Let me come clean right now and say I’ve never been a fan of Twizzlers. I’ve always found them bland and rubbery and won’t eat them even under extreme candy duress. I’d imagine a red rubber spatula to be tastier than Twizzlers, so they’re a candy I simply will not go near. At least the standard strawberry ones, as I haven’t had the other kinds and therefore will be sure to torture myself with tasting them at some point.
Normally I explain how I found and why I bought a specific candy to review. Here I won’t do either as I can’t recall where I purchased these or why. I just found them sitting in my candy stash, and figured I’d photograph and eat them since there were there. Simple as that.
This little packet of Twizzler Sourz hold little colored Twizzler nubbins that are sanded with a sour sugar so they’re tart and zesty. The package is a nice single serve size, I had it as a dessert with my lunch.
Green/Apple: Tastes very strongly of fake apple. Yet, it also comes across as a little authentic because there’s lots of notes of apple juice in here. A perplexing flavor paradox.
Blue: Blue Raspberry: Juicy, perfumey, floral and fake. The floral flavors in there are very strange, but I till find myself enjoying it. Which is odd, since I’m not big on the blue raspberry flavor in general.
Red: Strawberry/Cherry: Both flavors are a red color, so how do I tell them apart? Oh, I don’t unless I eat them? I see. That’s annoying. The cherry one is medicinal and bitter, but very juicy. The strawberry ones tastes lighter and sweeter, and more “red”.
All the colors have a nice tartness to them. The texture is soft so it’s has a nice chew to it, not as sticky as regular Twizzlers are. I’d give regular Twizzler’s an Inedible rating, so I feel these little buggers are a step above. I didn’t enjoy eating them really, but I didn’t spit them out right away and they were fun to take photos of.
Rating: Might Eat Again
Links Twizzler’s Webpage
Did I just type what I thought I did? Teeth gummis? Now how odd is that? I know gummis come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. I’ve seen everything from fruits, drops, fish, animals and even brains. But teeth? I really wonder who these try to appeal to; children and perhaps maybe a dentist or two? I don’t quite understand this shape for a candy. Especially since I don’t think these are ordinary teeth. On no, because look at the image on the package. These teeth obviously sit on the counter next to your toothbrush and toothpaste. I can’t bring myself to call these dentures, but it’s clear that’s what they’re intended these to be. Chewing grandpa’s chompers does not sound delicious to me. *shudder*
I acquired these as a part of a candy trade from Bulgaria. Which makes the teeth shape feel even stranger to me, as it feels like perhaps there’s a bit of culture I’m missing here to make sense out of all of it. No matter, as long as it tastes good, I’ll eat it.
They smell very bright of strawberry jam with a hint of bubblegum. Each gummi has six teeth and they’re really creepy. The texture is very springy and chewy and therefore it’s hard to sever a pieces with my teeth. The gummis also take a good amount of time to dissolve in my mouth, which is an ideal gummi texture in my mind. The flavor is lightly sweet and nondescript. If I had to pin it on something, I’d say it’s strawberry as I get “red” flavors from it.
Now, I am missing one thing. After eating a few I noticed the package said that these are “jelly filled with fruit flavor”. Jelly? There’s jelly in here? I didn’t detect any texture difference in my mouth, so I did what any curious individual would do and bit one in half to see the cross section. Nope, I see no jelly. I bit another section of the gummi in half, wondering if I missed this magical jelly reservoir, but no, there’s no jelly there either. Interesting.
As odd as these were, I did enjoy them. The flavor was nice, even though it wasn’t remarkable, and I feel a little misled by the package with it’s jelly filled claim. Still, I enjoy these more than the standard gummi bear out there, so I can’t say that these aren’t something you should give a try if given the chance. Maybe you can share them with your dentist on your next visit.
