sweet Archives - Page 7 of 26

February 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Gold – Kinda Tastes like a Reese’s Pieces Bar

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Like a lot of Hershey products, the word “chocolate” is conspicuously absent from the packaging of Hershey’s Gold. The reason for that is pretty simple — chocolate (even white chocolate) has to have a certain percentage of cocoa butter to legally use that name, and if you look at the ingredients here, you’ll notice a couple of types of oil, but zero cocoa butter.

Which means that while the base of this bar is theoretically caramelized white chocolate (a type of white chocolate that’s roasted to give it a deeper flavour), the stuff here is actually “caramelized creme.”

It also has peanuts and pretzels, and it’s actually pretty good. No, it’s not real chocolate. Yes, it’s a bit waxy, as you’d expect from the fake stuff. But it’s tasty enough.

The bar is so thoroughly suffused with little crispy and crunchy bits that the mockolate’s lack of creaminess is never all that obvious; the peanuts and pretzels add enough texture to (mostly) hide the mockolate’s faults.

It actually reminded me quite a bit of the filling of Reese’s Pieces; there’s no peanut butter in here, but the peanut bits are so generous that it definitely has that flavour.

As for the pretzel, it’s mostly just there for crispiness and for a mild hit of salt; the pieces are too tiny to particularly stand out.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 39 grams): 210 calories, 13 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.2 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 85 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 19 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), milk ingredients, peanuts, wheat flour, lactose, lecithin (soy), salt, malt, soybean oil, yeast.

February 7, 2021 Michael

Jelly Belly Mint Filled Chocolate Bar – Shockingly Good

Candy Bars

I’ll admit that I had extremely low expectations for this one. I mean, it’s Jelly Belly. They’re legendary for their jelly beans, but what do they know about chocolate?

Quite a bit, apparently!

Yes, this is a Jelly Belly product, but it has absolutely nothing to do with jelly beans — it’s just milk chocolate with a minty filling. It’s so much better than I thought it was going to be.

It’s basically like something that Andes would make, but better. Unlike an Andes product, it’s real chocolate, which helps. And it’s good quality chocolate, too — it’s nice and snappy, it’s rich and creamy, and it has a satisfying flavour that isn’t too sweet.

In a lot of bars like this, the chocolate itself is infused with a minty flavour, which makes the whole thing taste a bit toothpastey. But the mintiness here only comes from the filling, which gives the bar a great balance of minty and chocolatey flavour. I feel like this might have been slightly more satisfying if the mint were a bit softer (it’s basically the exact same texture as the chocolate), but that’s a minor complaint.

I started out assuming that this would be more of a novelty than anything else, but now I feel like I need to seek out other Jelly Belly chocolates. It’s weird how good it is.

Manufactured by: Jelly Belly Candy Company
Nutritional info (1 bar, 49 grams): 280 calories, 18 grams of fat (11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 10 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 26 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, chocolate liquor, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), vanillin), sugar, coconut oil, cocoa butter, nonfat dry milk, contains 2% or less of the following: whole milk powder, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), natural flavor, vegetable and fruit juice (color), turmeric (color).

January 27, 2021January 30, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Cookies ‘N’ Creme – An Oreo Transformed into a Candy Bar

Candy Bars

Do you like Oreo cookies? If you do, you’re almost certainly going to like Hershey’s Cookies ‘N’ Creme; it’s basically an Oreo in candy bar form.

(And if you don’t, what is wrong with you?? Go jump into a volcano so you don’t inflict your weird defective taste buds onto the next generation.)

The bar features something resembling white chocolate that’s studded with a whole bunch of chocolate cookie pieces. Sadly, it’s not actually white chocolate — a quick perusal of the ingredients reveals a whole bunch of oil and zero cocoa butter. But in the context of this particular bar, it doesn’t really matter. There are so many cookie pieces here that the fake chocolate’s lack of creaminess never particularly feels like an issue. The chocolate is almost just there to bind the cookie bits together.

It’s quite tasty. It’s very, very sweet, but like with an Oreo, the pronounced cocoa flavour helps to balance out the sweetness — and because there are so many cookie pieces, that’s the primary flavour. The white mockolate basically tastes like a slightly more solid version of the creme in an Oreo cookie. It’s a delightful combo.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 bar, 43 grams): 220 calories, 11 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 100 mg of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified palm oil and modified vegetable oil (shea, sunflower and/or safflower), modified palm kernel oil, modified milk ingredients, corn syrup solids, wheat flour, lactose, cocoa powder, lecithin (soy), high fructose corn syrup, unsweetened chocolate, baking soda, salt, natural and artificial flavours, polyglycerol polyricinoleate.

January 24, 2021January 30, 2021 Michael

Bounty – Delicious Coconut and Chocolate

Candy Bars

I’m really not sure how I’ve managed to get to over a hundred reviews on this blog without doing Bounty, which has always been one of my favourites. In fact, I think it might have been my absolute favourite candy bar when I was a kid, which means that in a lot of ways, my warm fuzzy feelings for Bounty are tied up in childhood nostalgia. So take everything I say about it with a grain of salt.

It’s really good, though.

It’s just coconut and milk chocolate, but as far as these types of candy bars go (I think Almond Joy and Mounds are the other big ones), Bounty is where it’s at. The coconut is very sweet but not overwhelming, with a nice coconut flavour. It’s fairly dense, and moist enough that you’re not going to be chewing on dried up coconut bits long after the flavour has gone.

The generous layer of decent quality milk chocolate compliments the coconut perfectly. The fat kid version of me bought these on a fairly regular basis, and eating it again now, I can definitely see why.

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 57 grams): 270 calories, 13 grams of fat (10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 55 mg of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fibre, 28 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin, artificial flavour), coconut, sugar, glucose syrup, glycerol monostearate, glycerol, salt, artificial flavour, sulphites.

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 Michael

Aero Peppermint – It’s Aero, but Minty

Candy Bars, Chocolate

Sometimes these candy reviews basically write themselves, and sometimes… they do not. This one definitely falls into the latter category.

I mean, it’s right there in the name. It’s minty Aero. It tastes exactly how you think it’s going to taste. It’s Aero that’s minty. The end.

Oh, that’s not enough? Fine, a bit more. Here’s the thing: it’s Aero… that’s minty. What? Did I say that already? Fine.

The chocolate is nice and creamy, the bubbles give it that interesting texture that Aero fans know and love, and the whole thing is very, very sweet. But the strong minty flavour (this is absolutely not a subtle bar) makes the sweetness feel right. It’s tasty stuff.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (9 segments, 40 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 24 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour, sodium copper chlorophyllin, turmeric.