Review: Colts Bolts Chocolate - Peanut Butter & Almonds

We had never heard of Colt's Chocolates before we happened across them at one of our favorite candy pick-up joints, Cracker Barrel. It looked interesting enough, a gold foil-covered disk just a little smaller than a hockey puck. It felt dense (it weighs 2 ounces), and the label had a picture of a woman with big hair and a equestrian jacket on. We had to check it out.

The first thing we noticed when we unwrapped the "Bolt" were the gray streaks in the top layer of chocolate. That's always a bad sign, we know graying happens and doesn't hurt the flavor, but its an indication of quality control in our opinion.

The "Bolt" disk is made up of three layers - in this case two milk chocolate layers with a peanut butter and almond middle layer. It is a fairly dense piece, so you need to cut out pieces, I'm not sure you'd want to bite right into it.

Overall, the flavor is in the vicinity of a Snickers bar, only much more dry. We did not get the three distinct flavors we were hoping for (milk chocolate, peanut butter and almonds).
This may have been because the peanut butter wasn't plain peanut butter as far as we could tell - it was much lighter in color and tasted like it may have had milk added to it. I also think its a difficult task to distinguish two nut flavors in a single bite - the peanut and almond flavors end up merging together.

The other take-way was the texture - it was dry and crumbly. The three layers split apart as we bit into the piece, and the almond pieces, while nice and crunchy, were very dry.

Visit the Colt's website

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.

Review: Cinnamon Glee Gum

We've been steadily making our way through all the flavors we can find of Glee Gum, today we're looking at the cinnamon flavor. We love the natural aspect of Glee. That dedication to natural ingredients shows in the flavor big time, and the cinnamon flavor is no different. It is not a biting cinnamon, it is not hot if that's what you're looking for. But it is very tasty. The crackle of the chicklet (which we love), gives way to a nice cool cinnamon flavor that is mild but full of flavor.

However...just like the tangerine and the bubblegum before it, the cinnamon's flavor rockets away. Sorry Glee, we want this to be one of our favorites, we don't have to have the flavor hang out forever. But we do want to enjoy our chewing experience, which right now isn't easy to do.

To put this in better perspective:

If you were driving a Porshe 911, and floored it from a dead stop, you'd be nearly out of flavor by the time you hit 60.

If you you were in the middle of asking Barack Obama a specific question about his policy positions, you'd be nearly out of flavor by the time he works "change" and/or "hope" into his response.

Or, if you're writing a blog post about Glee Gum, you'd have to down the whole 18-piece box in order to have enough access to the flavor to write about it.

Check out Glee Gum at their website or at Amazon.

Review: Anastasia Confections' Key Lime Coconut Patties

What do you get when you take an already delicious square of densely packed coconut dipped in chocolate and add a hint fo key lime? A couple bites of tropical, Floridian heaven, that's what.

You may have had Anastasia's Confections' Coconut Patties in the past, they're available in candy stores that carry some of the lesser known candies, and also Cracker Barrel (which is where we got ours most recently).

For those who have not had the patties, they are squares about 1.5" x 1.5", with half dipped in milk chocolate. The one thing that always strikes me about the patties (Key Lime or regular), is the great contrast of textures. You have creamy milk chocolate, giving way to the soft crunch of the densely packed coconut...ending with the the merging of two as you chew. The company refers to the coconut patties as "creamy." I'm not sure I agree with that, but they certainly are good.

As for the Key Lime flavor, we went into it expecting to be overwhelmed by the lime. But Anastasia did the flavoring just right. It is very mild and subtle, and you can tell its natural flavoring (although the green coloring is a little jarring). Most importantly, the coconut is still the star of the show, and rightfully so - this is a really yummy treat.

Check out Anastasia Confections

Review: New Baskin Robbins Soft Candy

We love candy, we love soft candy, we love ice cream, and we love Baskin Robbins. Unfortunately, we do not love Baskin Robbins soft candy.

Let's start with the packaging. It takes a lot of work to eat these chews. You open the box, then you open the foil bag, then you take out one the chews (which look like bullion cubes), then you struggle to get the foil wrapper off the chew since they're so small. Then you get to the candy.

We started with the Strawberry flavor. When she saw them, the fetching Mrs. Candy Snob simply stated that, "They look like plastic, I won't eat that." I didn't think that, but I saw her point. The pieces are quite obviously unnatural, made more apparent by the sheen on the candy itself. For example, Starburst are in the same general genre as these candies, but they have no sheen. So we know both have a bunch of chemicals in them, but Starburst makes it less noticeable, versus the Baskin Robbins Soft Candy.

