Chocolate Archives - Page 9 of 30

January 24, 2021January 30, 2021 Michael

Bounty – Delicious Coconut and Chocolate

Candy Bars

I’m really not sure how I’ve managed to get to over a hundred reviews on this blog without doing Bounty, which has always been one of my favourites. In fact, I think it might have been my absolute favourite candy bar when I was a kid, which means that in a lot of ways, my warm fuzzy feelings for Bounty are tied up in childhood nostalgia. So take everything I say about it with a grain of salt.

It’s really good, though.

It’s just coconut and milk chocolate, but as far as these types of candy bars go (I think Almond Joy and Mounds are the other big ones), Bounty is where it’s at. The coconut is very sweet but not overwhelming, with a nice coconut flavour. It’s fairly dense, and moist enough that you’re not going to be chewing on dried up coconut bits long after the flavour has gone.

The generous layer of decent quality milk chocolate compliments the coconut perfectly. The fat kid version of me bought these on a fairly regular basis, and eating it again now, I can definitely see why.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 57 grams): 270 calories, 13 grams of fat (10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 28 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), coconut, sugar, glucose syrup, glycerol monostearate, glycerol, salt, artificial flavour, sulphites.

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 Michael

Aero Peppermint – It’s Aero, but Minty

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Sometimes these candy reviews basically write themselves, and sometimes… they do not. This one definitely falls into the latter category.

I mean, it’s right there in the name. It’s minty Aero. It tastes exactly how you think it’s going to taste. It’s Aero that’s minty. The end.

Oh, that’s not enough? Fine, a bit more. Here’s the thing: it’s Aero… that’s minty. What? Did I say that already? Fine.

The chocolate is nice and creamy, the bubbles give it that interesting texture that Aero fans know and love, and the whole thing is very, very sweet. But the strong minty flavour (this is absolutely not a subtle bar) makes the sweetness feel right. It’s tasty stuff.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (9 segments, 40 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour, sodium copper chlorophyllin, turmeric.

January 17, 2021 Michael

Milky Bar – Average White Chocolate

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Here’s something odd: the wrapper of the Milky Bar I ate for this review contains two separate lists of ingredients. One of them is on the wrapper itself, and one is on a sticker, presumably put there by the company that imported the British bar into Canada.

The lists are surprisingly different. Most pressingly, the sticker version lists sugar as the first ingredient, directly contradicting the wrapper’s proclamation that “milk is our no. 1 ingredient.” Is milk the number one ingredient or not? Who am I supposed to believe??

Anyway, it’s plain white chocolate, so there’s not much to it. I should note that the sticker on the front of the wrapper is keen to point out that’s it’s actually a “white chocolaty candy bar” rather than a white chocolate candy bar, presumably due to the inclusion of vegetable fat supplementing the cocoa butter.

It’s tasty enough. I guess it’s not technically real white chocolate, but it’s fairly creamy. True to its name, it has a pronounced milky flavour. It’s not the best white chocolate you’ll ever eat, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 25 grams): 140 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 40 mg of sodium, 14 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 14 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients (from the wrapper, not the sticker): Milk powders (whole and skimmed) (37.5%), sugar, cocoa butter, vegetable fats (mango kernel, palm, sal, shea), emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), natural flavouring.

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.

January 7, 2021January 10, 2021 Michael

Mirage – Milk Chocolate with a Unique Texture

Candy Bars, Chocolate

The continued existence of both Mirage and Aero is somewhat baffling to me. They’re both pretty much the exact same thing — plain, aerated milk chocolate — and they’re both made by Nestle.

Aero easily has the higher profile, so why Nestle hasn’t just discontinued Mirage for being completely redundant is a bit of a head-scratcher.

The biggest difference between the two, as far as I can tell, is that the bubbles in Mirage seem a bit smaller. But I’d have to eat them side-by-side to know for sure.

They’re otherwise pretty much exactly the same: overly sweet, okay-quality milk chocolate that’s elevated by the pleasant texture you get from the aeration. The chocolate here would be just so-so without the delightful bubbliness, but the unique texture it brings definitely makes this worth trying out.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 41 grams): 215 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 20 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder, lactose soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour).