Name: Licorice Bridge Mix
Brand: Confections (from the makers of Jelly Belly)
Place Purchased: Target
Price: $1.99 (on sale, usually $2.89)
Size: 3 oz
Calories per ounce: 140
Type: Licorice

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this blog for three months and have not posted about licorice. Licorice is one of those candies that I think people either love or hate.

I love it (you knew that, didn’t you). I love Good & Plenty and any kind of licorice pastels. Of course when we start getting into licorice allsorts, things get a little hinky. There always seem to be a bunch of them I don’t like.

This assortment from Confections carries none of those anxieties of allsorts. Inside are some pastels (just smaller versions of good & plenty) some buttons and black jelly bellies. There was also one jelly button with multicolored candy dots.

They’re all good. The pastels were nice, with a good ratio of candy coating to licorice on the inside. The buttons were a little odd. The only thing that I can describe them as is licorice candy corn. You know, whatever that stuff that candy corn is made of, it’s like that only they’re either white or black (they look like game pieces or something). Smooth and very sweet with a good hit of licorice to them. And of course everyone knows that jelly bellies are good, with lots of flavor and no colored tongue to betray that you’ve been snarfing down candy in your office.

They’re a little expensive at $2 for 3 ounces (yes that’s over $10 a pound) but at least I’ll eat everything in this variety pack. I think I’ll stick to my pastels though. It’s just occurred to me that I’ve never tried anise bears and I should probably rectify this.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Name: New Tree Chocolates: Vigor, Forgiveness & Tranquility
Brand: New Tree
Place Purchased: Monsieur Marcel (LA Farmer’s Market)
Price: $3.35 each
Size: .95 oz
Calories per ounce: no nutrition facts listed on box
Type: Chocolate

I reviewed another of these bars, called Renew a few weeks ago and I wanted to try other flavors. I found these little boxes with tasting bars at the Farmer’s Market and picked up an assortment. The one that had me most intrigued was Tranquility which bills itself as soothing. It’s milk chocolate with Lime Blossom and Lavender in it.

The packaging, first of all, is delightful. I put a quarter in the photo so you could see how tiny these bars are. New Tree extols itself as all natural, healthful chocolate what eschews genetically modified organisms (I’m not sure if Monsanto has gotten around to modifying the cocoa plant) and infuses their Belgian made chocolate with sometimes incongruous flavors and extra fiber. Turns out the no GMO part applies to the soya lecithin.

The Tranquility bar was very nice. It’s not terribly smooth, which is often what happens when you put dried stuff in chocolate. For Belgian milk chocolate it’s a bit sweet, but it doesn’t have that milky taste. The lavender notes come through loud and clear and leave a pleasantly fragrant note on the tongue long after the chocolate has dissolved. I wasn’t able to detect the lime blossom, but I’ve never eaten lime blossoms before and they might taste just like lavender for all I know.

I had to try the Vigor bar early in the day, as eating a full ounce of this is the equivalent of one cup of coffee (and I’ve already had a cup of coffee). At 73% cocoa, this bar smells unabashedly like pure chocolate. But upon putting it in my mouth, it melted quickly and I tasted only slight hints of rich coffee flavors. Naked coffee and chocolate are a great combo, as they both are roasted and smoky and contain lots of alkaloids. This is a barely sweetened bar that also boasts that it contains extracts of guarana. I’ve had more mocha tasting bars in the past and to be honest, I don’t want a caffienated chocolate bar, because I’d be tempted to eat it later in the day and then curse it as I couldn’t sleep later in the evening. But if you’re good with caffeine at all hours, maybe this is the bar for you. I don’t recommend pairing it with Red Bull or other energy drinks unless you enjoy heart palpitations.

The last bar, Forgiveness, was in the yellow box and was flavored with lemon and said that it helps metabolism. Again, a very dark bar with 73% cocoa. This bar also smells suspicously like chocolate with a slight lemon essence to it that’s more obvious after eating. It’s not a zesty taste, like a lemon bar or anything, just a hint of it. It’s actually very nice, a big difference from the heavily flavored bars from BruCo (don’t get me wrong, I liked those, too). The “helps metabolism” part got me curious though. There are “natural extracts of cactus” in it. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but there are a lot of cactus out there ... that’s like saying something vague like has “natural nuts” in it. The website says that the cactus is Opuntia ficus-indica. A quick google search reveals that this is a prickly pear, and looks a lot like one I have in my back yard. Further searching reveals that this particular cactus also contains mescaline. I’m sure that my teensy bar that’s less than a third of an ounce does not contain any measurable amounts.

