Tag: chocolate bar

Michael

Chocolatey PayDay – A Downgrade from the Original

Candy Bars

I like PayDay.  Consisting entirely of a dense caramel centre covered in salted peanuts, it’s delightfully peanutty and chewy, with a really satisfying combination of sweetness and saltiness that sets it apart from the competition.  It’s also the rare candy bar that’s chocolate-free, which adds to its distinctive charm.

Enter: Chocolatey PayDay, which takes the classic bar and adds a “chocolatey” exterior.  In case the word “chocolatey” wasn’t a dead giveaway, the bar features mockolate rather than the real deal.  Oddly, chocolate is present towards the end of the ingredients list — but not enough to avoid the dreaded “chocolatey” designation, or to avoid the telltale waxy texture and lack of personality that you get from the fake stuff.

Chocolatey PayDay

It’s fine.  I’m not sure if they’ve just covered a standard PayDay in a chocolatey coating or if other modifications were made, but it tastes like the latter to me.  I’m pretty sure there are less peanuts, and while the original hits you in the face with the sweet/salty combo, the level of salt is much more restrained here.  It’s definitely there, but it’s in the background.

This makes a bigger difference than you’d think; the bar tastes noticeably sweeter, and the nutty flavour is much more muted.  It doesn’t help that the mockolate coating basically adds nothing, and only detracts from the bar (unlike a lot of candy bars covered in mockolate, there’s a thick enough layer here that the waxy texture is quite noticeable).

Chocolatey PayDay

The whole thing is inoffensive enough, but it takes something distinctive and makes it generic; it basically tastes like an inferior version of an Oh Henry.

2 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 260 calories, 14 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 100 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fibre, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, peanuts, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil, corn syrup, chocolate, skim milk. Contains 2% or less of: whey (milk), salt, lecithin (soy), carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, vanillin, artificial flavor.

Michael

BarNone – A Delicious Candy Bar, Back From the Dead

Candy Bars

Whoa, BarNone.  Whoa Nelly.  (Is whoa Nelly a thing people say anymore?  I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but then I’ve never eaten a BarNone until now, so there’s a first time for everything, I guess.)

I honestly can’t remember the last time I was so pleasantly surprised by a candy bar.  I’ve barely even heard of BarNone, but apparently it was released by Hershey in 1987 (and was called Temptation in Canada) only to be discontinued about a decade later.  It was then revived by Iconic Candy, who specialize in bringing back discontinued sweets (and based on a photo on their website, they were at one point working on bringing back P.B. Max, and seriously, where’s my P.B. Max??  Why hasn’t that happened yet???).

BarNone

BarNone features chocolate wafers topped with peanuts and coated in milk chocolate, and oh man, it’s so good.  The wrapper calls it “the chocolate lover’s bar,” and yeah, that sounds about right.  It’s covered in a generous layer of good quality chocolate, and the wafer has a deeply chocolatey flavour that’s thoroughly satisfying.

BarNone

The peanuts are a nice touch; they add some crunch and a mild nutty flavour that complements the chocolate quite well.  The whole thing is creamy, crispy, crunchy, and delicious.  And it’s not too sweet, which really lets the chocolate flavour shine through.  I don’t think it’s available anywhere in Canada outside of import stores, but it’s worth going out of your way for.  I mean, did you not hear me?  I said whoa Nelly, and I meant it.

4 out of 4

Manufactured by: Iconic Candy
Nutritional info (1 bar, 42 grams): 230 calories, 13 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 150 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 12 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, milk powder, whey powder, soy lecithin, pure vanilla extract), chocolate cream (sugar, coconut oil, milk powder, cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate, glucose syrup, whey powder, dextrose, soy lecithin, pure vanilla extract, natural flavor, salt), wafer (wheat flour, wheat starch, cocoa powder, soy lecithin, salt, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate (rising agent), palm oil, yeast extract, malt extract), peanuts.

