Category Archives: Chocolate Bars

Nestle Treasures Creamy Caramel

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Switzerland-born Nestle arrived on the chocolate scene in 1866. Their century and a half of candy experience has given them an edge over the competition and established their brand name worldwide—but did you know that Nestle also creates baby food, powdered drink mix, and bottled water? As their product line has become more diverse, it’s still chocolate that they are most associated with.

Nestle Treasures are among the best filled chocolates on the market. If you haven’t tried these yet, get out to your supermarket and buy a bag—or four. Twelve-ounce bags are filled with individually foil-wrapped, chocolate nuggets that look like mini bars of gold. For bonafide chocolate lovers, that’s not too far off from what they actually are. Unwrapping the royal-purple wrapper, you can feel the inner majesty of the candy begin to surface and alert your senses to one fact: you are about to taste something amazing. Biting into the chocolate chunk, you unearth a creamy caramel fountain. This candy brings a milky sweetness that is the perfect ending to any meal. You can get by on just one—but you won’t want to stop there.

Part of Nestle’s Signatures brand, Treasures also come in full-size candy bars. They are also excellent for baking delicious cookies and brownies, and are available in flavors like chocolate crème, peanut butter, and the new dark chocolate caramel. Your best bet is to just buy the assorted bag and enjoy all of the varieties because you won’t want to miss any of them. I’ve sampled all of the filling flavors and would enthusiastically award peanut butter First Place. Caramel gets the Second Place ribbon, and chocolate crème comes in a close Third. All in all, these candies are the most appropriately named candies out there. Does a Snickers really taste like a “Snicker?” Who knows. But these are most definitely, as the name suggests, treasures to be uncovered.

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Dark Chocolate M&M’s

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“Name Something That Melts in Your Mouth, But Not in Your Hand.” The M&M brand has been around since 1941, and its corner on today’s candy market is substantial. The first chocolate candy that comes to mind for many—in fact, I think you’d find it as the Number One Answer if you were asked on Family Feud to name the best-selling chocolate candy.

Traditional M&M’s just got a little scarier. Popularized by an Addams Family advertising campaign, Dark Chocolate M&M’s are just another twist on the candy-coated chocolates the world has grown to love. Each colorful candy is printed with the famous, white-printed “m” logo with the word “dark” just below. The same candy crunch is there, but the chocolate is richer, darker, and more satisfying—just as dark chocolate fans would expect. Imagine eating a bag of candy-coated semisweet chocolate chips. That’s what you can expect in this product.

You can buy M&M’s pretty much anywhere candy is sold, but you may have to look a little harder for the dark chocolate variety. You can always get them online at www.candydirect.com.

I bought a small bag at a gas station and expected to have the thing completely gone by the by the end of my commute home from work. Instead, I had some to share and a handful to save for later—and I felt completely satisfied of my chocolate craving. Not many milk chocolate products can attain such excellent results, but Dark M&M’s really knocked that craving out of the ballpark. The only complaint about these candies is that they seemed a bit small, though I’m sure they are the same size as normal M&M’s. It may be that I’m just spoiled on the peanut-filled ones.

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Reese’s NutRageous

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Housed under parent company Hershey’s, the Reese’s brand is synonymous with peanut butter. The original Reese cup has been available since 1928—almost a century. H.B. Reese invented the popular chocolate shell with peanut butter filling. It has changed a great deal over the years with countless variations on the original. But the fame the Reese’s brand attained in the candy marketplace is due to this original success story: the peanut butter cup that changed the world.

How could the company branch out from their signature Reese’s Pieces and Peanut Butter Cup and tempt the public in new ways? Could they pack chocolate and peanut butter into a candy bar in a way that would be inventive enough and tasty enough to grab the public’s attention? Packing in fresh roasted peanuts seemed to be the ticket. But they didn’t stop there. Caramel and peanut butter round out the innards of the candy log. Milk chocolate coats the delicious invention. Wrap it all up in the classic orange-colored label with a bright blue nameplate, and you have NutRageous. Candy consumers have been buying up this bar since it was unleashed on the public in 1994. If you haven’t tried it–where have you been?