Rating: Might Eat Again
Links Pamir Website
I love discovering chocolate I’ve never seen before, so I was very excited to notice these strangely shaped bars in an almost hidden box in the shelf of a grocery store I rarely visit. Sounds like a perfect setup for finding a mysterious chocolate, doesn’t it? It’s a company from Toronto called Theobroma Chocolat (In case you didn’t know the scientific name of chocolate is theobroma cacao, so you can see where they got their name from) and they produce a high-quality organic chocolate. There were four varieties at the store for my to choose from: plain 72% dark, 60% pineapple, 60% banana and 60% coconut. I stood for a good five minutes weighing my options, and finally decided on two: the 72% and the pineapple.
The bars are long and thin and remind me of sticks. Which is a funny thought to me, sticks of chocolate. The 35g bar is long, thin, tall, and trapezoidal in shape. It’s reminiscent of a Toblerone, but these are more squat and there’s no point at the top. Each bar is nicely separated into six sections. The snap is hard with a very clean break. I do see an air bubble or two, but it’s nothing terribly noteworthy.
72% Dark: The chocolate smells acidic with notes of green coffee, juniper berries, red berries, pepper and cedar. The flavor is immediately dry, and I taste coffee, cocoa, cedar and earth. Then sweeter notes of cream appear before the chocolate turns extremely dry again with very acidic and tannic notes akin to citrus, red berries, cherries and raspberries. This chocolate tastes very wild, untamed and earthy. You get a real sense of the terrain in it, and I like that.
60% Pineapple: This bar smells the same as the 72%. Very tannic, tart, green coffee, cedar, and earth. On the bottom of the bar you can see the bumps from the pineapple chunks, and I see them in the break when I take my first bite. The pineapple are little freeze dried pieces and you taste them right away. They’re sweet, punchy, and full of fruity flavors like passion fruit, peach and apple with that twang of pine. The chocolate itself doesn’t taste different from the plain 72%. It’s dry, and tart with berry and coffee flavors. The texture is a little different as the freeze dried pieces add a subtle crunch amongst the smooth, thick chocolate.
I liked the flavor of this chocolate and I also really like the format. For some reason this elongated bar takes longer for me to eat, which means I’m eating it slower and enjoying it more. Which is important to me when I find good chocolate, as sometimes it’s all too tempting to just gobble it up all at once.
Rating: Will Buy Again
Links Theobroma Chocolat Website
This box of Look! chocolates from Japan are another treat that my sister was so kind to send me while she was away on study abroad. I’ve seen Look! a few times before, as a few Asian Markets near me sometimes carry it. I find the name amusing since it comes across as a piece of amusing Engrish, so I can’t help but chuckle whenever I see it. It’s never really interested me enough to buy it, but I do recall admiring their packaging design, as the illustrations of the desserts on the front are always gorgeous. This particular Look! box is the fruit tea collection, with four varieties of chocolates. I do admit it looks tasty.
The Look! chocolates come in a flat box, and it’s deceiving as it looks like it could be a solid bar inside. Instead there’s a cute tray that you pull out to find twelve chocolates, with three of each flavor. The mylar wrapper on top is a flavor code, letting you know exactly how the flavors are arranged so there’s no surprised once you pop them into your mouth.
Oh! I do want to mention that the chocolate are arranged so cleverly! Each are set in rows to spell “Look” as the chocolates have molded letter on top of them. You only notice this once you remove all the packaging. So cute! All the L’s are one flavor, each of the O’s are another, as is the K. You get the idea. I did my best not to get the O’s mixed up, but that’s when I noticed that the O’s are also different from one another too. One has double rings. Again, such thought behind this.
Apple Tea: It smells very fruity and herbal, like tea leaves. A strong ceylon comes to mind. The flavor is fruity and slightly tannic from the tea. There’s a well of fruit jelly at the top and it delivers a very intense flavor punch on the tongue. It’s sweet, tart, and crisp like a red delicious apple. The chocolate adds a sweetness like sugar and milk added to tea.
