Almond Joy – Crunchy, Coconutty, and Tasty

Almond Joy is basically Mounds, but with the addition of almonds, and with milk chocolate instead of dark.  It’s fine, but Mounds is clearly the superior of the two.

The milk chocolate actually makes a pretty huge difference.  The dark chocolate on a Mounds bar gives it a more pronounced chocolately flavour, and its slight bitterness contrasts very nicely with the very sweet coconut.  The milk chocolate here is decent, but it’s just sweet on sweet; I missed the dark chocolate.

Almond Joy

Then, of course, there are the almonds.  You’d think they’d be the star of the show; they’re right there in the name.  Oddly enough, they don’t add much — they bring some crunchiness, but their flavour is completely lost.  If they had a toastier flavour they might have been able to nudge through, but alas, they’re fairly bland.

Almond Joy

You’d think the coconut would be exactly the same as in a Mounds (they’re both made by Hershey, after all), but the coconutty centre here seems a bit more dry.  This emphasizes the problem coconut desserts tend to have, where you’re still munching on coconut bits long after the flavour has disappeared.

Still, the chocolate/coconut combo continues to be delicious, and while I prefer Mounds (and Bounty, the king of the chocolate/coconut castle), Almond Joy is tasty enough.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 45 grams): 220 calories, 13 grams of fat (9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 21 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, sugar, coconut, almonds, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and/or palm kernel oil) chocolate, milk, contains 2% or less of: lactose (milk), milk fat, skim milk, cocoa, whey (milk), salt, lecithin (soy), PGPR, hydrolyzed milk protein, sodium metabisulfite to maintain freshness, vanillin, artificial flavor.

Mounds – A Tasty Combo of Coconut and Dark Chocolate

Mounds and Bounty are weirdly similar.  They both feature sweet coconut covered in chocolate, they’re both divided into two bars, and both feature distinctive rounded edges.  Mounds is the original, however.  It was first released in 1920; Bounty didn’t come out until 1951.

I’ll admit I have a soft spot for Bounty thanks to a childhood fondness for the stuff, but the two are very, very similar.

Mounds

The biggest difference is that Mounds is covered in dark chocolate versus Bounty’s milk chocolate (apparently there is a dark chocolate version of Bounty, though I don’t recall ever seeing it).  I think pretty much every candy bar is improved by subbing dark chocolate for milk; it delivers more chocolatey flavour than its milky counterpart, and its slight bitterness balances well with the sweetness of a candy bar.  So that’s definitely a point in Mounds’ favour.

Mounds

The coconut portion of Mounds seems slightly creamier, but I think the coconut itself is a bit more roughly chopped, which means that you’ll still be chewing it even after the coconut flavour has mostly faded away.  Point: Bounty.

Still, that’s a fairly minor complaint; both are delicious and extremely similar.  I prefer Bounty, but I think that has more to do with childhood nostalgia than anything else.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 49 grams): 230 calories, 13 grams of fat (10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fibre, 21 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Corn syrup, semi-sweet chocolate (chocolate, sugar, milk fat, lecithin (soy), PGPR, vanillin, artificial flavor, milk), coconut, sugar, contains 2% or less of: salt, hydrolyzed milk protein, sodium metabisulfite to maintain freshness.