ZOMG, Candy!

These Goetze Double Chocolate Caramel Creams arrived in my Sweets and Snacks Expo press pack/goodie bag full of samples. The DCCC is a fairly recent addition to their line-up (along with a refresh of the licorice caramel cream), which also includes caramel creams, chocolate creams, and cow tales.

Like the other caramel creams, the DCCC is comprised of a wheaty chew around a circle of cream – hence the Bullseye nickname. In the DCCC, both the chew and the cream are chocolate.

The outer ring was somewhat reminiscent of a Tootsie Roll, but with a slightly different texture and flavor. The DCCC’s texture while chewy, was less sticky, with a thicker flour paste feel.

It had deeper cocoa flavor and less sweetness than a Tootsie Roll. I didn’t notice any prominent caramel flavors. I’m guessing that the caramel component of the name is more for texture than taste.

The bullseye center was a chocolate cream that tasted exactly like store-bought chocolate frosting. It was grainy yet airy and instantly melted on the tongue.

I appreciated the solid, not too sweet flavors of the DCCC. I don’t think I would go out of my way to buy them, (well, maybe I’d throw a couple in my bag if I were bulk bin shopping) but I’d eat them if they were laying around in an office candy bowl or something. A commendable O.

I got this Nintendo mushroom tin in my Sweets and Snacks Expo press kit/goodie bag. It was immediately eye-catching due to its sheer adorableness factor.

It came in a little aluminum tin designed to look just like a Super Mario mushroom. I loved the bright and cheery red-spotted cap.

The cap was cut inside so that it covered the mushroom stem at an angle. That meant it was super fun to play with. Below is my rakish, mysterious mushroom.

Enough about the cute factor. What was the candy component like?

The mushroom stem was full of little pink compressed sugar candies. They, too, were shaped like mushrooms.

Alas, mine were all mottled inside, which made them look water damaged. They were like that when I first opened the mushroom tin, and I opened it right when the goodie bag arrived.

They tasted slightly sour and brightly of artificial, slightly medicinal cherry. They were hard enough so that they could be sucked on. They were also quite chompable.

Chomping on them released a rush of artificial cherry sweetness along with an iron-y bite (think just shy of Flintstone vitamin) as the candy disintegrated. I definitely preferred them sans chomping.

The packaging was far better than the candy within. I’d buy it once just for the tin, but the candy wasn’t that great. An O.

My roommate brought home a pack of these Sugar and Spice-flavored version of Aunt Sally’s Creamy Pralines after her trip home to New Orleans. I nabbed one and filed it away in my candy stash, where it promptly got forgotten.

Thankfully, per Roddy’s urging on the ZOMG, Candy! Facebook discussion page, I dug it out and ate it up. And I sent Roddy a box of candy for his trouble (incentive for you to join the Facebook page!).

A praline, in the Southern sense, is a mixture of sugar, nuts, and cream. New Orleans pralines, like mine, feature pecans as the nut of choice.

This sugar & spice flavored praline was intriguing because of the bottle of Tabasco and the Tabasco logos that decorated the packaging. I think it’s the first Tabasco candy I’ve ever come across.

Alas, this praline had seen better days. I think it was a combination of elapsed time and summer heat wave that left it slightly melted, shiny, and droopy. Not exactly appetizing.

Pecans are a relatively soft nut to start; the ones in my praline had softened further, along with the praline itself. I wish I had eaten this while it was fresh. Based on the other pralines I’ve had before, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be crisp.

The praline initially tasted lightly spicy but was mostly sweet and savory. The pecans added their mild but distinct flavor.

The texture was grainy and soft (again, the disclaimer that mine may have softened with time/heat wave). As the sugar grains melted away, a powerfully tingly underlying heat came through.

I don’t think it’s fair of me to review this praline as is because the texture may have changed, so my O rating comes with a grain of salt. I found the spiciness to be unique and interesting enough that I’m glad I tried the praline, but the sweet and savory flavor threw me for a bit of a loop.

The new Milky Way Simply Caramel bar was included as a free sample in my Sweets and Snacks press pack delivery. They officially launched in June of this year as “a decadent blend of Milky Way Bar’s pure smooth caramel covered completely in Mars’ real milk chocolate.”

It’s far easier to launch a new confection under a familiar brand than it is to build a new brand from the ground up. Thus, while the Milky Way Simply Caramel is a pretty significant departure from the original (I would argue that a Milky Way’s defining characteristic is its chocolatey, malty nougat), it makes sense from a marketing standpoint.

While the Milky Way Simply Caramel looked fairly standard on the outside, the inside was an oozy, decadent looking caramel mess. This was not a treat you’d want to give to small children, unless you want them getting caramel everywhere.

The outer shell was made of a snappy chocolate that turned sweet and sour in my mouth. Hooray American mass-produced chocolate!

