Michael

Butterfinger – Nobody Better Lay a Finger…

Candy Bars

Butterfinger, along with Crunch, was recently bought out by Ferrero, who took it off the shelves to reformulate it.  In the case of Crunch, this resulted in a noticeably inferior product.  So how about Butterfinger?

I’m not sure.  I’ll admit that it’s been years since I’ve had a Butterfinger, so it’s hard to say.  I think it’s inferior?  Maybe?

(This review is going really well so far, obviously.)

Butterfinger

The bar is pretty simple — it’s just crispy, toffee-like peanut butter coated in mockolate (and the mockolate predates the Ferrero acquisition, so you can’t blame that one on them).

The peanut butter taste is surprisingly subtle, which is partially what makes me suspect that the bar has gone downhill.  I remember it having a really satisfying peanutty flavour, but that isn’t the case here.  It’s very sweet, with a somewhat bitter, burnt toffee flavour.  The mild bitterness is actually kinda interesting, and helps to cut the sweetness of the bar a bit.  But in the absence of peanut butteriness, something is missing.

Butterfinger

As for the mockolate, it’s inoffensive enough.  The bar is so crispy and sweet that you can barely even tell it’s there.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 53.8 grams): 250 calories, 10 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 160 mg sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, sugar, peanuts, vegetable oil (palm kernel and palm oil), peanut flour, nonfat milk, less than 2% of cocoa, milk, salt, soy lecithin, natural flavor, annatto color.

Michael

Reese Peanut Butter Oh Henry! – The Most Substantial Candy Bar on the Market?

Candy Bars

Reese Peanut Butter Oh Henry! is not kidding around.  Despite appearing to be about the same size as your average candy bar (if not slightly smaller), one bar weighs in at a whopping 85 grams and contains 440 calories, which means it’s about twice as heavy as the norm.

Suffice it to say, that old slogan of “Oh Hungry? Oh Henry!” definitely applies here.  If you’re hungry, this bar will take care of that.

Reese Peanut Butter Oh Henry!

The wrapper describes the bar as “crunchy peanuts, peanut butter, creamy caramel, covered in a chocolaty coating.”  It’s basically identical to a standard Oh Henry!, but with the chewy fudge in the middle replaced with peanut butter.

It’s predictably tasty.  I mean, the original Oh Henry! is delicious and peanut butter is delicious, so obviously.  Why wouldn’t this be good?

Reese Peanut Butter Oh Henry!

The peanut butter has a decent amount of saltiness, which helps to round out the very sweet bar, which is chewy, crunchy, and creamy.  I wish the chocolate were real instead of mockolate (the dreaded “chocolaty” coating), but with so much else going on, it doesn’t make a huge difference.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 85 grams): 440 calories, 28 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 170 mg of sodium, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fibre, 36 grams of sugar, 9 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, sugar, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), modified palm kernel oil, high fructose corn syrup, unsweetened chocolate, modified milk ingredients, dextrose, sorbitol, salt, corn syrup, lecithin (soy), artificial flavour, TBHQ, mono and diglycerides.

Michael

Mallo Cup – Overly Sweet Marshmallow Cups

Candy Bars

It’s been several years since I’ve had a Mallo Cup; my memory is that it’s basically an inferior version of Valomilk.  But then Valomilk isn’t exactly easy to find.  I’ve only ever seen it in the Cracker Barrel gift shop, which makes it pretty much impossible to buy at the moment.  Popping down to the States for a day trip probably isn’t going to be in the cards for quite a while.

Well, Mallo Cup, it turns out, is exactly as I remembered.  It’s fine?  I guess?  But Valomilk is the superior candy in literally every regard, and they’re so similar that it’s impossible not to compare them.

Mallo Cup

It’s a pretty simple concept; it’s a chocolate cup filled with marshmallow creme (which the packaging calls “whipped creme”).  Mallo Cup distinguishes itself from Valomilk by including coconut flakes in the chocolate, but they’re otherwise identical.

The coconut is actually a nice touch; it adds a very subtle crispy texture and a hint of coconut flavour.  The cups are a bit bland aside from intense sweetness, so I actually wish there were a bit more coconut.  But it’s fine.

Mallo Cup

That’s the thing, there’s nothing overtly wrong with it — the gooey creme and the creamy chocolate make for a satisfying combo.  But the flavour is one-note sweet; neither the chocolate nor the creme have all that much flavour other than an overriding sugariness.  It’s decent enough, but since Valomilk is a thing that exists in the world, it’s kinda superfluous.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Boyer
Nutritional info (2 cups, 42 grams): 200 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg cholesterol, 40 mg sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk, chocolate liquor, and soy lecithin), corn syrup, sugar, water, coconut, dextrin, egg white, salt, guar gum, natural and artificial flavor, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness) and soy lecithin.

Michael

Maltesers Teasers – A Chocolatey Twist on a Classic

Candy Bars

Maltesers Teasers was a lot more Maltesersy than I was expecting.  That’s a bit of a weird thing to say — Maltesers is right there in the name, after all — but sometimes these spin-off bars only have a very tenuous connection to the original.  That’s definitely not the case here.

Teasers is basically a plain chocolate bar, but with bits of the classic Maltesers malty crispiness interspersed throughout.  I think the chocolate itself might also be infused with a malty flavour, because that taste is quite pronounced.

Maltesers Teasers

It’s really good.  If you like classic Maltesers (and what’s not to like??) then I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll like this.  It’s basically reverse Maltesers — Maltesers is crispy with a bit of a creamy chocolaty hit, and Teasers is creamy with a bit of a crispy malty hit.  But the flavour is basically identical; the only real difference is the creamy-to-crispy ratio.

Maltesers Teasers

It’s very, very sweet, but the thoroughly malty flavour does a great job of balancing it out and ensuring that it never feels one-note cloying.  It’s delicious.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 35 grams): 186 calories, 10.4 grams of fat (6.3 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 20.3 grams of carbohydrates, unknown grams of fibre, 18.5 grams of sugar, 2.6 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, palm fat, lactose and protein from whey (from milk), whey powder (from milk), barley malt extract, milk fat, emulsifier (soya lecithin), wheat flour raising agents (E341, E500, E501), salt, natural vanilla extract.

Michael

Ritter Sport Cacao Selection: 61% Cacao Dark Chocolate – Tasty Dark Chocolate

Chocolate

I’ve found Ritter Sport to be a bit hit or miss of late, but this one — part of their “Cacao Selection” line — contains a scant three ingredients, so I figured that would be pretty hard to mess up.

And yeah, it’s quite tasty.  They did not mess it up.

Ritter Sport Cacao Selection: 61% Cacao Dark Chocolate

The chocolate has a satisfying snap, a nice creamy melt, and a good amount of sweetness.  The taste is a bit more muted than you might expect, however, with absolutely no bitterness and a surprisingly subtle flavour that takes a couple of squares to really appreciate.  I enjoy the punchy flavour you get from more intense varieties of dark chocolate, so I missed that here, but it’s certainly tasty enough.  It reminded me a lot of Lindt dark chocolate, so if you’ve ever had that, then you have a good idea of what to expect here.

Ritter Sport Cacao Selection: 61% Cacao Dark Chocolate

Other than that…  It’s good, I don’t know.  It’s hard to review plain dark chocolate unless you’re one of those “notes of tobacco, dried figs, and cherries” guys (yes, those people exist for chocolate; they’re not just insufferable about wine), and I’m not one of those guys.  So I’ll just say that this was good but not great and leave it at that.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Nutritional info (10 pieces, 40 grams): 240 calories, 18 grams of fat (1 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 2 gram of fibre, 15 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter.