Milk Chocolate Archives - Page 5 of 23

March 28, 2021March 28, 2021 Michael

Caramilk vs. Creamy Salted Caramel Dairy Milk

Candy Bars

Looking at the wrapper for Creamy Salted Caramel Dairy Milk, I had assumed that it was going to be basically identical to Caramilk. They’re both made by Cadbury, and they both feature caramel surrounded by milk chocolate. It seemed like a good candidate for a side-by-side review, a new thing I’m trying out for the blog.

As it turns out, the two are very, very different. A side-by-side comparison is probably somewhat unnecessary. But hey, I’ve already taken the pictures. I’ve eaten both bars. May as well do this.

(That’s Caramilk on the left and Dairy Milk on the right; all unwrapped pictures were shot at the same time, so they’re to scale.)

Caramilk is a classic. I reviewed Caramilk Thick several years ago, and my thoughts on the bar haven’t changed since then. The gooey caramel is ridiculously sweet (but satisfying), and the creamy Cadbury milk chocolate is as tasty as ever. The sweet chocolate and the even sweeter caramel means that it’s a bit of a throat-scorcher, but it’s a solid combo. It’s a classic for a reason.

I figured that Creamy Salted Caramel Dairy Milk was going to be Caramilk, but with a bit of salt. I was thoroughly wrong about that; the taste and texture of the caramel could not be more different. It’s thicker and richer, with a texture that’s more more fudgy than creamy. It seems like it shouldn’t be as satisfying as the soft caramel in a Caramilk, but it totally works.

And the flavour is so good. It solves every problem I have with Caramilk, and then some. It has a super satisfying butterscotch-like flavour; unlike Caramilk’s one-note sweetness, there’s a lot going on here, and it’s delightful. Its sweetness is surprisingly restrained, and the subtle hit of salt adds a great counterpoint to the caramel and the chocolate. And of course, the milk chocolate is standard Cadbury. It compliments the tasty caramel very well. It all adds up to something I enjoyed way more than I thought I would.

Caramilk

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 50 grams): 250 calories, 13 grams of fat (8grams of saturated fat, 0.2 grams of trans fat), 10 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, 26 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup, milk ingredients, modified palm oil, unsweetened chocolate, modified vegetable oil, cocoa butter, salt, calcium chloride, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavours.

Dairy Milk: Creamy Salted Caramel

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (5 pieces, 40 grams): 220 calories, 13 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (milk, sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk, whole milk powder, unsweetened chocolate, butter oil, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), salted caramel creme (sugar, modified palm oil, whole milk powder, skim milk powder, cocoa butter, sea salt, soy lecithin, tartrazine, allura red, natural and artificial flavours, brilliant blue FCF).

March 24, 2021March 28, 2021 Michael

Mr. Big – Boring, but Tasty

Candy Bars

Mr. Big is one of those old, reliable candy bars that isn’t particularly exciting, but gets the job done. I was under the impression that it was a Canadian-only thing, but apparently it was released in the States in 1995.

Featuring a wafer surrounded by caramel, puffed rice, peanuts, and chocolate, this was a favourite of mine as a kid — mostly because, as the name implies, it’s bigger than average, and I was a fat kid.

It’s still good. The chewy caramel contrasts nicely with the crispy wafer and puffed rice. I guess there are peanuts as well, but they’re stingily applied and don’t make much of an impact.

The chocolate is probably the weakest link — I’m not even sure if it’s real chocolate (the ingredients lists three types of oil, though unsweetened chocolate is there as well), but whatever it is, it’s not the best. There’s enough going on here that doesn’t make a huge difference, but it’s a bummer regardless.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 bar, 60 grams): 290 calories, 14 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 100 mg of sodium, 41 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 33 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup, modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, rice, modified vegetable oil, wheat flour (with barley), peanuts, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, corn starch, salt, hydrogenated palm oil, malt extract, soy lecithin, baking soda, citric acid, natural and artificial flavour.

March 21, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Duos: Mocha + Chocolate – An Intense Kick of Coffee Flavour

Candy Bars

I’m not a big coffee drinker. And by “not a big coffee drinker,” I mean that I don’t drink coffee at all, so I’m probably not in the target audience for this particular Kit Kat variety. I do, however, enjoy the chocolate/coffee combo.

The wrapper describes this as “Crisp Wafers in mocha creme with coffee bits + chocolate.”

It’s a tasty bar, though I’ll admit that the coffee flavour was a bit too strong for me. I normally enjoy chocolate with a coffee flavour — and it’s not that I didn’t enjoy this (it’s still Kit Kat, which is inherently delicious) — but the balance of flavours is definitely weighted more towards the coffee than the chocolate. It has an admirably restrained sweetness and a mild but distinctive bitterness. I liked it, but if you’re a coffee drinker, I think you might love it.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 20 mg sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), wheat flour, chocolate, skim milk, corn syrup solids, cocoa butter, lactose (milk), cocoa processed with alkali, contains 2% or less of: milk fat, coffee, lecithin (soy), natural & artificial flavor, PGPR, salt, yeast, baking soda, artificial color (yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, red 40 lake, blue 2 lake).

March 17, 2021 Michael

Cherry Blossom – It Tastes Better than it Looks

Candy Bars

The packaging for Cherry Blossom is bizarrely unappealing. If I hadn’t known how long it’s been around (since the 1890s!), I would have assumed it’s part of some sort of Producers-esque scheme to create an intentionally failed candy. But it’s been on the shelves for well over a hundred years, so I guess someone’s eating it.

It’s hard to get over how ugly the packaging is. I’ve seen it on the shelves since I was a kid, but I haven’t tried it until now, because why would I?? And let’s make something clear: I was a fat kid who wanted to try every candy bar in existence, and I still had no interest in this thing.

The ugliness persists after you open the box and unwrap it from the foil (yes, it’s still wrapped in foil, because apparently the whole experience is meant to replicate being a Depression-era hobo who can’t afford anything better). Is it impolite to say that it looks like a turd? It is? Okay, then I won’t say that it absolutely, positively looks like a turd, even though we can all clearly see that it looks like a turd.

Happily, it tastes better than it looks. It’s not great, mind you, but it’s not nearly as terrible as you’d think based on the packaging. The milk chocolate exterior features peanuts and coconut, which compliments the cherry and the goopy, cherry-flavoured syrup reasonably well. It’s a Hershey product, so the quality of the chocolate is about what you’d expect. The whole thing is way, way too sweet (a dark chocolate version of this might actually be pretty good), but if you like the cherry/chocolate combo, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 piece, 45 grams): 210 calories, 10 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 40 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), modified milk ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, coconut, peanuts, cherries, corn syrup, lactose, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, invertase, natural and artificial flavours, salt, acetic acid, citric acid, sodium benzoate, colour, sodium metabisulphite, potassium sorbate, sulphites.

March 14, 2021 Michael

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs – A Delicious Easter Treat

Easter Candy

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.

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.

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.

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.