Candy Blog

I picked up the Dove Sea Salt Caramel Dark Chocolate Silky Smooth Promises about a month ago at Target. At the moment they’re a Target exclusive flavor, though I understand that when the flavors are popular they go into wider distribution.

The blue and white and brown package is summery and bright and caught my attention right away. But I was curious how different the flavor would be from the regular dark chocolate with caramel that Dove already makes.

The chocolates are expensive, at $4 for just a little over a half a pound. Mars is * still not using certified sustainable or ethically sourced chocolate for the vast majority of their products, this price premium at least prompts me to expect high quality ingredients, not things like hydrogenated palm kernel oil and potassium sorbate.

The Dove dark chocolate is quite smooth and has an interesting flavor profile. It’s quite woodsy and a little on the dry side. But the melt is quick and slick on the tongue, so the dry finish keeps it from feeling to sweet or sticky. The flavor overall reminds me of chocolate sauce, not quite buttery but still silky.

The caramel filling is like most of the other Dove caramels I’ve had. It’s thick and almost like a sauce or syrup without a chewy component. I’d call it a pudding or custard. (Or perhaps German Chocolate Cake frosting without the coconut.) It has the advertised touch of salt to it and a smooth slightly toffee note to it. It’s not as rich or butterscotchy as some others I’ve had from artisan styled companies like Fran’s, but still a nice desserty flavored chocolate.

They felt less sweet than the regular Dove Caramel Promises, though it’s not like they had a lot of salt, there’s only 30 mg per 5 pieces. Because I picked up Hershey’s Simple Pleasures on the same trip, I have to say that I preferred these by quite a large margin. They’re less caloric than a solid chocolate bar, but still more than the Simple Pleasures or a Peppermint Pattie. Dove is still not my go-to premium chocolate. I’ll eat them if they’re sitting around, but when I want a chocolate treat I find myself shopping for things like Green & Black’s (which I wish came in little bite sized pieces) or something like Trader Joe’s which have more intense or vibrant flavors and better ingredients.

* UPDATE 7/18/2012: A rep from Dove Chocolate called me to let me know that Dove is switching to Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa. This particular product is not Rainforest Alliance Certified, and still has unverified palm oil in it and preservatives. You can read more on their website, but the fact remains that Mars, the company that owns Dove, is far from converting their entire line of chocolate products to certified sustainable and ethical sources, but at least have a plan and are hitting targets. At this time they are sourcing only 20% of their cocoa from certified cocoa.

Related Candies

1. Ghirardelli Intense Dark Sea Salt Soiree
2. Trader Joe’s 70% Dark with Caramel and Black Sea Salt
3. Equal Exchange Chocolate Caramel Crunch with Sea Salt
4. Milky Way Simply Caramel
5. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels
6. Dove Promises (Caramel & Almonds)
7. Dove Caramels & Chocolate Covered Almonds

These Meiji Corot - Strawberry Chocolate Drops (Corotto Maroyaka Ichigo) are part of the Meiji Corot line. I’ve had the standard milk chocolate version (review here) before and enjoyed the Japanese style of milk chocolate.

This version is a solid white chocolate drop flavored with strawberry puree. It’s a little expensive for the style of candy (as are most Japanese candy imports), but it felt like a summery version of M&Ms.

The ingredients are pretty good, it’s a real white chocolate product with cocoa butter, though there is some palm oil and some preservatives.  (Meiji also makes a bar form of this, but from my recollection, it did not have the same ingredients.)

Ingredients: Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Lactose, Skim Milk, Palm Oil, Dried Strawberry, Millet Jelly, Soy Lecithin, Flavor, Citric Acid, Safflower Color, Tocopherol, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).

The candies resemble the size and shape of the new Hershey’s Drops. They’re about 3/4 of an inch across, but pretty thick through the middle. They have a very light glossy glaze on them to keep them from sticking together. The package only has 1.34 ounce in it, in this case it was 11 pieces of candy.

The strawberry flavor is light and authentic. It’s a mix of the creamy notes of milk, the sweetness of sugar and the berries and then a light tartness, kind of like strawberry ice cream. There’s a little grit to the pieces as they melt, I attribute that to the real dried fruit puree used.

