Candy Blog

Godiva Chocolatier has been moving into more stores lately - places like Cost Plus World Market and even drug stores like CVS. This holiday was the first time I saw them in my ordinary grocery store (Von’s). The mass-market fare isn’t quite like the stuff in their shops, it’s small bites (Gems) and bars along with their Chocoiste line of little pearls.

They’re still rather expensive, this bag of Godiva Gems Peppermint Truffles was selling for $6.00 before Christmas. Though the bag looks pretty big (similar to the stand up bags from Ghirardelli which holds nearly 3 times as much), it only holds 3.5 ounces. But after Christmas I snagged this for only $2.64 ... a fair price for a real white chocolate product.

The package says: White chocolate with creamy candy cane filling.

The package warns that some settling of contents may occur in shipping, and they’re not kidding. There are 10 individually wrapped Gems inside, making two layers - that’s a lot of empty space in the bag. Each sphere is wrapped in a candy cane striped mylar twist.

The truffles are about 1 inch in diameter. They’re not completely spherical, they’re slightly faceted, I’m guessing to go with the Gems part of the name. They remind me of well-used polyhedral dice.

They’re formed from two hemispheres, so there’s a distinct seam in the center. Sometimes with a little gentle pressure on opposite sides of the seam, I can pop the sides apart. They’re each filled with the pink cream and then joined together with some more white chocolate.

The pieces are soft, the shell yields easily when bitten. The center is a soft cream made of white chocolate, sugar alcohols, butter and some palm oil along with some red food coloring and peppermint flavor. There’s just a little dash of salt in there. The sorbitol and xylitol are used as sweeteners to good effect. Both of them are lower in calories but they also are less sweet and provide a cooling effect on the tongue. (Some folks cannot tolerate sugar alcohols, but I don’t think there’s much in here.)

They were good quality, I liked that the ganache filling wasn’t greasy and thin tasting like the Lindt Lindor Truffles, which I see these as competing with. But the flavor combo wasn’t really best for me, I wanted a rich, silky dark chocolate shell and the white chocolate, minty ganache center. White chocolate lovers may disagree though. They’re not too sweet, which is also refreshing.

Related Candies

1. Russell Stover Peppermint Bark Snowman
2. Wonka Exceptionals Peppermint Shortbread Chocolate Pieces
3. Godiva Shamrock Truffles
4. Fannie May Mint Meltaway
5. Dove Peppermint Bark
6. Ghirardelli Holiday Squares
7. Lindt Lindor Truffle Eggs

I think the best thing to ever happen to raisins is rum. There’s simply no better flavor combination to boost the natural fruity flavors and give the whole dried fruit thing a creamy finish. Add a little milk chocolate in there, it becomes a unique experience. 

This Cadbury Dairy Milk Rum & Raisin is from South Africa (though they also make them for Europe in England).

The 100 gram (3.5 ounce) bar is a slightly different format from the versions we’re used to in the United States from Hershey’s, who makes Cadbury’s Dairy Milk under license from Cadbury. Those bars are wider and a little thinner. This bar is compact and beefy. It’s 2.25 inches wide and 6 inches long and at most 1/3 of an inch high.

The ingredients list no actual rum, which is too bad, because that’s what makes the Ritter Sport Rum Trauben Nuss so good. Instead we’ve got some percentages 23% milk solids, 22% cocoa solids and 20% raisins. That leaves another 35% to sugar, extra vegetable fat (which means by American rules, this isn’t even chocolate), emulsifiers and artificial flavors.

It looks smooth and creamy. The scent is definitely rummy - a boozy and fruity fragrance that reminds me of holiday baking. The bar is fresh and glossy and had a good snap to it, revealing a paucity of raisins (I know, 20% must mean two per section). The chocolate flavors are overpowered at first from the rum flavors, which are sweet, buttery and have a strong vanilla & banana finish. The raisins are soft and chewy with a sparkling tartness that cuts through the otherwise overly-sweet bar. The chocolate itself is stiff. It melts well enough, but not in a silky way. I can’t quite say it’s chalky or grainy, but it’s not smooth either. The dairy flavors are not quite what I expect from Cadbury either, which often has a dried milk flavor to it, this seemed much cleaner and fresher - which I admit I enjoy more.

