Nougat
This is going to sound odd coming form someone who hates nuts in their chocolate, but I love Payday. All jokes aside, I am referring to the candy bar. For some reason, taking the nuts out of the chocolate works for me, and that’s what a normal Payday is. So imagine my surprise when I saw this Payday Chocolatey Avalanche bar, I was curious to see how I liked chocolate in my nuts, for once.
Notice the wording “chocolatey” here, we’re obviously not looking (and soon to be eating) the real thing here. Oh, no. We got mockolate here peeps, which is always disappointing. Regardless, this is a Payday, and Payday is more about peanuts than anything else, so I will try and not let it sway my opinion too much. In hand, the bar looks like a normal Payday, just enrobed in the “chocolately” coating. I’m curious as to where the “avalanche” is though. Hrrmm.
My first bite was hard, literally. My teeth had to crack down on this sucker. It was really that hard! I have no choice to assume it’s not fresh, and judging from the code on the back (32Mr3E7f) so that would be…3rd week of 2002? Yikes, I hope not. Anyways, the center of the Payday is what’s rock hard and is giving me the tough time. The rest of the bar is great, and I’m relieved that the peants are still the star here: fresh with a good hit of salt. The chocolatey coating isn’t adding much, it does have an extra little sweetness to it overall, but flavor wise, I get nothing.
Unless you’re like me and are insistent trying every candy on the planet, I’d skip this and keep getting the regular Paydays. You always win with those!
Rating: Not Worth It
Links:
Payday Website
Cadbury Picnic is a bar hailing from the Land Down Under. I’ve heard about it, but it wasn’t until an Australian friend sent me a candy care package that I finally encountered one. The specific one I got is actually a limited edition Picnic bar of the “Honey Almond Nougat” variety. “New!” and “A unique combination of almonds & crunchy pieces of honey almond nougat caramel & wafer covered in delicious Cadbury milk chocolate” are the descriptions on the wrapper. I’d by lying if I said it didn’t sound appealing and terribly tasty.
The regular Cadbury picnic bars have a wafer center, creamy caramel, and rice crisps all covered in chocolate. So this new variety adds more textural and flavor elements by replacing the rice crisps with the almonds and nougat. I still think that this will give me a pretty good indication of what the original bar is. It’s kinda funny how the Picnic sounds like the offspring of a Kitkat, a Nestle’s Crunch and a Milky Way.
I’m relieved to say that according to the ingredients list, this Picnic bar is using real chocolate! Yay! It’s gotten to the point where that’s always the first things I look for in candy bars. Yes, I’m a stickler for quality.
The bar itself looks like a very large, lumpy 100 Grand or a smaller, chocolate covered PayDay. Take your pick. It smells very strongly of sweet honey and almonds. It’s hard for my to explain but something in it also smells really “carb-y” and it’s hard to lay my finger on it. I don’t know what else it could be other than the nougat.
My first bite was extremely crispy. The center is the wafer and very similar in structure to a Kitkat. Wrapped around the wafer is the caramel, so already we have a crispy/chewy texture working here. The nougat and almonds add a slight crunch and it’s very addicting to chew and munch.
As for the flavor? It took me a moment to concentrate on it to be honest, I was already too busy trying to dislodge the pieces of nougat and caramel on my teeth. It’s got a lot going on: I get nice milky caramel notes, some light blandness from the wafers, then there’s a big salty hit from the almonds and finally a honey sweetness of the nougat. I don’t hardly taste any of the chocolate, as it cowers behind the big three of the caramel, nougat and almonds. I do like how the honey stands out, it proves a nice sweetness, especially blended with the caramel, and the saltiness provides a wonderful contrast. I just wish I wasn’t going to be picking bits of this out of my teeth for the next couple of hours. Ah, sacrifices, right?
Rating: Will Eat Again
Links:
Cadbury Picnic Webpage
As I’m always on the prowl for new flavors and types of candy, so I get pretty thrilled when I find something new to try. I found this Schmerling’s Swss Chocolate bar amongst other Kosher chocolate in the import section on one of my local grocery stores. What drew me to it immediately was the “Honey Moon” name, as it’s flavored with honey and nougat bits. Neither of which I’ve had in a chocolate bar before.
Unwrapped, the bar is a nice medium brown color like a respectable milk chocolate and the creaminess of the color shows a high milk content. The flecks of the nougat are visible all though-ought the bar, giving it a pretty spotted look. The break is surprisingly hard for a milk chocolate, which are normally soft and almost fudgy.
