ZOMG, Candy!

I bought this box of Cemoi L’Atelier des Gourmets at Whole Foods. They were half off in a post-winter holiday sale. There were four different chocolates in the box, each with their own hoity-toity name: Kheops, Evasion, Arabica, and Coupelle.

Kheops was described as, “crunchy gianduja and whole almond.” It came in a pretty flat-topped pyramid shape with Kheops etched into the side.

The center gianduja was rather dry and pasty. It had a light, almost airy crunch that made me think there were rice crisps inside.

The chocolate and hazelnut filling tasted sweet and fruity with notes of citrus. Hitting the center whole almond bought a nuttiness to the confection, but the finish was still too fruity for my taste. An O.

Evasion was a square “hazelnut and almond praline” with leaves etched on top. It had the same citrus fruitiness of the Kheops.

The almond praline was featured in little crunchy toffee bits. They would have been a nice addition to nearly any treat, but the cloying, cocoa finish of the rest of the Evasion was off-putting enough to outweigh any praline benefit. An –.

Arabica was described pretty simply as “coffee mousse.” I thought it was the most visually striking, with the contrast between the chocolate brown coffee bean (not a real bean; it was made of chocolate) and the white chocolate coating.

Biting into the Arabica revealed even more contrasts – the inside ganache was milk chocolate. It tasted lightly of coffee with a slight, almost burnt bitterness. The whole thing made me think of Mocha Frappuccinos.

The ganache was thick and, like the other chocolates in this box, a tad too sweet for my taste. Another O.

Finally, the Coupelle, which was, “crunchy chocolate mousse.” It was a pretty little fluted cup of ganache topped with crunchy chocolate sprinkles.

This was by far my favorite of the bunch. It was made with dark chocolate. It was still sweet, but not as cloying as the others, and the cocoa flavors were deeper with red fruit notes.

And it had an amazing dusky finish that made it addictive. Furthermore, those chocolate sprinkles added a nice depth of cocoa flavor. An OM.

I’m really glad that I didn’t pay full price for these chocolates, as the Coupelle is the only one that I would want to eat again. Overall, not recommended, despite all the fancy packaging and hoity-toity names.

My friends Nana and Justin have been living and blogging abroad for the last few years. They’ve been a generous source of awesome foreign candy.

Their latest gift was several Japanese Kit Kats in Wasabi and Sweet Potato flavor. I’ll cover Sweet Potato today; Wasabi will be reviewed on Friday. And stay tuned for giveaway news, as Nana and Justin sent me more than I could ever eat!

I love how the tear-away notch on the right of the wrapper is mirrored by an extra triangle on the left. Each individually wrapped package had two prettily pale yellow fingers that had to be characteristically snapped apart.

I was both excited and nervous about trying these. Excited because I love sweet potatoes in just about any form (steamed, roasted, french fried, etc). Nervous because the sweet potato and sesame version that I tried a couple of years ago wasn’t great, though that also didn’t taste much like sweet potato.

Lack of sweet potato flavor was definitely not an issue with this Kit Kat. The flavor was totally spot on – starchy and sweet, with some root vegetable earthiness. It tasted just like a real sweet potato.

Unfortunately, though the flavor was exact, it was really off-putting when combined with the dairy, buttery creaminess of the Kit Kat chocolate. I got totally weirded out and couldn’t handle it. A –.

Come back Friday for the wasabi-flavored Kit Kat review and details on how you can try to win some Japanese Kit Kats for yourself! And you can find Nana and Justin’s take on their website.

Today’s review is of chocolate mushroom cookies that I picked up in China. The brand name literally translates to “Good Friend”, but I labeled them “Little Friend’s Chocolate Mushrooms” when I uploaded the photos, so I’m not sure which is technically correct.

They were all over the place in Shanghai, so I bet that they may be available in local Asian groceries/Chinatowns.

At any rate, these were definitely a cute confection. They were little mushrooms comprised of a butter cookie stem with a solid, fluted chocolate cap.

The cookie was nicely crunchy and very lightly, neutrally flavored. The cap in the pure chocolate version was milk. The chocolate was snappy with a lightly sweet and mild cocoa flavor, and its melt was creamy but not thick.

(They may look bloomed in the above photo, but they were actually just a little dusty/scratched from being all in a jumble together.)

While these chocolate mushrooms were fine, they were too mildly flavored and boring for me. I think Meiji’s Chocorooms are way better – Meiji’s version’s flavors are more intense, which makes the mushrooms addictive.

I’ve actually bought several boxes of Chocorooms, but I always eat them before I get around to photographing them for review. I was happy to share the remainder of the Little Friend’s Chocolate Mushrooms with friends, who eagerly finished them. They get an O.

Little Friend’s also comes in a Redbean (sic) flavor, where the cap is chocolate plus red beans. I guess because it’s red beans, the mascot is a girl in pink instead of a boy in blue, though the chocolate cap atop her pink curls kind of makes her look like she’s in drag.

In China, red beans and green peas are common dessert additives. I’m not sure why, as I hate their mushy grittiness, and I feel that the vegetal earthy flavors of beans and peas don’t belong in dessert, but it’s just a cultural thing, I guess.

