chewy Archives - Page 3 of 8

January 10, 2021January 10, 2021 Michael

Curly Wurly – Ultra-Chewy Caramel Coated in Chocolate

Candy Bars

Curly Wurly is a British import, and yeah, obviously. There’s something about it — the name, maybe? — that feels thoroughly British. I’ll bet it’s Ray Winstone’s favourite candy bar.

It’s fine. It’s chewy caramel coated in milk chocolate. The texture of the caramel reminds me a bit of Riesen, mostly because it’s super duper chewy. It is the chewiest of the chewy. If you don’t want to eat something that’s going to get all up in your teeth, stay away.

It has a decent flavour, though unlike Riesen, it is very, very sweet. I wouldn’t say it’s too sweet — there’s enough of a rich caramel flavour to balance out the sweetness, at least somewhat — but it’s clearly on the sweeter end of things.

Ultra-chewy caramel isn’t my favourite, and if I did have a craving for that I’d go for Riesen instead, but Curly Wurly isn’t bad. The relatively generous layer of milk chocolate compliments the caramel quite nicely, and the whole thing is tasty enough.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 26 grams): 118 calories, 4.6 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 15 mg of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 0.2 grams of fibre, 13 grams of sugar, 0.8 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Glucose syrup, sugar, palm oil, skimmed milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey permeate powder (from milk), milk fat, emulsifiers (E471, sunflower lecithin, E442, E476), salt, flavourings, sodium hydrogen carbonate.

December 30, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Clark Bar – Crunchy, Chewy, and Odd

Candy Bars

I think at this point I’ve reviewed every candy bar in the genre of crispy, sugary, and peanut-buttery. There’s 5th Avenue, Butterfinger, Crispy Crunch, Zagnut, and now Clark Bar. Is that it? Am I done? I think I’m done.

Until now, they had all been mostly interchangeable (outside of Zagnut’s delightful substitution of toasted coconut for chocolate), but Clark Bar is actually a bit different. Is it different in a good way? I don’t think so, but maybe you’ll disagree.

It’s weird. It starts out incredibly crunchy — it’s oddly difficult to even bite into — but then it becomes chewy and you’re thinking, wait, is this stale? But no, that’s just part of it. Once you’ve munched out the crunchiness, you’re left with a gummy, taffy-like sugary blob in your mouth that you have to chew on for quite a while.

It’s interesting, I guess, and the bar has a deeply caramelized flavour that helps to round out its intense sweetness. But it’s also lacking in peanutty flavour, which makes it taste a bit one-note sweet.

After a while the in-your-face sugariness and the off-putting chewy/crunchy contrast becomes exhausting. It’s easily my least favourite of the aforementioned candy bars.

Manufactured by: Boyer
Nutritional info (1 bar, 57 grams): 250 calories, 6 grams of fat (3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 10 mg of sodium, 47 grams of carbohydrates, <1 grams of fibre, 37 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, milk powder, butter oil, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), corn syrup, sugar, peanuts, molasses, invert sugar, salt, coconut oil, vanilla extract, soy lecithin.

December 27, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Snickers Peanut Brownie Squares – Tasty, But Not Enough Brownie Flavour

Candy Bars

I can’t think of a single candy bar that wouldn’t be improved by cramming a brownie into it. Think about it: picture a candy bar. Any candy bar. Now picture brownie inside of it. It’s better, isn’t it?

So obviously the Peanut Brownie version of Snickers (which features peanutty brownies covered in a layer of soft caramel and coated in milk chocolate) is good. How could it not be?

The biggest problem here is that the “brownie” isn’t particularly brownie-like. It basically has the taste and texture of a cocoa-tinged version of the usual Snickers nougat. Looking at the ingredients reveals a lack of flour or butter or any brownie ingredients outside of cocoa (aside from egg whites, which are already present in the nougat you’ll find in a regular Snickers).