Orange Tea: This one smells like ceylon tea, just like the apple flavor. I’m immediately get a nice orange flavor that’s fresh and jammy on my first bite. It’s very intense,sweet, tart and juicy. The orange overrides the flavor of the tea and it’s nice effect combined with the chocolate.
Peach Tea: Devoid of aroma. The flavor is delicate and like a fresh peach jam. Again, more fruity than tea, but you do get a nice planty flavor under the juicy, perfumey flavors of the peach.
Raspberry Tea: This smells fruity of nondescript berries. The flavor is so intense of a juicy, fresh raspberry jam. It’s impressive. The flavor has many shades of the real raspberries: sweet, tart, hints of seeds (yet there are none!) and notes of blackberry. The tea flavor is present, but not overpowering.
I enjoyed these. They’re a nice blend of tea and fruit flavors with chocolate, and a unique treat when a standard chocolate bar isn’t going to satisfy your craving for something a little different.
Rating: Will Eat Again
Links Fujiya Website
Amedei is one of those chocolate companies I’ve always heard about, but wasn’t able to get my hands on for a very long time. Even though candy and chocolate tasting is a very subjective and personal thing, many chocolate sommeliers consider Amedei’s chocolate to be some of the best of the best. It wasn’t until I was at the Food Emporium at the Trump Palace in New York (it sounds so much glitzier than it actually is) that I finally found Amedei bars that I could buy in the flesh. I am aware I can buy them online, and since that day I have, but I wanted to handle each bar and make my selection in person that very first time.
After much pursuing in the store, I made my selection of their most basic of chocolates: the Toscano Dark Chocolate 70% and the Milk Chocolate 23% bars. I had researched much into the Amedei’s line of chocolate bars, and I wanted to start off with something simple before I moved into their infamous Chuao or Porcelana bars.
A little history and information on Amedei first before I dive into tasting notes. They’re a company located in Tuscany, Italy, born out of the passion to make quality premium chocolate. Three chldren of a confectioner founded Amedei, lovingly named after their grandmother. Since the founding of the company, each sibling has taken great lengths to make sure they produce the higest qulity chocolate possible. You can read their store in more detail here.
Toscano Brown 32% (dark milk): I love the cerulean blue packaging. Just thought I’d throw that out there. This bar is referred to as “dark milk” because it has a higher cocoa percentage than most standard milk chocolates. The chocolate bar looks like milk chocolate still, with a light brown color with creamy undertones and a subtle sheen. It smells sweet with a subtle after note of cheddar cheese. It has a hard break despite the dairy content (is that even a factor?) and feels heavy in my hand. The flavor? Wow. Just wow. It’s very chocolatey and very sweet with lots of flavors swirling around. I gets notes of cream, vanilla, caramel, honey…and it all mixes together to give is a hint of hazelnuts. The perfect milk chocolate bar. The mouth feel is very smooth and silky and has a medium “mouth-time”. My only suggestion is that I wish it’d last longer on my tongue, since the flavors are so magnificent. My new favorite milk chocolate (well, one of a select few now), by far.
Toscano Black: Bitter Chocolate Extra 70%: This chocolate’s color is medium-deep with more purple undertones with a slightly dull appearance and a glossy finish. The aroma is terribly fruity and smells strongly of raisins and vanilla, slightly floral (like raspberries?) and is very “purple”. The flavor immediately mirrors the aroma with a fruity flavor, with raisins and dates jumping forth. Those notes fade to reveal more fruity flavors, this time of red berries and cherries and they counteract the raisin/date sweetness with a slight tartness. The finish ends on a sweeter note like the beginning of the flavor, with notes of cream and raisins again. The mouth feel is rich and quite thick, but it nice and smooth and very satisfying. I really, really liked this chocolate. On the list of favorites just like the milk chocolate.
What can I say other than the Amedei chocolate has met all my expectations and lived up to all the praise I’ve heard. This is amazing chocolate, and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of this stuff. If you consider yourself a chocolate lover of any kind, you need to give Amedei a try.
Rating: Hoard
Links Amedei Website (US)