It’s quite munchable, but doesn’t enter into “satisfying chocolate” for me. I prefer a smoother, higher cacao content milk chocolate and maybe even a few more raisins.

Related Candies

1. Teuscher
2. Doulton Liqueur Chocolates (Cointreau & Teacher’s)
3. Bouquet of Fruits Vinyeard - Wine Filled Chocolates
4. Trader Joe’s Irish Cream Chocolates
5. Rum Cordials
6. Ritter Sport Capuccino and Rum Trauben Nuss

Chocolate covered pretzels are one of those treats that straddle the line between candy and snack.

Today I’ve decided these are a candy, even though they’re not usually placed in the candy aisle. (Some stores keep them with the pretzels & chips, some near the nuts and others in with the candy.)

They’re called Snyder’s of Hanover Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwich Dips. They say they’re made with real peanut butter (which I assumed by the fact that they’re called peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, but apparently it needed to be pointed out as a feature) and dipped in Hershey’s Milk Chocolate (which I don’t necessarily consider a feature unless the alternative is R.M. Palmer’s or Nestle’s mockolate).

They look like tiny chocolate dipped Oreos. They’re about an inch and a quarter around and nicely domed with a thick layer of milk chocolate.

The pretzels are little wheels with a grid pattern to them. Between two of these tiny pretzels is a bit of peanut butter cream. Then the whole sandwich is dipped in milk chocolate. The pieces are a bit scuffed up from tumbling around in the bag, but all were whole, so they hold up well.

The pretzels are crisp and though tiny, pack a lot of crunch. The peanut butter center isn’t very strong but at least says peanut butter upon introduction. There’s not a lot of peanut butter texture because there’s so much of the sweet milk chocolate coating. The chocolate is okay, it seals the pretzels well, which keeps them fresh, but doesn’t really have much of a chocolate flavor contribution. The texture is creamy and sweet but not too grainy.

Overall the snacks are very munchable, they’re filling but they don’t stick to the ribs like some peanut butter candies can. I found that I could eat lots of them, but I never quite enjoyed them. I wanted more crunch, more salt, more peanut butter and better chocolate. None of these wants kept me from finishing the bag, naturally. I know there are better versions of this product out there, but this would probably do in a pinch. Great for watching a movie or sharing with others during a football game. (Technically, all it needs is a little bit of caramel and some crushed peanuts and this would be the original version of the Take 5 Bar - which now features mockolate.)

Snyder’s makes several versions of the dips. Some are just straight chocolate dipped pretzels in Milk Chocolate and Special Dark. They also, supposedly, introduced a York Peppermint Pattie version earlier this year, but I still haven’t seen them in stores. To be honest, it sounds kind of bad, but I’m still fascinated with the idea of mixing pretzels, salt, minty fondant and dark chocolate.

Related Candies

1. Snickers Peanut Butter Squared
2. Pretzel M&Ms
3. Wolfgang Skipjacks & Jungle Jacks
4. Malley’s Chocolates
5. Revisit: Take 5, Sunkist Fruit Gems & Snickers Almond
6. Asher’s Milk Chocolate Covered Things

For folks who shop at Trader Joe’s, you know that the holiday confections go quickly, and when they’re gone they may never come back.

One of the new introductions that I saw on the shelves isn’t seasonal. It’s called Trader Joe’s Soft Peanut Brittle. At first I didn’t even know what that meant. Soft peanut brittle? Is it more like toffee, which means more butter than the traditionally less fatty brittle? The package simply says covered in milk chocolate, a flaky, crispy peanutty treat. The image looks like little mini bars of peanut brittle, but it looks like the peanuts are crushed instead of whole. So maybe that’s what makes it soft.