I found the red bean flavored mushrooms to be unpalatable. The caps tasted of the strong, savory earthiness of refried beans plus the blandly sweet cocoa of the chocolate, which to me just does not mix.

But my vegetarian roommate from New Orleans eats a lot of red beans, and she adored the red bean mushrooms, enough to polish off the box. So who knows – you may not feel like these warrant the – that I’m giving them.

These Sour Power Sortz were included in my NCA shipment full of free candy samples. Yes, that shipment was over a year ago… Candy keeps pretty well, especially in chilly Rochester, and I have a Sisyphean supply of it.

It was billed as “candy straws in 4 different flavors. Strawberry, Apple/Peach, Raspberry/Grape, & Tutti Frutti.”

The straws were stiff, plasticky tubes with long grooves down the sides. All were sprinkled with sugar granules that were brightly sweet and lightly sour.

Red was maybe strawberry? It sorted of tasted like red fruit.

Purple was the Raspberry/Grape. It had a strong seediness with the plastic tinge of red Twizzlers.

Yellow was sweet with just a hint of pear, followed by a plasticky bite. Orange just tastes sweet and plasticky. I have no clue which of these two is supposed to be Tutti Frutti and which is Apple/Peach.

All were too wheaty and plastic-tasting to be palatable. A definite –. I’d rather have Sour Punch Straws, which at least have some discernible flavors.

Happy 2011! Hope y’all had a restful holiday season. Mine was great. And now, back to work! On with the review…

I love Au’some’s fruit strings and nugget treats (I’ve always eaten them before I could get around to properly reviewing them), so I was excited to try these Super Mario 3-Dees Gummies, also by Au’some.

My pack was a like a theater box – paperboard, with the gummis wrapped in two clear cellophane packs of 5 each. They come in Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Mario, and Yoshi. All were well-formed; even DK’s tie was crystal clear.

They also come in four flavors: mixed berries, orange, watermelon, strawberry. The characters don’t correspond with the flavors, and my flavor distribution was rather uneven (I only got 1 strawberry).

All had a stiff chew with no stickiness. It reminded me of an extra stiff gelatin: a slight bit of jiggle that instantly yields to the teeth.

Green was watermelon. It was sweet with a plasticky undertone and a very artificial fruit flavor.

Blue was mixed berries. It had a bitey fruit punch flavor and also carried a strong plasticky undertone.

Yellow-orange was orange. It started with a zesty citrus bite and finished on a lightly aspartame/artificial sweetener note. Still, it was my favorite of the bunch.

Pink was strawberry. It had a sweet, floral taste and clean, clear flavor. It had the best flavor profile, but I’m not a huge fan of red fruit flavored candy.

Orange and strawberry get Os. Unfortunately, the plastic notes in mixed berries and watermelon were pretty off-putting, earning them –s.

These Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews were free samples, courtesy of the folks at Candy Central.

I’m super familiar with their hard candies and lollipops, and I’ve even had their fruit chew-filled lollipops, but this was the first time that I’ve had just the fruit chews.

They came in four flavors: cherry, watermelon, green apple, and blue raspberry. All were individually wrapped in colored paper. Not all of them unwrapped cleanly – sometimes bits of paper clung to the candies.

They were soft and extremely chewy, almost taffy-like. And they were extremely prone to sticking in the nooks and crannies of my teeth as they neared the end of their chew.

Cherry was red. It initially tasted of plasticky and papery overtones before yielding to a bright, fruity sweetness. It didn’t make me think cherry, and the plastic overtones were really off-putting.

Watermelon was pink. It tasted quite true to watermelon flavored Jolly Rancher hard candies. It was bright and sour, with a tinge of almost-citrus.

Green apple was a neon lime-green. It too, tasted just like its hard candy counterpart. There was a faint petrol hint to the flavor, but it mostly tasted of a nice candied green apple favor with a tinge of sourness.

Finally, blue raspberry was a bright, not-found-in-nature blue. For no conceivable reason other than that candymakers decided that candy raspberries should be blue.

It had a strong seedy olfactory bite that I hate in the hard candy version of raspberry Jolly Ranches. There was a solid, nearly bitter bite to the finish that rendered me unable to finish the chew.

I enjoyed the green apple and watermelon but didn’t care for cherry or blue raspberry. I much prefer Starburst, which have a stiffer chew and better flavors. A – for the blue raspberry and cherry. O for the other two.

This gold bar of a praliné was in my free Sweets and Snacks Expo goodie bag, courtesy of the NCA. It’s hard to tell what its proper name is from the external packaging – the embossed Goldkenn logo is rather blurry.

The single bar was actually comprised of two smaller bars. The smaller bars were individually wrapped in shiny gold paper, which was adorned with the Goldkenn name and tiny Swiss flags.

The mini bars were thick and soft milk chocolate rectangles. A few thinly sliced almonds were scattered horizontally throughout the bar, making them a visually interesting addition.

The almond slivers brought a pronounced nuttiness to the chocolate. The chocolate itself had a faint fruitiness to its flavor, but it mostly just tasted of extreme sugar.

