chocolate bar Archives - Page 3 of 25

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 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)].

April 18, 2021 Michael

Aero Truffle: Chocoalte Mousse – Aero Milk Chocolate with a Creamy Truffle Layer

Candy Bars, Chocolate

This is one of those bars that doesn’t really need a review. I don’t know what I can tell you that isn’t right in the name of the bar; it’s Aero with creamy chocolate truffle filling crammed on top. It pretty much tastes how you think it will.

It’s tasty in all the ways you expect (it’s also extremely sweet, but then so is classic Aero), though I do wish that the dense truffle filling were creamier, which would probably contrast better with the bubbly milk chocolate. This would also help it resemble its namesake a bit better — there are pretty much no mousse-like properties here, other than the chocolate flavour.

My biggest problem is that the bar is kinda neither here nor there — there isn’t enough of the truffle filling to give you a nice hit of the creamy, rich truffle texture, and of course, the bubbly chocolate that you normally find in an Aero is reduced to make room for the truffle. I enjoyed eating it, but given the choice, I’d rather just have a regular chocolate truffle or a classic Aero bar.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (8 segments, 40 grams): 220 calories, 13 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 22 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter*, unsweetened chocolate*, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour), sugar, modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, cocoa butter*, unsweetened chocolate*, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour. *Rainforest Alliance Certified

April 11, 2021April 11, 2021 Michael

Trumpf Aero – Germany’s Version of a Familiar Treat

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Aero is produced by Nestle throughout the world — except for Germany, where it’s made by Trumpf. My attempts to google this have been fruitless, so I have no idea how or why this arrangement happened, but it’s not the only time Nestle has made a deal like this. I’m thinking of Kit Kat, which is produced by Hershey in the US and by Nestle in the rest of the world.

Whatever the reasoning may be, the two Aeros are surprisingly different.

They’re both essentially the same thing — they’re aerated milk chocolate bars, which means that they have hundreds of tiny holes that gives the chocolate an interesting texture.

Aside from that, they’re pretty different; the Trumpf version is aerated all the way through, and lacks Nestle’s solid chocolate coating. This makes a bigger difference than you’d think; it has a very pronounced lightness that makes it melt away almost instantly.

The flavour is also quite different from standard Aero, with an in-your-face milkiness that gives it a fairly unique personality. The chocolate flavour is muted, but not in an unpleasant way. It’s a bit too sweet (the Nestle version has the same issue), but is otherwise pretty tasty.

Manufactured by: Trumpf
Nutritional info (100 grams): 543 calories, 32 grams of fat (19 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 170 mg of sodium, 56 grams of carbohydrates, unknown grams of fibre, 56 grams of sugar, 6.4 grams of protein.
Ingredients (Google translated from German): Sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, milk sugar, cream powder (milk), emulsifiers (soy lecithin, E476), vanilla extract. Cocoa: 30% minimum.