I love the NutRageous bar. It’s crunchy and truly satisfying, like a Snickers. In fact, I’d place it in line just behind Reese cups to meet my cravings for peanut buttery goodness. What makes this bar so all-the-rage? Definitely the rich peanut butter. You just can’t go wrong with peanut-creaminess and milk chocolate. In fact, I didn’t realize caramel was also one of the dominant ingredients until I read the packaging. If this candy-combo sounds up your alley, you’ll most likely buy NutRageous again and again. This is a genuine favorite candy bar of many connoisseurs, so you will be in good company if you find yourself adding the word “nutrageous” to your vocabulary—and your shopping list.

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Hershey S’mores

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“Kum-Ba-Yah my Lord . . . Kum-Ba-Yah.” If you find yourself with the strange urge to sing campfire songs when you eat this candy, you won’t be alone. Hershey’s S’mores candy bar was born in 2003. The “snack size” 1.65-ounce treat is the one you’re most likely to find on display in grocery store aisles. The new candy bar was met with such success that a king-size bar rolled off production lines the next year.

Whatever size you choose, you’ll fine a new creation in Hershey’s S’mores. Unlike the traditional s’more eaten over a campfire, the graham cracker here is on the inside. Hershey’s chocolate gets wrapped around a layer of graham cracker bits topped with marshmallow. So bundle up in a sweater, cozy up by the fire, and rip open this candy bar! The ghost stories can wait until you’re done. And you don’t even need to nuke it in the microwave. Just to clarify, please don’t microwave this s’more, or you’ll find yourself with a big mess to clean up!

I think the Hershey’s S’mores bar offers enough variation from a plain chocolate bar to sell on the market. But marshmallow isn’t at the top of most consumers’ top tastes—probably right up there with coconut, which is a kind of love it or hate it flavor for most people. Graham cracker is a brilliant yet overlooked candy bar component—many more candy companies choose some type of wafer, nougat, or crisped rice for their chocolate complement. But it’s the combination of chocolate with these two unlikely ingredients—graham cracker and marshmallow—that makes this bar stand apart in the market. I’m prone to eating other s’mores flavored products, like Quaker Chewy Granola bars, but Hershey’s knows how to put out an even more tasty indulgence. Overcome the temptation to pick up your staple candy bar and give Hershey’s S’mores a shot.

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Caramello Bar

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If Cadbury Eggs were sold year-round, all of our wallets would be in trouble. Strong seasonal sales have only encouraged England’s Cadbury corporation to release tasty temptations all year long. An expert in filled chocolates since the 1800s, Cadbury produces the United Kingdom’s current-best-selling chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk. In order to bring Cadbury over to the United States, Hershey’s gained the rights to make and sell Cadbury products nationwide. Americans picked up on the trend—they love Cadbury candies like the Royal Dark bar, Roasted Almond Bar, Fruit & Nut Bar, Crème Eggs, Caramel Eggs, and Caramello Bars.

The 1.6-ounce Caramello is a staple in many grocery and convenience store checkout aisles, and you can buy larger 4-ounce bars in movie theaters. Although each bar is filled with smooth, dripping caramel, each candy bar comes in sections (chocolate “pockets”) that are easy to break off and share without the filling oozing out. Though, once you sink your teeth into this delectable chocolate bar, sharing will probably be the last thing on your mind.

I’ve always loved Caramello bars, because there is really nothing like them outside of the Cadbury brand. The quality of chocolate is top notch. The caramel is so creamy and silky, and the bar has an undeniable melt-in-your-mouth quality. It’s like staring at uncharted lands or watching the ocean waves roll forward and backward. Eating this candy bar isn’t like going to the mall or going to a movie. It’s more rare and unique—like going on vacation. And you wouldn’t truly appreciate a vacation if you went all the time—right? It’s the same with a candy that you eat it all the time. Saving it for a special occasion makes it all the more special. Make Caramello bars your “vacation” candy—the one you eat to really get away from the “daily grind” and escape to a land of milk and cocoa.