I guess this is where I can get into the topic of candy for snacking and candy for savoring. There are some folks who enjoy wine and drink it for the joy of drinking. Then there are some folks who enjoy wine for all its nuances and savor every sip. I’m somewhere in the middle there when it comes to candy. I love consumer candy, stuff you just eat, that you put in your mouth and you finish and you want more. This New Tree stuff and many of the other gourmet bars are not meant for munching. They’re more complex, like a fine cheese or something. As a reference, I still have a little bit of the Renew bar left and it’s been weeks. This is not candy that calls out to me to be eaten. (Yes, sometimes I hear the candy calling me ... mostly things like maltballs and I can also hear smarties calling from several hundred yards.) Maybe some will accuse me of not being sophisticated enough and I’d be inclined to agree with them. You can dress up my vitamins in gumballs or chewables, but that doesn’t make them candy. Candy is a treat, not a chore.

I feel kind of bad for not liking these bars more, like I’m not sophisticated or stylish. I also feel bad because they’re so hugely expensive. Which I guess goes to prove that good quality candy does not have to be expensive. And expensive candy is not neccesarily great.

I think over the past few months as I’ve been trying more of these bars, my favorite fancy flavored bar has been the Dagoba Milk Chocolate Chai. I ate that, it tasted good and I wanted more. That’s what I want in my candy ... one that gets me addicted.

Ratings:
Vigor - 6 out of 10
Tranquility - 6 out of 10
Forgiveness - 6 out of 10

Name: Aero
Brand: Nestle Rowntree (UK)
Place Purchased: Cost Plus
Price: $1.29
Size: 1.62 oz
Calories per ounce: 142
Type: Chocolate (Milk)

I’ve seen these bars before, usually in import stores, and as I recall I picked up one or something similar in London when I was there. It’s basically a milk chocolate Nestle bar that’s been whipped into a froth and then quickly molded into a bar. It creates a bit of a lighter feeling treat than a dense chocolate bar.

What’s amazing about this is when you look at the bar unwrapped, it looks like a king sized bar, but it weighs about the same as a regular bar. It’s overwhelmingly sweet and chocolately smelling. Upon biting into it, it yields easily, more like marshmallow or fudge than chocolate. In fact, that’s what it resembles most to me, fudge. It’s definitely very chocolatey, a little sticky feeling in the mouth, but because of all the air, it melts fast, bursting on the tongue.

Note that because of the bubbles, I suspect that it’s a little more prone to softening in the summer warmth than other bars, so you might want to store this one in the fridge. In fact, I’ve heard that some folks prefer it that way.

On the whole, it was a pleasant bar. The chocolate is very milky, as European chocolate usually is and if you like that, you won’t be disappointed. I find European milk chocolate tastes a little like powdered milk to me which is not an entirely pleasant reminder.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

See also - taquitos.net review.

Dovetailing with my earlier post about revisiting classics with new interpretations, Hershey’s recently launched “Candy to Go!” It’s just smaller packaging of their previously introduced Bites, but what I found interesting is that I thought most candy was packaged for going ...

These are perfect little bites of candy bars. I picked up three at the store on the lot today. Kit Kat Bites, Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites and York Bites. Each is about the size of a small marble, more or less. The York bites are exactly what you’d expect, dark chocolate covering a mint cream center. The Reese’s bites are covering a peanut butter cup filling (not that waxy Reese’s pieces stuff) and the Kit Kat bites are like little Kit Kat cubes.

Here’s my thing: I like appropriate ratios. In the case of the Reese’s bites and the York bites, the ratio of chocolate to filling is appropriate. Though the chocolate in these little poppers is slightly different - because it’s in a spherical shape, I think they toss a little resinous glaze on it. This makes for a slight waxy coating, which in one respect is good, because you can actually hold them in your hand for a moment without getting melty all over you, but it also means that you’re eating this resin and that you need to kind of get past that when you put it in your mouth.

In the Kit Kat bites, it feels like too much chocolate (Kit) and not enough crisp wafers (Kat).

