Toblerone One By Ones

Toblerone One by Ones are individually wrapped Toblerone peaks. There are five varieties in the box. My box included nine milk, four white, four milk/white, three praline, and three dark for a total of 23 pieces, close to the box’s specified amount of 20 chocolates.

Dark (black): This one is a slightly fruity, semi-sweet chocolate. It’s far too sweet for my tastes — that often tends to be my problem with dark chocolate. There’s nothing to balance out the sweetness, and the actual chocolate flavors are overwhelmed. I didn’t get any of the honey or almond nougat flavors here.

Praline (red): I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this one. It’s not bad, but I was hoping for a hazelnut filling, like the Ritter Praline. Instead, it’s a milk chocolate piece with a soft milk chocolate cream filling. The innards are studded with nougat, but the outside is not — that’s how you can tell it from the milk chocolate piece when unwrapped. The taste is quite milky and a little musky. It has a truffle-like melt which is quite nice. I didn’t get the nougat much in this one either.

Milk (yellow): I like this one. I taste coconut, and I love that compliment to my chocolate. I’m not sure where the coconut flavor is coming from, but I won’t complain. The chocolate is quite milky and not too sweet. The strong dairy flavor is brightened up by the honey nougat. It’s not stellar, but it’s solid.

White (white): This is easily the milkiest white chocolate that I have ever had. The dusky milk notes really tone down the sweetness and work well with the vanilla and honey notes. I like it.

Milk/White (blue): This one is adorable. It looks like a little snowcapped mountain, which I’m sure is what they were going for. The (rather boring) name is self-explanatory. It’s a combo of the milk and white chocolates. The white chocolate brings a little more vanilla to the party, but it mostly tastes like the milk chocolate.

Overall, I liked these. They’re attractive candy dish filler, and there is a little something for everyone. I liked all the pieces aside from the dark, which wasn’t actually bad.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 5 pieces. There are 220 calories, 13g of fat, 25g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving.

Rating: 7/10

Name: Toblerone One By Ones
Brand: Kraft
Store: Wal-mart
Price: $3.88
Weight: 7.05 oz.

Ritter White Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts

My confession? I enjoy — maybe even love — white chocolate. Well, it’s not much of a confession — I’m not ashamed! It just seems that many people have a distaste for the stuff. That’s fine; everyone has their personal tastes. However, I wonder if more people would like white chocolate if they tried good (or heck, even real) white chocolate. I liken it to dark chocolate. A lot of people try Hershey’s Special Dark and avoid dark chocolate thereafter. But a nice Endangered Species bar or even a piece of Dove might turn them over to the dark side.

White chocolate is similar, but a good white chocolate is even more elusive than a good dark. The white confection that Hershey’s puts out doesn’t even qualify as white chocolate. A bit of the cocoa butter is replaced by other fats, such as tropical or hydrogenated oils. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t guiltily indulge in these things sometimes, but it really ruins the texture and flavor profile of the white chocolate.

I’ve looked around, but a good, readily-available white chocolate bar is hard to come by. I’ve tried and loved Green and Black’s, but the store no longer stocks that variety. Curses.

Enter the Ritter White Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts. It delivers real white chocolate, bits of crisped rice, and a nice chunk of hazelnut in every bite. I love the texture of this bar. The chocolate is creamy, the hazelnuts are crunchy, and the rice bits are crispy. The rice brings a hint of malt to the party, but the major flavors are the chocolate and hazelnuts, which balance each other nicely. The hazelnuts never let the chocolate become too cloying.

This may not be the epitome of white chocolate, but I love the combination with the hazelnuts, it’s inexpensive, and it’s easy for me to come by. Ritter and I are forming a nice relationship, and this could become my go-to white chocolate bar.

Show some white chocolate a little love. If he still doesn’t capture you’re heart, he’ll understand. He just wants a chance!

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 6 squares. There are 210 calories, 14g of fat (7g saturated), 17g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving.

Rating: 9/10

Name: White Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts
Brand: Ritter
Store: World Market
Price: $1.99
Weight: 3.5 oz.

Godiva Easter Eggs

Ah, more post-holiday fare. I just found these last Friday — almost two weeks after Easter! Cost Plus World Market still had a decent amount of Easter fare left over, at 75% off. I picked up a couple boxes of Lindt Chocolate Carrots and these Godiva Eggs.

I usually steer clear of Godiva. I find their products to be good, but overpriced. This box of 16 eggs was regular $16, but I got it for $4 — good deal. The net weight is 6.75 ounces, so I figure that each egg must weight about 0.4 ounces. It’s the perfect little two-bite size.

The box contains four varieties — solid milk chocolate (gold), solid dark chocolate (green), dark chocolate with coconut (pink), and milk chocolate with almond butter (blue).

Milk Chocolate: This is a good, if standard, rich milk chocolate. I don’t have much more to say, but I liked them.

Dark Chocolate: I love dark chocolate, but I can be picky about it. This is good, a little fruity, but not too complex overall. It’s nothing spectacular, but I like it.

Coconut: I love coconut flavor but not always coconut texture. Luckily, the texture here is fine. There are pieces of coconut in the filling, but they don’t stick in my teeth. The filling is sweet, but not cloying, and the coconut and dark chocolate compliment each other well.

Almond Butter: I really liked this one. I love almond butter, so it’s nice to see it used instead of the more classic peanut butter. The almond butter is very thick and slightly gritty, so that it has a more ‘natural’ feel. It’s very nutty and not at all too sweet, so the milk chocolate makes a nice compliment. The outside is a bit greasy, and the whole thing is quite soft. However, that’s partly my fault because they sat in my hot car for a few minutes.

Overall, I liked this mix very much. I wouldn’t shell out $16 dollars for it, but I’ll try to find them on sale again.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 3 pieces. There are 210 calories, 13g of fat (7g saturated), 19g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving.

Rating: 8/10

Name: Easter Eggs
Brand: Godiva
Store: World Market
Price: $4.00 (regular $16.00)
Weight: 6.75 oz.

Hershey’s Nut Lovers Miniatures

A few weeks ago, I admitted to not liking nuts as a kids. These days, however, I am a certified nut lover. I like the simple combination of nuts and chocolate. The Nut Lovers Miniatures have been trying to get my attention for a while now, so I finally gave in and bought them.

Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate with Cashews: While I love to eat cashews out of hand, I think they have a hard time standing up to chocolate. That’s certainly the case here. There are just a few pieces of chopped cashews strewn throughout the chocolate. It’s just enough to lend a mild nutty flavor and a slight salty bite, nothing more. It needs more cashews.

I always find the extra creamy milk chocolate to be off-putting. It’s just not Hershey’s chocolate. It’s less chocolate-ty, and it trades the classic tangy yogurt notes for something more akin to sweet whipped cream. It’s not bad, per se, but come on Hershey, don’t be afraid to be yourself! (To their credit, the cashews would definitely be lost in traditional Hershey’s chocolate.)

Made with Chocolate and Peanuts: Mr. Goodbar, what have they done to you? It makes sense that this would be included in the mix, but not redressed as “made with chocolate and peanuts.” I guess the name Mr. Goodbar doesn’t fit in with the rest of the mix, but they could have kept it as a simple Hershey’s with Peanuts. *sigh* I think I let these things get to me too much.

Despite the name change, this is the same Mr. Goodbar that you find with the traditional Miniatures. It’s only bar in the mix with a sufficient amount of nuts, I think. I love ‘em. The simple combination of peanuts and chocolate is great.

Milk Chocolate with Almonds: Here’s another familiar face, but in name more than composition, opposite our dear Mr. Goodbar. The full-sized Hershey’s with Almonds employs full-sized almonds, but we’ve got crushed almonds here. It’s a disadvantage; there aren’t enough almonds to get a satisfying crunch or flavor.

Pecans and Crème: I was wary of this one. I wasn’t sure how pecans would go with white chocolate confection. After tasting this, I think it could be a decent combination, but there aren’t enough pecans here to make a fair assessment. The white confection is overly sweet and tastes strongly of vanilla. The occasional pecan is pleasing, but these were mostly a miss for me.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 5 pieces. There are 220 calories, 14g of fat (7g saturated), 21g of sugar, and 4g of protein per serving.

Rating: 6/10 (because Mr. Goodbar rules)

Name: Nut Lovers Miniatures
Brand: Hershey’s
Store: Target
Price: $2.00
Weight: 11 oz.

Lindt Carrots, Bugs, and Bees, Oh My!

Lindt has several cute foil-wrapped chocolate products out for Easter. There are bunnies, chicks, and lambs, but I went for the slightly less conventional carrots and insects. Why? Well, these are the hazelnut products, and I’m a sucker for anything hazelnut.

Let’s start with the bugs and bees. There are two ladybugs, two bees, and one unidentifiable bug. Unwrapped, they all look the same. They’re adorable, but a little pricey at $3.00 for less than two ounces.

Like the Lindor truffles, which many are familiar with, these have a slightly greasy outside. The center is filled with a thick, slick hazelnut paste and crisped rice. It’s not too sweet, but nice and nutty. Nutella fans will approve. The crisp rice brings a fun texture, but no additional flavor.

I liked these; they were quite tasty. They’re on the expensive side, so I won’t be filling any Easter baskets with these, but I will look for them on clearance.

Nutrition Facts: Serving size is four pieces. There are 210 calories, 13g of fat (6g saturated), 21g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving.

