sweet Archives - Page 17 of 26

January 23, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Cadbury Creme Egg – An Easter Classic

Easter Candy

Easter is actually still a while off – it’s not until April 19th this year – but I guess that’s close enough for Cadbury, as the seasonal Creme Eggs are starting to hit the shelves.

Cadbury Creme Eggs are sweet; extremely sweet. As a kid, despite my love for all things sugary, Creme Eggs’ overwhelming sweetness was just a bit too much for me. I’ve since come to appreciate the Creme Egg, though its status as a once-a-year seasonal item is probably for the best, as it’s really not the kind of thing you want to eat on a regular basis (or at least I don’t).

As you can see from the picture above, Cadbury Creme Eggs can be a bit tricky to eat; the very soft centre combined with the relatively hard chocolate makes these things prone to crumble and fall apart, creating a bit of a mess. The filling is quite sticky, so you really need to be careful when you’re eating one. As for the taste: the chocolate is typical Cadbury milk chocolate – sweet, and fairly creamy. The fondant filling is essentially just soft, creamy sugar. It is what it is; you probably already have an opinion on whether you like these things, or if they’re just too sweet for you. I like them, but now that I’ve had one, I think I can wait until Easter 2010 to have another.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (39 g egg): 170

January 21, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Zero – The Nuttiness Grows on You

Candy Bars

Not to be confused with the far superior Belgian chocolate truffle bar, Hershey’s Zero consists of nougat studded with tiny pieces of almonds and peanuts, topped with chewy caramel and enrobed in white chocolate. Only, it’s not really white chocolate – Hershey calls it “white fudge,” presumably because it doesn’t contain the requisite amount of cocoa butter to legally be allowed to be called chocolate (vegetable oil is one of the first ingredients).

Zero sort of resembles a nuttier Mars Bar (or Milky Way in the States). Unlike a Mars Bar, the nougat contains really small chunks of peanuts and almonds. I think the pieces are probably a bit too small, as they give the bar an off-puttingly gritty texture. They do, however, lend the bar a pleasantly nutty flavour, which gives the nougat an almost marzipan-like taste. The caramel adds some additional chewiness, though it doesn’t really contribute any real flavour to the bar. As for the “white fudge,” it’s basically just superfluous.

For the first couple of bites, I was definitely ready to give this a negative review. But it grew on me. It’s not as sweet as you might expect, and it has a much nuttier flavour than you’ll find in most mainstream candy bars. It’s certainly not great, but it’s not bad either.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (52 g bar): 230

January 19, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Symphony – Like a Heath Bar with More Chocolate

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Though Hershey has seen fit to cheapen many of its bars by replacing milk chocolate with mockolate in an effort to cut costs, it’s nice to see that you can still find real milk chocolate in at least a few Hershey products.

Hershey’s Symphony is actually quite similar to a Heath bar, only with the proportions of chocolate and toffee reversed; where Heath is mostly toffee with a chocolate coating, Symphony is mostly chocolate with little bits of almonds and toffee. The bar proudly proclaims that it features “50% more toffee,” and they’re definitely not kidding around. Though Symphony is mainly milk chocolate, there’s enough toffee in there to give each mouthful a good crunch, and to give the whole bar a surprisingly pronounced toffee taste. That’s why it’s so easy to compare this to a Heath bar, because it really is basically like a Heath with a milder toffee taste.

I generally like Hershey’s milk chocolate, though it’s not my favourite. The chocolate here is fairly creamy, and is complemented nicely by the toffee. It’s not bad at all.

An addendum – I would like to point out something that I thought was amusing, if a bit sad: There are instructions on how to open the wrapper for this candy bar. On the outside corner of the wrapper’s flap, it says “lift & pull here.” On the other side of the flap, Hershey has helpfully advised you to “hold here.”

I’m not sure what’s more sad: the fact that Hershey thought that people would need instructions to open a candy bar wrapper, or the fact that someone actually does need instructions to open a candy bar wrapper.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (42 g bar): 220

January 14, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Dairy Milk: Cranberry and Granola – Better than you’d Think

Chocolate

This is a British import, and I don’t know if it’s some kind of limited edition (I’ve never seen it before) or just a new part of the Dairy Milk line in the U.K., but it’s quite good. You might even say it’s… berry good (well, there goes my credibility).

Dairy Milk – Cranberry and Granola is fairly similar to another Cadbury product, Fruit and Nut. Only instead of raisins, there are sweetened, dried cranberries, and instead of nuts, there are crispy/crunchy bits of granola. It’s good for much of the reason that Fruit and Nut is good; the foremost being that the combination of chewy and crunchy is a classic one.

There is actually a pretty generous amount of granola in this bar, which is satisfyingly crunchy as well as flavourful enough to add its own distinctive taste to the chocolate. The cranberries give the bar a slightly sour punch, along with a chewy counterpoint to the crunchy granola. The tartness from the cranberry makes this candy unique, and really allows it to stand apart from something like Fruit and Nut. As for the milk chocolate, it is the usual Cadbury chocolate, and it is pretty good.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t too optimistic about this bar being very tasty; it seemed like a strange concept to me, however I’m happy to have been proven wrong.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (49 g bar): 245

January 12, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Goo Goo Cluster – A Classic for a Reason

Marshmallow Treats, Nut Clusters

I’ve already reviewed the Cinnabon Cinnamon Caramel Pecan Cluster, which is made by the Standard Candy Company, the same people who make the Goo Goo Cluster. I kind of liked that one, though it wasn’t really something I’d ever want to eat again. The Goo Goo Cluster is the candy that’s allowed Standard to stick around for so many years (since 1912), so I was definitely curious to try it even if I had some misgivings about their Cinnabon-branded confection.

The Goo Goo Cluster consists of chewy marshmallow, topped with caramel and roasted peanuts and covered in milk chocolate. The marshmallow is quite dense and chewy; it’s sweet, but without the vanilla taste that you expect from marshmallow. I liked it, but if I had eaten this blind I probably would have pegged it as nougat rather than marshmallow. The caramel adds more chewiness and is definitely less sweet than the norm.

As for the peanuts, there are a lot of them, which gives the cluster a satisfying crunch as well as a nutty taste. They’re unsalted, which is good because the Goo Goo Cluster isn’t overly sweet (salted peanuts would have overwhelmed the other tastes of this candy). The whole thing is covered in decent milk chocolate. It’s quite good, and unlike the Cinnabon one, I can definitely see myself buying this again.

Manufactured by: Standard Candy Company
Calories (50 g cluster): 230