Tag: crispy

Michael

Wunderbar – Chewy, Crunchy, Crispy, Peanut Buttery, and Delicious

Candy Bars

Wunderbar is a classic — known as Starbar in the UK, it’s been around since the ’70s, but has apparently never been sold in the States.  This is clearly America’s loss.  It’s so good.

If you’re an American and have never been blessed with the deliciousness of the Wunderbar, it features crunchy peanut butter mixed with puffed rice that’s surrounded by chewy caramel and milk chocolate.

Wunderbar

I haven’t had one in years, but it’s just as delightful as I remembered it being.  It’s got everything you want in a candy bar: it’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s crispy, and the sweetness is perfectly tuned — it’s delicious.

The puffed rice is a stroke of genius; it gives the bar a memorable crispiness that sets it apart from something like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup.  Between that, the very chewy caramel, and the crunchy chunks of peanuts, you’ve got a bar with a really satisfying contrast of textures.

Wunderbar

The layer of decent quality chocolate on the outside is substantial enough to add a decent hit of flavour which — of course — works nicely with the peanut butter.  I mean, why wouldn’t it?  Peanut butter and chocolate are best friends.  The rich caramel only adds more flavour, and the bar has a very mild saltiness that rounds things out.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (58 g bar): 290 calories, 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 32 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 26 g of sugar, 4 g of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup peanuts. modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, modified vegetable oil, rice, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, salt, malt extract (barley wheat), soy lecithin, baking soda, calcium chloride, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavor.

Michael

Kit Kat White & Milk – A Delicious Blend of White and Milk Chocolate

Candy Bars

White chocolate can be a bit of a crapshoot.  It’s a lot harder to get right than milk or dark chocolate; it has a tendency to be overly sweet, and in the absence of cocoa, it can be a bit one-note in its flavour.

The white chocolate here, however, is quite tasty, and blending it with milk chocolate thoroughly resolves the one-note issue.

Kit Kat White & Milk

This particular bar is basically a standard Kit Kat, but with some of the milk chocolate replaced with white.  It’s way better than I was expecting it to be.

The presence of milder white chocolate actually emphasizes the wheaty flavour you get from the wafers, which does a great job of balancing out the overall sweetness of the bar.  It’s delightful.

Kit Kat White & Milk

And the white chocolate is great — it has a nice creamy flavour, and is complimented quite nicely by the milk chocolate.  It’s kinda like eating a standard Kit Kat, but then dipping the bars in whipped cream.  The chocolate flavour is mellower, but not necessarily in a bad way.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (2 fingers, 21 grams): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, cocoa mass, sunflower and soy lecithin, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavours.

Michael

Hershey’s Strawberries ‘n’ Creme – Is it Supposed to Taste Like Medicine?

Candy Bars

Hershey recently released three white chocolate bars with ice-cream-inspired flavours: Birthday Cake (which I just reviewed), Strawberries ‘n’ Creme, and Cookies ‘n’ Mint (which is up next).  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Birthday Cake variety, which had an appealingly junky flavour that reminded me of store-bought frosting.

This one, on the other hand?  Swing and a miss.

Hershey's Strawberries 'N' Creme

It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, but nothing here particularly works.  The slightly sour strawberry flavour is neither here nor there; it’s muddled, with a medicinal quality that I found to be vaguely unpleasant.  I guess it’s supposed to taste like strawberry ice cream, and it kinda does if you use your imagination, but mostly it tastes like lousy white chocolate with a watered-down strawberry-like flavour.

Hershey's Strawberries 'N' Creme

It doesn’t help that the chocolate isn’t particularly creamy, with a slightly grainy consistency (which, to be fair, seems to be an issue with all Hershey chocolate).

There are little crispy bits interspersed throughout, but unlike the sprinkles in the Birthday Cake variety, I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be or why they’re there.  They lack the pronounced crunch of the sprinkles, and only serve to emphasize the white chocolate’s lack of creaminess.

1.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, lactose, strawberry juice, maltodextrin), cocoa butter, milk ingredients, sunflower oil, modified palm oil, corn starch, lecithin (soy), natural and artificial flavors, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, beetroot concentrate, citric acid.

Michael

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch – A Sweet Combo of Chocolate and Hazelnut

Candy Bars

Like Kit Kat Senses, Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch kind of feels like Nestle’s attempt to do their own version of a Ferrero product.  This one isn’t quite as blatant, but with its combo of milk chocolate, hazelnut pieces, and crispy wafers, it’s hard not to think of a Ferrero Rocher.

But then there’s no creamy filling, so maybe I’m just seeing connections where there are none.  Ferrero certainly can’t lay claim to the chocolate/hazelnut combo.

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch is tasty enough, but if I had the choice between this and a Ferrero Rocher, I’d pick the latter ten times out of ten.  It’s no comparison.

The main issue is the intense level of sweetness, which kinda bulldozes all of the bar’s other flavours.  The taste of the chocolate and hazelnut are certainly there, but they’re in the background.

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch

A standard Kit Kat is balanced out somewhat by the wheatiness of the wafers, but the chocolate version here isn’t quite able to perform that function.

Still, the snappy chocolate has a nice creamy texture, and the hazelnut bits add a decent amount of crunch.  Between that and the crispy wafers, the texture here is quite satisfying.  And it’s nearly impossible to go wrong with chocolate and hazelnut; making a candy bar with that combo is almost like cheating.  You’d have to work pretty hard to mess it up.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (4 fingers, 40 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 30 mg sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre.
Ingredients: Sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, hazelnuts, modified palm oil, palm, palm kernel and vegetable oils, cocoa powder, sunflower lecithin, natural favour, baking soda, protease, xylanase, tocopherol, citric acid.

Michael

Kit Kat Orange – It’s Just as Tasty as You’d Hope

Candy Bars

I’m not gonna lie; this one kinda blew me away.  It has been a while since I’ve had a classic Kit Kat, so maybe I just forgot how good it is, but I enjoyed the hell out of this.

As you’d probably exect, Kit Kat Orange is basically a standard Kit Kat, but with an orange flavour.  I know the chocolate/orange combo isn’t for everyone, but I’m a fan.

Kit Kats are great, chocolate and orange is great — so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this is great, too.

Kit Kat Orange

It’s exactly what you’re hoping it’s going to be.  I’m fairly confident that I don’t need to explain the appeal of a Kit Kat to you; you’ve eaten it, and you like it.  You’re not a monster, after all.

This is that, but with a satisfying amount of orangey flavour added into the mix.  It’s creamy, it’s crispy, it’s chocolatey, it’s orangey; it’s delicious.

Kit Kat Orange

It’s quite sweet, but the sweetness is perfectly tempered by the wheaty/toasty wafers.  And the orange flavour is very nicely tuned — it complements the milk chocolate flavour without overwhelming it.  It reminded me a lot of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange.  It’s delightful.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (2 fingers, 21 grams): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 20 mg sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, sunflower and soy lecithin, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavours.