Cadbury Wispa Gold

This is a bar that I have been wanting to try ever since Jim's review back in September, largely because it received one of the highest ratings in Chocolate Mission history (9.3!). Since I rarely disagree with Jim's opinions, I knew that this was something worth tracking down.

And let me tell you it was not terribly easy. My local British shop didn't carry the bar. And the three import shops I called in New York City were out when I was there back in late January. No, I have the fantastic Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds to thank for this bar. Cinabar and I have got a candy exchange going on, and thanks to her, I have an amazing selection of U.K. items to review!



Beyond Jim's glowing review, the bar itself had me really intrigued. It's an aerated chocolate base. (Yo!! U.S. Candy Makers! Why can we not get our own versions of aerated chocolate bars?) The aerated chocolate is topped by a layer of caramel, and then the whole thing is enrobed in smooth milk chocolate. Really, is there anything there that sounds remotely less than stellar? I thought not.

Looking at the cut-open bar, I was very impressed with the caramel. Not only is the layer surprisingly thick, but it's almost a fluid-like caramel. It's salty, and yet there is also a buttery milkiness to it.



What I loved even more about the salty caramel was that it balanced out the Cadbury milk chocolate that I normally find a little too sweet for my tastes.

The very bottom of the bar is where the aerated chocolate lives in a roughly quarter inch thick slab. It's not quite as bubbly as, say, an Aero bar (also yum)- simply because it's not as thick as an Aero bar so the mouth feel is different, but it adds a crumbly texture at the base.



The entire bar is silky smooth, from the enrobing, to the caramel, and finishing with just a little crumbliness from the aerated layer.

Best Cadbury product I have had ever.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds.

CALORIES:
260 calories per bar.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
May contain nuts and soy.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
cadbury.co.uk

Cadbury Picnic

Once again we are going to take a boat ride over to Merrie Olde England. Between Christmas gifts from my mother and my mega candy exchange with Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds, I have enough UK products to do a month's-plus of reviews. So here's just one of the many to come.

Cadbury's Picnic bar had special appeal to me because it contains my favorite underused candy additive: raisins! As popular as raisins seem to be the world over, I just don't get why they aren't used more often.

The picnic bar is a bumpy, log style bar made up of caramel, crispy cereal, raisins, and the whole thing is covered in milk chocolate.



Looking at the bar, it's rustic to the point it looks homemade. Kinda like candy hippie grandmothers might make. (I am guessing on that one, as my own grandmothers were decidedly not hippies -- although one was, I am at least 98% sure, a strega.) In any case, yeah, it's a homely bar.

Mine was oozing caramel, and that can only be a good thing. And in fact it was. The bar may not be pretty, but it has great texture. When you bite into there is both a satisfying crunch from the nuts and the crispy rice and some chew from the caramel. And the raisins are perfectly plump.

Between the peanuts and the caramel, there is a nice salty edge to the bar that works to the chocolate's advantage. I normally find Cadbury chocolate to be to sweet for my tastes, but the salt made it seem less so. It was smooth and a little grainy.



The peanuts tasted fresh and were crunchy. The puffed rice really didn't have a lot going for it in terms of flavor. If I really tried I guess, I could say it added a hint of malt -- but really it is mostly about the texture that the puffs bring. The caramel is thick and ribbony and has a very milky taste. My only complaint is that my beloved raisins are too sparse. You don't get a raisin in every bite, and that is a sad thing.

This is one of my favorite Cadbury bars yet!

Be sure to check out Jim's Chocolate Mission review here.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from my mother

CALORIES:
225 calories per bar.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Contains peanuts and milk. May contain tree nuts. Bar marked as suitable for vegetarians.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
cadbury.co.uk

Fry's Orange Cream Bar

First, my thanks to Cinabar at Foodstuff Finds for sending me this bar to review. Be sure to check out her blog!

For the one person left in the universe who somehow may not have heard my repeated proclamations: I love the combination of orange and chocolate. I love orange and chocolate the way Bert loves Ernie. (Well, maybe not quite that way...)



Fry's Orange Cream bar is a domed bar of dark chocolate with orange fondant filling. The bar itself is stark and unadorned; basically a no-frills look. At the same time, there is something very "Danish Modern" about its appearance. (I do think it's weird that the bar is imprinted with "FRY" instead of "FRY'S.")

