candy Archives - Page 17 of 31

July 19, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Chunky: Cookie Dough – A Downgrade From the Original

Candy Bars

Everyone loves cookie dough. It’s delicious. That’s just a scientific fact. And Kit Kat Chunky? Also objectively delicious. So then Kit Kat Chunky: Cookie Dough must also be delicious. Okay, well, that was a short review — see you next week.

Wait, what’s that? It’s not delicious? Well then. I guess a bit more of a review is necessary.

The biggest problem here is the so-called cookie dough; it does a fairly abysmal job of recapturing that particular taste. If you close your eyes and really use your imagination you might be able to conjure up vague whiffs of cookie dough flavour, but mostly, it just tastes like an overly sweet, sugary paste. If this had been a blind taste test, I’m not sure that I ever would have figured out what it was supposed to be.

That’s an issue, because:

A) If I buy something that says cookie dough on the packaging, I kinda want it to taste like cookie dough. I feel like that’s not unreasonable?

B) It throws off the balance of the Kit Kat Chunky. The wafer here is reduced by about 50 percent to accommodate the layer of “cookie dough.” In a normal Kit Kat, the wafer does a great job of balancing out the bar’s sweetness, but the thinner one here is a bit overwhelmed.

The whole thing is still decent enough, but it’s clearly inferior to a regular Kit Kat Chunky in every regard. If you really need Kit Kat + cookie dough in your life, just buy a standard Kit Kat Chunky and a package of cookie dough and eat them together. Problem solved.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 280 calories, 16 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0.2 grams of trans fat), 15 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 26 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, glucose), modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, cocoa butter, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, palm and vegetable oils, soy and sunflower lecithin, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavours, polyglycerol polynoleate, salt, baking soda, yeast, calcium sulphate, ammonium carbonate, citric acid, protease, xylanase, ascorbic acid, potassium carbonate, sodium phosonate.

July 15, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Crunch – New and Not-So-Improved

Candy Bars, Chocolate

You may not realize this, but you couldn’t buy Crunch for a little while; in 2018, Nestle sold Crunch to Ferrero, who pulled it off the shelves so that they could “reformulate” it.

Well, it’s back, and either I’m remembering Crunch being better than it was, or it’s gone down in quality. Which is weird; you’d think the jump from Nestle to Ferrero (the makers of Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and many other delicious things) would be a clear upgrade. Alas.

Still, it’s not bad. It’s also not “good” per se; the chocolate is fairly bottom-of-the-barrel, with a generic sweetness and not a whole lot going on in the flavour department, and even the crispy rice is a bit more anemic than you’d expect (it’s mildly crispy, but the texture isn’t quite there).

Also, this is purely psychological, but I miss the old design of the bar, with the big embossed “Crunch” lettering. The new segmented bar is boring in comparison.

And yet… I mostly enjoyed it. The chocolate has a nice creaminess, and while the rice doesn’t bring the assertive crunch you’re looking for in a bar called Crunch, it still has enough of that creamy/crispy contrast to be satisfying. If I didn’t have nostalgia for the old Crunch bar my opinion on this would probably be a bit lower, but I do, so here we are. I didn’t particularly like it at first, but it (mostly) grew on me.

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43.9 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 60 mg of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, natural flavour), crisped rice (rice flour, sugar, barley malt, salt).

July 12, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Wunderbar – Chewy, Crunchy, Crispy, Peanut Buttery, and Delicious

Candy Bars

Wunderbar is a classic — known as Starbar in the UK, it’s been around since the ’70s, but has apparently never been sold in the States. This is clearly America’s loss. It’s so good.

If you’re an American and have never been blessed with the deliciousness of the Wunderbar, it features crunchy peanut butter mixed with puffed rice that’s surrounded by chewy caramel and milk chocolate.

I haven’t had one in years, but it’s just as delightful as I remembered it being. It’s got everything you want in a candy bar: it’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s crispy, and the sweetness is perfectly tuned — it’s delicious.

The puffed rice is a stroke of genius; it gives the bar a memorable crispiness that sets it apart from something like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup. Between that, the very chewy caramel, and the crunchy chunks of peanuts, you’ve got a bar with a really satisfying contrast of textures.

The layer of decent quality chocolate on the outside is substantial enough to add a decent hit of flavour which — of course — works nicely with the peanut butter. I mean, why wouldn’t it? Peanut butter and chocolate are best friends. The rich caramel only adds more flavour, and the bar has a very mild saltiness that rounds things out.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (58 g bar): 290 calories, 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 32 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 26 g of sugar, 4 g of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup peanuts. modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, modified vegetable oil, rice, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, salt, malt extract (barley wheat), soy lecithin, baking soda, calcium chloride, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavor.

July 5, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk Oreo – A Winning Combo

Candy Bars

Dairy Milk Oreo is exactly what you want it to be. If you like Dairy Milk and you like Oreo cookies, you’re going to like this. It tastes how you think it’s going to taste in all the best ways.

I feel like I could just leave it at that, but I guess I’ll write a few more words.

The milk chocolate is standard Cadbury, and there’s enough of it to give the bar that distinctive Cadbury flavour. It’s creamy, sweet, and tasty.

The filling tastes a bit smoother than the standard Oreo creme — it’s kind of like a cross between Oreo’s white stuff and and the filling of a Kinder Chocolate bar. It blends nicely with the chocolate.

And there are enough Oreo cookie chunks to give it a decent amount of crunchiness and a pronounced hit of Oreo flavour. It doesn’t quite taste like a chocolate-dipped Oreo, but there are enough cookie bits for the Oreo flavour to be unmistakable.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (6 pieces, 38 grams): 210 calories, 13 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, modified vegetable oil, cocoa, glucose syrup, salt ammonium phosphatides, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, soy lecithin, ammonium bicarbonate, baking soda, artificial flavours.

July 1, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint – An Assault of Minty Flavour

Candy Bars

You know that thing that happens when you have a really strong mint and a cooling sensation blasts through your sinuses? I got that while eating Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint. The mint flavour is not kidding around.

This is actually the third variety in Hershey’s new line of three ice cream-inspired white chocolate bars; the first is Birthday Cake (which I enjoyed), the second is Strawberries ‘n’ Cream (which I absolutely did not enjoy), and the third is this one, Cookies ‘n’ Mint.

It’s fine. I generally like minty desserts, so this was mostly in my wheelhouse, but even for me the mint flavour is a bit overbearing. After my first bite I had decided that I pretty much hated it, though it did (mostly) grow on me.

The cookie bits help. They add a decent amount of crispiness and a mild chocolatey flavour that works nicely with the intense mint.

The bar is also very, very sweet, which works well in this particular case — the intense sweetness keeps it firmly in the dessert category and prevents it from tasting like eating a bar of chocolatey toothpaste (because again, the mint flavour is explosive).

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 40 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, lactose), cocoa butter, milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, sunflower oil, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavours, lecithin (soy), sea salt, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, spirulina extract, turmeric.