Alas, there were no dairy or caramel notes. It just tasted way too sweet and unpleasantly cloying.

While this treat was visually stunning, I didn’t find its flavor to be much to crow about. It gets a – for being too overly sweet, putting it solidly in the “meh” and “merits no praise” category.

I got this Butter Krak confection from my friend Laurel. I don’t remember where she bought it. I think she mostly bought it because the name’s hilarious.

Neither the wrapper nor the name gave much indication as to exactly what this was. The ingredients list did list “cocoanut”. Typo or purposeful pun?

It turned out to be a dark chocolate log filled with a coconut and vanilla butter cream.

The dark chocolate that made up the shell had bits of coconut mixed in. It was pretty good on its own: a decent depth of chocolate flavor with a sweetly nutty finish.

Unfortunately for the dark chocolate shell, the center filling was a nuclear sugar bomb. It was so sweet that it burned my throat.

The white filling was basically a butter cream with bits of coconut mixed in. It had a dry, pasty, grainy texture with some chewy coconut flakes mixed in.

There was some nice coconut flavor hidden in there, but the balance was totally wrong. The cloy of the filling totally overwhelmed everything from the coconut to the chocolate shell.

I’m glad Laurel bought this for me. I did eat the whole thing over several sessions and with liberal quantities of water to wash it down, but it’s just too sweet. A –.

If you want a second opinion, Candy Addict reviewed this a few years ago.

Not Just Cereal is “the first chocolate-coated cereal snack…that combines the flavor and crunch of your favorite cereal covered with a smooth, milk chocolate layer.” They’re currently available at Walmart; I got mine as free samples from their PR people.

They come in four flavors: Fruity O’s, Honey Toasted O’s, Toasted Rice, and Cinnamon Crunch.

The Fruity O’s are off-brand Froot Loops covered in a mix of milk chocolate and mockolate (the ingredients list both milk chocolate and milk chocolate flavored coating). I didn’t think I’d like them, as I’m usually pretty picky about my fruit and chocolate combinations.

The coating was shiny and soft and tasted like a mix of cocoa and artificial sweetness. Surprisingly enough, the fake Froot Loops worked well with the chocolate/mockolate combination.

The cereal brought a nice crunch and an artificial fruitiness that conveniently masked the slightly not-quite-right-ness of the chocolate coating.

Since the Fruity O’s were good, I figured the Honey Toasted O’s would be even better. These are off brand Honey Nut Cheerios coated in the same chocolate-ish coating.

I don’t know if I got an off box or what, but mine tasted slightly stale. I didn’t particularly care for the vague corniness of the cereal, or its fake honey tinge.

The Toasted Rice was off brand Rice Chex. The blandly crispy rice worked well with the chocolate/mockolate coating by tempering the chocolate’s over-sweetness.

I really enjoyed flattening the little cereal pillows against the roof of my mouth with my tongue. After a few too many, however, the chocolate got cloying.

I should point out, though, that this is the first of the Not Just Cereals that I enjoyed enough to eat so much that I got that cloying feeling.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is one of my favorite snacking cereals, so I was excited about the milk chocolate flavored Cinnamon Crunch. It wasn’t as airy as the Toasted Rice, but it still brought a nice crunch.

I loved the combination of the crunchy, chocolatey, cinnamony cereal (how’s that for alliteration?). But for some reason, there was an odd, faint mintiness to the finish. It wasn’t off-putting, exactly, but I could’ve done without it.

Still, the Cinnamon Crunch were my favorite of the bunch, and I managed to eventually eat the whole box, so they get an OM. They’re followed by the Toasted Rice and the Fruity O’s (Os), and finally the Honey Toasted O’s (–).

I might buy the Cinnamon Crunch again (hence the OM), but I think I’d prefer to make my own, where I could control the quality of the chocolate. Realistically, though I may just stick with making puppy chow.

These gummi butterflies from Albanese are a relatively new addition to the bulk bins of my local Wegmans. They’re beautifully translucent and look like those gel window sticker things.

They came in six colors/flavors and were generously sized. Tip to tip, I’d say the wingspan was about the length of my index finger.

The texture was a joy. They were soft with the perfect balance of stiffness and bounce, so they were easy to tear with my teeth. They were also smooth and had a pleasant mouthfeel when I had the patience to let them melt in my mouth.

Dark red was cherry. It tasted deeply dark with nicely complex red fruit notes.

Lime green was supposed to be apple. I found it sweet with a vague tinge of citrus.

Orange was one of my favorites. It was vibrantly sweet and citrusy. A nice orange zestiness develops across the gummi’s flavor profile and shines through.

Based on just taste, I couldn’t figure out what flavor aqua was. Based on the website, I think it’s supposed to be blue raspberry. It was my least favorite because it carried an inexplicable plasticky, petrol note.

I thought pink was strawberry, but the website says that it’s watermelon. I thought it had a nicely floral finish with strawberry highlights.

Finally, purple was grape. It was well-balanced and managed to avoid that medicinal grape nastiness.

With the exception of the aqua, I found these to be a pleasure to play with and eat (I was enjoying biting them in half and making hybrid butterflies). Aqua gets a –; the rest gets OMs.