When you break off a segment, the chocolate snaps cleanly and the bar gives off a strong smell like orange scented sugar -- and I mean that in the best possible way. It's actually a really delicious aroma. (Let me just mention, in this context, that this is going to be a really difficult review.)



The orange fondant tastes fantastic. It's really zesty. It's as if Fry's had squeezed fresh oranges right into the fondant. I really can't think of a better tasting filling I have had recently. The texture only slightly grainy, and a little sticky. I think that's a good fondant texture.

The issue is that it is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SWEET. I am not saying that my blood sugar actually shot up 50 points, but my throat is still burning and my teeth ache. Being the incredibly sane person that I am, I of course kept eating. As you get a little more into the bar it does seem to level out, but ow!

What I've noticed with all of the filled UK candy that I have had so far is that it always seems to be sweeter than its American counterparts -- so I have to wonder if I think this bar is overly sweet because it really is, or because it's just not what I'm used to. In any event, I really loved the fondant and wished that there were more candies with such a vibrant filling.

The chocolate is "meh." It's a dark chocolate; which is always great with orange. This chocolate is just mediocre. It's waxy in texture but it does have a nice snap. It's not complex. Beyond mentioning that it tastes deeper than equally middle-of-the-road milk chocolate, there's really not much to say about it.

Be sure to check out Jim's review here, and Cinabar also has a review on her site.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds.

CALORIES:
210 calories per bar.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
May contain traces of nut and dairy products. Suitable for vegetarians but not vegans.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
cadbury.co.uk

Stride Eternal Melon Gum

Stride rings in 2010 with another new flavor.

If the last new flavor -- Mega Mystery -- made me think about Scooby Doo, then Eternal Melon made me think of teenage girls circa 1985. I am not sure why. It just sounds like something a crimped haired, neon legginged, Madonna listening (you know, before she started drinking the blood of virgins to stay "young"), Facts Of Life watching, Lisa Frank loving girl would chew while fantasizing about waking up in Molly Ringwald's body à la one of those zany "switch" movies that were so popular in that era...

Not that I ever did any of those things, mind you. I am far cooler than that and always have been. Just so we're clear on this, understand?



Wrapped in bright lime green paper lies an equally green stick of gum. The gum smells like a cross between powdered fruit punch and one those canned car air fresheners that have names like "California Sunset."



But how does it taste?

You know those little blocks of sawdust-looking stuff inside of those cans of air freshener? I've never felt the need to lick one, but I can't help wondering how close the taste would be to this. True to the name, there is a melon flavor -- but it's vague and hard to identify. If I had to guess, I'd say it's kind of like a cantaloupe. But I am only guessing. There is another flavor there that I couldn't identify at all. I want to say pineapple, but I am nowhere near sure of it.



It's also a little tart at first. I am not going to lie to you: it starts out tasting pretty nasty, but as the flavor wanes ever so slightly, it seems to get sweeter and better tasting. It's a Stride gum, so the flavor lasts a ridiculously long amount of time...it takes a good ten or fifteen minutes to mellow out. If you can ride out the weird flavor it opens with, it actually does end up tasting all right. And therein lies the problem with this gum -- the strangeness of the initial taste. If it actually started the way it ends up, it would have gotten a much higher rating.

Now if you don't mind, I have to go switch sides on my Debbie Gibson tape.



PURCHASED FROM:
Stater Brothers supermarket

Stride Mega Mystery Gum

Something about this gum gives me a very strong Scooby Doo vibe.

Maybe it's the word "mystery" in the name. Maybe it's the groovy tie-dye colors on the wrapper. Maybe it's the slightly fruity smell. (I am just saying there's no way that Fred was actually into Daphne...wear your ascot with fabulous pride, Fred!)



Each stick of gum is packaged in the standard Stride chewing portion. They have individual wrappers that remind me of bad casino carpeting, circa 1968. And once you actually smell the gum up close, you notice that it is still fruity -- but there's also a little citrus/sugar thing going on. It actually reminds me of the smell of Kraft FunMallows (which are a sort of fruit flavored, pastel colored marshmallow).



But how did it taste?

I think I would rather chew a Scooby Snack. The taste is sort of like orange powered fiber drink mix meets random citric acid meets peach meets I-drank-too-much-last-night-and-this-is-my-offering-to-my-porcelain-god aftertaste. And that's being diplomatic. Additionally, thanks to Stride's incredible flavor longevity, it fails to wane after even half an hour.



I still don't know what it was supposed to taste like, and I don't care to find out. This can remain a Mega Mystery, because above all else it's a Mega Fail.



PURCHASED FROM:
Walgreens

Cadbury Crunchie

Brit Week marches on (in one of those fuzzy black hats that are taller than me) with a bar that I am very excited about: the Cadbury Crunchie!

Why? Two words: sponge toffee! (Basically, it's crunchy, aerated toffee that looks rather like a sponge -- Cadbury calls it "honeycomb.")

There are not many candy additives that, when added to a bar, instantly pique my interest -- and sponge toffee is one of those. (Another is raisins. Mostly because they're just not used enough.) I very rarely dislike it. Also because this was a bar that Jim rated very highly, and for the most part we have very similar tastes (except he loves white chocolate and I tolerate it at best). You can read Jim's review here. Cybele reviewed the bar as well, and you can see her review here.



Cadbury Crunchie is slab of sponge toffee covered in milk chocolate. A fun factoid for you: acccording to the Wikipedia entry, the slabs are cut using "a highly focused jet of oil" (blades would cause the slab to break; water would make it soggy). Kinda sounds like a James Bond villain torture device to me. One that would be used personally by the villain, whilst giving Bond a farewell speech so long that Bond would not only have time to escape, bed at least two women (possibly at the same time), stop for lunch, get a tux fitting, teach a master cocktail making class, stop home and feed the cat, and then kill said evil villain before it ever got used. (Bond villains never think these things through -- which clearly proves there has never been a Bond villain who was also a nerdy blogger.)



Looking at the cross section of the bar, it does have a nice caramelized center color. The layer of chocolate is thickest on the top, but the bottom and sides are nicely covered, with no exposed bits. The scent of the bar is merely the standard sugary-sweet smell that all Cadbury chocolate seems to have.

Biting into the bar you can break it cleanly, but the sponge toffee center starts to melt immediately. It's malty, and there's just a hint of caramel flavor. The easiest way to describe the taste of the center would be to tell you it's like burnt marshmallow. Do you people have any idea how much I LOVE burnt marshmallow? The airy texture resembles every other malt ball on the planet, but it seems lighter to me. More like a meringue.

The chocolate is very sweet (all Cadbury chocolate seems a little too sweet for me) but it has a good milk flavor to it. Not real milk, mind you. I will call again on my Starship Enterprise replicator version of powdered milk analogy. The chocolate is cool on the tongue and does melt smoothly and quickly.

Even though I may not be the biggest fan of the chocolate, in this case it worked well enough. And maybe it's for the best that it was a little too sugary for me, because otherwise if it had a really high end milk chocolate, I might begin to resemble Jabba the Hutt a little too closely for my own liking. This is how much I liked the bar: I finished it in one sitting and refused to share more than the smallest of nibbles. Thank goodness I can get this bar close to home!



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from my Mom

Cadbury Flake

I've actually tried a Cadbury Flake bar before, but I didn't review it -- I don't remember why. Nowadays I find it hard to recall a time when I ate something new and didn't write about it, so I am not sure what happened there.

Cadbury Flake is a long bar of milk chocolate that looks sort of like a large twig. The bar is comprised of many thin layers of chocolate that has kind of curled up on itself (sort of like crayon shavings). According to Cadbury's website, Flake was invented when one of the factory workers noticed how the excess chocolate that came out of the molds folded down into flakes (gee, wonder if that's where the name comes from?). Kinda like chocolate dandruff, if you will. As best I can tell, the chocolate dandruff is then pressed together to form the bars into a sort of chocolate particle board. (Oh, how the people at Cadbury must love me right about now.) What I am not sure of is whether Flake bars are made with the "leave-ems" of other Cadbury products, or if chocolate flakes are created specifically for Flake bars.



The bar has a very sugary, but only vaguely chocolate smell. In terms of flavor, it is an über-sweet milk chocolate. I also noticed more of a malty quality than I have tasted in other Cadbury chocolates, such as Dairy Milks or even the Curly Wurly. What killed it for me is that the flavor within the bar is inconsistent. Parts of it tasted nutty, other parts were weirdly peppery (this in my mind supports my Frankenchocolate theory). And the melt is on the grainy side.



