chocolate bar Archives - Page 13 of 25

October 4, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Maltesers Teasers – A Chocolatey Twist on a Classic

Candy Bars

Maltesers Teasers was a lot more Maltesersy than I was expecting. That’s a bit of a weird thing to say — Maltesers is right there in the name, after all — but sometimes these spin-off bars only have a very tenuous connection to the original. That’s definitely not the case here.

Teasers is basically a plain chocolate bar, but with bits of the classic Maltesers malty crispiness interspersed throughout. I think the chocolate itself might also be infused with a malty flavour, because that taste is quite pronounced.

It’s really good. If you like classic Maltesers (and what’s not to like??) then I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll like this. It’s basically reverse Maltesers — Maltesers is crispy with a bit of a creamy chocolaty hit, and Teasers is creamy with a bit of a crispy malty hit. But the flavour is basically identical; the only real difference is the creamy-to-crispy ratio.

It’s very, very sweet, but the thoroughly malty flavour does a great job of balancing it out and ensuring that it never feels one-note cloying. It’s delicious.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 35 grams): 186 calories, 10.4 grams of fat (6.3 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 20.3 grams of carbohydrates, unknown grams of fibre, 18.5 grams of sugar, 2.6 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, palm fat, lactose and protein from whey (from milk), whey powder (from milk), barley malt extract, milk fat, emulsifier (soya lecithin), wheat flour raising agents (E341, E500, E501), salt, natural vanilla extract.

September 30, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Ritter Sport Cacao Selection: 61% Cacao Dark Chocolate – Tasty Dark Chocolate

Chocolate

I’ve found Ritter Sport to be a bit hit or miss of late, but this one — part of their “Cacao Selection” line — contains a scant three ingredients, so I figured that would be pretty hard to mess up.

And yeah, it’s quite tasty. They did not mess it up.

The chocolate has a satisfying snap, a nice creamy melt, and a good amount of sweetness. The taste is a bit more muted than you might expect, however, with absolutely no bitterness and a surprisingly subtle flavour that takes a couple of squares to really appreciate. I enjoy the punchy flavour you get from more intense varieties of dark chocolate, so I missed that here, but it’s certainly tasty enough. It reminded me a lot of Lindt dark chocolate, so if you’ve ever had that, then you have a good idea of what to expect here.

Other than that… It’s good, I don’t know. It’s hard to review plain dark chocolate unless you’re one of those “notes of tobacco, dried figs, and cherries” guys (yes, those people exist for chocolate; they’re not just insufferable about wine), and I’m not one of those guys. So I’ll just say that this was good but not great and leave it at that.

Manufactured by: Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Nutritional info (10 pieces, 40 grams): 240 calories, 18 grams of fat (1 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 2 gram of fibre, 15 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter.

September 27, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Twix Cookies & Creme – You Should Probably Nix this Twix

Candy Bars

Between the Peanut Butter and Triple Chocolate varieties, I was starting to think that Twix could do no wrong. But I guess no one’s perfect.

Apparently Cookies and Creme was discontinued in the ’90s and recently revived. If you have fond, decades-old memories of this thing, I’d suggest that you pretend that it never came back and let your fond memories stay fond.

Well, it’s not that bad, I guess. It’s fine. It consists of chocolate cookies topped with some kind of sweet creme that’s studded with tiny little chocolate bits, and enrobed in milk chocolate.

It’s mostly inoffensive, and as usual for a Twix bar, the combo of creamy milk chocolate and crunchy cookies is a winner. But the creme has an off-putting lack of flavour; it’s thick and sweet, and… that’s about it. There’s not much to it. I would have rather just had cookies covered in chocolate. The creme adds nothing to the equation, and in fact only detracts, because what’s it even supposed to be?? It’s not really sweet enough to be icing, and it doesn’t particularly taste like cream, so what’s the point of it? I guess it’s supposed to be Oreo-like, but that connection only occurred to me long after I ate it, so clearly the flavour isn’t there.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 pack, 38.6 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 85 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, <1 grams of fibre, 17 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, PGPR, artificial flavor), palm oil, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, corn syrup, less than 2% – cocoa powder processed with alkali, skim milk, modified corn starch, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, soy lecithin, whey protein isolate, artificial flavor.

September 23, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk Crispy Rice – A Better Version of a Crunch Bar

Chocolate

I recently wrote about my disappointment with the current version of the Crunch bar, which was bought by Ferrero, reformulated, and made thoroughly mediocre.

Crunch used to be one of my favourites, so this kinda bummed me out.

Well, here comes Cadbury to the rescue — Dairy Milk Crispy Rice is basically a Crunch bar, but without the crushing disappointment.

There’s not much to it; it’s just crispy puffed rice and milk chocolate. And of course, if you’ve ever had Cadbury milk chocolate, then you know exactly what to expect here. It’s distinctive and tasty, and aside from the rice, that’s the entirety of this bar.

The puffed rice is nice and crispy, though I wish there were a bit more of it. The ratio of chocolate to rice is higher here than in a Crunch bar, but that’s a fairly minor complaint. The contrast between the creamy chocolate and the crispy rice is absolutely delightful.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (10 squares, 38 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavour), rice crisps (rice, sugar, salt, malted barley extract, monoglycerides).

September 20, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Mars Fudge – A Pleasant Variation on a Classic Candy

Candy Bars

The last Mars Bar variant I tried was Mars Caramel, which was a pretty clear downgrade from a standard Mars Bar. So my expectations weren’t particularly high for this one, which replaces the original’s nougat with fudge.

But hey, what do you know — it’s actually not bad. It probably helps that unlike the Caramel version, this one feels more like a tweak than a huge change.

Mostly, it tastes like a standard Mars Bar, but with a slightly stronger punch of chocolate flavour (though I will admit that it’s been a few years since I’ve had the original, so I might not be the best judge of this). If there’s a huge difference between the original’s nougat and the fudge here, I certainly couldn’t tell.

It’s quite satisfying, with a nice chewiness from the fudge and the caramel, and an intense sweetness that’s in-your-face but not too overpowering. It’s nothing to get too excited about, but it’s a solid candy bar.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 50 grams): 230 calories, 9 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 75 mg of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 30 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, hydrogenated palm kernel oil and/or palm oil, cocoa mass, cocoa powder, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, dried egg-white, natural and artificial flavours.