has a very mild saltiness that rounds things out.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (58 g bar): 290 calories, 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 32 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 26 g of sugar, 4 g of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup peanuts. modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, modified vegetable oil, rice, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, salt, malt extract (barley wheat), soy lecithin, baking soda, calcium chloride, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavor.

Michael

Kit Kat White & Milk – A Delicious Blend of White and Milk Chocolate

Candy Bars

White chocolate can be a bit of a crapshoot.  It’s a lot harder to get right than milk or dark chocolate; it has a tendency to be overly sweet, and in the absence of cocoa, it can be a bit one-note in its flavour.

The white chocolate here, however, is quite tasty, and blending it with milk chocolate thoroughly resolves the one-note issue.

Kit Kat White & Milk

This particular bar is basically a standard Kit Kat, but with some of the milk chocolate replaced with white.  It’s way better than I was expecting it to be.

The presence of milder white chocolate actually emphasizes the wheaty flavour you get from the wafers, which does a great job of balancing out the overall sweetness of the bar.  It’s delightful.

Kit Kat White & Milk

And the white chocolate is great — it has a nice creamy flavour, and is complimented quite nicely by the milk chocolate.  It’s kinda like eating a standard Kit Kat, but then dipping the bars in whipped cream.  The chocolate flavour is mellower, but not necessarily in a bad way.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (2 fingers, 21 grams): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, cocoa mass, sunflower and soy lecithin, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavours.

Michael

Dairy Milk Oreo – A Winning Combo

Candy Bars

Dairy Milk Oreo is exactly what you want it to be.  If you like Dairy Milk and you like Oreo cookies, you’re going to like this.  It tastes how you think it’s going to taste in all the best ways.

I feel like I could just leave it at that, but I guess I’ll write a few more words.

Dairy Milk Oreo

The milk chocolate is standard Cadbury, and there’s enough of it to give the bar that distinctive Cadbury flavour.  It’s creamy, sweet, and tasty.

The filling tastes a bit smoother than the standard Oreo creme — it’s kind of like a cross between Oreo’s white stuff and and the filling of a Kinder Chocolate bar.  It blends nicely with the chocolate.

Dairy Milk Oreo

And there are enough Oreo cookie chunks to give it a decent amount of crunchiness and a pronounced hit of Oreo flavour.  It doesn’t quite taste like a chocolate-dipped Oreo, but there are enough cookie bits for the Oreo flavour to be unmistakable.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (6 pieces, 38 grams): 210 calories, 13 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, modified vegetable oil, cocoa, glucose  syrup, salt ammonium phosphatides, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, soy lecithin, ammonium bicarbonate, baking soda, artificial flavours.

Michael

Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint – An Assault of Minty Flavour

Candy Bars

You know that thing that happens when you have a really strong mint and a cooling sensation blasts through your sinuses?  I got that while eating Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint.  The mint flavour is not kidding around.

This is actually the third variety in Hershey’s new line of three ice cream-inspired white chocolate bars; the first is Birthday Cake (which I enjoyed), the second is Strawberries ‘n’ Cream (which I absolutely did not enjoy), and the third is this one, Cookies ‘n’ Mint.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Mint

It’s fine.  I generally like minty desserts, so this was mostly in my wheelhouse, but even for me the mint flavour is a bit overbearing.  After my first bite I had decided that I pretty much hated it, though it did (mostly) grow on me.

The cookie bits help.  They add a decent amount of crispiness and a mild chocolatey flavour that works nicely with the intense mint.

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Mint

The bar is also very, very sweet, which works well in this particular case — the intense sweetness keeps it firmly in the dessert category and prevents it from tasting like eating a bar of chocolatey toothpaste (because again, the mint flavour is explosive).

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 40 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, lactose), cocoa butter, milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, sunflower oil, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavours, lecithin (soy), sea salt, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, spirulina extract, turmeric.

Michael

Hershey’s Strawberries ‘n’ Creme – Is it Supposed to Taste Like Medicine?

Candy Bars

Hershey recently released three white chocolate bars with ice-cream-inspired flavours: Birthday Cake (which I just reviewed), Strawberries ‘n’ Creme, and Cookies ‘n’ Mint (which is up next).  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Birthday Cake variety, which had an appealingly junky flavour that reminded me of store-bought frosting.

This one, on the other hand?  Swing and a miss.

Hershey's Strawberries 'N' Creme

It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, but nothing here particularly works.  The slightly sour strawberry flavour is neither here nor there; it’s muddled, with a medicinal quality that I found to be vaguely unpleasant.  I guess it’s supposed to taste like strawberry ice cream, and it kinda does if you use your imagination, but mostly it tastes like lousy white chocolate with a watered-down strawberry-like flavour.

Hershey's Strawberries 'N' Creme

It doesn’t help that the chocolate isn’t particularly creamy, with a slightly grainy consistency (which, to be fair, seems to be an issue with all Hershey chocolate).

There are little crispy bits interspersed throughout, but unlike the sprinkles in the Birthday Cake variety, I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be or why they’re there.  They lack the pronounced crunch of the sprinkles, and only serve to emphasize the white chocolate’s lack of creaminess.

1.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, lactose, strawberry juice, maltodextrin), cocoa butter, milk ingredients, sunflower oil, modified palm oil, corn starch, lecithin (soy), natural and artificial flavors, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, beetroot concentrate, citric acid.