crispy Archives - Page 10 of 12

May 3, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Reese Outrageous! Stuffed with Pieces – Sweetness Overload

Candy Bars

I’ll admit that Reese Nutrageous isn’t one of my favourite candy bars. Reese’s Pieces, on the other hand, is one of my favourites. So what do you get when you cram a great candy into a mediocre one?

Uh… nothing great, that’s for sure.

Reese Outrageous (sorry, Reese Outrageous!) is basically a Nutrageous, but with the peanuts replaced with Reese’s Pieces.

The problem here is that it’s just way, way too sweet. With a standard Reese Peanut Butter cup you get a very strong peanut butter flavour along with a nice hit of salt to balance things out. There’s no such balance here; just an in-your-face level of chewy sweetness that’s a bit exhausting to eat.

There’s a tiny bit of peanut butter in the middle of this thing, but it’s completely overwhelmed by the dense caramel and the generous layer of very sweet milk chocolate. The Reese’s Pieces add some nice crunch and more peanut butter flavour, but those candies are basically perfect on their own; they’re very sweet, but the sweetness feels finely tuned. Once you add on caramel and chocolate, it throws things off. It’s too much.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (41 g bar): 200 calories, 10 g of fat (6 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 60 mg of sodium, 28 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 24 g of sugar, 3 g of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, lactose, lecithin (soy), polyglycerol polyricinoleate), sugar, peanuts, partially defatted peanuts, hydrogenated palm kernel oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dextrose, sorbitol, modified palm kernel oil, modified milk ingredients, salt, colour, corn starch, high maltose corn syrup, corn syrup, artificial flavour, carnauba wax, mono and diclycerides, TBHQ, citric acid.

November 7, 2011January 10, 2021 Michael

Maltesers – Crispy, Bite-Sized Goodness

Candy Bars

Maltesers have always been a favourite of mine. There’s something about those chocolately, malty little balls that I find kind of irresistible.

Odds are, you’re probably more familiar with Whoppers than with Maltesers – as far as I’m aware, Maltesers are hard to come by in the States, while Whoppers are quite prevalent. That’s a shame, as I feel like Maltesers are clearly the superior product, though I’d have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure.

Basically, Maltesers are crunchy, malt-flavoured balls (the package describes them as “Honeycombed centres”), covered in a relatively thin layer of milk chocolate.

They’re lightly crunchy, with a fairly complex malted taste – there’s a hint of bitterness, but not in a bad way. They’re sweet, but not intensely so, with a vaguely honey-like aftertaste. The milk chocolate coating complements the centre really well. They’re quite good; if you’re only familiar with Whoppers, I’d definitely recommend that you seek these out.

Manufactured by: Mars
Calories (37 g package): 180

October 24, 2011January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Dark: 70% Cocoa – Dark and Delicious

Candy Bars

The media have done a pretty good job of convincing people that dark chocolate is good for them – when I bought this bar, the cashier examined it with interest and declared that she wished that she liked dark chocolate, because then she could eat as much as she wanted without feeling guilty. Well… not quite. There are certainly health benefits to eating dark chocolate, but that doesn’t exactly mean that you can eat all that you want without gaining weight. It’s still chocolate, after all.

My cashier would definitely be out of luck with this bar, as the dark chocolate here has a really strong flavour; much more so than your average mainstream dark chocolate bar. If you don’t like the dark stuff, I can pretty much guarantee that you’re not going to like this bar.

The chocolate has a nice snap (literally – you can hear a very pronounced snapping noise when you separate the segments) and seems to be of a reasonably high quality. It’s not the best quality chocolate ever, but for something in a Nestle candy bar, it’s better than you’d expect. Though it’s been a while since I’ve had the standard Kit Kat Dark, I’m fairly certain this has a more robust dark chocolately taste.

It’s quite good, actually, though the chocolate may be a tad too strong; it kind of overpowers the other flavours of the bar. You definitely get some flavour from the wafers, but it’s in the background. I like it, but then I’m a pretty big fan of dark chocolate (so this whole “dark chocolate is health food!” fad has been a big boon for me).

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (45 g bar): 250

January 5, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Drifter – Delicious Crispy Wafers and Chewy Caramel

Candy Bars

This is another British bar, and I’m really not sure if there’s anything else quite like it. I’m starting to get somewhat bitter eating all these imported products; it’s giving me a bunch of new candy bars to crave, most of which are almost impossible to find. Oh well; such is the life of a candy blogger, I suppose.

At first glance Drifter looks kind of like Twix – two smaller bars sitting side-by-side. But it tastes almost nothing like Twix, with each bar consisting of a piece of wafer covered in chewy caramel and enrobed in milk chocolate.

Sometimes the caramel in a candy bar has the problem of being sweet without having much of a flavour at all. Drifter doesn’t particularly have that problem, with caramel that is sweet without being too sweet, with an appealing almost Golden Syrup-like flavour. It’s really chewy and slightly grainy. The wafer is crispy and has a particularly pronounced wheaty/wafery taste, which works quite well with the chewy caramel.

So basically, Drifter is definitely another addition to the “candy bars I like but can’t really buy” list.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (2 bars, 52 g): 264

December 3, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

100 Grand – Chewy, Crispy, and Tasty

Candy Bars

The contrast between chewy and crunchy/crispy is a popular one among many candy makers, and is certainly at the forefront here. Featuring an appealing mix of crispy puffed rice and chewy caramel, 100 Grand is a tasty bar (or a couple of bars, in this case).

The caramel is soft, chewy and slightly grainy. It’s sweet, but with more mellow flavour than what you’d typically find in a candy bar. I know this is a bizarre thing to say, but the taste almost reminds me of cookie dough. Obviously the flavour isn’t even close to identical, but the more of it I ate, the harder it was to shake the cookie dough connection.

The puffed rice adds a satisfying crispiness which complements the chewy caramel quite well. Puffed rice is actually a fairly common ingredient in candy bars; I think it’s because it’s crispy without being too crispy, and without having much of a flavour to speak of (so it just contributes to the texture of a bar without interfering with the taste). It works really well here; 100 Grand can officially be added to my list of candy I wish I could buy in Canada but can’t.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (43 g bar):190