But like I said, the artificiality (is that a word) of the candy didn't stop me from nearly finishing the box. They have a great strawberry flavor, albeit very sweet. I'm not sure I get the creaminess of strawberry ice cream, but its not a bad chew.

Texture-wise, they are nice and soft, I would say this is the best feature of these candies. They are not nearly as hard to chew as a Starburst, and not sticky at all - your fillings will certainly survive. My biggest issue with the Strawberry is that they are small, tasty and quick eating because they're so soft...so you want more...which leads us back to my point about them being a pain to unwrap above.

But that's the Strawberry, let's talk about the Mint Chocolate Chip flavor.

Where Strawberry was acceptable in a sugary, fake strawberry kind of way, the Mint Chocolate Chip fell very short. In the words of my mother, a true sugar and candy addict, "they are pretty awful...they're both kind of greasy."

Its not that it doesn't taste like mint chocolate chip, it does. The problem in our view is that the choice of flavor is all wrong for the type of candy. Think about it, there are no minty or chocolaty Starburst for a reason - fruit flavors lend themselves to this type of chew. In most cases, anything that's flavored like chocolate that isn't actually chocolate can be weird at best and gross at worst. Chocolate flavors need to be delivered in a creamier, more natural medium - which is why chocolate bars and ice cream are the big chocolate vehicles. Even chocolate Necco Wafers,while having a cult following, are a little weird.

Add to that the emotional baggage one enters into the experience when they try a Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip candy. Speaking for myself, mint chocolate chip is in my top 5 all-time favorites, especially at Baskin Robbins. This sets the bar higher than normal, which makes the fall that much further when the candy falls short.

Check out Baskin Robbins New Soft Candy for yourself here.

Review: Hebert's Fully Loaded Rocky Road Bar

Hebert's Confections launched this line of "Fully Loaded" candies back on April 1, after 18 months of development. According to their website, Hebert's "challenges the boundaries of explosive flavors." The Fully Loaded line includes bars, bites and fudge.

Today we're looking at one of the bars, the Rocky Road. The bars are 2.75 ounces of chocolate with toppings on the bar to add a visual element to the experience. The bar takes milk chocolate and tops it with walnuts, dark chocolate and marshmallow pieces.

The chocolate itself is quite good - rich and creamy - considerably higher quality that a typical candy bar from Hershey's or Mars. I might put the chocolate on par with about a Cadbury bar.

The toppings, however, is where the bar falls a bit short. Frankly, I didn't even know there was dark chocolate from eating it. I only head about it on the wrapper. I noticed the walnuts, but there aren't enough of them to make a flavor impact, just a little crunch. As for the marshmallow pieces, they are quite dry and crumbly, and they don't have a ton of flavor. Overall, the toppings add a bit to the texture of the bar which is nice, but you really don't taste much except the milk chocolate. If you were blindfolded, you certainly would not know this is Rocky Road.

Note: The toppings also tend to fall off the bar, making this a little messy.

The bars retail for $1.99. More can be learned about them here.

Review: Sour Punch Straws

We grabbed these at a promotional table at the Phoenix Zoo yesterday - when the Candy Snob see free candy, he checks it out. I had actually never heard of Sour Punch Straws, or Sour Punch candy for that matter - I'm actually not a huge fan of the sour candies like Sour Patch Kids. I find that they are sometimes so sour they aren't enjoyable. This is a personal opinion of course, many people love the very sour candies.

We actually tried all five Sour Punch Straw flavors: Strikin' Strawberry, Zappin' Apple, Blue Razamatazz, Chargin' Cherry, and Zip Zappin' Watermelon. The claim is that these can be enjoyed on their own, or used as a straw in your favorite beverage to add some zing. We tried the straw idea, and found that the hole was too small, focing you to really have to work to get any of your drink. Not to mention, depending on the beverage, the flavor combination is not necessarily optimal (although we're sure kids don't care because its fun). So we opted to eat them

As we mentioned, we're not huge fans of Sour Patch Kids, which is basically what we expected in the straws. We were pleasantly surprised when that wasn't the case. First, the straws are more like licorice than gummies - they don't stick to your teeth nearly as much, nor do you have to work to chew them. They are quite tender and easy to eat. They are sticky due to the sugar coating, but who expects candy to be completely mess-free?

