ZOMG, Candy!

According to its entry on Hershey’s website, the Zagnut has been around for ~80 years now (I think Hershey’s needs to update their mathing). Wikipedia says that it used to be owned by the Clark Company, though how Hershey’s ended up with Zagnut and Necco ended up with the Clark Bar, I don’t know. Cybele didn’t know either.

I do know that I found it tasty, and like the Clark Bar, it made me wonder how I’d never had one before. Mine came in a gifted sample box from Munchies Sweets and Treats, but I do believe I’ve seem then in Wegmans, housed in the retro candy display.

The bar was described as “crunchy peanut butter - toasted coconut.” It had the flaky layered center of a Clark Bar, plus an outer layer of what looked like compressed nuts.

The golden bar was super crisp. As I bit into it, there was a lovely crunch, and flakes well, flaked off. I also noticed tiny bits of peanuts in the texture.

It tasted mostly of peanuts/peanut butter with a touch of coconut to the finish. Some of it got lodged in my molars a tad, like brittle, but it wasn’t nearly as bad a teeth situation as you get with Butterfingers.

I loved the texture, with its mix of flaky and crispy, and the nutty/coconutty flavors were nice as well. I’m definitely a newly converted Zagnut fan. An OM.

Today’s review is more from Hedonist’s constantly changing truffle line-up: their current Spice Collection. It consists of peanut butter cayenne, raspberry wasabi, orange chipotle, lemon pepper, and coconut curry - clearly a very spicy Spice Collection. I was fortunate enough to receive a free sample box to review from the kind ladies at Hedonist.

I actually reviewed the Peanut Butter Cayenne over 9 months ago when I first visited the shop, but I didn’t realize it until I sat down to write this review (apparently I’d also had some version of their Ginger Molasses from the Holiday Collection on my first visit). I’m glad to see that my peanut butter cayenne tasting notes held up (ginger molasses varied a bit).

Here’s the peanut butter cayenne description based on the notes I took this time around: This dark chocolate truffle smells strongly of peanut butter, and for good reason, as its filling is a dry and gritty peanut butter.

The cayenne is barely perceptible at first, just a hint of heat to the finish, but the burn builds and builds even after the chocolate is gone, which is a neat effect. The heat never gets overwhelming; a plus for me.

Rasberry Wasabi was a dark chocolate in a heart-shaped mold. It smells quite fruity. I can see actual raspberry seeds inside the filling, so it’s no wonder that the flavor is of genuine raspberry.

The wasabi component is barely there as a horseradish-y finish. I like its subtlety and novelty, as I’ve never seen this flavor combination before.

Orange Chipotle is identifiable by a little orange dot against its dark chocolate coating. It smells lightly of fruit, though I don’t quite get citrus from the scent.

It first tastes of chocolate and smokiness that gives way to a gentle hint of orange oil before the chipotle burn powers through and wallops your tastebuds. This one is not for the faint of tongue, and I found this truffle’s heat to be more painful than enjoyable.

Lemon Pepper is a square dark chocolate shell with a white chocolate ganache. It tastes strongly of cracked black pepper with lemon undertones. The lemon and pepper pair nicely - they are, after all, a classic savory combination - but I didn’t care for how the duo went with chocolate.

The Coconut Curry was a dark chocolate shell sprinkled with yellow curried and plain white shredded coconut, plus a dusting of yellow curry. Unsurprisingly enough, it smelled super strongly of curry/cumin. But SURPRISE! It looked like this inside:

The bright yellow ganache was a bit of a shock. Mixed in were more bits of shredded coconut. The flavor profile begins with curry before the coconut flavor comes in. It’s actually a tad savory, despite the fact one would expect a chocolate truffle to be sweet. The inventive combination worked well for me.

Hedonist’s Spice Collection is full of creative flavor combinations. Coconut curry is a standout for its unusual nature and strikingness. I enjoyed the raspberry wasabi and peanut butter cayenne, while orange chipotle and lemon pepper weren’t to my tastes.

This collection would be a great gift for those with adventurous palates. As a whole, an OM. As stand-alones, peanut butter cayenne would get an extra G for its deliciousness, and coconut curry would merit that same bonus for sheer wow factor.

The continuation of Monday’s Mama’s Goodies nut brittle reviews:

Cashew Nut Crunch

This has the same thick brittle base as the pecan nut crunch. Cashews, however, are a much lighter flavored nut than pecans, and the cashews here are chopped up into tiny bits, so their flavor winds up totally overwhelmed by the brittle base. Still, the base is goooood. An O, mostly because the pecan incarnation is better.

