sweet Archives - Page 14 of 26

July 15, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Crunch – New and Not-So-Improved

Candy Bars, Chocolate

You may not realize this, but you couldn’t buy Crunch for a little while; in 2018, Nestle sold Crunch to Ferrero, who pulled it off the shelves so that they could “reformulate” it.

Well, it’s back, and either I’m remembering Crunch being better than it was, or it’s gone down in quality. Which is weird; you’d think the jump from Nestle to Ferrero (the makers of Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and many other delicious things) would be a clear upgrade. Alas.

Still, it’s not bad. It’s also not “good” per se; the chocolate is fairly bottom-of-the-barrel, with a generic sweetness and not a whole lot going on in the flavour department, and even the crispy rice is a bit more anemic than you’d expect (it’s mildly crispy, but the texture isn’t quite there).

Also, this is purely psychological, but I miss the old design of the bar, with the big embossed “Crunch” lettering. The new segmented bar is boring in comparison.

And yet… I mostly enjoyed it. The chocolate has a nice creaminess, and while the rice doesn’t bring the assertive crunch you’re looking for in a bar called Crunch, it still has enough of that creamy/crispy contrast to be satisfying. If I didn’t have nostalgia for the old Crunch bar my opinion on this would probably be a bit lower, but I do, so here we are. I didn’t particularly like it at first, but it (mostly) grew on me.

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43.9 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 60 mg of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, natural flavour), crisped rice (rice flour, sugar, barley malt, salt).

July 12, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Wunderbar – Chewy, Crunchy, Crispy, Peanut Buttery, and Delicious

Candy Bars

Wunderbar is a classic — known as Starbar in the UK, it’s been around since the ’70s, but has apparently never been sold in the States. This is clearly America’s loss. It’s so good.

If you’re an American and have never been blessed with the deliciousness of the Wunderbar, it features crunchy peanut butter mixed with puffed rice that’s surrounded by chewy caramel and milk chocolate.

I haven’t had one in years, but it’s just as delightful as I remembered it being. It’s got everything you want in a candy bar: it’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s crispy, and the sweetness is perfectly tuned — it’s delicious.

The puffed rice is a stroke of genius; it gives the bar a memorable crispiness that sets it apart from something like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup. Between that, the very chewy caramel, and the crunchy chunks of peanuts, you’ve got a bar with a really satisfying contrast of textures.

The layer of decent quality chocolate on the outside is substantial enough to add a decent hit of flavour which — of course — works nicely with the peanut butter. I mean, why wouldn’t it? Peanut butter and chocolate are best friends. The rich caramel only adds more flavour, and the bar has a very mild saltiness that rounds things out.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (58 g bar): 290 calories, 17 g of fat (8 g of saturated fat, 0.1 g of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 mg of sodium, 32 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fibre, 26 g of sugar, 4 g of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup peanuts. modified palm oil, modified milk ingredients, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, modified vegetable oil, rice, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, salt, malt extract (barley wheat), soy lecithin, baking soda, calcium chloride, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavor.

July 8, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat White & Milk – A Delicious Blend of White and Milk Chocolate

Candy Bars

White chocolate can be a bit of a crapshoot. It’s a lot harder to get right than milk or dark chocolate; it has a tendency to be overly sweet, and in the absence of cocoa, it can be a bit one-note in its flavour.

The white chocolate here, however, is quite tasty, and blending it with milk chocolate thoroughly resolves the one-note issue.

This particular bar is basically a standard Kit Kat, but with some of the milk chocolate replaced with white. It’s way better than I was expecting it to be.

The presence of milder white chocolate actually emphasizes the wheaty flavour you get from the wafers, which does a great job of balancing out the overall sweetness of the bar. It’s delightful.

And the white chocolate is great — it has a nice creamy flavour, and is complimented quite nicely by the milk chocolate. It’s kinda like eating a standard Kit Kat, but then dipping the bars in whipped cream. The chocolate flavour is mellower, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (2 fingers, 21 grams): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, cocoa mass, sunflower and soy lecithin, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavours.

July 5, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk Oreo – A Winning Combo

Candy Bars

Dairy Milk Oreo is exactly what you want it to be. If you like Dairy Milk and you like Oreo cookies, you’re going to like this. It tastes how you think it’s going to taste in all the best ways.

I feel like I could just leave it at that, but I guess I’ll write a few more words.

The milk chocolate is standard Cadbury, and there’s enough of it to give the bar that distinctive Cadbury flavour. It’s creamy, sweet, and tasty.

The filling tastes a bit smoother than the standard Oreo creme — it’s kind of like a cross between Oreo’s white stuff and and the filling of a Kinder Chocolate bar. It blends nicely with the chocolate.

And there are enough Oreo cookie chunks to give it a decent amount of crunchiness and a pronounced hit of Oreo flavour. It doesn’t quite taste like a chocolate-dipped Oreo, but there are enough cookie bits for the Oreo flavour to be unmistakable.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (6 pieces, 38 grams): 210 calories, 13 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 50 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, modified vegetable oil, cocoa, glucose syrup, salt ammonium phosphatides, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, soy lecithin, ammonium bicarbonate, baking soda, artificial flavours.

July 1, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint – An Assault of Minty Flavour

Candy Bars

You know that thing that happens when you have a really strong mint and a cooling sensation blasts through your sinuses? I got that while eating Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Mint. The mint flavour is not kidding around.

This is actually the third variety in Hershey’s new line of three ice cream-inspired white chocolate bars; the first is Birthday Cake (which I enjoyed), the second is Strawberries ‘n’ Cream (which I absolutely did not enjoy), and the third is this one, Cookies ‘n’ Mint.

It’s fine. I generally like minty desserts, so this was mostly in my wheelhouse, but even for me the mint flavour is a bit overbearing. After my first bite I had decided that I pretty much hated it, though it did (mostly) grow on me.

The cookie bits help. They add a decent amount of crispiness and a mild chocolatey flavour that works nicely with the intense mint.

The bar is also very, very sweet, which works well in this particular case — the intense sweetness keeps it firmly in the dessert category and prevents it from tasting like eating a bar of chocolatey toothpaste (because again, the mint flavour is explosive).

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 200 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 40 mg of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, corn syrup solids, lactose), cocoa butter, milk ingredients, modified palm oil, wheat flour, sunflower oil, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavours, lecithin (soy), sea salt, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, spirulina extract, turmeric.