candy Archives - Page 3 of 31

May 12, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat White – It’s Missing Something

Candy Bars

Regular Kit Kat might just be the greatest candy bar on the planet. Kit Kat White & Milk? Also delicious. No, it’s not as good as the original, but what is? So I sort of assumed that Kit Kat White, which forgoes the milk chocolate altogether, would still be delicious.

It is not.

I like white chocolate, but in the context of a Kit Kat, it’s hard not to feel like something is missing. It’s sweet and milky and tasty in its own way, but the added punch of flavour you get from actual chocolate is sorely missed. It feels a bit one-note.

It probably doesn’t help that, like with so many white chocolate confections, it’s not actually white chocolate — if you look at the wrapper, the word “chocolate” is conspicuously absent. That’s because there are various oils in the ingredients (along with cocoa butter), which means that legally, this ain’t chocolate.

Still, it’s not bad (bottom-of-the-barrel mockolate doesn’t bother with cocoa butter at all); it’s fairly creamy and not particularly waxy. The biggest issue is the flavour, or lack thereof. It’s just sweet and crispy — and hey, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t imagine that I’d ever buy this again. Especially when regular Kit Kat is right there, and is like a billion times better.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 41 grams): 210 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, wheat flour, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, cocoa mass, soy and sunflower lecithins, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, calcium sulphate, salt, protease, xylanase, natural flavours.

May 9, 2021 Michael

Wispa – It’s Better than the Competition

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Wispa is basically Cadbury’s version of Aero or Mirage — it actually looks strikingly similar to Mirage, but Wispa is the original. According to Wikipedia, Wispa was introduced in 1981. Mirage, on the other hand, didn’t come out until 1990 (and that info doesn’t seem to be anywhere online, so I actually got in touch with Nestle to find out. Look at me, doing journalism like a regular Woodward and Bernstein — take note, Pulitzer committee).

I’m not crazy about the quality of the milk chocolate in either Aero or Mirage, but I still enjoy them both thanks to the unique texture you get from the bubbliness of the chocolate.

Wispa is clearly the superior of the three. It’s made from Cadbury milk chocolate, which is slightly too sweet, but is otherwise above average for mass-produced chocolate.

Which means that this is pretty much going to be great by default. If you start with good quality chocolate and then add the fun texture you get from the aeration, you’re pretty much guaranteed to wind up with a winner.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 36 grams): 196 calories, 12 grams of fat (6.8 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 90 mg of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0.8 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2.4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fats (palm, shea), whey powder (from milk), emulsifier (E442), flavourings.

May 2, 2021 Michael

Almond Joy – Crunchy, Coconutty, and Tasty

Candy Bars

Almond Joy is basically Mounds, but with the addition of almonds, and with milk chocolate instead of dark. It’s fine, but Mounds is clearly the superior of the two.

The milk chocolate actually makes a pretty huge difference. The dark chocolate on a Mounds bar gives it a more pronounced chocolately flavour, and its slight bitterness contrasts very nicely with the very sweet coconut. The milk chocolate here is decent, but it’s just sweet on sweet; I missed the dark chocolate.

Then, of course, there are the almonds. You’d think they’d be the star of the show; they’re right there in the name. Oddly enough, they don’t add much — they bring some crunchiness, but their flavour is completely lost. If they had a toastier flavour they might have been able to nudge through, but alas, they’re fairly bland.

You’d think the coconut would be exactly the same as in a Mounds (they’re both made by Hershey, after all), but the coconutty centre here seems a bit more dry. This emphasizes the problem coconut desserts tend to have, where you’re still munching on coconut bits long after the flavour has disappeared.

Still, the chocolate/coconut combo continues to be delicious, and while I prefer Mounds (and Bounty, the king of the chocolate/coconut castle), Almond Joy is tasty enough.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 45 grams): 220 calories, 13 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 21 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, sugar, coconut, almonds, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and/or palm kernel oil) chocolate, milk, contains 2% or less of: lactose (milk), milk fat, skim milk, cocoa, whey (milk), salt, lecithin (soy), PGPR, hydrolyzed milk protein, sodium metabisulfite to maintain freshness, vanillin, artificial flavor.

April 25, 2021 Michael

Abba-Zaba – Ultra-Chewy Taffy with Peanut Butter

Candy Bars

Abba-Zaba has been around for almost a hundred years (since 1922), so it clearly has its fans. I can’t say that I’ll ever buy one again, but if you’ve been around that long, you must be doing something right. It’s basically just a big old hunk of ultra-chewy taffy, and if you’re into that, you’ll probably enjoy it.

It’s odd; the shiny white bar looks plasticky enough that after I opened it I assumed it had some kind of inner wrapping, but nope, that’s just the bar. It’s certainly not the most appealing looking candy bar ever.

It’s filled with a decent amount of creamy, slightly salty peanut butter, which is where most of the flavour comes from. It’s otherwise surprisingly restrained in its sweetness, and is mostly notable for how incredibly chewy it is. It’s actually kind of aggressive in its chewiness, like, “oh, you want to chew me? Good luck with that, pal.” It made my jaw tired almost immediately.

I wasn’t crazy about it, but then I’m not a huge fan of taffy in general, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Manufactured by: Annabelle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 51 grams): 210 calories, 4 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 45 mg of sodium, 41 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 22 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, liquid sugar (cane sugar, water), peanut butter (dry roasted peanuts, sucrose, hydrogenated rapeseed and cottonseed oil, salt), fully hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, soybean oil), dextrose, salt, mono- and diglycerides, BHA (antioxidant).

April 21, 2021 Michael

M&M’s Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar with Minis – Surprisingly Addictive

Candy Bars, Chocolate

I was shocked at how much I enjoyed M&M’s Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar with Minis. I didn’t particularly care for M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Peanuts, or M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Crisp Rice (those names just roll off the tongue, don’t they?), and I sort of figured this would be more of the same.

Well, I guess I had slightly higher expectations for this one than the others — my main issue with the other two was the middling, overly sweet milk chocolate, so I hoped the dark chocolate here would be an upgrade.

It was. Though the packaging, oddly enough, doesn’t actually call it dark chocolate — it’s “dark sweet chocolate.” This might be because it contains milk ingredients, which would mean that it’s technically not dark chocolate? I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it’s pretty tasty. It’s quite sweet, but it has a nice robust chocolatey flavour that balances out the sweetness. It actually tastes a lot closer to the chocolate you’ll find in an M&M than the two milk chocolate bars that I tried.

The M&M’s Minis do a decent job of adding some crispiness to the creamy chocolate. They’re not super generous, but unlike the other two versions, I didn’t mind.

There’s nothing about this that’s particularly mind-blowing, but the more I ate it, the more it grew on me. There’s something about standard M&M’s that’s oddly addictive; once you start eating them, it’s hard to stop. Unlike the milk chocolate bars, this one does a decent job of recapturing that.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/3 bar, 38 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 15 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Dark sweet chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, artificial flavour, flavour), M&M’s Minis milk chocolate candies [milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavour, flavour), sugar, colour (with tartrazine), corn syrup, tapioca dextrin, cornstarch, carnauba wax, modified coconut oil and/or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides)].