Mars Archives - Candyrageous

August 10, 2021August 10, 2021 Michael

Pretzel M&M’s – A Delicious Combo of Chocolate and Pretzels

Candy Bars

I’ve mentioned on this blog a few times that Peanut M&M’s are the king of M&M’s; this remains true, and I suspect will always remain true. There’s just something about them that can’t be beat. But Pretzel M&M’s are pretty damn close.

Chocolate-covered pretzels are delicious. M&M’s are delicious. Combine the two, and yeah, the result is delicious. What did you think was going to happen?

The generously-sized pretzel ball in the middle of each M&M does a great job of balancing out the sweetness from the candy shell and the milk chocolate, and of course, the sweet-and-salty mix that you’re expecting from a chocolate-covered pretzel is here, and it’s delightful. It helps that the balance between chocolate and pretzel is pretty much perfect; neither overwhelms the other, and they both work so well together.

The texture is great, too; the combo of the crispy shell, the crunchy pretzel, and the creamy chocolate is thoroughly satisfying. Peanut M&M’s may be the superior M&M, but they’re neck and neck.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/4 cup, 35 grams): 160 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 100 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavour, flavour), sugar, pretzel (enriched wheat flour, modified sago starch, salt, soybean oil, corn syrup, barley malt extract, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate, yeast), cornstarch, corn syrup, tapioca, dextrin, colour (with tartrazine), salt, carnauba wax, modified coconut oil and / or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides), gum acacia.

July 27, 2021 Michael

Snickers – The Most Popular Candy Bar in the World

Candy Bars

On one hand, it’s kind of odd that I’ve gone this long without reviewing plain old Snickers. On the other hand, who needs a review of Snickers? Is it really any kind of public service to review a candy bar that literally every person on the planet has tried? If you’re unfamiliar with Snickers, I’m going to assume you’ve just emerged from an Encino Man scenario, and probably have better things to do than read a candy blog.

Snickers consists of nougat, caramel, and peanuts, all covered in a generous layer of milk chocolate. But of course, you know that already, because it’s Snickers. It’s the top-selling candy bar in the world (or at least it was a few years ago).

It’s good. There’s obviously a reason why it’s so popular: the nougat and the caramel have a satisfying chewiness, the peanuts add a nice crunch, and the creamy chocolate rounds it all out. It’s aggressively sweet, though the slightly salty peanuts do a decent job of offsetting that a bit. It’s certainly not my favourite candy bar, but it’s easy enough to see why it’s such a big deal.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 250 calories, 12 grams of fat (4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 125 mg sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, modified palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, dried egg-white, artificial flavour.

June 13, 2021 Michael

Caramel M&M’s – Chewy, Caramely Goodness

Candy Bars

Caramel M&M’s aren’t exactly new (they were introduced in 2017), but considering how much of a no-brainer the chocolate/caramel combo is, it’s surprising that it took that long.

It’s pretty much exactly what you want it to be. The intense sweetness is a bit of a shock at first (the best M&M’s flavours, like peanut and pretzel, work as well as they do because they balance out the sweetness of the chocolate and the candy shell), but it grows on you. The caramel has a satisfying butterscotch-infused flavour that works quite well with the sweet chocolate.

I wish the caramel were a bit creamier, however — it’s not exactly at Reisen levels of intense chewiness, but it does stick to your teeth a bit. It kinda reminded me of what you’ll find in a Rolo. It generally works, but the best M&M’s varieties have an addictiveness where you just wanna pop one after the other, and these ones never quite get there.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/4 cup, 42 grams): 200 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 65 mg of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 27 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, artificial flavours, salt), sugar, corn syrup, milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cornstarch, lactose, tapioca dextrin, salt, mono and diglycerides, colours (with tartrazine) carnauba wax, cocoa mass, artificial flavour, modified coconut oil and/or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides), gum acacia.

May 23, 2021 Michael

Mars Bar – One of the Greats

Candy Bars

Mars Bar (A.K.A. Milky Way if you’re in the States) is an absolute classic. It’s essentially the platonic ideal of a candy bar: it’s chocolatey, substantial, chewy, sweet, and thoroughly satisfying. It’s always been one of my favourites — I haven’t had one in years, and it might have been even better than I remembered.

(In fact, I think I was so eager to eat it that I actually forgot to take a photo of the bar itself. Whoops.)

It’s extremely simple: it’s just nougat, caramel, and chocolate.

Everything here just works. The fluffy nougat and dense caramel are chewy, but not aggressively so (it’s not going to work out your jaw like some overly enthusiastic nougat or caramel bars). The nougat has malted milk powder mixed in, which might just be the bar’s secret weapon. It adds a delightfully malty flavour that brings some complexity and helps to balance out the intense sweetness of the bar. Mars Bar is very, very sweet, but it’s a well-tuned sweetness; it never tastes overbearing.

And then, of course, there’s the generous layer of decent quality milk chocolate, which is what you want it to be. Sometimes the chocolate on a candy bar is basically there for appearances only, or just to bind everything together, but the chocolate here adds a lot to the bar. It’s good stuff.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 52 grams): 240 calories, 9 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 70 mg sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 30 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, hydrogenated palm and palm kernel oil, lactose, malted milk powder (malted barley, milk ingredients, sodium bicarbonate, salt), palm oil, soy lecithin, salt, dried egg-white, artificial flavour.

April 21, 2021 Michael

M&M’s Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar with Minis – Surprisingly Addictive

Candy Bars, Chocolate

I was shocked at how much I enjoyed M&M’s Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar with Minis. I didn’t particularly care for M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Peanuts, or M&M’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Minis & Crisp Rice (those names just roll off the tongue, don’t they?), and I sort of figured this would be more of the same.

Well, I guess I had slightly higher expectations for this one than the others — my main issue with the other two was the middling, overly sweet milk chocolate, so I hoped the dark chocolate here would be an upgrade.

It was. Though the packaging, oddly enough, doesn’t actually call it dark chocolate — it’s “dark sweet chocolate.” This might be because it contains milk ingredients, which would mean that it’s technically not dark chocolate? I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it’s pretty tasty. It’s quite sweet, but it has a nice robust chocolatey flavour that balances out the sweetness. It actually tastes a lot closer to the chocolate you’ll find in an M&M than the two milk chocolate bars that I tried.

The M&M’s Minis do a decent job of adding some crispiness to the creamy chocolate. They’re not super generous, but unlike the other two versions, I didn’t mind.

There’s nothing about this that’s particularly mind-blowing, but the more I ate it, the more it grew on me. There’s something about standard M&M’s that’s oddly addictive; once you start eating them, it’s hard to stop. Unlike the milk chocolate bars, this one does a decent job of recapturing that.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/3 bar, 38 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 15 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Dark sweet chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, artificial flavour, flavour), M&M’s Minis milk chocolate candies [milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavour, flavour), sugar, colour (with tartrazine), corn syrup, tapioca dextrin, cornstarch, carnauba wax, modified coconut oil and/or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides)].