These were and unexpected, yet thrilling find for me. I was shopping in the Grove Farmer’s Market on Fairfax and 3rd here in Los Angeles. I saw this package tucked into one of the lower candy shelves, and picked it up because of the large image of the cheetah on it. I don’t speak a lick of French, but I could decipher a bit from the import tag on the back. It only really translated “Le bonbon tendre au gout sauvage” description on the front, which roughly translated to “The tender candy with the wild taste”. That was enough to sell me on it, and I brought it home with me.

I had to open the package once I got all my necessary photos out of the way. I tasted one and immediately understood the description. These are licorice caramels.

The bad holds a bunch of individually wrapped caramels. They come in colorful wax wrappers that mimic the bag they come in. The caramels have a beautiful color to them, like a dark “dulce del leche”. It smells slightly sweet and is firm to the touch.

The flavor is excellent. You first tastes notes of licorice, with sweet, earthy flavors. Then the sweet creaminess of the caramel bit comes through, adding the tastes of butter and cream. Together they makes a very creamy, rich flavor that is both mild and flavorful. I have to admit, licorice and caramel makes a pretty awesome combination.

Caramel isn’t something I crave very often, so I’m not sure this is a candy I’d come back to often, as delicious as they are. However if I do see other varieties of Krema out there, I’ll be sure to give them a shot.

Cybele from also did an excellent review over at Candyblog.net.

Rating: Will Buy Again

This is the last of the Michel & Augustin Petits Carres bars I bought while out shopping with my sister. The last two bars I tired the Dark Chocolate and the Hazelnut Dark Chocolate were unimpressive to be honest. The cookies crust bottom was hard and sometimes overcook to the point of it looking burnt. The chocolate center is flavorless and strangely gummy. So as I prepped for this review, I’ll admit, I wasn’t excited. I don’t like “being a hater” and panning bad candy. I try to look for the good in everything. These are just…in this strange middle ground. They’re not horrible, not to the point where I gag and spit it out. That’s usually the signal for a “Not Worth It” or “Inedible” review on the blog here. No, these are just a good idea executed terribly.

So today is the Caramel Milk Chocolate flavor. Same format, just different flavors. This is the only milk chocolate one I had, as the other two were dark. I’m curious to see if there’s any difference.

Much like the Hazelnut Dark Chocolate, the cookie edges here are darker and somewhat burnt/over cooked looking. They’re also incredibly hard to break, which is annoying since I hate have a crumb explosion every time I wanted to take a piece. The chocolate center tasted more chocolatey and sweet. I didn’t really taste any caramel. I did get a nice flavor of salt toward the end like the dark chocolate one, and I am unsure if it came from the cookies crust or the caramel.

This bar was better than the other two, but still not enough to redeem them all for me. Again, it’s a good idea, just not terribly well done. It’s mediocre at best, and now I know these just dn’t do it for me.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Michel & Augustin Webpage (French)

Today is the second Michel & Augustin Petits Carres bar that I bought at the Grove Farmer’s Market. I recall them having a few varieties. If I bought all they had I clearly don’t remember. My sister just chose a few for me and I went with them. I didn’t care enough to make sure if I was trying all the varieties or just some of them.

This is the Hazelnut Dark Chocolate flavor, which, I am hoping will be a bit more flavorful than the plain dark chocolate. Time will tell though.

The first thing that had me bummed about this bar was it has overcooked cookie base. Not just darker than the last, no. It has inconsistent coloring all over and in some parts it was a dark as the chocolate was. Not good. The flavor is not as strong or yummy as Nutella is, which I found disappointing. The filling is only slightly nutty and just comes across as bland. Sadly there’s no saltiness in the cookies base. Just a bland sweetness and a rock hard texture which made it even more difficult to separate and eat as the Dark Chocolate variety.

So this one was disappointing. I was hoping it’d improve my thoughts about this candy, but instead it just made me think worse of it. If I wanted to eat flavorless burnt cookies I’d make some myself, as it’s easy to leave a batch in the oven too long. I mean, it didn’t taste terrible but it wasn’t great either. Especially since I paid about $4 for this, imported from France no less. Fool me once….

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Michel & Augustin Webpage (French)

I came across this Michel & Augustin Petits Carres: Dark Chocolate at the same trip to the Grove Farmer’s Market down in Los Angeles on 3rd and Fairfax. The stores there carry and amazing array of items, and these bars from France are one of many. It was actually my sister who noticed them at first and kept picking them up to look at the packaging. The purist that I am, I was more interested in the huge bars of Felchin and Dolfin chocolates. It wasn’t until I she came over and tugged on my sleeves suggesting that these would be great to review on my blog. “Look at how unique these are!” she exclaimed. That line of reasoning was exactly why I bought them.

This is a candy bar that I have never seen before. This isn’t because it’s French and I just haven’t seen it on shelves here in the USA. No, I mean by the fact that this style of candy bar is completely new to me. Usually you see instead is a bar that is similar; where cookie bits are crumbled into the chocolate, or the chocolate is put into the cookie and it sold as a…well, a cookie. So this idea of a molded cookie base and chocolate interior which is a candy bar is very new to me.

I shall start with the first flavor: Dark Chocolate.

So these bare have butter biscuit as the bottom with a chocolate filling pressed into “wells” in the top. The bar is broke into six biscuit sections, two wide and three tall. Out of the wrapper it’s pretty to look at. Kind of like a stained glass cookie. Also though, due to the denseness of the cookie bottom, the sections are kinda hard to break. Everyone single one of them gave me a difficult time.

The bar is 73g in size/weight. I admit I wasn’t quite sure if this was a candy or a cookie. But, one seldom sees a 73g cookies wrapped like a candy bar. Much less from France.

The butter biscuit bottom is soft and crumbly. It doesn’t require a lot of chewing to make it break apart. The flavor is very sweet and buttery, with nice notes that aren’t too sweet. It’s a nice butter shortbread. I was surprised by it’s intense salty aftertaste, which was strange at first then ended up being the part I looked forward to most. The chocolate filling is soft and gooey, but solid. When I opened the wrapper it stuck to it and came out as a solid whole. Which is…odd. The flavor is sweet but very…flat. It reminds me of creamy cocoa powder. The flavor gets stronger,  but it’s not very sweet and it has a very flat chocolate flavor.

So this is ...meh. I’ve had chocolate bars that are better and cookies that are better. I just can’t help but feeling that this is better off as a cookies, as opposed to packaged like a candy bar.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Michel & Augustin Webpage (French)

I remembered tasting these at the Fancy Food Show last year and was immediately impressed. Traditional gummi bears never really caught me, as I found the flavors to be too bland. These were just the opposite, with bold flavors and interesting ingredients. I vowed to keep and eye out for them in stores, and a few months later I was rewarded for my persistence. I chose the Blueberry Acai flavor over the Green Tea one I found as well. Something about the deep color of these just appealed to me, and I knew I’d have fun photographing them.

Firstly, I think it’s cute how they refer to these as pandas and not bears. They’re adorable to look at with little nubbins for arms and legs and bulgy eyes.

The pandas are beautiful in their simplicity. The gummi texture is just as it should be: nice balance of soft and firm so you get a chew, but nothing too hard so it isn’t a difficult task to separate a head. Yes, I do like to do that sometimes. The flavor is wonderfully bright and fruity. You taste the blueberry and it’s authentic, sweet, deep berry flavor with tart notes to it. I don’t know quite what acai tastes like, but I’m sure it’s in there.

I’ll be picking these up again when my extremely rare craving for gummi bears, er, pandas arise.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Bissingers Website