What we enjoyed more, however, was the balance of sour and sweet. They sourness was not overwhelming, it didn't make you pucker up and force one of your eyes to close. Instead it was sour that gave way to sweetness pretty quickly, which also allowed the flavor of the straw to come through. You can really tell the difference between the flavors, and they're all pretty darn good. I think our favorite was either the Blue Razamatazz or the Chargin' Cherry.

These would make great movie candy - I hope the theaters are starting to carry them.

Check out the Sour Punch website

All sorts or Sour Punch products can also be found here.

Review: Hershey's Chocolate Truffle Kisses - "Don't bother"

In a word..."ehhh."

That's the best we can come up with for these very...well...forgettable chocolates.

I got these with the highest of hopes. I like Hershey's Kisses and I love truffles - these should be awesome. But when I unsheathed these chocolates from their foil wrapper, what I saw were what looked like small, brown baby bottle nipples. The tip of the Kiss is much thicker that the normal Hershey's Kiss - totally screws with an iconic brand shape (think Coke's hourglass bottle, Heinz Ketchup bottles, and the Hershey Kiss). Add to that a smell that is reminiscent of canned chocolate icing and you have a pretty unappealing situation.

The taste was VERY milky - which in the case of Hershey's chocolate is to say "sour milky." And there is no taste differential between the coating and the truffle filling. But at least that lack of distinction is consistent, there is virtually no difference in texture either. When you have a great truffle, there is a distinct difference between the harder coating that gives way to a softer, creamier filling. Not so in this case. The outside melts quickly, there is no break between the coating and filling, and the texture of both is nearly identical.

Overall, don't bother. If you want a really good, quality, mass-market truffle, try Lindt instead.

Photo courtesy of Candy Blog

Review: Twix Java

Candy Snob has been a long-time fan of the Twix bar - crunchy, a little chewy and of so delicious. So we had to pick up a Twix Java when we saw it at the checkout counter recently. The press release says it is a limited edition for March, which I only heard once I ate it - I didn't notice any staleness or lack of freshness though.

Twix Java does more than simply infuse the chocolate with coffee flavor, which would have been the easy thing to do. Instead they changed both the caramel and the cookie, and we'e glad they did because it makes for one delicious treat. Let's start with the caramel. Twix Java uses a much darker caramel that its traditional cousin. It is nearly as dark as the milk chocolate. And the cookie is now a chocolate cookie. So visually, this makes the inside of the Twix Java lack the distinct colors of the regular Twix bar, they are all nearly the same color. However, where it may not have the visual interest, it more than makes up in taste and flavor depth.

There is good bitterness in the coffee flavor, we found it to be quite "real" in taste - rather than just adding in coffee flavoring you sometimes get in other coffee-flavored chocolates and in coffee ice cream.

The chocolate cookie, however, is what makes this bar really stand out. It adds a level of depth that would have otherwise been lost had they used the normal vanilla cookie. Coupled with the coffee-infused caramel, its a multi-layered taste experience with nice balance and bite.

One thing Twix did not change with the Twix Java is the milk chocolate coating. This made for another interesting layer of flavor. Given the darker caramel and cookie, dark chocolate would have naturally been the natural pick to us, but we were both intrigued and pleased with what the milk chocolate brought to the table - which was a creaminess and sweetness that worked nicely with the other flavors.

Want to hear an audio press release of the Twix Java release?

Glee Gum Bubblegum Flavor - "A gum MacGyver could use..."

Honestly, I wasn't crazy about this flavor from Glee. I'm a purist at heart...so when I taste bubblegummy flavor (of which Glee's is very very tasty), I sort of want it to be attached to bubblegum, not chewing gum. I prefer my chewing gum to be minty or fruity. Personal thing...so I would simply sum it up by saying good flavor that I again wish lasted longer, and stickier than other Glee Gum I've sampled.

My wife, the fetching Mrs. Candy Snob, also shared in the gum chewing expedition today. Here's what she had to say:

In regards to how quickly the flavor dissipates, "Not as bad as Fruit Stripe, but not great."

Commenting on the stickiness of the gum, "This is a piece of gum that MacGyver could use."

"I like the little snap I get when I'm chewing this."

Glee Gum's website

Review: Rabitos Royale - Fig Bonbons

Truffle stuffed figs...the very thought give me hear palpitations (the good kind). Which is why we were so excited to try out the Rabitos Royale Fig Bonbons from Valeros.

