ZOMG, Candy!

I’m kicking myself for somehow neglecting to take a picture of these guys whole, outside of the wrapper. A shame because these Cocoa Deli pops look much better than they taste - like cute little fudgsicles! I liked that the popsicle stick was made of plastic, a nice detail.

The wrappers definitely try to play up the Belgian chocolate angle. The term “Belgian chocolate” carries some cachet with it, but this candy showed that Belgian does not always equal good.

According to the wrapper, the Belgian milk chocolate fudge popsicle (what a mouthful!) is Belgian milk chocolate filled with layers of chocolate truffle (23%), chocolate truffle (14%), and cocoa pieces (0.8%). That last percentage confused me. I thought the percentages were cocoa percentages in the types of chocolate truffle, but the cocoa pieces percentage seems to refer to the percentage of popsicle compilation.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter, as the popsicle (by the way, that’s what the chocolate is referred to as on the nutrition facts panel. Serving size: One popsicle) tastes pretty much the same all the way through. A careful examination shows a thin layer of darker chocolate truffle to distinguish the two types visually, but it all tastes the same to me. It’s super rich and creamy (and also really high in saturated fat) with a soft chocolate filling in a similarly soft chocolate shell. I couldn’t taste or feel any cocao nibs in the popsicle, but 0.8% is tiny, so I guess that’s understandable. The whole thing basically just tasted of sweet and of chocolate and was overwhelmingly cloying.

The Belgian chocolate caramel crunch truffle popsicle was also too rich and too sweet. The wrapper describes it as layers of chocolate truffle (13%) containing butter toffee pieces (1%) and cocoa cookie (5%) and a caramel flavor truffle (19%).

The caramel layer is lighter in color than the chocolate truffle of the fudge pop. It smells slightly duskier but doesn’t taste like caramel at all. No burnt sugar notes, just an overwhelmingly rich sweetness. Spherical little balls of cookie stud the truffle. They’re light golden brown in color and don’t look or taste like they’re made of chocolate, even though the wrapper says that it’s a cocoa cookie. Finally, there are tiny grains of toffee in the thin upper layer of chocolate truffle, but I had to really look for them to be able to identify them. I don’t think the casual popsicle eater would have noticed their presence.

These things cost only $1 a pop, and you get what you pay for. They’re cute, but they’re way too rich and don’t taste very good, unless you like to inundate your tastebuds with sugar. An O.

In honor of Halloween, Chow.com has some “make your own Halloween candy bars” recipes.

They look delicious! Working with chocolate can be tons of fun, if rather messy. I’ve made Chow’s chocolate truffle recipe before, and those turned out great! They also took me forever to make because my ganache broke a few times, but that’s really besides the point.

As soon as I have the time, I want to try to make the Peanut Butta Cups and the Twixt. Mmm! I think their recipes can be simplified a little. All that stuff about thermometers is precise, but I don’t think it’s really necessary for the casual cook. Tempering chocolate can be easily done in a microwave, and it works just fine.

Today is Blog Action Day, when blogs around the world post on the same topic to raise awareness. This year, we’re bloggging about the environment. In the candy world, I’ve taken that to mean blogging about organic and fair trade candy.

As you can see from a quick Amazon.com search, there are hundreds of organic candies, organic chocolates, fair trade candies, and fair trade chocolates.

I haven’t reviewed much organic stuff on this site, mostly because organic candy is pricier than the average Hershey bar, and I’m a college student who is far from being financially secure. But I’ve still managed to hit a few: Larabars and their Jocalat line use only fair trade and organic ingredients, Vosges claims a green mission on their website, and I think the truffles I got at Whole Foods were green in some way, if only because they came from Whole Foods. Sustainable food is HUGE at Yale, and I can promise you that organic desserts, even when mass produced by the dining halls, is sinfully delicious.

I’ve seen Dagoba bars (BUY!) and Yummy Earth Lollipops (BUY!) at the campus convenience store. I wanted to buy some and try them in time to review for my Blog Action Day post, but I’ve had a nasty cold for the past week, so I haven’t been tasting new things because my sense of taste is compromised. I’m nearly fully recovered though, and I’ll hopefully be able to have those reviews up within the next couple of weeks.