After opening the package and biting into one, I know what this is, and it isn’t “soft peanut brittle.”

They’re like Butterfinger or Clark Bars. Flaky layers of peanut butter crunch. It’s all covered in chocolate and striped with some darker chocolate.

I have nothing against Clark Bars (I love the new ones) but that’s not what I was expecting here.

The milk chocolate coating is a bit scuffed on all of them. The stand up pouch is economical, it holds a half a pound, but the bars aren’t well protected. Each little bar is about an inch and a quarter long and three quarters of an inch wide. It’s one big bite or two small ones.

The crispy layers are soft and have an kind of melt that’s like halva and a bit like cotton candy, with spindly & spiky shards of hard candy infused with the flavor of peanut butter. It’s a little sweet, a little salty and a lot nutty. There’s no molasses in there, which often helps to support the deep roasted flavors of the nuts and the woodsy notes of the chocolate. They’re quite munchable, definitely something I’d like to have while watching a movie.

The price is decent, especially because this version uses no artificial colors or flavors and has a real chocolate coating (unlike Butterfinger or Fifth Avenue). But Clark Bars are now all natural and come in milk or dark chocolate ... so I’m kind of torn. The back of the package suggests using it in desserts, like chopping it up and crumbling it on top of a cake or ice cream. No wrappers makes that infinitely simpler. But no wrappers also encourages endless munching. So just remember, you’ll have to control yourself once you open the bag (which has a zipper top).

The package says that they’re gluten free and Kosher.

Related Candies

1. Head to Head: Clark, Butterfinger & 5th Avenue
2. Clark Bar (Get Real - Milk & Dark)
3. Green & Black’s Peanut Milk Chocolate
4. Atkinson’s Peanut Butter Bar
5. See’s Peanut Brittle Bar
6. Chick-o-Stick

I’ve often made fun of R.M. Palmer as a maker of horrible candy. I do my best though to keep an open mind whenever I approach a candy from them that I’ve never had. Sometimes I’m rewarded.

I picked up their Peppermint Patties since they were on display as a “great value” at RiteAid. It was only $1.00 for a 5 ounce bag of individually wrapped patties. Each little pattie is about 1.5 inches in diameter.

They’re molded instead of enrobed, which is kind of odd. (More like the Russell Stover version I mentioned last week in construction than the Haviland.) The molding has ripples on it to make them look liked they’ve been enrobed, but it’s easy to tell around the edge that they’re made in a mold. (And they look nothing like the image on the package, which I seem to have lost.)

The big difference between these and most other peppermint patties is the coating. This is not chocolate, it’s mockolate. The first ingredient on the list is sugar and the second is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel, coconut and/or palm oil). It’s really evident upon biting into them. The coating has a decent melt and the whole thing has a cool and fresh minty scent. The cocoa flavors are just that, plain old cocoa, like I’m eating that paste that you make with water and hot cocoa mix, not actual chocolate. The minty center is creamy and smooth and has a very subtle flavor, almost like peppermint bubble gum instead of a strong breath mint style.

Since there’s more coating than filling, these are very high on the calorie count for a peppermint pattie. York Peppermint Patties are about 115 calories per ounce, which is great for a product that contains real chocolate. These clock in at 152 calories per ounce. For that you can have an actual chocolate truffle (sure, it’ll cost more) and enjoy the real fats instead of this partially hydrogenated artery clogging crud.

They’re not horrible, they’re just not that good. I don’t plan on finishing the bag.

Related Candies

1. Russell Stover Assorted Wrapped Chocolates
2. Haviland Dark Chocolate Covered Thin Mints
3. King Leo Dark Chocolate Crunchy Patties
4. Sunspire Peppermint Pattie
5. Manhattan Chocolates Dipped Mint Cremes
6. Christmas Mint Round Up
7. Junior Mints Deluxe