Milk Chocolate Archives - Page 22 of 23

October 28, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Coffee Crisp – A Tasty, if Somewhat Boring Candy Bar

Candy Bars

Coffee Crisp is another one of those bars that, though not particularly exciting, certainly has its place. Though I should mention that its motto (“makes a nice light snack”) is a tad misleading – it’s about the same as any other candy bar as far as its fat content and calorie count goes. Not that I particularly care – my philosophy is that generally, if you want something low in fat/calories, you probably shouldn’t be eating candy in the first place. But if you’re buying this because you think it’s somehow less fattening than other candy bars, you are out of luck.

Speaking of misleading, the name Coffee Crisp is probably also a bit of a misnomer. Not that this doesn’t taste of coffee at all, but the coffee taste here is quite subtle. The “crisp” part of the title, however, is right on the money – the bar is filled to the brim with crispy wafers.

Basically, Coffee Crisp consists of several layers of wafer, with a filling that is sweet and slightly crumbly. The whole thing is coated in a somewhat negligible coating of milk chocolate. The aforementioned coffee taste is really more of an aftertaste – the first thing that hits you when you’re eating this bar is the sweetness; the coffee taste takes a while to kick in.

So yes, this is a good bar – even if it doesn’t taste much like coffee.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (50 g bar): 260

October 27, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Cadbury Flake – Plain Chocolate in an Interesting Shape

Candy Bars

Flake is one of those candy bars where the title really says it all – it is extremely flaky. It’s basically just plain milk chocolate, molded in such a way that it becomes very flaky and delicate. It’s not a particularly attractive bar, resembling an old tree, or an extremely old piece of chocolate, if chocolate were able to grow old and become wrinkly.

Other than the very different presentation, it’s essentially just Cadbury milk chocolate, though it does seem a bit sweeter than usual. It’s also not quite as creamy as you might expect, with a slightly grainy consistency, however that might just be because the bar I had was a bit on the stale side (the packaging indicated that it was due to expire in a couple of months).

The real highlight of Flake is its signature shape — it has an appealing crumbliness in your mouth, which makes it a bit more interesting to eat than a standard piece of chocolate. It’s kind of like Aero or Mirage in that sense, so it’s a bit more exciting than your usual bar of plain milk chocolate (not that plain milk chocolate isn’t exciting, but sometimes you want something a bit different).

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (32 g bar): 170

October 23, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Kinder Surprise – A Tasty Chocolate Egg with a Toy Inside

Easter Candy

I recently found out that Kinder Surprise isn’t available in the U.S. thanks to a rule about food items containing non-food items inside of them.This strikes me as kind of sad. Growing up, Kinder Surprises were always the thing that I looked forward to the most every Easter. My parents would always get my brother and I about a dozen eggs each. Eating the chocolate eggs while assembling all the little toys was an Easter morning tradition I always treasured.

The nice thing about Kinder Surprise – aside from the toy inside – is that the chocolate egg is actually good. This may seem obvious, but considering the questionable quality of most of the ubiquitous chocolate bunnies you see around the holiday, it’s not exactly a given as far as Easter candy is concerned. However, Kinder Surprise is manufactured by Ferrero, makers of quality stuff like Ferrero Rocher and Nutella – so it’s no surprise that it’s tasty.

Kinder Surprise is basically just a chocolate egg, featuring milk chocolate lined with white chocolate. It’s sweet without being too sweet, and is really creamy with a fairly pronounced milky taste. If you’re normally on the fence about white chocolate then this is probably the treat for you, as it tastes mildly of white chocolate while still maintaining its milk chocolate taste.

As you can see here, every Kinder Surprise comes with a toy, this one being some kind of strange alien creature inside of a saxophone. I have no idea what it’s supposed to do, if anything. That’s the exciting thing about the toy inside a Kinder Surprise; you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it’s good, but then sometimes… it’s a weird creature inside a saxaphone. It’s a crapshoot. It’s fun.

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Calories (20 g egg): 110

October 22, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Cadbury Fudge – A Slap in the Face to Fresh Fudge

Candy Bars

In my experience, fudge is generally something that has to be eaten while it’s reasonably fresh. I’ve never had a prepackaged fudge that I’ve been particularly fond of; this, unfortunately, is no exception. Actually, this may just be the worst fudge that I’ve ever had.

Cadbury Fudge is, as the name implies, just a stick of fudge. It’s also coated with a thin layer of milk chocolate, but I’m not sure if that adds much, if anything, to the flavour. My first impression, upon taking a bite, was that this bar definitely has the texture right – it has that thick, slightly grainy consistency, almost like a really thick peanut butter, that you expect from fudge. That’s pretty much the only thing that this bar has right.

The bar is ridiculously sweet – burns the back of your throat sweet. There’s really not much to it other than the extreme sweetness. It has an underlying artificially fudgey taste, but mostly it’s just sweet. Eating a handful of sugar straight from the bag would probably be less sweet, and would probably taste better, too. The bar also has an unpleasant aftertaste.

This is another candy I bought from the import shop, and boy am I glad Cadbury saw fit not to inflict this upon North America. Wow. I’m generally pretty easy going when it comes to candy, but this was awful, and certainly not up to Cadbury’s generally higher-than-average standards.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (1 bar): 115

October 21, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Lion – Crispy, Chewy, and Delicious

Candy Bars

This is another British bar that I purchased at the import store I mentioned in my Time Out review. This one’s called Lion, and it’s essentially a denser version of a Mr. Big bar (which, I suppose, will mean little to most Americans as neither bar is available in the States, as far as I’m aware). Basically, it’s a filled wafer, topped with a rather thick layer of chewy caramel, and coated with milk chocolate and bits of crispy puffed rice.

It’s good. The caramel is very chewy – it takes a while to fully chew, even after the other stuff is long gone. This gives the bar a satisfying richness. It helps that the caramel is surprisingly subtle, and not very sweet at all (by candy bar standards, at least). The whole bar is actually a bit less sweet than the usual American offering. The crispy rice and wafers provide a nice contrast to the soft caramel, making the bar texturally interesting. The wafer adds some sweetness to the bar, as well as the usual mildly wheaty/wafery taste (What’s that you say? “Wafery” isn’t a word? Sure it is! Don’t look it up, though. Just take my word for it).

I think I might prefer Lion to Mr. Big, as it seems to have a bit more substance, though I’d have to try a Mr. Big again to be sure. It’s definitely a shame that this isn’t available in North America outside of specialty stores.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (55 g bar): 277