The caramel inside was sticky, thick, and chewy. It was sweet and bright with a buttery creaminess. I prefer my caramel with dark, complex, scorched sugar flavors, so it wasn’t really my style. I have to admit, though, that it was luxuriously sticky-sweet.

My beef with this bar was basically what I have with most mass-produced checkout aisle/vending machine bars: too sweet and too one note. I prefer the extra malty hit of regular Milky Ways.

Still, it wasn’t bad, and it’s totally harmless unless you’re susceptible to sugar shock. I think I’d like these best in fun size form. An O.

If you’d like to try one of these for yourself, stay tuned! More to come tomorrow…

Today’s review is a continuation of Wednesday’s review of the second set of mini Ritter Sport bars that I bought in Italy.

To recap, the set of seven contained Marzipan, Knusperkeks (butter biscuit), Knusperflakes (cornflakes), Vollmilch 30% Kakao (milk chocolate, 30% cacao), Joghurt (yogurt), Haselnuss (hazelnut), and Nugat (nougat). I’ll be reviewing the final two today.

Haselnuss had tiny bits of hazelnuts sprinkled throughout the milk chocolate squares. They brought a pleasant crunch and nuttiness.

I think the milk chocolate base was the same as the plain 30% bar. It tasted thick and full of caramel notes.

I appreciated that it was nicely sweet without being cloying and was clearly made with good quality ingredients. Still, it wasn’t terribly exciting and not my favorite from the Ritter Sport line, so an O.

Nugat was a soft hazelnut praline. If you look carefully in the below photo, you can just make out the change in color as the praline filling shifts to milk chocolate coating.

Though the difference was visible, it was difficult to discern by mouthfeel. Everything just melted together in my mouth into one deliciously sweet, nutty, thick, and gooey blob. Believe me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

An OM. I am so jealous of the Germans. Their default chocolate line ranges from pretty good to spectacular.

I’ve now tasted my way through a wide array of Ritter Sport bars, and I’ve yet to find a dud. Guess that means I’ll have to keep trying by eating more Ritter Sports!

Last week, I did a 2-part (I and II) round-up of Schokowurfel, a set of 7 tiny Ritter Sports that I bought in Europe. Today and Friday, I’ll review the second set of somewhat larger mini Ritter Sport chocolates that I purchased on the same trip.

Unlike the single-squared Schokowurfel, these mini Ritter Sports were comprised of four connected squares. Basically, they were a quarter of the size of a regular 16-square Ritter Sport bar.

The set of seven contained Marzipan, Knusperkeks (butter biscuit), Knusperflakes (cornflakes), Vollmilch 30% Kakao (milk chocolate, 30% cacao), Joghurt (yogurt), Haselnuss (hazelnut), and Nugat (nougat).

I’ve already reviewed the first three (hence the above links), so I’m only reviewing the latter four here. Vollmilch and Joghurt today; Haselnuss and Nugat on Friday.

Vollmilch turned out to have a nicely snappy break at the demarcated partitions, which was surprising for a 30% cacao milk chocolate. It had a tongue-coatingly thick melt, which I love in milk chocolate.

The flavor was rich with caramel notes and a sweet fruitiness to the finish. All in all, a solidly enjoyable milk chocolate. O.

I was excited about the Joghurt/yogurt bar. I gorged myself on the intoxicating tang of yogurt gelato while in Italy, and I loved the Milka Joghurt bar.

The Ritter Sport version did not disappoint. It had a soft break, and the sweet and creamy milk chocolate coating enveloped full pods of luscious yogurt filling.

The tangy yogurt was delicious, with a just-shy-of-sour finish, but I felt that it fell short of the Milka Joghurt bar’s exhilaratingly sour filling. Thus, the Ritter Sport version gets “just” an OMG.

Despite the comparatively lower rating, I still loved the bar and wish that it was readily available in the U.S. Can we make that happen? Please?

These tangerine-lemonade flavored Sour Punch Bits came in my free goodie bag from the National Confectioners’ Association. Looks like the American Licorice Company is expanding from just making Sour Punch Straws.

They turned out to be little sour sugar covered cylinders divided into yellow and orange quadrants. Mine got a little sadly damp in this wonderfully hot and humid summer that Rochester’s been having.

Their texture was similar to that of regular Sour Punch Straws, if Sour Punch Straws were solid. That is, they had the texture of a stiff licorice wheat chew.

Citrus fruits are my favorite candy flavors, and these Bits satisfied my love of bright, sweet and tart. They tasted very orange-y with a decently powerful sour finish.

I loved the Bits’ flavor, but I didn’t like that they got all stuck in the nooks and crannies of my teeth. If the slightly softer Straws came in this Tangerine Lemonade flavor, I’d be a happy candy blogger. An O.

Here’s the continuation of Monday’s review of Ritter Sport’s Schokowurfel. Monday, I reviewed the Creme Coco, the Mandel Split, and the Caramel Crisp.

Today, I’ll review the rest of the set: Crocant, Cappuccino, and Edelnugat.