Each of the 16 pieces is sealed in gold foil. Inside is a small fig that's been infused with dark chocolate truffle, and then covered in dark chocolate. When you break open one of the wrappers, you actually catch a waft of the strong dark chocolate and also the brandy. Again, simple ingredients making the best candy - dried fig, liquid cream, glucose syrup, brandy liquor, chocolate.

We tried to take a picture of the cross-section of one of these candies, but opted to show you the illustration on the back of the box instead. The photo didn't do these beautiful candies justice, and chocolate and fig butchered by yours truly doesn't make for a great close-up photo.

A little background, these candies originate from Southwestern Spain, where the makers pick local, young figs and fill them with a dark chocolate brandy mousse. These candies have also won acclaim at the Chocolate festival in Williamsburg VA.

What struck me the most with these candies is the contrasts. Contrasts in flavor and contrasts in texture - all packed into one little bite. The smooth dark chocolate, quickly giving way to the chewy, grainy (from the seeds) texture of the fig. But by the time you've taken note of that, you're hit by the pure decadence of the brandy-infused truffle mousse. We found the brandy to be a little strong. Not overwhelming, but strongly present in the candy.

These bonbons pack a wallop, give them a try if you're looking for something off the beaten path. Available at La Tienda

Review: Glee Gum - Tangerine

Today we dive into our stash of Glee Gum, starting with the Tangerine flavor.

The box is brightly colored orange (tangerine I suppose), nicely designed, and sports a retro-looking cartoon guy who doesn't seem to have a torso.

What's cool about Glee in general? Among other things, they're organic and vegetarian. And they use rainforest chickle for their gum base. If you check out the ingredients, you'll notice a short list of flavors. And if you know much about Candy Snob, you know we believe the less ingredient, ultimately the better candy.

The gum pieces themselves are little squares, a little bigger than a Chicklet, and these are also orange in color. When you bite into a piece, the first thing you notice is the crunch of the shell, which appears to be thicker than most gum or this sort. From there, you get a bite across the sides of your tongue - when the real citrus flavor hits. And immediately following, a very brief coolness which is very, well, cool. The tangerine flavor is both genuine and natural tasting, but also distinct from its orange cousins. Often, its hard to tell the difference between orange and tangerine flavor. Not so with Glee.

In fairness, the one negative I would point out is that the flavor doesn't last very long at all - I popped 3 in my mouth at once, and the flavor was pretty much wiped out in 1-2 minutes. The upside to this, of course, is that you get to chew some more Glee Gum!

Check out Glee Gum.

Review: Lucky Country Aussie Style Gourmet Licorice - Strawberry

It is official - we're on a licorice kick. After we reviewed Lucky Country's Black Licorice, we wanted to try the brand's strawberry option.

The strawberry licorice comes again in the ~1 inch piece with deep grooves that run the length of the piece. It is much softer than its black licorice counterpart. I think this typically has to do with the flavoring - black licorice to me is less sugary than strawberry - which I believe makes black more firm. The strawberry is a little less dense, again something I attribute to strawberry vs. black licorice in general.

The flavor's good, but not great. I don't know if "gourmet" is appropriate to be honest. I would liken the flavor to Red Vines. Not nearly as sugary, and a much deeper flavor, but it lives in that general vicinity of strawberry flavor. But it doesn't have nearly the depth of flavor we've seen in other "gourmet" licorices.

Overall thought? Solid strawberry licorice, but not for licorice connoisseurs.

One note, this licorice doesn't appear to be the all natural version that the black licorice was, but if that's not a huge deal to you, this is well worth trying.

Check out Lucky Country Licorice

Review: Lucky Country Gourmet Soft Licorice (Black Licorice)

We're slowly (or not so slowly) becoming addicted to "Aussie style" licorice. Why? Simply because its flavorful, typically in nice, bite sized pieces, and most of all because its soft.

We recently checked out Lucky Country's black licorice flavored offering. According to the packaging, they came across this particular recipe by accident, when a hard licorice batch went awry and turned soft. Here's to happy accidents! It is also all natural to boot - which we always appreciate.

These pieces are about one inch long, which make for convenient (and plentiful) eating.

They aren't as soft as other Aussie licorice we've had - which isn't a bad thing, but the softer the better in our book. The insides are a bit dry as well.

The flavor is strong for sure, big and bold anise taste abounds. Its not for the faint of heart, but also not for the hard core licorice traditionalists either. The flavor stays with you for awhile, I actually feel like my tongue is coated with something, which is slightly offputting.

Overall, I'd put it in the mid-top tier of the licorice I've had. If I HAD to give it a rating, I'd give it a 6 or 7.