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Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough Bites

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It’s long been in my mind that eating raw cookie dough is bad for you. Whether or not that is merely an old wives’ tale, I can’t say. But when I saw cookie dough in a candy box for sale in the movie theater, I knew I wanted to try it. Because I’m a budget shopper, I waited until I could find the movie theater boxes on sale at my local dollar store. I stocked up on Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough Bites, and bought extras for stocking stuffers. I later found out that these cookie dough candies come in three other varieties: peanut butter cookie dough, chocolate chip cookie dough, and a dark-chocolate-covered version of the chocolate chip cookie dough. Tongue twister or not, I was ready to start eating.

I opened up the box to find tiny bites of chocolicious dough, raw as can be, covered in an outer layer of milk chocolate. The outside was shiny and polished, like chocolate covered raisins or peanuts. But I much preferred what was inside this candy shell. Delicious cookie dough, just like mom always made. I bit into another, and another. These movie-theater boxes give you plenty of candy to share with friends, or you may want to save some for later. I nursed that box for as long as I could, stashed it in my sock drawer for those chocolate cravings, and brought it out again and again. The best part: you don’t have to sneak some from the bowl when nobody is looking. Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough Bites are perfectly safe to eat. How so? There are no eggs in the secret recipe, which is mainly flour, chocolate chips, and vanilla. Now that’s a brilliant idea.

I’ve tried a few other candies that are made to taste like cookies, and I haven’t always been pleased with the result. But if you buy Cookie Dough Bites, a product of the Taste of Nature candy company, you’ll be satisfied with any flavor. Just don’t try to bake them, or you’ll have a melted pile of cookie dough candy.

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Sixlets

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Brought to us by SweetWorks, Sixlets are the type of candy you loved as a kid and still get the urge to try every now and then. They were a product of Hershey’s until 2003, when the chocolate giant sold the product to SweetWorks, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida. These tiny candy-coated chocolate balls are smaller than M&Ms with a bit less chocolate taste. The cocoa-carob recipe lends to a malted milk ball flavor. You’ll find these plastic-wrapped candy tubes in grocery store aisles, convenience stores, and dollar stores, but they are fairly difficult to find in some states. They come in autumn colors: red, yellow, green, orange, and brown. Different flavors are slightly distinguishable from the candy shells, but the orange one has the strongest flavor. The others taste mostly like sugar, with thicker candy shells than M&Ms. And though some candies claim to melt in your mouth (not in your hand), Sixlets definitely will melt in your hand.

SweetWorks produces various chocolates, hard candies, jawbreakers, and gums, including Chocolate Oranges, Niagara Chocolates, and kids’ candy like Nitwitz Banana Heads. Though the Sixlets package claims the candy is manufactured by Oak Leaf Confections (one of Sweetworks’ brands), it is not featured on Oak Leaf’s website. Perhaps the candy brand is in transition still as Sweetworks figures out which products it will market where.

Even if it is somewhat of a mystery where Sixlets come from, the package is endearing and features a friendly caterpillar with a body made of Sixlets candies and a smile that says “dig in.?? And with that kind of an invitation, how could I resist? These tiny chocolate beads do give off more of a malted taste than I prefer, but I love how tiny they are. You can really pop in several at a time and make the nearly 2-ounce package last and last. Whether you are trying Sixlets for the first time or are picking up a pack for nostalgia’s sake, these little candies are unique, offering something different from M&Ms. But one question remains: If they are “Sixlets,?? why only five colors?

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Wonka Bar

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Have a hankering for a golden ticket? You may not find one under the wrapper, but you will discover a gold outer wrapper sealing in the chocolate and graham cracker goodness that is the Wonka Bar. Produced by Nestle, the Wonka Bar and other Wonka candies are pure fun for fans of the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or the 2005 Johnny Depp movie of the same name. (The 1971 Gene Wilder film was named differently: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.) In all of the above stories, young Charlie Bucket finds hope and a golden ticket inside the wrapper of a Wonka Bar, which leads him on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Wonka’s candy factory. For any child or adult who knows the story, there’s a certain magic that comes with opening up a Wonka candy bar, or sucking on an Everlasting Gobstopper. They may imagine themselves on a boat ride through a chocolate river, or even utter those nonsensical words: “Oompah, loompah, doopity doo.??