While my site’s sustainable candy section is regrettably sparse, Cybele’s got a whole category on her site for organic candy reviews and tips on how to go green for Halloween.

Finally, Divine Chocolate, a farmer-owned fair trade company, is currently running a recipe contest that runs through December 15. Go check them out, and if you win, you should share your chocolate winnings with me. Think of it as a finder’s fee!

I hope you learned something from today’s post! I know I did in putting it together.

Nestle Choco Milo

A tiny cube of chocolate cookie - the densest, crunchiest tiny cube of chocolate cookie I’ve ever had. It was super hard, and it only got away with being so nearly impossible to crunch because it was about 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Though tiny, the Choco Milo is delicious. Its chocolate flavor is reminiscent of that of hot cocoa, and it strikes a perfect bittersweet balance. OMG. Unfortunately, I grabbed this one out of a dish at a party of an acquaintance and have no idea where to find more.

Kasugai hard candy

Kusugai (BUY!) makes a lot of great Asian candies; their gummies are especially popular and deliciously faithful to their fruits’ taste. From my first quick glance at the wrapper of these Kasugai hard candies, I expected these to be a mix of individually wrapped candies of different flavors. A pineapple here, an apple there, a… bell pepper? Wait. There are vegetables on the wrapper too! My Chinese reading skills are nearly nonexistent, but I do recognize the second character as one that usually means “vegetable”.

These pleasantly light and sweet candies were all the same color - orange - and all the same difficult to pin down flavor. I definitely tasted pineapple; the bell pepper, not so much. I’d describe these as V8 Splash (BUY!) flavored candy. Again, they were pleasant enough, but not something I’d want to eat again and again. Just an O, but a positive one.

Mikakuto Tokuno Japanese Milk Candy

I didn’t know what these were called but managed to stumble across them on Amazon (BUY!). The cow and barn motif (which I find adorable, by the way) match up, so I think it’s safe to assume they’re the same candy.

I think I’ve yet to meet an Asian milk candy (BUY!) I didn’t like. To me, they’re all pretty much the same. They’ve all been a milky, creamy vanilla, but such a delicious vanilla, with that extra bit of vanilla essence oomph that elevates it to the next level. That oomph is difficult to describe. It’s like the difference between generic vanilla ice cream and the best homemade vanilla ice cream (oh Blue Bell, why haven’t you made it to New England yet?) you’ve ever had. Which makes this way better than a vanilla Tootsie Roll. In this particular brand of milk candy, the vanilla flavor is more that of vanilla extract than vanilla bean, but it still works! An OM.

My Mars Delight came from Economy Candy, I think by way of Germany or France? The wrapper read, “Überraschend knusprig, lecker cremig. Étonnamment croustillant, délicieusement fondant.” I haven’t taken French since first semester freshman year, but I believe that the French sentence roughly translates into “Surprisingly crunchy, deliciously made.” And the Mars Delight is indeed delicious and crunchy. And delightful (yeah, I went there).

This bar comes in two pieces, like a Twix. I think the scalloped design is quite pretty. The chocolate is super sweet, but isn’t cloying. It’s European, so it’s Cadbury’s style chocolate - milky and creamy.

The inside crunchy portion is gorgeously folded on itself. Look how pretty that is! Its texture reminds of that of an egg roll - the flaky sweet kind, not the savory deep fried, often served with Chinese food lunch specials kind. However, unlike an egg roll, which has its own taste, the Mars Delight crunchies didn’t taste of anything themselves. However, they did serve to mitigate the sweetness of the chocolate coating and ganache/truffle layers inside.

Speaking of that truffle/ganache layers, yum! According to the website, it looks like the top one is caramel, while the bottom one is milk chocolate. I couldn’t really make a taste distinction there, but it was all rich and good! I give the Mars Delight a OMG. If only they were as widely available here as they are overseas!

