Candyrageous - Page 26 of 35 - A Blog about Candy

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

January 12, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Goo Goo Cluster – A Classic for a Reason

Marshmallow Treats, Nut Clusters

I’ve already reviewed the Cinnabon Cinnamon Caramel Pecan Cluster, which is made by the Standard Candy Company, the same people who make the Goo Goo Cluster. I kind of liked that one, though it wasn’t really something I’d ever want to eat again. The Goo Goo Cluster is the candy that’s allowed Standard to stick around for so many years (since 1912), so I was definitely curious to try it even if I had some misgivings about their Cinnabon-branded confection.

The Goo Goo Cluster consists of chewy marshmallow, topped with caramel and roasted peanuts and covered in milk chocolate. The marshmallow is quite dense and chewy; it’s sweet, but without the vanilla taste that you expect from marshmallow. I liked it, but if I had eaten this blind I probably would have pegged it as nougat rather than marshmallow. The caramel adds more chewiness and is definitely less sweet than the norm.

As for the peanuts, there are a lot of them, which gives the cluster a satisfying crunch as well as a nutty taste. They’re unsalted, which is good because the Goo Goo Cluster isn’t overly sweet (salted peanuts would have overwhelmed the other tastes of this candy). The whole thing is covered in decent milk chocolate. It’s quite good, and unlike the Cinnabon one, I can definitely see myself buying this again.

Manufactured by: Standard Candy Company
Calories (50 g cluster): 230

January 9, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Coconut Patties – Coconut Candy Done Right

Candy Bars

This is the second coconut confection that I purchased from the Cracker Barrel, and it’s pretty much the complete opposite of the 3 Color Coconut, at least in terms of quality. Where 3 Color Coconut features the worst qualities of coconut candy (unpleasant chewiness combined with a lack of flavour), Coconut Patties features the best. It’s definitely one of my favourite coconut candies, alongside Bounty (which is still the king, as far as I’m concerned).

A package of Coconut Patties consists of two chewy, sweet patties of coconut, each one partially dipped in “chocolate.” The package does seem to claim that it’s real chocolate, though as far as I’m aware it is illegal to call something chocolate if it doesn’t contain cocoa butter, which is suspiciously absent on the list of ingredients. I’m not sure what the story is there, but it’s pretty much redundant anyway – the “chocolate” here only adds a subtle chocolatey flavour, so I doubt it would make much of a difference if it were real or if it were fake.

As for the coconut, it has a really rich flavour and is sweet without being too sweet. It’s chewy, but without that unpleasant “the flavour is gone, why am I still chewing this??” sensation. It’s definitely coconut done right.

Manufactured by: Anastasia Confections
Calories (2 patties, 75 g): 300

January 7, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Senses – A Half-Baked Kinder Bueno Knockoff

Candy Bars

Kit Kat Senses is clearly Nestle’s take on the Kinder Bueno: it looks pretty similar, and is made up of essentially the same elements (creamy hazelnut filling, crispy wafer and milk chocolate). I like Bueno and I like Kit Kat, so combining the two seemed like a sure thing.

The first thing I noticed was that this bar has a very pleasant, hazelnutty aroma. So, score one for Kit Kat Senses. Actually eating the bar, however, it became less of a clear winner. It’s quite different from a Kinder Bueno, though obviously you can’t really hold that against it. The hazelnut filling is much more dense, and much less smooth and creamy. It’s kind of peanut buttery in consistency, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. However, it’s really sweet and doesn’t really have the strong hazelnut taste that you might expect. That, combined with the very sweet milk chocolate and the sweet wafer, results in a bar which is kind of overwhelmed by sweetness.

It’s not bad. I guess I might buy it again if I have a craving for that sort of thing and Kinder Bueno isn’t available. But between those two candy bars, Bueno is the definite winner.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (31 g bar): 170

January 5, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Drifter – Delicious Crispy Wafers and Chewy Caramel

Candy Bars

This is another British bar, and I’m really not sure if there’s anything else quite like it. I’m starting to get somewhat bitter eating all these imported products; it’s giving me a bunch of new candy bars to crave, most of which are almost impossible to find. Oh well; such is the life of a candy blogger, I suppose.

At first glance Drifter looks kind of like Twix – two smaller bars sitting side-by-side. But it tastes almost nothing like Twix, with each bar consisting of a piece of wafer covered in chewy caramel and enrobed in milk chocolate.

Sometimes the caramel in a candy bar has the problem of being sweet without having much of a flavour at all. Drifter doesn’t particularly have that problem, with caramel that is sweet without being too sweet, with an appealing almost Golden Syrup-like flavour. It’s really chewy and slightly grainy. The wafer is crispy and has a particularly pronounced wheaty/wafery taste, which works quite well with the chewy caramel.

So basically, Drifter is definitely another addition to the “candy bars I like but can’t really buy” list.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (2 bars, 52 g): 264