The Wonka Bar comes in two sizes, 1.3 or 2.6 ounces. The bar is pure milk chocolate with crunchy graham cracker pieces inside. Sectioned off like a Hershey bar, you can break it off and eat just a square at a time, which is great. I love this chocolate bar, and not just for the nostalgia factor. It’s smooth and chocolately without being boring. The crunchy graham cracker adds significant flavor without taking away from the chocolate.

You may not have realized, but many Nestle products have the Wonka name attached to them. Pixy Stix, Lik-M-Aid, Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Runts, Bottle Caps, Shockers, Tart ‘N Tinys, and Gobstoppers are all Wonka brand products, which only increases the fun factor of these already fun candies. And the Wonka Company, which opened in 1983, still runs golden ticket sweepstakes from time to time, giving away prizes like a trip to see the American Idol finale and results show. But whether or not you can afford just one Wonka Bar or a thousand, the chances of finding a golden ticket are slim. Lucky for you, the chocolate bar is incentive enough.

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After Eight Dark Chocolate Thin Mints

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From the moment I saw the package that these mints arrived in, I was intrigued. The elegant black and green box is only a hint of the upscale candy that was waiting on the inside. The entire package – the box, the name, and the candy itself – is a perfect combination that makes you feel like the upper crust of society just by popping one of these after-dinner mints in your mouth. Once I opened the box, I was surprised to find that each mint was individually wrapped in a brown, waxy-like paper, too. I knew that the taste I was about to experience was going to be one that I would undoubtedly enjoy.

These mints reminded me of the ones that I would buy when I was with my parents at the restaurant. They were in a jar by the cash register and they cost like five cents. Although the After Eight Dark Chocolate Thin Mints have a much better taste, they still bring back a sense of nostalgia to those good ol’ days when I had not worries and I had to ask if I could buy a mint for a nickel.

The convenient box contains 25 individually wrapped after-dinner thin mints with a strong minty inside. Made by Nestle’s European Chocolate Company branch, these mints not only taste chocolate and minty, but they also help to freshen your breath and give your mouth that cool feeling. They also have a gooey quality to them that makes them fun to set on your tongue and wait until the chocolate melts, leaving only the mint taste. At one time, they were deemed England’s finest mints, but now they are available in over 60 countries, including the United States and Canada.

Since each mint only has one gram of fat, you can savor a few of these at the end of each dinner. With the elegant box, these are also a great gift idea for Christmas or any other occasion. You just can’t go wrong when you give me candy as a gift.

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Frank Ford Eggs – Real Milk Chocolate

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One of my favorite things about the Frank Ford Eggs is that they are a no-frills candy. With all of the many combinations to choose from nowadays, it’s hard to just find something that is plain milk chocolate without almonds, caramel, or any other addition to the creamy goodness that is just plain milk chocolate. The Frank Ford Eggs satisfied my desire for this. These candies are just simple milk chocolate balls (or eggs, rather, since it is almost Easter and they are more oblong than balls) and they just melt in your mouth like chocolate is supposed to do. The milk chocolate used in these candies is much better than plain chocolate, too. Rather than leaving a bitter taste in your mouth the way that plain chocolate does, milk chocolate is creamier and has a richer and smoother texture that you will undoubtedly enjoy. Dark chocolate is simply too strong of a taste and white chocolate often does not taste like chocolate at all. Milk chocolate is the perfect medium for chocolate.

Since I’ve never heard of the Frank Ford candy company before, I was a little hesitant about what to expect. I ate one at first, but then I put the other three in my mouth at the same time. This was a great way to experience a mouthful of delicious milk chocolate that you can savor for quite a few minutes. If you buy a package of Frank Ford chocolate Easter eggs, I would suggest enjoying them several at a time. It’s fun. Or, if you would rather make them last longer (which is totally understandable once you see how good they are), you can enjoy them one by one. Either way, you will want to stock up.

The Frank Ford Eggs come in festive foil wrapping around Easter. The pastel colors – blue, pink, green, and yellow – attract your eyes and immediately make you think thoughts of spring. The wrapping for these chocolates is also plain. Other than the colored foil, there really is no other decoration added to the packaging. They also make a great addition to the candy dish on your coffee table because it will be a colorful display that will make your guests want to have a piece right away.

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