Buncha Crunch – A Big Downgrade from the Bar

The combination of puffed rice and milk chocolate is definitely a good one, so I enjoy eating a Crunch bar every now and then, even if the quality of the chocolate is a bit on the iffy side. Buncha Crunch is essentially just a bite-sized version of Crunch, so it should pretty much taste the same, right? Well…

Buncha Crunch

Buncha Crunch consists of little clusters of puffed rice covered in milk chocolate. Its main problem is that the ratio of chocolate to puffed rice is way off – it’s not nearly chocolately enough. It’s pretty crunchy, but the chocolate seems to be holding the rice together more than anything else. So if you’re craving chocolate, this isn’t going to do it for you. What little chocolate there is isn’t particularly good; it’s more sweet than anything else.

Buncha Crunch

I was really not enjoying this at all to start with, though it did sort of grow on me as I ate it. Despite that, there’s no reason at all to pick this over a Crunch bar other than the convenience factor (Crunch bars tend to be a bit crumbly and messy, so they’re tough to eat on the go).

2 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (34 g package): 160

100 Grand – Chewy, Crispy, and Tasty

The contrast between chewy and crunchy/crispy is a popular one among many candy makers, and is certainly at the forefront here. Featuring an appealing mix of crispy puffed rice and chewy caramel, 100 Grand is a tasty bar (or a couple of bars, in this case).

100 Grand

The caramel is soft, chewy and slightly grainy. It’s sweet, but with more mellow flavour than what you’d typically find in a candy bar. I know this is a bizarre thing to say, but the taste almost reminds me of cookie dough. Obviously the flavour isn’t even close to identical, but the more of it I ate, the harder it was to shake the cookie dough connection.

100 Grand

The puffed rice adds a satisfying crispiness which complements the chewy caramel quite well. Puffed rice is actually a fairly common ingredient in candy bars; I think it’s because it’s crispy without being too crispy, and without having much of a flavour to speak of (so it just contributes to the texture of a bar without interfering with the taste). It works really well here; 100 Grand can officially be added to my list of candy I wish I could buy in Canada but can’t.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (43 g bar):190

Whatchamacallit – Sweet and Peanutty, but Real Chocolate Would be Nice

The oddly named Whatchamacallit is another bar affected by the recent Hershey cheapening, in which Hershey has replaced the chocolate in many of its products with a cheaper chocolate substitute (mockolate). Though real chocolate probably would have improved things, I don’t think its absence is particularly felt here (there’s so much other stuff going on in this bar that it’s doubtful that your average person would even notice that it’s mockolate rather than chocolate).

Whatchamacallit

Whatchamacallit consists of a crispy hunk of peanutty puffed rice, topped with a thin layer of caramel and coated in mockolate. The bar is quite crispy with a fairly pronounced peanut flavour. The caramel gives it a lingering chewiness and adds some sweetness to the mix (this is a very sweet bar).

Whatchamacallit

Because of the crispiness/chewiness of the filling, and the strongly sweet, peanutty flavour, the mockolate is pretty much completely unnecessary – it neither detracts from or adds to the bar. A stronger chocolate flavour might have helped. I recall liking this a bit better the last time I had it (in its Canadian iteration, called Special Crisp), though it’s been a while, so it’s hard to say.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (45 g bar): 220

Chocolate +Plus: Milk Chocolate Tiramisu Crisp – A Suprisingly Tasty (and Maybe Healthy?) Chocolate Bar

I have to admit, my expectations for this were pretty low. Healthy chocolate seems like an oxymoron to me, and the thing that supposedly makes this bar healthier than the average chocolate – “bifidobacterium longum” – certainly isn’t one of the more appetizing-sounding ingredients I’ve seen in a candy bar. So colour me surprised that it actually tastes pretty good.

Chocolate +Plus: Milk Chocolate Tiramisu Crisp

According to MicrobeWiki (now there’s an exciting web site), Bifidobacteria “promotes good digestion, boosts the immune system, and produces lactic and acetic acid that controls intestinal pH.” So that’s good, I guess…? I’m really not too concerned about how healthy this is, what I really care about is how it tastes.

Chocolate +Plus Milk Chocolate Tiramisu Crisp features creamy milk chocolate with a smooth, truffle-like centre. The bar has a pleasantly sweet, coffee aroma, and with the letters “+PLUS” embossed on the individual segments, it’s one of the nicer looking bars I’ve seen in a while. The bar is also slightly crispy thanks to little bits of puffed rice, though I’m not sure why as Tiramisu is probably one of the least crispy desserts you’ll find (it’s not crispy at all).

Chocolate +Plus: Milk Chocolate Tiramisu Crisp

It’s good. The milk chocolate kind of reminds me of a slightly creamier version of Cadbury’s chocolate, and the truffle centre has a mild coffee flavour and is pretty tasty. I’m not sure how much it tastes like Tiramisu, but it’s good nonetheless. It definitely doesn’t have any kind of strange taste or unpleasant aftertaste that you might imagine, given that it’s a “health” bar, which leads me to believe that it probably isn’t very healthy at all. But healthy or not, it tastes good, and I’m curious to try some of the other flavours.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Smart Confections
Calories (50 g bar): 290

Terry’s Chocolate Orange: Mini Segments – A Fun Twist on a Classic Flavour

Terry’s Chocolate Orange are those fun, baseball-sized chocolates that you get to slam onto the counter in order to separate all the little segments. They are surprisingly delicious (I say surprisingly because, though the combination of chocolate and orange doesn’t exactly sound like a slam dunk, it actually works a lot better than you’d imagine).

These minis are pre-separated and individually wrapped, so you don’t need to slam them on anything (unless you want to, I guess). They all feature that classic combination of creamy chocolate and fruity orange that have made Terry’s so famous, with a bit of a twist. They are:

Puffed Rice: The puffed rice really doesn’t add much here – there’s not much of it, and the rice itself isn’t particularly crispy. It’s still good, but only because the chocolate is good; I normally like the combination of chocolate and puffed rice, but here the somewhat soggy rice is completely superfluous, and if anything, detracts from the chocolate. Definitely the weakest of the bunch.

Terry's Chocolate Orange: Mini Segments

Milk Chocolate: This is just the standard Terry’s Chocolate Orange, no frills. The milk chocolate is nice and creamy, and it strikes a good balance between the chocolate the and orange. Good stuff.

Cornflakes: This is definitely a big improvement over the rice; the flakes add a satisfying crispiness to the chocolate, and along with that, they contribute a surprisingly pronounced corny flavour.

Dark Chocolate: This is about a half-and-half split between the milk and the dark chocolate. If you’re not necessarily a fan of Terry’s signature chocolate/orange taste, this is probably the one for you – the dark chocolate doesn’t seem to be orange flavoured, giving this one a much more subtle orange flavour. It’s also, not surprisingly, much less sweet than the standard chocolate orange.

Terry's Chocolate Orange: Mini Segments

Crunchy Honey: The description of “sweet, crunchy honey flavoured bits” made me think of Toblerone, however the honey bits are larger and crunchier than the ones found in that bar, and they give this a fairly strong honey aftertaste. Another winner.

Aside from the somewhat anemic puffed rice flavour, these are all quite good an a definite must-buy if you’re a fan of Terry’s Chocolate Orange. However, with the possible exception of the dark variant, these all definitely have that specific Terry’s flavour, so if you’re not already a fan then these aren’t going to change your mind.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Terry’s
Calories (for 5 pieces, 39 g): 200