crispy Archives - Page 8 of 12

August 19, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Hazelnut Spread M&M’s – M&M’s + Nutella = Delicious?

Candy Bars

Hazelnut Spread M&M’s are basically M&M’s stuffed with Nutella. That’s about as close to a surefire hit as you can get, isn’t it? M&M’s and Nutella are both delicious, obviously, so there was no way this wasn’t going to be good.

And yeah, it is predictably tasty, if not quite the taste extravaganza I might have hoped.

I should note that the wrapper states that it’s a new recipe, so if you’ve had this before, maybe they’ve improved it? Or maybe they’ve made it worse? I have no idea; this is my first time trying it.

It basically tastes how you want it to taste, with a few minor caveats. There’s something slightly off about the flavour that I couldn’t quite put my finger on; it was also a bit more sweet than it needs to be. And I wish the hazelnut filling were creamier, or more accurately, creamy at all — it’s dense and grainy. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it feels like a missed opportunity (and a bit misleading; there is literally nothing spreadable about the “spread” in the middle of these candies).

Also, it’s not a Peanut M&M — the undisputed king of M&M’s — which makes me wonder: why would I eat this when Peanut M&M’s exist in the world? Peanut M&M’s are the ultimate M&M, and if you disagree with this, you’re wrong about M&M’s and wrong about the way you’ve chosen to live your life.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 pack, 38.3 grams): 200 calories, 10 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 15 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 22 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, salt, artificial and natural flavors), sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, hazelnut flour (hazelnuts, safflower oil, TBHQ to maintain freshness), dextrose, cornstarch, cocoa powder, less than 1% – corn syrup, dextrin, coloring (includes blue 1 lake, red 40, yellow 6, yellow 5, blue 1), carnauba wax, natural flavor, propyl gallate to maintain freshness, gum acacia.

August 9, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Duos: Mint + Dark Chocolate – Minty and Tasty

Candy Bars

The wrapper of this American import puzzled me; it says Hershey, but isn’t Kit Kat a Nestle product? Well here’s something I just learned: due to a decades-old agreement between the two companies, Kit Kat is made by Hershey in the States, and by Nestle in the rest of the world.

I guess I’m going to have to buy a plain American Kit Kat and see how it stacks up with the Nestle version, but for now, there’s this.

There definitely seems to be a dip in quality compared to the recent Nestle Kit Kats I’ve been trying, but that might be more down to the flavour than anything else.

And it’s definitely not bad — it’s actually pretty good. But the mint flavour is intense. I like the mint/chocolate combo, so I enjoyed it, but if you don’t you might find it a bit toothpasty.

Other than that, the chocolate is slightly grainy, and the wafer seems to be a bit bland compared to the Nestle version (though that could be my imagination), but it’s generally tasty enough.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), wheat flour, chocolate, skim milk, corn syrup solids, cocoa butter; lactose (milk), contains 2% or less of: cocoa processed with alkali, milk fat, lecithin (soy), oil of peppermint, PGPR, artificial color (yellow 5 lake, blue 1 lake), salt, yeast, vanillin, artificial flavor, baking soda.

July 29, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat – An Absolute Classic

Candy Bars

After reviewing (and being delighted by) a bunch of Kit Kat variants, I figured it was probably time to write about the original.

I was under the impression that Kit Kat had gone down in quality; the last couple of times I’ve eaten it, I’ve been underwhelmed.

Well, either I was wrong or the quality has gone right back up, because this one was absolutely delicious. Top-notch stuff.

Everything here just works. In particular, the ratio of chocolate to wafer is spot on; there’s enough chocolate to give you a satisfying chocolatey hit, but you also get a good amount of crispiness from the wafers. It’s a great balance, and as I’ve mentioned in previous Kit Kat reviews, the wheaty wafers do a great job of offsetting some of the sweetness of the chocolate.

I mean, it’s a Kit Kat; it’s not the most exciting thing at the store, but if you haven’t had it in a while, I think you might be surprised. The chocolate is pretty decent, the wafers are nice and crispy, and it’s not too sweet. It’s not gourmet, but for a mass-market candy bar made by one of the huge candy companies, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 45 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder, lactose, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour), wheat flour, sugar, modified palm oil, cocoa, sodium bicarbonate, soya lecithin, yeast, natural flavour.

July 19, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Chunky: Cookie Dough – A Downgrade From the Original

Candy Bars

Everyone loves cookie dough. It’s delicious. That’s just a scientific fact. And Kit Kat Chunky? Also objectively delicious. So then Kit Kat Chunky: Cookie Dough must also be delicious. Okay, well, that was a short review — see you next week.

Wait, what’s that? It’s not delicious? Well then. I guess a bit more of a review is necessary.

The biggest problem here is the so-called cookie dough; it does a fairly abysmal job of recapturing that particular taste. If you close your eyes and really use your imagination you might be able to conjure up vague whiffs of cookie dough flavour, but mostly, it just tastes like an overly sweet, sugary paste. If this had been a blind taste test, I’m not sure that I ever would have figured out what it was supposed to be.

That’s an issue, because:

A) If I buy something that says cookie dough on the packaging, I kinda want it to taste like cookie dough. I feel like that’s not unreasonable?

B) It throws off the balance of the Kit Kat Chunky. The wafer here is reduced by about 50 percent to accommodate the layer of “cookie dough.” In a normal Kit Kat, the wafer does a great job of balancing out the bar’s sweetness, but the thinner one here is a bit overwhelmed.

The whole thing is still decent enough, but it’s clearly inferior to a regular Kit Kat Chunky in every regard. If you really need Kit Kat + cookie dough in your life, just buy a standard Kit Kat Chunky and a package of cookie dough and eat them together. Problem solved.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 280 calories, 16 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0.2 grams of trans fat), 15 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 26 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, glucose), modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, cocoa butter, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, palm and vegetable oils, soy and sunflower lecithin, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavours, polyglycerol polynoleate, salt, baking soda, yeast, calcium sulphate, ammonium carbonate, citric acid, protease, xylanase, ascorbic acid, potassium carbonate, sodium phosonate.

July 15, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Crunch – New and Not-So-Improved

Candy Bars, Chocolate

You may not realize this, but you couldn’t buy Crunch for a little while; in 2018, Nestle sold Crunch to Ferrero, who pulled it off the shelves so that they could “reformulate” it.

Well, it’s back, and either I’m remembering Crunch being better than it was, or it’s gone down in quality. Which is weird; you’d think the jump from Nestle to Ferrero (the makers of Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and many other delicious things) would be a clear upgrade. Alas.

Still, it’s not bad. It’s also not “good” per se; the chocolate is fairly bottom-of-the-barrel, with a generic sweetness and not a whole lot going on in the flavour department, and even the crispy rice is a bit more anemic than you’d expect (it’s mildly crispy, but the texture isn’t quite there).

Also, this is purely psychological, but I miss the old design of the bar, with the big embossed “Crunch” lettering. The new segmented bar is boring in comparison.

And yet… I mostly enjoyed it. The chocolate has a nice creaminess, and while the rice doesn’t bring the assertive crunch you’re looking for in a bar called Crunch, it still has enough of that creamy/crispy contrast to be satisfying. If I didn’t have nostalgia for the old Crunch bar my opinion on this would probably be a bit lower, but I do, so here we are. I didn’t particularly like it at first, but it (mostly) grew on me.

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43.9 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 60 mg of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, natural flavour), crisped rice (rice flour, sugar, barley malt, salt).