ZOMG, Candy!

I’ve seen Mambas on the candy racks at Walgreen’s for ages and finally picked up a pack when they were on sale. They’re made by Storck, the same company that makes Werther’s Originals, Riesens, and Toffifee.

They come in four flavors: orange, lemon, raspberry, and strawberry. For some kooky reason, Storck has decided to package their Mambas so that you get 3 six-packs per package. So instead of getting a few of all of the flavors, you get six each of three of the four flavors. Weird, right? Maybe it’s some manipulative ploy to get you to buy more Mambas in search of your missing fourth flavor or something. I just got annoyed.

My package contained lemon, orange, and raspberry. I got lucky, as citrus flavors are my favorite.

Mambas are similar to Starbursts, only they’re smaller and have a slightly firmer chew. I’d place the give of a Mamba somewhere between a Starburst and a Now and Later.

The lemon was bright with a little bit of an effervescent citrus tang. There was no acidity to this lemon flavor, yet it managed to avoid the trap of tasting like lemon floor cleaner.

Orange tasted like an orange creamsicle, which was a bit more mellow than what I expected. I personally didn’t care for the raspberry, as it carried with it a weird, seedy flavor. I can see others enjoying it, but it’s not for me.

Mamba gets an OM from me. I finished the entire pack over the course of a few days - they’re rather addictive - but I don’t think I would by them again.

I bought a 4-pack of Toffifay (BUY) from the newstand on Chapel Street near school. They were terribly stale, as they had probably been sitting on the shelf for ages, but they were still tasty, a testament to this terrific trio of flavors. More recently, I saw these at Wal-Mart in a pack of 15 and jumped at the chance to taste the not-stale version. I was not disappointed.

As the inelegant copy on the box notes, a Toffifay is “a whole hazelnut in chewy caramel with chocolate hazelnut filling and chocolate.” I’m no ad writer, but really, that was the best they could do? The candies themselves are much more creative. The Toffifay is a thin caramel cup that contains a whole hazelnut embedded in a chocolate/hazelnut (think Nutella) filling with a little circle of chocolate on top.

The caramel is stiff and chewy, while the chocolate/hazelnut filling is smooth and creamy. Try turning them upside down so that the chocolate disc hits your tongue first. The candy is a little on the sweet side but manages to avoid being cloying. I think the whole hazelnut helps mitigate the sweetness of the caramel and chocolate.

These cute candies would look great on a desert tray alongside petit fours, and their unique design is eye-catching. They’re made by Storck (BUY), the company that makes Werther’s Originals and Riesens, and apparently, they’ve been around since 1973.