100 Grand giving away 1/20th of their namesake 

From a PR person for one of my favorite candies:

“Chocolate fans and aspiring filmmakers could win $5,000 and a chance to have their video used in the new Nestle 100 Grand ad campaign. The Nestle 100 Grand Commercial Contest, which runs through November 1st, 2007, asks chocolate lovers to create a 30 second video that shows how they reward themselves with the 100 Grand bar.

“To enter or to read complete details, visit www.nestle100grand.com”

If only I had the time to put together an entry… At every football game, there’s a woman who has a basket of candy ready for us bandies when we stop to perform for them on our way into the Bowl. And yes, we always stop to take candy from strangers.

At yesterday’s game (Yale beat Dartmouth 50-10, by the way), I got a mini 100 Grand bar. Freakishly enough, it was 80+ degrees and brutally sunny - not exactly a crisp fall New England day- so the 100 Grand was a little melted and super sticky by the time I got it, but it was still sooooo good.

15 years or lots and lots of sugary deliciousness?

Mainstream media published scientific findings should always be taken with a grain of salt. Quite often such studies have not been reliably replicated or properly analyzed, and mainstream media sometimes gets interpretations incorrectly or sensationalizes things to make for a better story.

Case in point: “Sweets can ‘take 15 years off your life‘.  Grand headline, but the story is about worms and glucose. Glucose is found in more than just chocolate, despite what the accompanying photo may suggest, and it’s a big step to get from worms to humans.

Yes, candy doesn’t have the same health benefits as fresh fruits or veggies, but they’re fine in moderation, and I don’t think my daily dose of candy is going to end up the cause of my early death.

I’ve been wanting to try Zotz (BUY!) ever since I read about them on Candy Addict. As is the case with most retro candies, they’re rarely as good as their reviews claim they are. Nostalgia is a powerful force for inducing bias. But, while Zotz are no candy revelation, they were still pretty good and definitely worth their pretty cheap price. I bought a bunch when I was at Economy Candy, where they were 12 for $0.75 (they come in strings of 4, and I think those were 3 for $0.75), if I remember correctly.

Economy Candy had them in cherry, watermelon, and green apple. Some pictures on Amazon seem to suggest a lemon flavor that may be floating around somewhere, but I think if lemon existed, Economy Candy would’ve had them.

The watermelon was sweet and fruity - different from the usual Jolly Rancher hard candy-style of watermelon flavor, but good.

The cherry Zotz was darker than the watermelon, both in color and in taste. Interestingly enough, as you can see from the picture, it was more pink than red. Like the watermelon, the cherry was different from the usual Jolly Rancher hard candy-style flavor. Unlike the watermelon, it wasn’t exactly pleasantly different. I can’t put my finger on why; no cough drop cherry taste issues or anything like that. I’m not a huge fan of red candies, so that may have been part of it.

The apple was a smooth and creamy green apple taste that was a dead ringer for the Jones Soda Candy that I tried a while back. The apple Zotz was better than the Jones Soda Candy due to its creaminess and its awesome fizz factor.

Zotz are all very smooth in taste and texture and contain an ample amount of fizz. The fizz is supposed to be sour, but I found it not so much sour as “burns your throat”. But in a good way, believe it or not. Unlike the Jones Soda Candy, the Zotz fizz is really in your face (or on your tongue, I guess) and leaves you foaming in the mouth. It’s a pretty awesome mouthfeel experience. I loved giving these to my friends, not telling them what Zotz are, and watching their surprised but pleased reactions to the fizz.

The candy itself doesn’t taste extraordinarily good, but the fizz component elevates Zotz to an OM.

The final chapter of the 1/2 week of “chocolate marshmallow cup type candies” is the Mallo Cup (BUY!).

The Mallo Cup smells intensely of chocolate and coconut. Coconut? It doesn’t advertise coconut on the wrapper, but checking the list of ingredients reveals that the Mallo Cup does, in fact, contain coconut (incidentally, it also contains more corn syrup than sugar. Yikes!). I don’t mind that the coconut is there in the “whipped creme center”, but I think Mallo Cup should display the inclusion of coconut more prominently on the wrapper, as many people don’t like the taste of coconut. My second Mallo Cup went to waste when I happily bestowed it upon a friend to try, promising her that it was tasty. She took one bite and blanched - not a coconut fan.