I’m not exactly sure what Crocant means in German, but the onomatopoeia made me think of crunchiness. And I was right!

Crocant turned out to be a solid milk chocolate square with toasted rice crisps. It was basically like an uber Nestle Crunch bar, but it distinguished itself with a bit of extra sweetness to the crisps’ finish, like the crisps had been candied or caramelized. So it gets an OM.

Cappuccino was pretty self-explanatory. I appreciated that its outer wrapper was a beautiful cafe au lait color.

It was a milk chocolate bar with a creamy, lighter brown ganache inside. The square was very, very soft and very, very thick when melting in the mouth.

The cappuccino flavor did capture the essence of coffee, but I found it far too sweet, more Starbucks Frappuccino than Italian espresso. It could’ve been a great bite of chocolate had it not been so cloying. An O.

Edelnougat is the last of the set. I know what nougat is, and I know what edelweiss is, but I didn’t know what Edelnougat could mean.

It turned out to be a thick hazelnut ganache inside a milk chocolate shell. Like a good praline, this was mouth-coatingly thick and wonderfully nutty – a classic done well. An OM.

All in all, I was pretty impressed by the quality of this set. When I taste candy for reviews, I often limit my tasting to just a few bites, so this set was perfect for my needs. And I had enough leftover to share with friends, making this a highly recommended souvenir.

My May trip to Italy meant a layover in Frankfurt, which in turn meant that I got to buy lots of Duty Free Ritter Sport. In fact, I managed to leave Europe with not one but two sets of mini Ritter Sport assortments.

The below Schokowurfel set had 6 varieties (Sorten?): Creme Coco, Mandel Split, Caramel Crisp, Crocant, Cappuccino, and Edelnougat. I’ll cover the first three today and hit the next three on Wednesday.

These tiny Ritter Sports were individually wrapped and each just one square big. They’re slightly larger than the square segments of a regular Ritter Sport bar. The size difference is especially noticeable in their height.

It wasn’t until after I’d eaten them all that I realized that I photographed one upside down. Oops.

Creme Coco came in a white wrapper. It was milk chocolate with a white coconut cream filling. The filling contained dried flakes of coconut that were crisp and just shy of crunchy.

The chocolate was soft and sweet and nutty. The two flavors played off each other beautifully, with the dusky sweet balancing out the crispy nutty coconut. I thought it was a lovely mix of flavor and texture. An OM.

It was pretty easy to guess at a translation for Creme Coco. Mandel Split left me lost with no clue what to expect.

It turned out to be milk chocolate on the outside with a white chocolate filling with a few peanut bits mixed in. The peanuts were quite flavorful, but I’ve never been a big fan of peanuts.

I respected the high quality of the ingredients that went into the Mandel Split, but I didn’t find it very exciting or special. To me, it just tasted like nice chocolate and peanuts. An O.

Finally for today, Caramel Crisp was easily comprehensible. It was milk chocolate with golden brown caramel-flavored filling.

At first I thought the filling contained rice crisps, but careful excavation revealed them to be thin flakes of unidentified crispiness. They had a nice complexity that made me think they could be honeycomb, or at least honeycomb flavored.

I really enjoyed the filling to this chocolate. It had nice caramelized/burnt sugar notes that I love in real caramel, but it had the solid texture of a grainy ganache. That plus the intriguingly delicious crisps earned this an OM.

Cybele reviewed this set several years ago on Candy Blog. Looks like the assortment has changed a little since then. Come back on Wednesday for the other half!

I picked up these two Turin chocolate bars, a Baileys and a Kahlua, in a Duty Free shop on the U.S./Canada border. I’ve seen them in Walgreen’s before and had always passed on them because they were rather pricey, but at the border they were on sale and Duty Free!

There was also a Grand Marnier bar, but I picked the Baileys and Kahlua bars because I also bought a bottle of Grand Marnier booze, and I decided that I didn’t need Grand Marnier chocolate as well.

Baileys Irish Cream is a liqueur that’s made of Irish whiskey and cream. The chocolate bar had a pale gray ganache sandwiched inside milk chocolate squares.

The sweet chocolate coating was mild, without much distinction. The bar was so soft that my fingerprints were easily left behind, and it tore rather than snapped (though the summer heat may have been a contributing factor).

The ganache filling pretty much overwhelms the chocolate’s flavor. It was sweet and grainy with a light crunch, perhaps from crystallized sugar. It tasted slightly bitter with a strongly boozy, milky hit and the taste of cooked cream.

The Kahlua version had the same chocolate coating and a similarly textured ganache. Its ganache tasted darker and deeper, with pronounced coffee and caramel notes, and it was pale brown in color.

I preferred the Kahlua to the Baileys, as I enjoyed Kahlua’s darker and more complex flavor. Both bars, however, suffered from being overly sweet, so sweet that they burned my throat.

I’m glad that I tried them, and I was happy to share them with friends, but I wouldn’t buy them again unless Turin turns down the sweetness. Os for both of them.