Macadamia and Coconut Crunch

The brittle base here is sweeter and more toffee-like in texture. That is, it still cleaves but doesn’t quite dissolve into the same pseudo-caramel chew. As you can see, it’s got shredded coconut and whole macadamia nuts.

The flavors here are amazing. It’s just a hint of genuine, not at all artificial coconut flavor that pairs wonderfully with the rich and buttery essence of the macadamia nuts. And the brittle-ness negates the usually stringy texture of shredded coconut that is sometimes off-putting. An OMG.

Almond Nut Crunch

Almonds are a strong nut, and I think this is the nuttiest of the brittles. Again, the lovely brittle is fairly thick and cleaves like toffee, but this somehow avoids the turns-to-caramel-in-your-mouth thing. The almonds make the brittle duskier and darker, which is nice, but they also add a lightly bitter aftertaste. An OM.

Back before I started candy blogging in earnest, I thought Godiva was the pinnacle of chocolates. How could they not be, with their beautiful, shiny, golden ballotins? When I was in middle school, my family got bumped up to first class for a Shanghai to Tokyo flight. They served Godivas for dessert, which only bolstered my vaunted view of the brand.

Now that I’ve tasted my way through hundreds and hundreds of sweets, I know that there are far better chocolates out there, and I’ll probably never buy Godivas myself. Still, I wouldn’t turn them down if they were offered to me for free, like at a Times Talk I attended as part of last year’s New York City Wine and Food Festival.

Our tickets for that talk did not come cheap, so I was pleased by my free box of Godivas (and the chance to meet Ferran Adria and Anthony Bourdain). The eight truffles within were (from left to right, then top to bottom in the below photo): milk chocolate, hazelnut praline, dark chocolate, smooth coconut, French vanilla, roasted almond, extra dark chocolate, and double chocolate raspberry.

Milk chocolate was a milk chocolate shell around a creamy, sweet, and fatty milk chocolate ganache. Godiva calls this one “the classic.” The dark chocolate was a dark version of the milk (duh) that I found to be overly sweet, though its fruity finish was nice.

I liked the extra dark chocolate somewhat more. Its ganache was thicker and less flowy than those of the milk and dark, but it still managed to be unpleasantly greasy. It had a deep cocoa flavor but not much flavor nuance otherwise.

The hazelnut praline (above), dubbed a “nutty reverie” by Godiva, was a milk-chocolate enrobed truffle covered in tiny bits of chopped and candied hazelnuts.  The nut bits had a light crunch and a sweet crisp, and the truffle itself had a yummy, honeycombed nuttiness to it, making it my favorite in the box.

Double chocolate raspberry (aka “berry tempting” in Godiva-speak) had a strangely wet ganache enrobed in dark chocolate. It had a seedy raspberry sweet finish, and the whole truffle had a nice brightness to it.

Coconut (below) was a white ganache with a milk chocolate coating. It was nicely nutty, with a slight grain and grit to the filling. The finish was sweet and tasted strongly of coconut, and the whole thing was a tad too sweet for me.

French vanilla was dark chocolate around a creamy, white filling. I didn’t get much genuine vanilla flavor from this. Instead, I mostly tasted its saccharine finish.

Finally, roasted almond was my second favorite after the hazelnut praline. Its ganache was thick and creamy with a wonderful roasty nuttiness. I found it pleasant to eat but also a bit overly sweet. Perhaps it would have been better in a dark enrobing?

The box as a whole gets an O, while the hazelnut praline and the roasted almond get OMs. If I had paid for it (looks like retail price is ~$16.50), I would have been disappointed. Godiva truffles just aren’t that great - I think they’re over-greasified and under-flavored. Skip these guys and head to your local chocolatier instead. They’ll probably have stuff that’s far better - handmade and fresh! - for a comparable price.

My favorite part about Whole Foods is their bulk food bins. I can pick out as much or as little as I want! Instead of buying a whole jar of a spice when I only need a pinch, I can buy just a pinch. Instead of buying a whole tub full of chocolate-covered almonds when I have a craving, I can buy just a handful.

And instead of buying a whole box or bag or whatever these usually come in, I can pick out just the SunDome flavors that I want to try: Chip ‘N Mint, Cashew Coconut Crunch, Mocha Jolt, and Chocolate Almond Toffee.

I’m currently having a hard time finding out more about these, as the SunRidge Farms website is under construction as of the time I’m writing this post. Best I can tell, they fit into Whole Foods’ image of crunchy-granola (literally) save-the-earth ethos pretty well. I can’t tell you, unfortunately, how many different kinds of SunDomes there are. I do remember the bin having at least twice as many different kinds as I bought - I wanted to get one of each, but that got heavy and too expensive.