Still, it’s tasty; it’s essentially a normal Snickers bar, but with more cocoa flavour. Nothing wrong with that — though like with the original, it’s a bit sweeter than it needs to be.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (2 squares, 34 grams): 180 calories, 8 grams of fat (4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 85 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin), corn syrup, sugar, peanuts, chocolate, milkfat, semisweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate processed with alkali, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lecithin, natural flavor), less than 2% – cocoa powder processed with alkali, invert sugar, palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, egg whites, artificial flavor.

December 20, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Eat-More – It Tastes Better than it Looks

Candy Bars

Eat-More is, on a surface level at least, one of the more unappealing candy bars you can find. Between the frumpy retro packaging and the appearance of the bar itself (I’m too classy to say that it looks like nutty poop, but I think we all have eyeballs and can see what it clearly looks like), the makers of Eat-More seem to have no interest in making you want to eat their candy bar.

The wrapper calls it a “dark toffee peanut chew.” I’ve always been under the impression that it had zero chocolate, though a quick perusal of the ingredients reveals unsweetened chocolate right near the top. I guess they melt it right into the toffee, and now that I know that, yeah, I can kind of taste it in the background.

I haven’t had an Eat-More in years, and I actually think it’s slightly better than I remembered. It’s chewy, peanutty, and satisfying. The sweetness level is surprisingly restrained, with a slightly bitter flavour that has way more going on than the one-note sugariness of so many candy bars. There’s no molasses in the ingredients, but it definitely has that flavour, with a nice roastiness from the peanuts and a subtle chocolately kick.

As for the texture, it’s chewy but soft; it definitely doesn’t have the intense sticks-to-your-teeth level of chewiness of something like a Tootsie Roll. It’s quite different from pretty much any other candy bar, but I guess that’s part of the appeal.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 240 calories, 14 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 18 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fibre, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, unsweetened chocolate, modified palm kernel oil, high fructose corn syrup, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), modified milk ingredients, dextrose, high maltose corn syrup*, corn starch, salt, sorbitol, mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin, artificial flavour, invertase*, sulphites, disodium phosphate*, TBHQ*, citric acid, colour. *may not always be present.

November 22, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Baby Ruth – Chewy, Nutty, and Tasty

Candy Bars

Like Crunch and Butterfinger, Baby Ruth is one of the candy bars that was recently bought out by Ferrero and reformulated. In this case, the wrapper is very proud to proclaim that they’ve improved the recipe with the addition of dry-roasted peanuts. Alas, it’s been several years since I’ve last tried a Baby Ruth, so I couldn’t particularly tell you whether or not this is an upgrade.

The other thing that initially stands out is the presence of mockolate rather than actual chocolate on the exterior of the bar (red flag: the wrapper doesn’t mention the word “chocolate” once). I thought this might be a Ferrero thing, but a quick search reveals that Baby Ruth has used fake chocolate since at least 2008.

Aside from the mockolate coating and the new-and-improved dry-roasted nuts, the other two elements of a Baby Ruth are caramel and nougat.

If you’ve ever had an Oh Henry, this is basically the same thing. I think the level of chewiness here is slightly less intense, but they’re very similar.

It’s quite tasty. In particular, the much-touted dry-roasted peanuts add a ton of flavour; there’s a really satisfying roasty nuttiness that complements the bar’s other flavours quite well, not to mention the pleasant crunch.

The other thing that I quite like here is the caramel — a lot of candy bar caramel basically tastes like thick, chewy sugar, but the stuff here actually has some flavour outside of generic sweetness.

The bar definitely tastes sweeter than average, but there’s also a nice hit of salt that helps to balance things out. As for the mockolate, it’s fairly inoffensive; it adds zero taste or texture. Real chocolate would have been nice, but the mockolate doesn’t detract from the bar, which is really all you can ask.

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 53.8 grams): 260 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 28 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, dry roasted peanuts, corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel, coconut, and soybean), nonfat milk, cocoa, less than 2% of high fructose corn syrup, dairy product solids, glycerin, dextrose, salt, soy lecithin, lactic acid esters, carrageenan.