The other odd thing about these are the portion size: 2.75 oz and that’s a full serving. Most candy bars are about 1.5 oz and have about 200 calories. The Reese’s bites have 410 calories! If you can control yourself and not eat them all at once, you’ll make it to fifty without a coronary. Me? I ate the whole York Bites and then moved on to the Reese’s and of course had to open the Kit Kat for a taste. Sadly, all that’s left now are some of the Kit Kats.

Name: York Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 116
Type: Mint/Chocolate Candy

Good chocolate, nice mint, pretty much a tiny spherical peppermint patty. The only problem I had with these was the variation in quality. Some were soft and fresh, but others were rather hard. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’re spoiled, maybe the chocolate didn’t seal in the filling completely and they dried out.

Name: Reese’s Peanut Butter Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 149
Type: Chocolate/Nuts

Okay, of the three, these smelled absolutely divine when I opened the package. A wonderful roasted peanut scent with the sweet overtone of chocolate. Really, these smelled awesome. They taste good, and I think I’d buy them again, especially as something to eat when at the movies, but I still prefer the miniatures for the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.

Name: Kit Kat Bites
Brand: Hershey’s
Price: $.99
Size: 2.75 oz
Calories per ounce: 145
Type: Chocolate

My least favorite of the three, but I’ve always been fond of Kit Kats and buy them often. But my favorite thing about Kit Kats is deconstructing them while I eat, which means prying off each layer with my teeth. That’s not really feasible with this iteration, so I’d just have to eat them and where’s the fun in that?

I’m not always fond of miniatures or giganto bars, but I think that Hershey’s really did a nice job of inventing these as candy that stands alone without the other versions. As always, freshness helps, if these were old and had bloomed or something, I’d find them absolutely unappealing. But I find these to be the perfect movie food or good to tuck in your bag to share with others.

Ratings:
Kit Kat Bites - 5 out of 10
York Bites - 6 out of 10
Reese’s Bites - 8 out of 10

UPDATE: It looks like these didn’t go over very well and have been discontinued. The remaining inventory can still be found at discount stores like 99 Cent Only. (But be sure to look at the expiration date before you take a chance.)

Name: Sweet Dark Orange and Sweet Dark Espresso
Brand: Newman’s Own
Place Purchased: Whole Foods
Price: $1.89 each
Size: 2.8 oz
Calories per ounce: 145
Type: Chocolate

I probably shouldn’t buy chocolate bars called “sweet” and expect something other than sweet. And this being a candy blog, I should probably stop mentioning that I find candy sweet. I’m just calling them like I taste them.

These bars are of excellent quality. Smooth and without grain. The chocolate has good flavor, not much vanilla essence, mostly a roasty, robust chocolate flavor. Each has a flavor added to it. The Espresso has an excellent rich coffee flavor and of the two, I liked the mix of flavors best. It’s not as sweet, and stays true to espresso’s smoky vibe.

The orange one has a wonderful orange peel aroma to it, but the chocolate flavor gets lost in it and of course, I found it a little too sweet.

The chocolate yielded well, melting smoothly on the tongue. Of course it helped that it was very hot over that weekend that I picked them up. I took the bars next door and Amy and Robin agreed that the espresso was the best.

It should probably be mentioned that Newman donates all proceeds from sales to charity and the products are, to the best of their ability, fair trade and organic. But for a high priced “gourmet” bar, I expect just slightly better flavor balance and meltiness.

Rating: Espresso - 7 out of 10
Orange - 6 out of 10.

I can’t fault the candy manufacturers trying to tweak their most popular candies instead of reinventing the wheel. Sometimes they arrive at something that’s as good or even better than the original.

In the spirit of my recent review of the White Chocolate Reese’s, I picked up a few other reduxes.

Name: Nestle Crunch Dark
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: Convenience Store
Price: $.75
Size:1.4 oz
Calories per ounce: 135
Type: Chocolate (crisped)

Very fresh, the crisps were crunchy and the bar was glossy and smooth. The chocolate was not waxy, but didn’t really have the melt-in-your mouth feel. The chocolate content was pretty good, but not quite enough to soothe me completely. Maybe it was a little sweet.

On the whole, I think crunch bars are perfect the way they are. Milk chocolate and crisped rice are perfect together. Why mess with it?