The flavor is surprising to say the least. There’s no chocolate or dairy flavors at all. Instead you mainly taste the nougat, which has an almond/hazelnut flavor with just a touch of honey to it. The chocolate manifests itself as a throat burning sweetness that appeares in the finish and leaves a long aftertaste in the mouth. The texture is a little crunchy because of the nougat bits, which feel like nuts as they’re a little crispy but have a “meaty” texture to them. The chocolate’s texture is unremarkable; not grainy but not smooth either.
Overall, I was disappointed because this wasn’t as “honey nougat-y chocolaty” tasting as I’d hoped. If I move past that it’s ok tasting and delivers a mean sugar burn, so if I was even in need of something intense, this could do the trick.
Rating: Not Worth It
This is latest and greatest in the Snickers bar limited edition line. The wrapper describes it as: “Almonds, caramel and marshmallow-flavored nougat wrapped in dark chocolate”. Oh, wow! Is it just me, or does that sound simply amazing? Pinch me please, I surely must have gone to heaven.
Once unwrapped, the bar looks like a normal Snickers except for the darker brown color. It smells of the deep dark chocolate and a bit of a roasted flavor, I think from the almonds. It’s also smells very sweet with a milky vanilla essence. I cut the bar it in half to see the cross section. The marshmallow nougat is a pale white like snow, with the layer of almonds and caramel
The first bite is awesome. It’s thick, chewy and substantial and oh so tasty! You get a nice nuttiness from the almonds, a good sweetness from the caramel and a nice chocolate hit from the coating. The marshmallow nougat doesn’t deliver much in flavor but the texture is so nice. It’s a little thicker and stickier than the standard Snickers nougat, but it makes the chew so much more fulfilling. It’s really, really good. It’s a really stellar bar, and I like it way more than the original.
I’m hoarding these. Mars better make these a regular addition to the Snickers family.
Rating: Hoard
Links:
Snickers Website
It seems fitting that for my inaugural post that I’d review a candy that is very dear to me: the Zero bar. As a candy enthusiast, the Zero bar epitomizes the idea of why we all love candy. Usually our preferences are based on what tastes good to us, by what memories we associate with it, what company makes it, etc. Sometimes though, we get a candy like the Zero bar that’s a favorite, well, just because. The love exists without logic.
The Zero bar, which is made up of almond nougat, peanuts, caramel and enrobed in white fudge; was originally made by Hollywood Brands candy company back in 1920. Zero’s name comes from the white covering along with its tendency to be eaten frozen (at “zero” degrees). Over the years it has jumped from company to company and in 1996 it became a member of the Hershey candy lineup. It still remains, as far as I know, the only candy bar to be covered in white chocolate.
I find it odd that despite my love for this candy bar, I cannot recall specifically how I discovered it or when I first tasted it. I only have a general sense of when it appeared in my life and how: I believe it was during middle school when my Mom brought it back to me from a shopping trip. She thought I’d like to try it simply because it was white chocolate. Sometimes the simplest of actions have very large impacts.
The bar once unwrapped is a beautiful pristine white. It smells sweet with a light, nutty, almond touch. Breaking it in half, the caramel ribbon makes a wonderful gooey thread: it’s not too thick nor too flowing. Perfect. The almond nougat is a nice chocolately brown color and you could easily mistake it as such if it wasn’t for the nutty almond smell.
The first bite is lovely: the chocolate feels smooth and cool, the caramel sweet and the nougat fluffy with a nice graininess as it melts in your mouth. The flavor is very sweet, but the nutty almond flavor of the nougat and the peanuts help cut it a little. Surprisingly, the nougat tastes more of real almonds and not amaretto, complimented with a slight touch of malt, that stands out as the main flavor of Zero. The sweet caramel and white chocolate coating providing a light base for the flavors of the nougat to build upon. The pieces of peanuts are small and not heavily distributed (thank goodness!) provide an extra nutty kick as well as a crunchy textural element. The balance of delicate and simple flavors with a good mix of textures of this bar makes it a total winner in my book. So tasty.
So there you have it, the candy bar for which I feel unconditional love for. Some will disagree with my opinion, but that’s what makes loving a certain candy so special: only you truly know how to appreciate it to the fullest.
Have you tried Zero bar before? Do let me know how you like it!
Rating: Hoard.
Links:
Zero Bar Webpage
Page 3 of 3 pages < 1 2 3