This bar is all about the texture. As soon as you bite into the bar, it proves true to its name. There are loose chocolate flakes everywhere. Take a lesson from me: do not eat this anywhere near a keyboard unless you really like melted chocolate on your keys -- in which case, rock on with your bad self. What chocolate does make it into your mouth splinters off into about a zillion pieces. It's like little splinters of chocolate all melting at once. I don't much like the taste, but I love the texture (minus the mess).

If they ever did a version of this with some really good chocolate, it would be a dangerous thing in my world. As is...well, as I said, I really liked the texture.

Be sure to check out Jim's review here. I think he liked the bar more than I did.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from my mother

Cadbury Curly Wurly

I chose to start off Brit Week with the Cadbury Curly Wurly bar. Mostly because the wrapper was bright and shiny, and I like bright and shiny things. (Oooh silver swirls, wheeeee...) Besides, having a name that sounds like an amusement park ride run by possibly sinister carnies just waiting to squat in your house (sorry, too much Simpsons) is pretty irresistible.




The shape was unusual. The Curly Wurly is an incredibly long, flat and thin bar, which made it more interesting to me. The caramel is done in a latticed design that is then enrobed in chocolate. My bar was broken, but let's remember that it traveled from the U.K. to Georgia in the U.S., and then from Georgia to California...so all things considered, it survived reasonably well.



The milk chocolate coating seemed sweeter than typical American milk chocolate. The chocolate does have that general "milkiness" that Cadbury chocolate is known for. To me the milk flavor is less like real milk and more like powdered milk. It has a smooth texture and melts nicely in your mouth (and on your fingers). Honestly, the chocolate was merely a forgettable prelude to the caramel, as far as I was concerned.



What I really liked about this bar was indeed the caramel. It was thick and solid -- but in a chewy way that yielded easily to being bitten. It's buttery but not overly sweet. There's sort of a wheaty taste that reminded me of Goetze's Bulls-Eyes.

But melt was a lot better than Goetze's. I liked that the caramel wasn't too sweet, and that it had barely any graininess to it. But what made it so addicting for me was the chew. It starts to melt the moment its in your mouth, but not so quickly that there isn't a slightly sticky chew. It's just a great texture. I really liked this bar.

Believe it or not, Jim has never reviewed this bar -- but he did review a smaller version called Curly Wurly Squirlies.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from my mother

Cadbury Mini Yule Logs

We are going to make another trip across the pond for this review. Inspired by Jim, I tracked down one of the many cake offerings that Cadbury makes in the U.K.



The Mini Yule Logs cakes feature a very thin layer of chocolate coating over a roll of chocolate sponge cake, with a chocolate butter-cream frosting swirled in the center. Even though the box photo doesn't show it, each log is also dusted in powdered sugar.



I was hoping that these rolls would be like an edible, imported version of David Tennant:



(Hey David! I got something I'd like to show you over in the TARDIS... ) But I must admit, I was also slightly worried I would be disappointed and get something more like Mr. Bean than Dr. Who-let-you-out-of-my-room.



What a careless worry!

The thing that first caught my taste buds is that the cakes seem to have a nice cocoa powder taste to them. This is good, as it cuts any excess sweetness that might overpower the other flavors. And the chocolate has a good milky quality.

The outer chocolate melts in your mouth. It's just sweet enough that it takes the bitter edge of the cocoa flavor off. The cake roll inside is moist. The butter-cream keeps the crumbs in check and reminded me of fudge. Slightly grainy and a little more deeply flavored then the other layers.

Everything about this roll is good! Now how do I get David to wrap himself in one and show up at my door...




PURCHASED FROM:
The British Emporium (Upland, CA)

Cadbury Irish Creme Bar

I don't know why I even bother to try anything new by Cadbury.

I know that the brand is practically worshipped overseas but I couldn't tell you why.

The Irish Cream bar is no exception. The chocolate is grainy, overly sweet and is so waxy it probably does not melt when left on the dashboard of a black car parked in the midday sun of a Phoenix afternoon.

I will concede that Irish Creme that is buried under a respectable coat of that vile chocolate does in fact have a nice flavor. They captured a rich, creamy, Bailey's like taste- but frankly I would rather just guzzle down some "real" Bailey's for a much tastier fix.

Nice idea but better to skip this bar.