Name: White Chocolate Kit Kat
Brand: Reese’s (Hershey)
Place Purchased: Convenience Store
Price: $.75
Size: 1.5 oz
Calories per ounce: 147
Type: White Chocolate Candy

Again, there was nothing wrong with the original Kit Kat. This white Kit Kat seems a bit saltier, which helps to balance the bland sweetness of the white chocolate. It’s not something that I’d be interested in again.

Name: Milky Way Midnight
Brand: Mars
Place Purchased: Convenience Store
Price: $.75
Size: 1.76 oz
Calories per ounce: 125
Type: Chocolate Candy (Caramel & Nougat)

First, I congratulate them for spelling midnight correctly. This bar was very fresh but reminded me that I never cared much for Milky Ways because they’re too cloyingly sweet. I like Snickers, mostly because they mixing sweet and savory. Also, I don’t like candy bars that are too much sugar and not enough fat (and maybe a little protein thrown in). So, in that respect the dark version is much more successful. The richer taste of the chocolate balances the caramel and bland nougat much better.

I have to say, after having plenty of imported candies and things from the remainders at the 99 cent stores, having fresh candy really makes a difference. Even a middle-of-the-road candy like Hershey’s Kisses are better when they’re fresh. Candy’s a treat - if you are going to use those “discretionary” calories on something with no nutritional value, choose something fresh and satisfying. Life too short for bad dessert.

Ratings:
Nestle Crunch Dark - 6 out of 10
White Chocolate Kit Kat - 6 out of 10
Milky Way Midnight - 7 out of 10

Name: White Rabbit Creamy Candies
Place Purchased: Chinatown, Los Angeles
Price: $1.09
Size: 8 oz
Calories per ounce: 120
Type: Taffy

When buying candy where the package is pretty much all foreign to you, good packaging is a plus. The only thing in English on this bag of what I think is taffy are the required items of weight and the name of the product: White Rabbit. (And the subtitle of Creamy Candies or maybe that’s the name of the candy and White Rabbit is the brand, I’m a little unsure. There’s also a brand mark called Queensway Foods on the front.)

Inside are little white cylindrical candies. I figured taffy from looking at the ingredients which started with Corn Starch Syrup ... which I’m guessing is what we know as corn syrup.

I found I was pretty much correct, but the Asian spin on this is that they are wrapped in that rice paper cellophane that dissolves in your mouth. I love that stuff! I practically buy Botan Rice Candy just for the rice cello! Inside this edible inner wrapper is a bland, sweet and mild vanilla taffy. Unfortunately the batch I got was not particularly fresh and therefore not chewy, so I just sucked on it until it got soft enough to chew. The flavor is quite nice, not as sweet as you’d think for something that’s pretty much all sugar, with a slight creamy/milky flavor to it. Just what the name implied.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (it’d be seven if they were softer)

UPDATE 9/23/2008: Sources in Singapore have tested samples of White Rabbit in conjunction with the melamine contamination of Chinese baby formula made by Sanlu Group. They have said that it does contain traces of melamine and have pulled it from the shelves. More here.

UPDATE 10/2/2008: The tainted milk scandal is spreading to more candies. We’re tracking all the stories in the Candy Forums.

Related Candies

1. Candy Bites: The Sweet, Crunchy & Creamy
2. Tootsie Rolls & Fruit Rolls
3. Botan Rice Candy
4. Yan Yan
5. Men’s Pocky

Name: Hi-SOFT Caramel and Milk Caramel
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: Mitsuwa Marketplace (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles)
Price: $.99 each
Size: 2 oz
Calories per ounce: 125
Type: Caramel

First, I give high marks to Morinaga’s packaging team. Like the Hi-CROWN chocolate, the Hi-SOFT caramel comes in a spiffy hard box, perfect for carrying in a pocket or purse and fun to flip open to share. I’m not sure how many caramel products Morinaga markets, but these are just two I’ve found.

Of the two, I prefer the taste and texture of the yellow box Milk Caramel. Both are soft and chewy without being grainy, but the milky smoothness of the Milk Caramel far outweighs the Hi-SOFT’s keen box. Of course nothing will ever top the happy fat cows that got me started on the Japanese caramels.

In fact, of all the caramels I’ve tasted over the past few months, I like the Milk Caramel best. Looking over the ingredients it has the right mix of sugar and milk products, a dash of salt and something I didn’t expect - tea extract.

Rating: Hi-SOFT - 6 out of 10; Milk Caramel - 8 out of 10