They’re not artificially sweet or sticky tasting, it’s a lot like a room temperature ice cream. Crisp and authentic.

I’d buy these again, though I don’t really want more than one package at a time. I found that dividing it into two portions was plenty for me as a little treat. Meiji does well with their flavored chocolates, though I’d prefer if it didn’t have any palm oil at all in it. As an import I have no idea if it’s made in a facility with wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs or shellfish. It does contain milk and soy and the shellac coating makes it inappropriate for vegetarians.

Related Candies

1. Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme
2. Meiji Corot & CoffeeBeat
3. Eat with your Eyes: Meiji Strawberry Lentils
4. KitKats: Royal Milk Tea, Ginger Ale, Bubbly Strawberry, Kinako Ohagi & Milk Coffee
5. Whoppers Milkshake Strawberry
6. Meiji Gummy Choco
7. KitKat Tsubu Ichigo and Hershey’s Strawberries ‘n’ Creme

I reviewed the Sunkist Fruit Gems when they were made by a Los Angeles company called Ben Meyerson. Shortly after that, in 2006 Jelly Belly bought the rights to the candy and changed the flavor set. (Review of both versions here) Here it is, 6 years later and Jelly Belly has relaunched the Sunkist line using all natural ingredients (natural flavors including juices and natural colors).

While I like fruit jellies, I pretty much stick to orange slices or spearmint leaves (I know, not a fruit). The original flavor set was orange, lemon, lime, cherry, raspberry and grapefruit. Then the revamped flavor set (at the same price point but fewer candies in a package) was orange, lemon, lime and raspberry.

Neither thrilled me. Neither really lived up to the name of Sunkist, the citrus growers. Still, when visiting trade shows where Jelly Belly had samples, I always picked up a few of the citrus ones. I really wanted to like them more.

The new flavors are: lemon, orange, grapefruit, raspberry and blueberry. The colors, though natural, are still easy to discern and attractive.

The pieces are the same size as the previous versions, disks of soft jelly covered with large granulated sugar to keep them from sticking together. The sugar coating is just enough to keep them from binding, but not so much that there’s a lot of extra sugar in the bottom of the package. They really look like they should be sticky, but they’re not.

The pieces are flexible and soft, and made with pectin and starch to thicken them. Basically, it’s a vegan product, all vegetable products in there and nothing animal derived.

The new version is an improvement. The flavors are zesty and fresh without any weird aftertastes from artificial colors.

I particularly enjoyed the citrus flavors, they’re distinct and have a lot of citrus peel notes, even if it does make them slightly bitter. The raspberry is quite floral and has a strong boiled jam flavor to it. The blueberry was probably the most disappointing for me, but I really only like fresh blueberries. It was sweet with a little tannic note like iced tea but not much else going on with it.

Overall, an excellent revamp for a classic line of candies. They’re pricey for fruit jellies, but much cheaper than classic artisan pate de fruit. So think of them as an in-between product.

They’re available in a few packaging formats. This particular box is nearly a pound and just had loose candies inside two separate trays. Just keeping the box closed kept them pretty fresh, even with our higher than normal humidity in Southern California lately. They also come in an individually wrapped version which is better for a candy dish. They’re gluten free and peanut free.

Related Candies

1. Trader Joe’s Jelly Beans & Citrus Gum Drops
2. Wonka Exceptionals Fruit Jellies: Grapefruit, Goji Berry & Red Apple
3. Starbucks Assorted Gum Drops
4. Gourmet Gumdrops
5. Jelly Belly Sunkist Citrus Mix
6. Revisit: Take 5, Sunkist Fruit Gems & Snickers Almond
7. Sunkist Fruit Gems

Rowntree’s Tooty Frooties were introduced by the UK confectioner in 1963. They’re little rounded squares of tangy chews covered in a light candy shell. The standard flavor mix includes lemon, apple, orange, blackcurrant and strawberry. They’re made with real fruit juice and no artificial colors.

Rowntree’s was founded in 1862 and introduced some of the most popular confectionery brands in the world, like KitKat, Aero, Smarties and Fruit Pastilles. They were taken over by Nestle in 1988, which has only increased their international reach. But some of the candies they make are still just locally available in the United Kingdom. A coworker picked up this bag in Amsterdam (for 2.50 Euro).

