Michael

Twix Triple Chocolate – Delightfully Chocolatey

Candy Bars

I quite like Twix.  Aside from the fact that it’s the only candy with the cookie crunch (at least according to George Costanza), it features a great balance of crunchy cookie, chewy caramel, and creamy chocolate.

Like the Snickers Creamy Almond Butter that I just reviewed, Twix Triple Chocolate is weirdly small.  Presumably this is because a regular Twix is closer to 300 calories, and 200 seems to be the magic number.  Suffice it to say, if you attempted to stage a candy line-up with this and standard Twix bars, the size would be a dead giveaway.

Twix Triple Chocolate

Basically, Twix Triple Chocolate is a standard Twix bar, but with cookies and caramel that are infused with cocoa.  I was afraid it would be some kind of weird bastardization, but I actually think I prefer this to regular Twix.  It’s got everything you love about Twix — the crunchy/chewy/creamy combo is delightfully intact — but with a satisfyingly chocolatey flavour.

Twix Triple Chocolate

My only real problem with a normal Twix bar is that its level of sweetness is a bit intense; the cocoa-packed flavour here does a great job of offsetting that.  It’s delicious.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 pack, 40 grams): 200 calories, 9 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 95 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, <1 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, PGPR, artificial flavors), sugar, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), palm oil, corn syrup, skim milk, dextrose, less than 2% – cocoa powder, chocolate, modified corn starch, salt, soy lecithin, baking soda, artificial flavor.

Michael

Kit Kat Duos: Mint + Dark Chocolate – Minty and Tasty

Candy Bars

The wrapper of this American import puzzled me; it says Hershey, but isn’t Kit Kat a Nestle product?  Well here’s something I just learned: due to a decades-old agreement between the two companies, Kit Kat is made by Hershey in the States, and by Nestle in the rest of the world.

I guess I’m going to have to buy a plain American Kit Kat and see how it stacks up with the Nestle version, but for now, there’s this.

Kit Kat Duos: Mint + Dark Chocolate

There definitely seems to be a dip in quality compared to the recent Nestle Kit Kats I’ve been trying, but that might be more down to the flavour than anything else.

And it’s definitely not bad — it’s actually pretty good.  But the mint flavour is intense.  I like the mint/chocolate combo, so I enjoyed it, but if you don’t you might find it a bit toothpasty.

Kit Kat Duos: Mint + Dark Chocolate

Other than that, the chocolate is slightly grainy, and the wafer seems to be a bit bland compared to the Nestle version (though that could be my imagination), but it’s generally tasty enough.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), wheat flour, chocolate, skim milk, corn syrup solids, cocoa butter; lactose (milk), contains 2% or less of: cocoa processed with alkali, milk fat, lecithin (soy), oil of peppermint, PGPR, artificial color (yellow 5 lake, blue 1 lake), salt, yeast, vanillin, artificial flavor, baking soda.

Michael

Snickers Creamy Almond Butter – Sweet and Salty Overload

Candy Bars

The first thing you’ll notice about the almond butter variety of Snickers is how comically small it is.  Consisting of two tiny little squares that can’t even fill up the small wrapper, it’s definitely one of the smaller candy bars you can buy.  I’m assuming the candy companies have done a bunch of research showing that 200 calories is the magic number, and because this is so dense, it had to be tiny.  But it’s still weirdly small.

Snickers Creamy Almond Butter

The illustration on the wrapper seems to indicate that it’s just smooth caramel and creamy almond butter enrobed in chocolate, but the caramel is actually dotted with tiny little almond shards.  This is a good idea in theory — crunchy nuts would be a nice contrast to the bar’s chewiness, and of course, the peanuts in a regular Snickers are one of its defining characteristics.  But the minuscule almond bits are way, way too small to bring a satisfying crunch.

Other than that, it’s fine, I guess.  It’s generally decent enough, with a satisfying chewiness that never feels overbearing.  But boy is it ever sweet; it’s a throat-burner, that’s for sure.  Of course, a standard Snickers bar is also quite sweet, so I guess that’s par for the course.

Snickers Creamy Almond Butter

There’s also a decent amount of saltiness, which helps to counteract the sweetness and gives the bar that satisfying sweet/salty combo.  But the intense sweet and salty punch kinda kills all the other flavours of the bar; you can barely even taste the almond butter or the chocolate.  It’s basically just there for texture.  A more apt name for Snickers Almond Butter would be “Sugar and Salt: the Bar.”

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (2 squares, 38 grams): 190 calories, 11 grams of fat (4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 140 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 17 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Almonds, sugar, invert sugar, milk ingredients, lactose, corn syrup, cocoa butter, corn syrup solids, cocoa mass, modified palm oil, dextrose, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, vegetable glycerine, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, salt, calcium carbonate, soy lecithin, TBHQ, flavour.

Michael

Twirl – An Easier to Eat Flake Bar

Candy Bars

Twirl is basically just an enhanced version of Flake; it’s a Flake bar that’s been covered in milk chocolate.  That doesn’t seem like much, but it actually makes a pretty huge difference when you’re eating it.

Twirl

Flake is one of the more painful chocolate bars to eat.  Its distinctive shape means that as soon as you take a bite, it starts crumbling into bits.

Twirl thoroughly solves that issue; the chocolate coating holds it all together quite nicely.  Every bite is crumb-free.

Twirl

Other than that?  It is what it is.  It’s standard Cadbury milk chocolate, but in a different shape.  It’s certainly not the most interesting candy bar in the store, but if you’re craving chocolate, it’ll hit the spot.  The flaky texture makes it a slightly different experience from eating a standard block of chocolate.

As for the quality of the chocolate itself, it’s very sweet, but it’s nice and creamy and has a pleasant milky flavour.  It’s good.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 finger, 21.5 grams): 114 calories, 6.3 grams of fat (3.6 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol (British labeling standards are different, I guess), 50 mg of sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 0.5 grams of fibre, 12 grams of sugar, 1.5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder (from milk), vegetable fat (palm, shea), emulsifiers (E442, E476), flavourings.

Michael

Kit Kat – An Absolute Classic

Candy Bars

After reviewing (and being delighted by) a bunch of Kit Kat variants, I figured it was probably time to write about the original.

I was under the impression that Kit Kat had gone down in quality; the last couple of times I’ve eaten it, I’ve been underwhelmed.

Kit Kat

Well, either I was wrong or the quality has gone right back up, because this one was absolutely delicious.  Top-notch stuff.

Everything here just works.  In particular, the ratio of chocolate to wafer is spot on; there’s enough chocolate to give you a satisfying chocolatey hit, but you also get a good amount of crispiness from the wafers.  It’s a great balance, and as I’ve mentioned in previous Kit Kat reviews, the wheaty wafers do a great job of offsetting some of the sweetness of the chocolate.

Kit Kat

I mean, it’s a Kit Kat; it’s not the most exciting thing at the store, but if you haven’t had it in a while, I think you might be surprised.  The chocolate is pretty decent, the wafers are nice and crispy, and it’s not too sweet.  It’s not gourmet, but for a mass-market candy bar made by one of the huge candy companies, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

4 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 45 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder, lactose, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour), wheat flour, sugar, modified palm oil, cocoa, sodium bicarbonate, soya lecithin, yeast, natural flavour.