Kinder Country – Chocolate Crammed with Cereal

Kinder Country is basically Kinder Chocolate, but with a whole bunch of cereal crammed in (the ingredients lists barley, rice, wheat, spelt, and buckwheat).

Kinder Country

It’s interesting; the cereal here is incredibly abundant, and is clearly the dominant flavour, with an intense wheatiness and a mild bitterness that helps to offset the sweetness of the chocolate and the milky interior.

Kinder Country

It reminds me a lot of Sugar Crisp, a cereal I haven’t thought about in years, but which came to mind as soon as I took a bite of this thing.  The chocolate is creamy, but with a mild crispiness from all the grainy bits.  The flavour isn’t as chocolatey as you’d expect, but it works.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 23.5 grams): 132 calories, 7.9 grams of fat (5.1 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, 12.9 grams of carbohydrates, 11.5 grams of sugar, unknown grams of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mash, emulsifier: lecithin (soy), vanillin), sugar, skimmed milk powder, vegetable fat, whole grains expanded (barley, rice, wheat, spelt, buckwheat), dehydrated butter, emulsifier: lecithin (soy), vanillin.

Kinder Happy Hippo – Kinder Meets Ferrero Rocher

Kinder Happy Hippo is kind of like a Kinder Surprise and a Ferrero Rocher had a baby.  A delicious, delicious baby.  It’s got the crispy wafer exterior and creamy interior of a Ferrero Rocher, and the white/milk chocolate combo of a Kinder Surprise.

Kinder Happy Hippo

This is a European import (the one I bought seems to be German) and I’m going to have to insist that they bring this to North America ASAP, because it’s surprisingly delicious.

Kinder Happy Hippo

It’s everything you like about Kinder Surprise and Ferrero Rocher crammed into one delicious package.  The interior is delightfully soft and creamy, featuring a nice balance between the chocolatey layer and the milky layer, and the wafer exterior features a nice crispiness and a subtle wheaty flavour that helps to balance out the sweet creamy filling.  I wasn’t expecting much from this thing and it kind of blew me away.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (100 grams): 593 calories, 38.6 grams of fat (17.69 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 26.4 mg of sodium, 53.6 grams of carbohydrates, unknown grams of fibre, 45.1 grams of sugar, 6.7 grams of protein.
Ingredients (Google translated from German): Sugar, vegetable fats (palm, shea), wheat flour (8.5%), whole milk powder (7.5%), low-fat cocoa (5%), skim milk powder (4.5%), hazelnuts, sweet whey powder, semi-dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, emulsifier: lecithins (soya), vanillin), wheat starch, emulsifier: lecithins (soya), sunflower oil, milk protein, raising agent: ammonium hydrogen carbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate: salt, vanillin.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs – A Delicious Easter Treat

Do you like Ferrero Rocher?  If you do, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll like Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs.  If you don’t, you’re a straight-up maniac and I’m going to have to insist that you drive yourself to your local police station so that you can be put away for life.  You are not to be trusted out in the world.

For everyone else, Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs are delicious, though they’re basically like a less hazelnutty version of Ferrero Rocher, so they can’t help but feel like a bit of a downgrade.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs

Like Ferrero Rocher, these eggs feature a milk chocolate and wafer exterior encasing a creamy chocolate/hazelnut centre.  This is an objectively delicious combo, with a great contrast between crispy and creamy, so it pretty much goes without saying that these things are extremely tasty.  But I missed the chopped hazelnuts that you get on the outside of a Ferrero Rocher, not to mention the whole hazelnut within.

The outer layer of milk chocolate is a bit more generous here, which is nice, but the whole thing is probably a tad sweeter than it needs to be.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs

If I had the choice I doubt I’d ever pick one of these over a Ferrero Rocher, which makes them feel a bit redundant, but it’s hard to deny that they’re delicious.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (3 eggs, 30 grams): 170 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 25 mg of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 14 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, soy and/or sunflower lecithin, vanillin), modified palm oil, sugar, hazelnuts, whey powder, cocoa, tapioca starch, wheat flour, milk powder, soy and/or sunflower lecithin, skim milk powder, salt, tara gum, vanillin, sodium bicarbonate.

Duplo – Like a Hazelnutty Kit Kat

Confusingly, Ferrero actually makes two different European candy bars called Duplo; one features three segments, each with a whole hazelnut surrounded by chocolate cream, and the other is a Kit-Kat-esque wafer bar infused with hazelnut.  This particular one is the wafer variety, and it’s made in Poland, with nothing but Polish on the wrapper.

Duplo

It’s quite good.  It has so much resemblance to a Kit Kat that it would be hard for it not to be tasty.  The wafer is nice and crispy, the chocolate is creamy, and the pronounced hazelnut flavour compliments it perfectly.

Duplo

I wish the quality of the chocolate were better (it’s a bit one-note sweet), and the crispiness of the wafer could be more pronounced.  But mostly, this is an above average chocolate bar that really capitalizes on the inherent tastiness of the hazelnut/chocolate combo.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (100 grams): 555 calories, 33.5 grams of fat (19.1 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 191 mg of sodium, 56.09 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 50.49 grams of sugar, 6.19 grams of protein.
Ingredients (Google translated from Polish): Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, full-milk powder, cocoa butter, emulsifier: lecithin (soya), vanillin), sugar, palm oil, shea vegetable oil, wheat flour, hazelnut, wheat powder, cocoa powder with reduced fat content, emulsifier: lecithin (soya), wheat starch, salt, raising agents (ammonium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate), vanillin.

Baby Ruth – Chewy, Nutty, and Tasty

Like Crunch and Butterfinger, Baby Ruth is one of the candy bars that was recently bought out by Ferrero and reformulated.  In this case, the wrapper is very proud to proclaim that they’ve improved the recipe with the addition of dry-roasted peanuts.  Alas, it’s been several years since I’ve last tried a Baby Ruth, so I couldn’t particularly tell you whether or not this is an upgrade.

The other thing that initially stands out is the presence of mockolate rather than actual chocolate on the exterior of the bar (red flag: the wrapper doesn’t mention the word “chocolate” once).  I thought this might be a Ferrero thing, but a quick search reveals that Baby Ruth has used fake chocolate since at least 2008.

Baby Ruth

Aside from the mockolate coating and the new-and-improved dry-roasted nuts, the other two elements of a Baby Ruth are caramel and nougat.

If you’ve ever had an Oh Henry, this is basically the same thing.  I think the level of chewiness here is slightly less intense, but they’re very similar.

It’s quite tasty.  In particular, the much-touted dry-roasted peanuts add a ton of flavour; there’s a really satisfying roasty nuttiness that complements the bar’s other flavours quite well, not to mention the pleasant crunch.

Baby Ruth

The other thing that I quite like here is the caramel — a lot of candy bar caramel basically tastes like thick, chewy sugar, but the stuff here actually has some flavour outside of generic sweetness.

The bar definitely tastes sweeter than average, but there’s also a nice hit of salt that helps to balance things out.  As for the mockolate, it’s fairly inoffensive; it adds zero taste or texture.  Real chocolate would have been nice, but the mockolate doesn’t detract from the bar, which is really all you can ask.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 53.8 grams): 260 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 28 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, dry roasted peanuts, corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel, coconut, and soybean), nonfat milk, cocoa, less than 2% of high fructose corn syrup, dairy product solids, glycerin, dextrose, salt, soy lecithin, lactic acid esters, carrageenan.