It’s interesting to note that these came out a full decade before Skittles and though they do resemble them in concept, they’re not quite the same.

The pieces are a bit rustic, like artisan chiclets. Most are about a half an inch in diameter, though some are a bit smaller or a bit flatter. They’re softly rounded and have a rather thin shell with a slightly uneven looking colored coating.

They also stick together. The shell isn’t quite as thick or crispy as Skittles or Mentos, so sometimes they get chipped, then the center gets soft and oozes a little. I sense that they don’t travel as well as Skittles either.

The flavors are nice, though not as intense or distinctive as Skittles.

Red is apple, which is all about the sweet apple juice and very little artificial green apple flavor to it.

Purple  is currant. I didn’t seem to get many of these. Again, very sweet at first and later a little bit of tartness, like black raspberry.

Yellow  is lemon. They’re softly lemony, not quite zesty.

Orange is orange. Like the lemon, more about the juice and less about the orange peel.

Pink is strawberry. It’s summery and sweet, less floral than I’d hoped but also a little on the creamy sweet side.

The flavor variety was completely standard and classic. On the whole, a great candy. This particular bag though was messy as pieces were stuck together. I liked that there were no artificial colors, however, carminic acid was listed so strict vegetarians will have to strike these from their lists.

See’s Candies makes several of my favorite candies. It’s hard to imagine that they could come up with something new that I’d like better, but I’m always willing to give it a try.

During the holidays they do a few just marshmallow pieces, like a large marshmallow heart for Valentine’s. But I’ve found that they’re not the same honey flavor or the same dense texture.

I picked up their new box of See’s Milk and Dark Marshmallow. At the moment they’re sold in the single format, there are six marshmallows in the box, three of the milk chocolate covered variety and three of the dark chocolate covered.

They’re the same size and shape as the Scotchmallow, but instead of a single twirl of chocolate on top, these have three rows of chocolate swirls. Each piece is about 60 calories, so a pair might make a good treat yet still pretty spare on the calorie side.

The first is the Milk Chocolate Marshmallow. The chocolate is a pleasant, rich chocolate color. The Guittard-made chocolate is good, it’s smooth and has a strong dairy and deep roasted cocoa flavor to it.

The marshmallow is bouncy and dense. It’s hard to photograph because it looks like a solid white mass, but it’s actually filled with tiny, tiny bubbles, instead of big ones. The marshmallow is smooth, it has no starchy or chalky flavor like the extruded ones for toasting. The vanilla flavors are subtle and there’s a light note of honey, but it’s very mild.

I’ve usually shied away from the milk chocolate version of the Scotchmallow, but in this case the simple balance of the sweet milk chocolate and the frothy marshmallow is well done.

The Dark Chocolate covered Marshmallow starts off a little, well, underwhelming. It looks great, it’s glossy and because I bought these in a box, they weren’t all scuffed up like the stuff I pick out at the store that they toss in a bag.

But it smells a little, well, sweet and kind of fake.

After cracking the chocolate shell though, that changes. The real vanilla notes come out right away. They’re thick and like dark rum. The honey notes comes to the front, like a floral syrup in my nose. The chocolate is not overwhelmingly dark, but it has enough bitter notes that play against the sweetness of the honey and vanilla. The vanilla is soft and cushy, like the marshmallow texture. The chocolate has a dry finish that’s swept away by the thick honey.

I love the play of this. Mostly I liked eating the sides of chocolate off, and having a more marshmallow and less chocolate. I look forward to seeing these in the candy case so I can just get one or two of them.

One of my favorite of the boxed pieces is the Scotchmallow. It’s a layered piece, a base of chewy caramel then a layer of fluffy yet dense honey marshmallow, all covered in dark chocolate. They’ve even started selling them in “quick to go” packages in the store of half pound bags. I’ve always loved See’s caramel, as it was the first commercial caramel I found that reminded me of my grandmother’s homemade. But for this piece it’s the honey flavors of the marshmallow that really sell it.

See’s chocolate are made on shared equipment that may contain traces of peanuts and tree nuts. It also contains milk, eggs, soy and gelatin.