I found the chocolate of the Mallo Cup way too sweet, and it’s coconut isn’t as nice and toasty as that of the Cup-o-Gold. I managed to finish one, but the sweetness made the thought of eating the second unbearable. The marshmallow filling (really whipped creme, I guess, but it was pretty similar to marshmallow), however, was quite nice, and wasn’t grainy like that of the Valomilk. The texture was perfect - fluffy, foamy, and sticky. The meant it wasn’t as messily oozy as the Valomilk was, though the Mallo Cup did drop little grains of chocolate that got embedded in my jeans.

My favorite part about the Mallo Cup was the inclusion of the cardboard “Play Money” voucher that the cups rested on. It just screams retro/nostalgia candy. Let’s do the math, shall we? If each package of Mallo Cup has 10 points, and 500 points earns you a $1 rebate, and I paid $0.75 at Economy Candy for my pack of Mallo Cups… 500 divided by 10 is 50, times $0.75 is $37.50… So if I spent $37.50, plus tax, on Mallo Cups, I could get a $1 rebate in the mail in 4-6 weeks. So I’m well on my way to becoming a millionaire!

I wonder if anyone bothers to send the “Play Money” in anymore. I also wonder what’s included in the catalog, and I love how you have to send away for it because they don’t have a website.

I’d give these an OM. I may buy them once more, but I think that would be enough Mallo Cup to last me a good while. Guess I’ll never get that $1 rebate.

Next on board for the 1/2 week of “chocolate marshmallow cup type candies” is the Cup-o-Gold (BUY!). Unlike the Valomilk, which came two cups per pack, the Cup-o-Gold is one giant cup.

The wrapper promises “creamy milk chocolate, toasted almonds, that hint of coconut, and the signature creamy center.” The chocolate of the Cup-o-Gold has a good snap to it. It’s a super sweet milk chocolate, but the overly sweet taste was redeemed by the promised hint of coconut and almonds that imparted a nice toasty-ness to the chocolate cap.

While I liked the nutty taste, there is such thing as too much of a good thing. There was way too much chocolate and not enough of the creme filling. In fact, there was so little of the creme filling that I couldn’t really taste it, and it was completely overwhelmed by the chocolate and coconut.

I usually don’t like coconut in my candy because I find the texture unpleasant. In the Cup-o-Gold, the last thing you’re left with is little bits of chewy coconut. Yet it works for this cup, possibly because the coconut is too finely chopped to feel funny against my teeth.

I liked this candy and would eat it again. I bought it at Economy Candy in New York City, so it’ll be a while before I get the chance to buy another, which is often enough for me. A tasty OM. OM+, in fact.

The rest of this week will be “chocolate marshmallow cup type candies” week. Let’s kick it off with the Valomilk!

I’ve wanted to try a Valomilk (BUY!) since I read about it in Steve Almond’s Candyfreak (BUY!). They’re made by a small family owned company and have probably survived largely on the power of nostalgia. The Valomilks are the most basic of the “chocolate marshmallow cup type candies” that I tried - they’re basically just a chocolate cup filled with marshmallow creme. That marshmallow creme has a tendency to ooze everywhere, making the Valomilk notoriously difficult to travel with.

My Valomilks were surprisingly unmessy, which I actually found a little disappointing after all the mess hype that I read about. When I opened them, only one of the two cups had leaked a tiny bit.

The chocolate was rather bland on its own, but it had a good snap to it. The marshmallow creme was quite sweet and had a sugary grit to it. The texture of the ooze was odd. In some places, it was liquid. In other places, it looked foamy like a marshmallow but was actually sticky.

It didn’t exactly flow, perhaps because the weather was on the chilly side when I ate it. The texture reminded me of a water/cornstarch mixture that goes from solid to liquid. As you can see, after I let my bite “sit” for a bit, the ooze got more liquidy.

I found this treat fun and unique, and I enjoyed trying it, but I don’t think I’d buy it again. It’s too one dimensional and sugary - an O.