import Archives - Candyrageous

August 31, 2021 Michael

Walnut Whip – Chocolatey, Gooey, and Tasty

Candy Bars

I wasn’t even sure what to expect from Walnut Whip, a British candy that I hadn’t heard of until I ordered it for this blog. It looks more like an oversized selection from a box of chocolates than like a traditional candy bar, but it’s basically like a Valomilk or a Mallo Cup in a different shape.

It’s pretty simple — it features what the packaging calls a “fondant centre” surrounded by a thick layer of milk chocolate and topped with a walnut.

The fondant is creamy and marshmallow-like (it’s extremely similar to Marshmallow Fluff, though without the vanilla flavour, which I missed), and the milk chocolate is very British; Walnut Whip is a Nestle product, but the chocolate tastes like it’s trying hard to be Dairy Milk.

The walnut, oddly enough, is a bit superfluous; it adds some crunch, but is otherwise lost among the sweet chocolate and even sweeter filling. Still, the whole thing is tasty enough — it’s probably better than Mallo Cup, but not quite as good as Valomilk.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 whip, 30 grams): 148 calories, 7.2 grams of fat (4.2 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 19.9 grams of carbohydrates, 0.4 grams of fibre, 18.1 grams of sugar, 1.4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, dried whole milk, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, lactose and proteins from whey (from milk), whey powder (from milk), vegetable fats (palm, shea, sal, mango kernel), skimmed milk powder, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin)), sugar, walnuts (6%), glucose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, dried egg white, humectant (glycerol), flavouring, tartaric acid.

August 3, 2021 Michael

Kinder Country – Chocolate Crammed with Cereal

Candy Bars

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

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.

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.

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.

July 20, 2021 Michael

Kinder Happy Hippo – Kinder Meets Ferrero Rocher

Candy Bars

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.

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.

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.

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.

June 6, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk – Classic Milk Chocolate

Chocolate

How do you even review Dairy Milk? Just plain old regular Dairy Milk? The flavour of Cadbury milk chocolate is so fundamental that trying to describe it is like trying to describe the colour blue. I don’t know, it’s… Dairy Milk. It tastes like Dairy Milk. What do you want from me?

I will say that I think I accidentally bought a Greek version of the chocolate bar — like a lot of European confections, there are about a dozen languages on the packaging, but Greek is first. If it tasted any different from the usual Dairy Milk, however, I couldn’t tell.

The texture is a bit grainier than you’d like; a quick perusal of the ingredients reveals the presence of palm and shea oils, which is never a good thing. It’s still creamy enough, but it’s slightly off (this might be a Greek and/or European thing, because Canadian Dairy Milk doesn’t contain either of those oils).

Otherwise, it tastes how it tastes: it’s milky, chocolatey, and very sweet. It’s Dairy Milk. It tastes like Dairy Milk.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (27.5 grams): 147 calories, 8.4 grams of fat (5.1 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg cholesterol, 70 mg of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 0.5 grams of fibre, 15 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fats (palm, shea), emulsifiers (E442, E476), flavourings.

May 9, 2021 Michael

Wispa – It’s Better than the Competition

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Wispa is basically Cadbury’s version of Aero or Mirage — it actually looks strikingly similar to Mirage, but Wispa is the original. According to Wikipedia, Wispa was introduced in 1981. Mirage, on the other hand, didn’t come out until 1990 (and that info doesn’t seem to be anywhere online, so I actually got in touch with Nestle to find out. Look at me, doing journalism like a regular Woodward and Bernstein — take note, Pulitzer committee).

I’m not crazy about the quality of the milk chocolate in either Aero or Mirage, but I still enjoy them both thanks to the unique texture you get from the bubbliness of the chocolate.

Wispa is clearly the superior of the three. It’s made from Cadbury milk chocolate, which is slightly too sweet, but is otherwise above average for mass-produced chocolate.

Which means that this is pretty much going to be great by default. If you start with good quality chocolate and then add the fun texture you get from the aeration, you’re pretty much guaranteed to wind up with a winner.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 36 grams): 196 calories, 12 grams of fat (6.8 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 90 mg of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0.8 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2.4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fats (palm, shea), whey powder (from milk), emulsifier (E442), flavourings.