Michael

Hershey’s Creamy Milk Chocolate – Not Exactly the Best Chocolate You can Buy

Chocolate

I’m not even sure why I bought this one.  As soon as I had it in my home, I regretted it: I’m actually going to have to eat this now, aren’t I?

I mean, it’s not that bad.  It’s Hershey milk chocolate.  It is what it is.  Odds are that you’ve eaten it and you have an opinion on it.  So I don’t need to waste much time describing it to you.

Hershey's Creamy Milk Chocolate

It’s chocolate, so it’s basically tasty, but it has a slightly grainy consistency and an odd, distinctively sour aftertaste that, as I’ve mentioned in a previous review, shares chemical properties with literal vomit.

Hershey's Creamy Milk Chocolate

It certainly has its own unique personality, and I don’t begrudge anyone for enjoying it, but if I have the choice between this and pretty much any other milk chocolate, it’s not a tough decision.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1/2 bar, 50 grams): 250 calories, 15 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 28 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, lecithin (soy), natural flavour).

Michael

3 Musketeers – Chewy, Sweet, and Tasty

Candy Bars

3 Musketeers is basically a Mars Bar without the caramel.  It’s extremely simple — it’s just chewy, cocoa-infused whipped nougat covered in a fairly generous layer of milk chocolate.

3 Musketeers

The way that Mars has named both this and Mars Bar is a bit confusing; this one is known as 3 Musketeers in North America, but Milky Way in the UK.  That’s not to be confused with the American version of Milky Way, which is actually called Mars Bar everywhere else.  Simple, right?

3 Musketeers

Whatever it’s called, 3 Musketeers is a classic — the nougat is nice and fluffy, with a decent amount of chewiness and a satisfying chocolatey flavour.  It’s very sweet, but not overwhelming, with a nice hit of creaminess and flavour from the milk chocolate exterior.

Clearly, there’s a reason why it’s endured since the ’30s.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 54.4 grams): 240 calories, 7 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 95 mg of sodium, 42 grams of carbohydrates, <1 gram of fibre, 35 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin), sugar, corn syrup, vegetable oil (hydrogenated palm kernel oil and/or palm oil), cocoa powder processed with alkali, less than 1.5% – salt, egg whites, artificial and natural flavors.

Michael

Time Out Wafer – Does this Count as a Candy Bar?

Candy Bars

Time Out Wafer is tasty for what it is, though I think calling it a candy bar might be a bit of a stretch.  If you’ve ever tried Loacker — those wafer cookies that come in a rectangular block — then you’ll know what to expect here.  This is basically like that, but coated in a thin layer of chocolate and individually packaged.

Time Out Wafer

And that layer of chocolate is thin; you can tell just by looking at it.   It’s so thin that it’s semi-transparent, partially revealing the wafer underneath.

But then the bar weighs in at a scant 112 calories, so if you’re looking for something that isn’t too substantial (which would make it the opposite of the Reese Peanut Butter Oh Henry I recently reviewed), this should fit the bill.

Time Out Wafer

It’s enjoyable enough, with an airy crispiness along with a mild sweetness and nice chocolatey flavour.  But despite being composed of roughly the same components as a standard Time Out bar (wafers and chocolate), its connection to that one is fairly tenuous.  It isn’t much of a substitute if you’re hoping for a lighter version of a Time Out.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 21.2 grams): 112 calories, 6.1 grams of fat (3.4 grams of saturated fat, ? grams of trans fat), ? mg of cholesterol, 70 mg of sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 0.4 grams of fibre, 9.6 grams of sugar, 1.4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk, sugar, wheat flour, vegetable fats (palm, shea), cocoa butter, whey powder (from milk), cocoa mass, reduced fat cocoa powder (1%), emulsifiers (E442, soya lecithin, E476), potato starch, rapeseed oil, salt, raising agents (E500, E503), skimmed milk powder, milk fat, flavourings.