I cannot believe that I haven’t reviewed Walkers’ Nonsuch Toffee here yet. Walkers’ and licorice pencils were my mondo UK candy loves, and when I ordered my London-raised boyfriend several boxes of his favorite UK cereal as a special treat, I made sure to slip a few slabs of Walkers’ into my order. It’s bloody difficult to find in the U.S.
Walkers’ Nonsuch Toffee is usually sold in two ways – as individually wrapped pieces or as one big slab that you could theoretically break apart to eat. I say theoretically because it’s easier said than done. If the toffee is too soft, you can pull and pull and it just gets sticky and stringy and messy, like taffy or caramel. If it was too hard (I usually chilled it in the fridge), you could whack it against another hard surface and make it shatter, but that could also make a mess by leaving little shards of toffee everywhere, which would then melt… everywhere.
Only when you got lucky did the pieces actually tear. I usually ended up just picking up the whole slab and gnawing on it – terrible manners that usually led to overindulgence, but so, soooo good. Consequently, for me, the better choice was to buy the individually wrapped pieces. As an added bonus, those came in more flavors.
I preferred the treacle toffee to the regular. It had a darkness to the sweetness, a just-short-of bitter, medicinal tinge. Think molasses – gloriously complex, deep, and delicious. And chewy – sticks to your teeth, gets caught in every nook and cranny chewy. An OMG.
The Chocolate Toffee was only so-so. It had a more manageable chew and was basically like a super creamy Tootsie Roll. I wish I had one handy now for comparative purposes – I bet it would taste an awful lot like my calcium chew supplements. An O.
The milk chocolate eclair was basically nice standard Walkers’ toffee with a bit of mockolate in the middle. It was an interesting contrast from the chewy toffee to the soft, almost frosting-like innards, but flavor-wise it wasn’t spectacular, so also an O. Walkers’ also makes a mint chocolate eclair, which I ate and photographed but didn’t take notes on, and a banana split eclair which I remember being super banana-y and not my thing.
The treacle toffee is hands down my favorite, and the regular toffee is pretty darn good too. I wish they were available in the U.S. The others are okay for eating – the next time I’m in England, I’d gladly snatch up another mixed bag or two of them – but I like the treacle and plain better. I’ve also got a couple of slabs of hazelnut toffee that I’ve been saving for a special occassion. Mmm!
Varsha