Skor – Delicious Butter Toffee with Chocolate

The continued existence of both Skor and Heath is a bit of a head-scratcher; they’re both made by Hershey, and they’re both pretty much the same thing.  I thought that they might just be the same bar with different branding (like Milky Way and Mars Bar), but apparently they’re slightly different.

Skor

The wrapper describes Skor as “butter toffee crunch enrobed in milk chocolate.”  Like Heath, it also features little pieces of almond interspersed throughout.

Skor

It’s really, really good.  I think it’s actually slightly better than Heath; the toffee has a very rich, delightfully buttery flavour, and the ratio of chocolate to toffee is perfect.  It’s quite sweet, but the sweetness feels just right.  It’s delicious.

35 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.3 grams of trans fat), 20 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 23 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, milk ingredients, lactose, salt, lecithin (soy), natural flavour), sugar, butter (milk), almonds, sweetened condensed milk (milk, sugar), salt, unsweetened chocolate, sunflower oil.

Mallo Cup – Overly Sweet Marshmallow Cups

It’s been several years since I’ve had a Mallo Cup; my memory is that it’s basically an inferior version of Valomilk.  But then Valomilk isn’t exactly easy to find.  I’ve only ever seen it in the Cracker Barrel gift shop, which makes it pretty much impossible to buy at the moment.  Popping down to the States for a day trip probably isn’t going to be in the cards for quite a while.

Well, Mallo Cup, it turns out, is exactly as I remembered.  It’s fine?  I guess?  But Valomilk is the superior candy in literally every regard, and they’re so similar that it’s impossible not to compare them.

Mallo Cup

It’s a pretty simple concept; it’s a chocolate cup filled with marshmallow creme (which the packaging calls “whipped creme”).  Mallo Cup distinguishes itself from Valomilk by including coconut flakes in the chocolate, but they’re otherwise identical.

The coconut is actually a nice touch; it adds a very subtle crispy texture and a hint of coconut flavour.  The cups are a bit bland aside from intense sweetness, so I actually wish there were a bit more coconut.  But it’s fine.

Mallo Cup

That’s the thing, there’s nothing overtly wrong with it — the gooey creme and the creamy chocolate make for a satisfying combo.  But the flavour is one-note sweet; neither the chocolate nor the creme have all that much flavour other than an overriding sugariness.  It’s decent enough, but since Valomilk is a thing that exists in the world, it’s kinda superfluous.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Boyer
Nutritional info (2 cups, 42 grams): 200 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg cholesterol, 40 mg sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk, chocolate liquor, and soy lecithin), corn syrup, sugar, water, coconut, dextrin, egg white, salt, guar gum, natural and artificial flavor, potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness) and soy lecithin.

Maltesers Teasers – A Chocolatey Twist on a Classic

Maltesers Teasers was a lot more Maltesersy than I was expecting.  That’s a bit of a weird thing to say — Maltesers is right there in the name, after all — but sometimes these spin-off bars only have a very tenuous connection to the original.  That’s definitely not the case here.

Teasers is basically a plain chocolate bar, but with bits of the classic Maltesers malty crispiness interspersed throughout.  I think the chocolate itself might also be infused with a malty flavour, because that taste is quite pronounced.

Maltesers Teasers

It’s really good.  If you like classic Maltesers (and what’s not to like??) then I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll like this.  It’s basically reverse Maltesers — Maltesers is crispy with a bit of a creamy chocolaty hit, and Teasers is creamy with a bit of a crispy malty hit.  But the flavour is basically identical; the only real difference is the creamy-to-crispy ratio.

Maltesers Teasers

It’s very, very sweet, but the thoroughly malty flavour does a great job of balancing it out and ensuring that it never feels one-note cloying.  It’s delicious.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 bar, 35 grams): 186 calories, 10.4 grams of fat (6.3 grams of saturated fat, unknown grams of trans fat), unknown mg of cholesterol, 130 mg of sodium, 20.3 grams of carbohydrates, unknown grams of fibre, 18.5 grams of sugar, 2.6 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, palm fat, lactose and protein from whey (from milk), whey powder (from milk), barley malt extract, milk fat, emulsifier (soya lecithin), wheat flour raising agents (E341, E500, E501), salt, natural vanilla extract.

Twix Cookies & Creme – You Should Probably Nix this Twix

Between the Peanut Butter and Triple Chocolate varieties, I was starting to think that Twix could do no wrong.  But I guess no one’s perfect.

Apparently Cookies and Creme was discontinued in the ’90s and recently revived.  If you have fond, decades-old memories of this thing, I’d suggest that you pretend that it never came back and let your fond memories stay fond.

Twix Cookies & Creme

Well, it’s not that bad, I guess.  It’s fine.  It consists of chocolate cookies topped with some kind of sweet creme that’s studded with tiny little chocolate bits, and enrobed in milk chocolate.

Twix Cookies & Creme

It’s mostly inoffensive, and as usual for a Twix bar, the combo of creamy milk chocolate and crunchy cookies is a winner.  But the creme has an off-putting lack of flavour; it’s thick and sweet, and… that’s about it.  There’s not much to it.  I would have rather just had cookies covered in chocolate.  The creme adds nothing to the equation, and in fact only detracts, because what’s it even supposed to be??  It’s not really sweet enough to be icing, and it doesn’t particularly taste like cream, so what’s the point of it?  I guess it’s supposed to be Oreo-like, but that connection only occurred to me long after I ate it, so clearly the flavour isn’t there.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1 pack, 38.6 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), <5 mg of cholesterol, 85 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, <1 grams of fibre, 17 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, PGPR, artificial flavor), palm oil, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, corn syrup, less than 2% – cocoa powder processed with alkali, skim milk, modified corn starch, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, soy lecithin, whey protein isolate, artificial flavor.

Dairy Milk Crispy Rice – A Better Version of a Crunch Bar

I recently wrote about my disappointment with the current version of the Crunch bar, which was bought by Ferrero, reformulated, and made thoroughly mediocre.

Crunch used to be one of my favourites, so this kinda bummed me out.

Dairy Milk Crispy Rice

Well, here comes Cadbury to the rescue — Dairy Milk Crispy Rice is basically a Crunch bar, but without the crushing disappointment.

There’s not much to it; it’s just crispy puffed rice and milk chocolate.  And of course, if you’ve ever had Cadbury milk chocolate, then you know exactly what to expect here.  It’s distinctive and tasty, and aside from the rice, that’s the entirety of this bar.

Dairy Milk Crispy Rice

The puffed rice is nice and crispy, though I wish there were a bit more of it.  The ratio of chocolate to rice is higher here than in a Crunch bar, but that’s a fairly minor complaint.  The contrast between the creamy chocolate and the crispy rice is absolutely delightful.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (10 squares, 38 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavour), rice crisps (rice, sugar, salt, malted barley extract, monoglycerides).