Candyrageous - Page 30 of 35 - A Blog about Candy

November 21, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Hebert’s Fully Loaded Rocky Road Milk Chocolate Bar – A Whole Bunch of Tasty Stuff

Chocolate

Looking at Hebert’s Fully Loaded Rocky Road Milk Chocolate Bar (that just rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?), it becomes clear pretty quickly that they’re not kidding around with the whole “fully loaded” thing: the entire underside of the bar is completely covered with chunks of walnuts, dark chocolate and marshmallow pieces. My initial impression was that the bar may just be too overloaded, with my fear being that all that stuff would overwhelm the chocolate. Happily, I was wrong.

It probably helps that, despite the thick layer of chunks on the bottom of the bar, the actual bar itself is pure chocolate. The chocolate itself is very creamy, and has a smooth, milky flavour. The marshmallows (which seem to be infused with a dark chocolate flavour) add their own taste, as well as a mild chewiness. As for the nuts, they’re slightly crunchy but otherwise doesn’t bring much to the table.

This Fully Loaded bar is definitely better than I thought it would be. It’s not overly sweet, as you might imagine it would be, and the flavours all compliment each other fairly well.

Manufactured by: Hebert Confections
Calories (78 g bar): 400

November 20, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

PayDay – Sweet and Salty Peanuts and Caramel

Candy Bars

I don’t think there’s any other bar out there quite like PayDay. It’s not particularly sweet, nor is it coated in chocolate like the usual candy bar. But it’s been around for almost eighty years, making it one of the oldest candy bars on the market – so it must be doing something right.

Payday is super simple: it’s a piece of chewy, somewhat crumbly caramel coated in whole, salted peanuts. The first thing you notice when you open the wrapper is the strong, peanutty aroma. If you like peanuts, then this is the bar for you, as it is surely the peanuttiest candy bar that you’ll find. Taking a bite, the first thing that hits you is the saltiness of the peanuts, followed by a mild sweetness from the chewy, grainy caramel.

It’s really quite good, though people who aren’t fond of the sweet/salty combo may be put off by the saltiness of the peanuts. However it does manage to strike a good balance between the two elements, with the caramel complimenting the nuts quite well. This is definitely one of the less sweet candy bars you’ll find – which would make it fairly ineffectual as a dessert. But as a satisfying mid-day snack, it definitely fits the bill.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (52 g bar): 250

November 19, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Chocolove: Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate – Quality Chocolate and Crunchy Nuts

Chocolate

Though the name and packaging of this chocolate are seriously hokey (there is, as promised on the packaging, an actual love poem on the other side of the wrapper – in this case, Diaphenia by Henry Constable) it’s what’s inside the wrapper that counts.

A quick peek at the ingredients finds a refreshingly simple list: dark chocolate, dried cherries, and almonds. So the first question is: how’s the chocolate? It’s good; featuring a 55 percent cocoa content, it’s not the darkest chocolate ever, and is somewhat creamy and fairly sweet. The crushed almonds, which are plentiful, add a nice crunchiness to the bar. As for the cherries, they give the bar a chewiness which contrasts with the crunchiness of the nuts (it’s kind of similar to Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut, in that sense). However, they don’t add all that much flavour, save for a few mouthfuls where you get multiple cherries. Dried cherries have a pretty strong, sour flavour, so it’s probably for the best that there’s too few rather than too many.

My initial fear, when I first saw this bar, was that it was going to taste strongly of artificial cherry. Cherry seems to be one of those flavours that science just can’t get right, and so anything with fake cherry tends to have a vaguely medicinal taste. So I was glad to see that it was real cherries in here, even if they don’t add too much to the bar (taste-wise at least).

Reasonably high-quality chocolate, crunchy nuts… it’s kind of hard to go wrong with that.

Manufactured by: Chocolove
Calories (90 g bar): 480

November 18, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Colts Bolts – Further Proof of the Perfection of the PB/Chocolate Combo

Candy Bars

This is another item I found at the Cracker Barrel, which is somewhat of a treasure trove of hard-to-find candy made by smaller manufacturers (not to mention an above-average place to eat compared to similar family-friendly chain restaurants).

I think the easy comparison to make here is to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – but this is actually quite different from that, despite essentially being made up of the same components. Colts Bolts features a layer of milk chocolate, a very thick layer of creamy, sweet peanut butter with whole almonds mixed in, topped with another layer of milk chocolate.

The peanut butter is very smooth and sweet, and has a much more subdued peanut taste than your usual peanut butter – it almost tastes like peanut butter icing moreso than just plain PB. The addition of whole almonds gives the Bolt a satisfying crunch, as well as adding a nutty taste which helps compensate for the subtlety of the peanut butter. The almonds (rather than, as you might expect, peanuts) also contribute a unique flavour, which differentiates these from a standard peanut butter cup. The milk chocolate suits the peanut butter well, and the whole thing adds up to a pretty satisfying treat.

Manufactured by: Colts Chocolates
Calories (56 g cup): 300

November 17, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Lindt Hot Pralines – Spicy Chocolate Done Right

Chocolate

Though the combination of chili and chocolate is thousands of years old, it’s never quite reached a wide level of acceptance. I think for most people, the idea of combining spiciness and dessert is just a little bit too bizarre. It’s too bad, because done right, chili and chocolate can be surprisingly good.

Lindt Hot Pralines consists of three different varieties: papaya and chili, pomegranate and chili, and maracuja and jalapeno (maracuja apparently being a type of passion fruit). I was going to review the three types separately, however they’re all pretty much interchangeable, with the exception of the maracuja one, which is slightly more tart and has a mild jalapeno flavour.

The three chocolates consist of chocolate mousse topped with a strongly fruity, spicy jelly, and covered in dark chocolate. The first thing you notice when you eat these is the tartness of the fruit, followed by a surprisingly strong, lingering spiciness. I’ve had chocolates like these where the heat was overpowering and mostly just distracting; that isn’t the case here. The spice does a good job of bringing out the flavours in the chocolate and the fruit, as well as adding its own distinctive appeal, without becoming overwhelming. The dark chocolate coating is quite intense with a 70 percent cocoa level, which gives these a really rich, chocolately flavour and helps to balance out the sweetness of the jelly.

Though I’m not too sure about the maracuja flavour – it’s a bit too sour, and the mild jalepeno taste is bizarre – the other two flavours are good enough to definitely recommend this, if you can find it (I bought it at a Lindt store in an outlet mall in Buffalo).

Manufactured by: Lindt
Calories (3 pieces, 37 g): 170