King Leo Choco-Orange Crisps

First, a big thank you to the good people at Quality Candy for sending out a rather ginormous box of items to review. There are some really interesting items in that box, but all it took were two words to make me decide this would be the first. And those words were: Choco-Orange.

Orange and chocolate -- much like Bert and Ernie -- should never be separated in my mind. These are large squares; each about as big as a bite-sized Kellogg's Mini Wheat. They have an outer orange flavored candy shell and an inner chocolate flavored center. Wait...what was that again? Yes, I said chocolate flavored. That was disappointing right up front. King Leo makes many chocolate products, so I am unsure why they went the mockolate route with this particular candy. OK...be not afraid...



I have to give this candy its due: it has a beautiful outer shell. It's as glossy as enamel, and the stripes are vividly colored. Flavor-wise, it's got a nice and zesty orange tang to it. In fact, it's almost a Creamsicle flavor. The shell would make a perfectly good hard candy all by itself.



Breaking through the shell to the mockolate: in terms of flavor, it actually is rather chocolate-like. There is more of a cocoa flavor (and it does in fact contain cocoa powder) than anything else. It can almost -- and the key word here is "almost" -- pass for low end chocolate. It's the texture that throws it off. It seizes up in your mouth if you let it melt rather than chew it, and it gets grainy once it seizes. But if you simply chew through, you can skip the worst of it and just get the orange/chocolate-like taste.

If this had been made with real chocolate, I would have been blown away because the outer shell is just that good. As it is, the outer shell is still great, but the inner portion is more or less a distraction that I simply muddled through just to eat the shell.

There was great potential here. Sadly, that potential goes unrealized.



PURCHASED FROM:
Sample from company

CALORIES:
60 calories per 3 piece serving.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Made on equipment shared with peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, and wheat.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
qcandy.com