Chocolate Archives - Page 6 of 8

May 18, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Ritter Sport: Coconut – A Tasty Combo of Coconut and Chocolate

Candy Bars, Chocolate

I was under the impression that Ritter Sport had gone downhill; the last couple I’ve had have been fairly mediocre, so I had mostly written them off. But this one was quite tasty! So there’s my entire world-view, shaken to its very core.

I will admit that I’m a sucker for the chocolate/coconut combo; Bounty would easily be in my top five favourite candy bars. So maybe I’m just going easy on this one because the combination is so inherently delightful.

Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s basically like Bounty, but with a higher chocolate to coconut ratio. Oddly, the chocolate flavour isn’t quite as pronounced as you’d think it would be; it has a bit of a generic sweetness, and I wish it packed a more chocolatey punch.

That’s pretty much my only real complaint here. Otherwise, the chocolate is nice and creamy, and there’s a good balance of coconut flavour along with a mild crispiness from the flakes. I don’t know that I’d pick this over a Bounty, but then the increased amount of chocolate makes it feel fairly distinct.

Manufactured by: Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Nutritional info (6 pieces, 38 grams): 220 calories, 15 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, palm fat, cocoa butter, grated coconut (9%), whole milk powder, cocoa mass, skim milk powder, lactose, butter fat, coconut milk (1%), glucose syrup, soy lecithin, pea protein, concentrated lemon juice.

January 19, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Symphony – Like a Heath Bar with More Chocolate

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Though Hershey has seen fit to cheapen many of its bars by replacing milk chocolate with mockolate in an effort to cut costs, it’s nice to see that you can still find real milk chocolate in at least a few Hershey products.

Hershey’s Symphony is actually quite similar to a Heath bar, only with the proportions of chocolate and toffee reversed; where Heath is mostly toffee with a chocolate coating, Symphony is mostly chocolate with little bits of almonds and toffee. The bar proudly proclaims that it features “50% more toffee,” and they’re definitely not kidding around. Though Symphony is mainly milk chocolate, there’s enough toffee in there to give each mouthful a good crunch, and to give the whole bar a surprisingly pronounced toffee taste. That’s why it’s so easy to compare this to a Heath bar, because it really is basically like a Heath with a milder toffee taste.

I generally like Hershey’s milk chocolate, though it’s not my favourite. The chocolate here is fairly creamy, and is complemented nicely by the toffee. It’s not bad at all.

An addendum – I would like to point out something that I thought was amusing, if a bit sad: There are instructions on how to open the wrapper for this candy bar. On the outside corner of the wrapper’s flap, it says “lift & pull here.” On the other side of the flap, Hershey has helpfully advised you to “hold here.”

I’m not sure what’s more sad: the fact that Hershey thought that people would need instructions to open a candy bar wrapper, or the fact that someone actually does need instructions to open a candy bar wrapper.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (42 g bar): 220

January 14, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk: Cranberry and Granola – Better than you’d Think

Chocolate

This is a British import, and I don’t know if it’s some kind of limited edition (I’ve never seen it before) or just a new part of the Dairy Milk line in the U.K., but it’s quite good. You might even say it’s… berry good (well, there goes my credibility).

Dairy Milk – Cranberry and Granola is fairly similar to another Cadbury product, Fruit and Nut. Only instead of raisins, there are sweetened, dried cranberries, and instead of nuts, there are crispy/crunchy bits of granola. It’s good for much of the reason that Fruit and Nut is good; the foremost being that the combination of chewy and crunchy is a classic one.

There is actually a pretty generous amount of granola in this bar, which is satisfyingly crunchy as well as flavourful enough to add its own distinctive taste to the chocolate. The cranberries give the bar a slightly sour punch, along with a chewy counterpoint to the crunchy granola. The tartness from the cranberry makes this candy unique, and really allows it to stand apart from something like Fruit and Nut. As for the milk chocolate, it is the usual Cadbury chocolate, and it is pretty good.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t too optimistic about this bar being very tasty; it seemed like a strange concept to me, however I’m happy to have been proven wrong.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (49 g bar): 245

December 22, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Aero – Uniquely Bubbly Chocolate

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Aero is another British bar that, for whatever reason, is sold pretty much everywhere in the world except for the States. I’m really not sure why; it’s pretty good, and as far as I’m aware, there’s nothing else in the US quite like it. There’s Mirage, but I think that may only be available in Canada.

Aero is just pure milk chocolate. What sets it apart is the unique way it’s made – the inside of the bar is filled with tiny bubbles, which gives Aero its unique texture. This uniqueness helps compensate for milk chocolate which isn’t exactly of the highest quality; it’s decent, but it’s too sweet and not really creamy enough.

I actually prefer the dark chocolate variety (which features dark chocolate on the outside, while the inside – ie. the bubbles – remains milk chocolate) because the dark chocolate helps to balance out the overall sweetness of the bar. But even if the chocolate itself isn’t that great, I still enjoy eating these on occasion, if only for the uniqueness provided by the bubbly consistency of the bar.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (42 g bar): 220

December 17, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Yorkie – A Decent Dairy Milk Knockoff

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Yorkie is the British bar which proudly proclaims that “it’s not for girls!” Based on that slogan, I had sort of figured that Yorkie was going to do something like cram every conceivable candy bar filling into one bar, or something similarly ridiculous. But nope, it’s just plain milk chocolate. I’m really not sure what makes that female-inappropriate, since on the whole women tend to appreciate plain chocolate more than men. Yorkie is slightly bigger (and thus higher in calories) than your average single-serving candy bar, so I guess that could be it? Anyway, it’s highly probable that I’m overthinking what amounts to a silly (and potentially offensive) marketing gimmick.

What about the bar? Well, as I said, it’s just plain milk chocolate. The wrapper describes it as “chunky milk chocolate”, which is something else that puzzles me about this candy – it’s pure chocolate, no chunks. In North America, “chunky” is generally only used to denote something with chunks (at least in the context of candy), but I guess that’s different over there in the UK. But again, I digress.

So how’s the chocolate? It’s not bad, actually. It kind of reminds me of a slightly inferior version of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. It’s sweet and creamy, with a similar taste and consistency to Cadbury’s product. I don’t think it’s quite as good, though if I had tried this without knowing what it was, I certainly could have been fooled into thinking it was Dairy Milk.

Manufactued by: Nestle
Calories (68 g bar): 367