June 27, 2008

Review: Fry's Turkish Delight

I'm in one of my favorite stores, World Market, and they have quite an extensive selection of international candies and confections - so I pick up a couple I haven't seen before to review for CandySnob.com. The first one I picked up was Fry's Turkish Delight. Fry's was launched in 1914, and is now owned by Cadbury. The bar also seems to be popular in the UK, Ireland and Australia. So when the wrapper states "As Good as Ever" - they mean it.

Turkish Delight is a small bar (1.8 oz.) in a purple foil wrapper. The wrapper says boldly, "Full of Eastern Promise" - which apparently has been the slogan since the 1950s, even on TV ads. "Turkish Delight," I have learned, is more than the candy bar's name, it is actually another name for lokum (or loukoum), which is a confection made from starch and sugar, often flavored with rosewater and/or lemon.

I thought I was buying a chocolate bar, maybe with truffle. That's what it was shaped like and felt like. While I was paying attention to the taglines, I did not see the "Milk Chocolate with Jelly Center" on the side of the package. Had I seen that, my buying decision might have been different. Maybe not though, the Candy Snob is nothing if not adventurous.

The milk chocolate was fine, good even, typical Cadbury milk chocolate. The jelly filling was Turkish Delight of the rose-flavored variety, which gives it a pale pink color. The jelly is soft but firm, and a little bit sticky. First off, because I wasn't expecting it, the texture/flavor combo of the jelly and chocolate really threw me off. After the first bite, what was surprise turned to revulsion. The texture is just wrong, the jelly has the consistency and firmness of dried out aspic. But even dried out aspic would seem more natural than this plastic-like jelly. And granted, rose flavoring isn't my favorite in general. But its downright unpalatable with milk chocolate.

In my three decades of eating candy, and over 6-months writing a candy blog, I have never thrown out an unfinished piece of candy...until now.

I think that instead of "Turkish Delight," they should call the bar "Turkish Disgust."

The good news? It is widely marketed as being 92% fat-free. Its especially good for your waistline if you only eat two bites...

If my review hasn't scared you off, you can get Fry's Turkish Delight, and other types of Turkish Delight, here.

Background info and photo via wikipedia, because I threw this away before I had a chance to take pictures.