The SunDomes are, expectedly, dome-shaped blocks of chocolate flavored in accordance with their names. The chocolate blocks are solid and thick, so not that easy to bite through and also not that easy to share. Each dome is sizeable, about half the size of a hockey puck.

Chip ‘N Mint had a strong, pepperminty scent with little bits of cookie or rice crisp that gave it a hint of crunch. The peppermint was nicely balanced - noticeable, but not too strong.

Mocha Jolt had a strong, genuine coffee taste that was quite enjoyable. There was a slight grit to the texture, which I’m pretty sure was ground up bits of coffee beans. Both of these were solid and thick, with a hefty, dull snap.

Cashew Coconut Crunch turned out to be a surprise. Its chocolate was a bit softer and milkier. It smelled strongly of coconut and had a hint of toasted dry coconut flavor that mingled with the slight nuttiness imparted by tiny bits of cashews sprinkled throughout. The surprise? Raisins! They added a fruity-raisin taste that sort of worked and sort of didn’t. For me, at least, that’s also how I feel about raisins. They sort of work as a snack, but they sort of don’t.

Finally, the Chocolate Almond Toffee, which also had a bit more give when bitten into. It starts with a slight nuttiness, thanks to the tiny bits of almond embedded throughout, that’s more roasty than that of the Cashew Coconut Crunch. That nuttiness then gives way to a burnt sugar note from the toffee aspect. I appreciated its complexity and flavor development.

I wish these came in smaller portions. I ate them across several sessions because they were just so big, and one bite of each was plenty satisfying. If they came in little tasting disks or something, I’d buy all of them again. As is, I think the Mocha Jolt and the Chocolate Almond Toffee are worth buying again, so they get OMs, while the Cashew Coconut Crunch and the Chip ‘N Mint are too big for their own good and get Os.

While I spent my spring break in the chilly to frigid northeast, my roommate and other friends went south. I was jealous of their sunshine and tans, but at least my friends were thoughtful enough to bring me candy gifts from their warmer climes! Specifically, I got a box of assorted pralines from one of New Orleans’ candy institutions, Southern Candymakers.

I’d only known of praline as a truffle filling. Since I received this box, I’ve read more about them on Wikipedia. In America, a praline can also refer to candies made from nuts and sugar. In New Orleans, pralines are made with pecans and extra cream. My assorted box included regular, rum, and chocolate pralines made with pecans and a coconut praline with no additional nuts.

They came in a pretty box with nice seal. Unfortunately, either the box was poorly sealed on the bottom or got damaged a bit in transit - the bottom flaps didn’t fully close, and sugar scattered everywhere when I picked it up. That made me sad for two reasons: the resulting mess and the loss of candy!

The original praline featured brown sugar and pecans. Depending on the chunk you bite, it’s either a great sugar-coated pecan in which the nutty pecan flavor comes through wonderfully, or it’s pure brown sugar overload.

I originally identified the rum praline as maple. Visually, it looks just like the original, but the sugar has lovely maple notes to it. In fact, I’m not actually sure which praline is which. It could be that this is the original while the brown sugary one is rum. At any rate, I like this one better, as the maple lets the pecan flavor cut through better, and the praline is less cloying overall.

Coconut was basically just brown sugar and coconut. It was dried coconut rather than fresh, but it tasted genuine and was pretty good.

Finally, the chocolate one was my favorite. It doesn’t taste strongly of chocolate, exactly. Instead, it imparts a nice, deep cocoa flavor to the sugar, which really adds to the complexity and makes the praline quite enjoyable.

I give the chocolate an OM. The others get Os. My friends get ZOMG!s for being so thoughtful. And I’ve got a nice case of sugar shock from eating all these pralines.

Today marks the conclusion of Rosa eats her way through an entire box of See’s on her own because it’s delicious and free. I began my journey on Monday, continued on Wednesday, and today, the finish line is in sight.

I’m not sure what makes the California brittle Californian. It’s a hard toffee with almonds that’s covered in milk chocolate. Unlike some toffees, this brittle doesn’t really cleave. It kind of just breaks. I could almost feel the tiny air bubbles dissolving on my tongue as I chewed it. The salty almonds go well with the brittle, which was pretty throat-burningly sweet. An O, but a positive one that I can see others enjoying.

The Mayfair was probably the easiest to identify, at least once I bit into it, because it was shockingly pink. This is described as buttercream with cherries and English walnuts. I don’t care for buttercream chocolates in general because I find them too sweet, and this guy is both too sweet and unappetizingly bursting with artificial cherry flavor. An O.

