Cadbury Crunchie

I’ve had handmade honeycomb candy before, but never anything mass produced. So the Crunchie was a little new to me. Unlike handmade honeycomb, which has bubbles of various sizes in various places, the bubble structure of the Crunchie is very consistent. The bubbles are very small along the sides and grow larger toward the center.

The center is crisp, crunchy, and dissolves easily in the mouth. It’s sweet and buttery with some faint burnt sugar notes. I rather enjoyed the first couple bites, but it became too sweet by the third. I would probably like this better in a mini size.

While I definitely prefer handmade honeycomb, I think this has it’s place. That being said, it’s not readily available to me, so I don’t see myself picking it up again.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 1 bar. Each serving contains 210 calories, 8.5g of fat, 31g of sugar, and 3g of protein.

Rating: 6/10

Name: Crunchie
Brand: Cadbury
Store: World Market
Price: $0.99

Cadbury Fruit and Nut

I eat a lot of fruit and nuts. All that healthy goodness – it’s how I rebound from all the candy. But I’m not delusional; I don’t think that adding fruit and nuts to candy suddenly makes it healthy. Still, nuts are some of the best compliments to chocolate. I generally don’t do chocolate with fruit, with a few exceptions. I like fresh fruit dipped in chocolate (strawberries, bananas). I also like Raisinets, but those are more about the raisins than the chocolate.

This is my first fruit and nut bar. Apparently, in the Cadbury-Hershey world, fruit and nuts are limited to raisins and almonds. Somehow, I feel cheated. Isn’t that nuts in the plural? I guess I should have read the fine print.

The almonds are great. They are fresh, crunchy, and abundant enough to add a rich nuttiness to the classic dairy-heavy Cadbury chocolate.

The raisins, on the other hand, aren’t really working for me. They add an unpleasant chew and, if you get a big enough piece, an unpalatable burst of searing sweetness. I have a high tolerance for sweetness, but it applies mostly to sweet chocolate, not the super-sugary sweetness of sugar-coated dried fruit.

So, fruit and nut bars probably aren’t for me. However, trying this made me realize how much I would love to try a mixed nut bar. I’m not sure what the best mix would be… almonds, peanuts, and cashews would probably go well together, but I would love to find a way to work in pistachios and hazelnuts. Mr. Goodbar Extreme, anyone?

Ingredient Watch: PGPR alert.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 10 pieces, or about one-third of the bar. Each serving contains 200 calories, 10g of fat, 22g of sugar, and 4g of protein. It also has 8% of the RDV of calcium.

Rating: 5/10

Name: Cadbury Fruit and Nut
Brand: Cadbury (by Hershey’s)
Store: Walgreens
Price: $1.50

Choxie Fiery Truffle Bar and Cadbury Irish Creme

Here are the other two pre-Christmas reviews, sans nutrition info. They’re short so I bundled them together.

Choxie Fiery Truffle Bar

This bar is spiced with ancho pepper, cinnamon, and chipotle powders. It’s a truffle bar, but there is no visible difference between the coating and the center. However, it melts very quickly in the mouth, which is a sign of a truffled center (or at least the addition of palm kernel oil).

It does taste spicy – like red pepper flakes – but it doesn’t burn my mouth. It’s also smoky, though not the same smoky that I associate with chipotle powder. It doesn’t taste very much like chocolate though. In fact, I think it tastes a bit like plastic, or a crayon. No, not appealing at all.

After this and the Frey Hot Chili Pepper, I think that spicy chocolate may not be for me.

Rating: 3/10

Name: Fiery Chocolate Truffle Bar
Brand: Choxie
Store: Target
Price: $1.80

Cadbury Irish Creme

This is your typical sweet, dairy Cadbury chocolate. The bar is split into 18 little squares, each filled with a thick creme. The creme is viscous and beige-colored. It has notes of vanilla and caramel with a kick of alcohol.

I didn’t care for the creme on it’s own, but it did work well with chocolate. It’s not something I would buy again, but it’s not bad.

Rating: 5/10

Name: Cadbury Irish Creme
Brand: Cadbury (by Hershey’s)
Store: Walgreens
Price: $0.79

Cadbury Sugar Shell Chocolates

These Cadbury chocolates are the Christmas version of Easter’s Cadbury Mini Eggs. I’m already a big fan of the Mini Eggs, and these aren’t much different. They are little spheres of Cadbury milk chocolate – sweet, dairy, and smooth. They’re quite yummy… and addicting!

The shells are crispier than an M&M. They don’t have much flavor, but I don’t expect them to. The colors are green, red, and white, and I can’t help but notice that my bag is overwhelmingly green.

The name of these bugs me. Or rather, the lack of name bugs me. I’m not sure what to call them. The bag just says Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolates with a Crisp Sugar Shell. Okay. I don’t see why these can’t be Mini Ornaments. After all, Cadbury now has an Ornament Creme Egg. You can read my post over at Sugar Savvy about that.

These contain PGPR. That makes me sad. I really love these but bad ingredients knocks it down a couple points.

Bottom line: I adore these far more than I should. But PGPR is a real turnoff. Still..

Rating: 8/10

Name: Solid Milk Chocolates (with a Crisp Sugar Shell)
Brand: Cadbury (under Hershey’s)
Store: Walgreens
Price: $1.00 (8.5oz)