Two of my favorite See’s chocolates were the most simple, the above milk peanuts and the dark almonds (photo here). Good quality roasted nuts plus good quality See’s chocolate makes for yum. Both were great combinations of salty/sweet and melty/creamy/crunchy with toasted nut overtones. I could eat these all day. OMGs for both.

The cocoanut (sic) was milk chocolate around a coconut buttercream. I actively dislike most coconut candies, so to say that I found this tasty is a significant compliment. It had a nice coconut flavor without too much of the shreddy textural issues I have with sugared, dried, and shredded coconut. It helped that the milk chocolate mostly overpowered much of the coconut flavor. An OM.

Last up in our pictorial component is the milk pattie, vanilla caramel in milk chocolate. The caramel is soft with a moderate level of chewiness and stickiness. It doesn’t have much flavor that stands up to the milk chocolate, but I did enjoy its dusky finish. I’d love to try the dark version, which may let the caramel assert itself more. An OM.

Finally, I’d like to note two See’s chocolates that I do not have photos for. First, the molasses chips that were in my box got damaged during shipping and ended up in bits and pieces all over the box. I greatly enjoyed picking those pieces out and devouring them. Molasses chips are one of my favorite See’s products. They’re a thin brittle sweetened with honey and molasses and covered in chocolate, and they are divine. They come in dark and milk, and while I prefer the dark, I still love the milk. A ZOMG! for either iteration. You can see them in the below photo of a box I bought myself over a year ago. They’re the four thin rectangles on the left. You can also buy them by themselves, in a mixed assorted box or in milk and dark boxes.

The other See’s chocolate that I do not have a photo of is their Scotchmallow. The Scotchmallow is  absolutely, hands-down my favorite See’s product, and I have no photo of it because I am saving mine for a special occasion. An ex-boyfriend of mine loves them (in fact, he’s the one who introduced me to them), and I knew he really liked me when he was willing to share his beloved Scotchmallows with me. See how seriously I take my Scotchmallows? They’re even at the top of my all time favorite candies list.

They also come in bar form, as in the photo above, in heart form for Valentine’s Day and in egg form for Easter, but the round chocolate form in their assorted chocolates selection is really the best, I think, as it gets the proportions just right: thick squishy honey marshmallow over a wonderfully butterscotchy caramel, all enrobed in dark chocolate… If you couldn’t see it coming, it gets a ZOMG! like whoa.

So after all this See’s reviewing, what would go in my ideal custom box? At least two sets of dark molasses chips, a set of milk molasses chips, a dark cocoanut, a dark pattie (which I didn’t get to try), a dark almond and a dark peanut, a milk almond and a milk peanut, a caramel with almonds, a couple of marzipans, a dark nougat, a butterscotch square, and fill the rest of the box to the brim with Scotchmallows. The next time I’m in a See’s store, that’ll be exactly what I’ll order (plus a few Scotch kisses, Almond Royals, and Toffee-ettes).

I can’t stress enough how great a value See’s is. They may not be as fancy or as dazzlingly pretty as some of the more expensive chocolates that I’ve tried, but you really can’t beat paying just under $20 a pound for great tasting chocolate. Even I can afford that. And as a bonus, at that price, you don’t feel so bad when you come across one that you don’t love.

Ever since someone brought my family a can of See’s Almond Royal as a hostess gift, See’s Candies has been a Li family favorite. When we were on the West Coast last winter, we made sure to visit at least one See’s store to load up. I’ve also previously reviewed one of their chocolate fundraiser bars when one of the boys next door had a whole case.

When See’s emailed asking if I wanted a free box of their chocolates to review, I of course said yes. A couple of days later, I received an entire pound of their assorted chocolates. Because you can create your own custom mix, either online or in the See’s store, I shall review them piece by piece over the course of this week.

The Dark Chocolate Butter is a chocolate buttercream enrobed in See’s dark chocolate couverture. The buttercream inside is fluffy, sweet, and pretty cocoa-y. Along with the dark chocolate coating, this was overly sweet for my taste, but it was good. An O from me, but most people have a higher tolerance for sweetness than I do, and I can see others enjoying it.

Maple Walnut is a maple buttercream with English walnuts. It reminded me of the chocolate covered maple sugar candy from The Big E that I reviewed a while back, but better, as it was less cloying, and you could still taste the chocolate. The buttercream had a strong maple sugar flavor, and it was on the crumbly side for a buttercream. The crunchy walnuts tempered the sweetness a bit. Another O from me.

The Dark Nougat contains honey nougat, coconut, vanilla, and almonds. The honey nougat was more like a chewy caramel, and I liked the almond crunch. It was like a Snicker’s bar, just with dark chocolate and almonds. I enjoyed the balance of nutty and salty and crunchy and chewy, earning this an OM.

I’m pretty sure the above is a Butterscotch Square, which See’s describes as a “firm brown sugar, vanilla buttercream.” I’m assuming that means a brown sugar and vanilla buttercream? This was a sweet milk chocolate over a brown sugar center. It was throat-burningly sweet, but I actually liked it, for the same reasons that I’ll sneak a few grains of brown sugar by itself while making my morning oatmeal. And I enjoy See’s milk chocolate couverture, which is creamy without being too sweet. An OM for this guy, even though I couldn’t eat more than a bit at a time.

Come back on Wednesday and Friday as we go through the rest of the box!

I’ve reviewed Vosges several times on this blog now, so it’s no secret that I love the brand but wish that it were more affordable. Then again, I guess it would be less special if it weren’t a splurge.

The Naga Bar, comprised of “sweet Indian curry powder, coconut flakes, and deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao,” is certainly special, thanks to its unique combination of ingredients. The blurb on the back boasts, “named and inspired by the tribes of Northeast India, taste the flavors of toasted milk, sweet Indian curry, nutty coconut, and an overall sensation of warm, rounded spice.”

Like all the Vosges bars in my mini library, this bar came sealed inside a silver bag inside the above box, which did its duty of preserving each bar’s flavors and preventing flavor mixing. Visually, the bar is quite pretty with all those abstract curves in its molding. The bar has a strong curry smell and a softish snap (it is milk chocolate, after all). There’s a slight graininess in the chocolate due to the coconut flakes, which are tiny and thin but still visually noticeable.

The curry flavor is definitely present, though it doesn’t taste as strongly as it smells. The coconut flakes pair well with the curry. I don’t know about the word “warm” to describe the spices, as I associate “warm” with the heat of chili spiciness, but I do get an overall mellow spice feel. It reminds me of Thai coconut curry.

Finally, the milk chocolate was on the sweet side but not overly so. I’d give this bar an OM. It’s nice, and I highly recommend it for the unique novelty factor, but it’s not a bar I would revisit for snacking purposes.

The folks at Oh! Nuts were kind enough to send me a few bags of their bulk candy. They seem to specialize in event planning, as evidenced by their wedding candy section and their convenient candy by color section. But for me, it was their assorted malted milk balls that caught my eye. As I’ve noted before, I adore malt and malt candies.

Even though my shipment was completely free, it still arrived carefully packaged and in great shape. I was a bit concerned about them sitting around my apartment’s mailbox (indoors, but right by the front door) in the New Haven summer, but I needn’t have worried. The box was insulated with styrofoam and included several still cool gel packs. The candies arrived in Oh! Nuts branded resealable zip bags (greatly appreciated) with a content label on the back.

I specifically requested the pumpkin spice malted milk balls because I love pumpkin pie and pumpkin spiced things. In the fall, the Cheesecake Factory has a seasonal pumpkin cheese cake that I think is to die for, and I once made pumpkin oatmeal cookies that I couldn’t stop eating. So I had high hopes for these guys.

At room temperature, they were a bit of a letdown, as they tasted more of the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger) that go into pumpkin pie than of pumpkin. They were good and texturally wonderful, with a light, malty, crispy center, but I wished for more pumpkin-ness. Then I had the good fortune to stick the remainder of my bag in the fridge. Once chilled, the spice flavor grew stronger, and a bit of pumpkinness came through, elevating these from an O to an OM.

The coconut malted milk balls arrived without my specific request for them. I was a bit dubious about them, as I generally don’t like coconut flavored things. They tend to be too waxy and artificial tasting for my taste. I was also suspicious of the white coating, as I also tend to dislike white chocolate. The coconut malted milks balls, however, turned out to be divine, which just goes to show that you shouldn’t discriminate against candy by making generalizations (though I think I’m safe with saying I’ll never like black licorice).

Like the pumpkin spice malted milk balls, the coconut ones had crisp and crunchy centers. The coconut flavored coating didn’t taste fake like that of a Mounds bar. Instead, it was fresh and creamy and reminded me of the coconut milk I used to love to chug down until I learned that coconut milk is chock full of saturated fat. I could not stop popping these, so they get an OMG.

Both 1-pound bags of malted milk balls quickly disappeared into the bellies of the members of… the YPMB, but the coconut ones disappeared first (though to be fair, I did talk them up more than the pumpkin spice ones), making me wish I had set aside more for myself before I brought them out to share. Thanks, Oh! Nuts, for making me popular with my friends and keeping my band happily fed and entertained (they kept shouting “Oh! Nuts!”).