Rating: 8/10

The carrots are equally adorable. I was surprised to find that these are served on stick, so that they resemble chocolate umbrellas. Unlike the bugs, they aren’t filled. Instead we’re treated to a solid blend of chocolate and hazelnut paste. Think gianduja/Nutella on a stick. Seriously, does life get much better? It’s sticky, nutty, and quite satisfying, even though each piece weighs less than a half an ounce.

I’ll certainly be looking for these on clearance, though they’re already a great price at $1.33.

Nutrition Facts: Serving size is three carrots. There are 210 calories, 14g of fat (8g saturated), 18g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving. Oh, and 10% of your RDA of calcium.

Rating: 9/10

Name: Lindt Bugs and Bees / Chocolate Carrots
Brand: Lindt
Store: Target
Price: $2.99 / $1.33
Weight: 1.76 oz. / 1.8 oz

Elmer’s Easter Eggs II

One thing I forgot to mention in the first leg of the Elmer’s roundup was that it’s pretty cheap. These here were three for a dollar.

Sometimes cheap things bring pleasant surprises. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Here are examples of each.

Gold Brick Egg: I remember these. I would always get at least a couple in my Easter basket and would never eat them because they contained pecans. If the formula was the same then as it is now, I had little to worry about. There are practically no pecans here, and that’s a problem if you’re going to call it a “pecan melt-a-way.” There are a few pecan chips, which is what you see in the photo, but it’s not nearly enough to add flavor. I don’t like it when candy lies.

On to the chocolate. It doesn’t get much better here. It tastes more of fudge than chocolate… which is okay, I guess. I thought it might be fake!chocolate, so I checked the ingredients. Like the Dove Truffle Egg, this is chocolate filled with a “melt-a-way” filling. In the Dove Egg, coconut oil is used to create that silky texture. In the Gold Brick Egg, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil is used. It’s certainly not quality ingredients, but I don’t know that I’d call it mockolate. (The outer layer of chocolate is quite real.)

In the end, I’m concerned with the taste. It’s not offensive, just bland. I don’t like or dislike it. It was cheap and it‘s a classic/novelty, so I considered giving it a 5. Then I remembered that it lied about the pecans. That demoted it to a 4.

Nutritional Breakdown: Serving size is one piece. There are 160 calories, 10g of fat (7g saturated), 16g of sugar, and 1g of protein per serving.

Rating: 4/10

Heavenly Hash: Let’s move on to something much better. Marshmallow and almonds enrobed in milk chocolate? Sounds great to me! The chocolate coating is fine, nothing outstanding, but perfectly acceptable. The marshmallow is a bit sweet, but the texture is nice — soft, moist, and stretchy. Now the almonds… yum! The almonds are great. They are whole, crunchy, fresh, and perfectly roasted. The nuttiness cuts through the sweetness and gives the piece a nice balance. Unfortunately, there were only two or three almonds in mine. I would really love (and certainly be willing to pay more than 33 cents for) this if it had more almonds. Still, it’s quite good.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is one piece. There are 160 calories, 6g of fat (3g saturated), 23g of sugar, and 1g of protein per serving.

Rating: 7/10

Name: Gold Brick Egg / Heavenly Hash
Brand: Elmer’s
Store: Walgreens
Price: $0.33 each
Weight: 1 oz / 1.33 oz

Elmer’s Easter Eggs I

(Part II of the Elmer’s roundup will be up tomorrow — there is only so much candy that I can eat at once!)

Elmer’s is a candy company located in Ponchatoula, LA, which is only about 75 miles from me. I’ve always been aware of their products, but didn’t realize they were a local company until a few months ago.

Elmer’s makes a lot of boxed Valentine’s chocolate. I’ve haven’t tried these — they’ve never appealed to me — but I think they’re pretty widely distributed. I’m much more familiar with their Easter products, which include Gold Brick Eggs, Pecan Eggs, and several other products. I think distribution of the Easter fare may be limited to the South.

When I was a kid, I would inevitably get several Elmer’s products in my Easter baskets. This was always a disappointment. I had nothing against Elmer’s, but most of their products featured nuts — and I didn’t like nuts. I know, I know… I was young and naïve, give me a break.

While I devoured Robin’s Eggs, chocolate rabbits, and Peeps, Elmer’s candy sat behind. (Well, not really, I think my parents ate it.) I figured it was about time I gave Elmer’s a chance.

Eggceptionals: This product looks familiar to me, but I don’t remember receiving these. I probably would have eaten them. It’s peanuts and caramel enrobed in milk chocolate The idea is comparable to the Snickers Crème products, which have no nougat. However, unlike the Snickers products, which have a fairly soft caramel, the caramel here is firm. I mean seriously firm; I think it could pull a filling out. I can appreciate a firm caramel on its own, but in a candy bar… not so much.

I like a buttery or salty caramel, but this here is pretty bland. It’s not even super sweet, which could be a good thing. The chocolate is pleasant, and the peanuts are fresh. They give the whole thing a nice, nutty flavor, but the caramel kind of kills this one for me. It’s not bad, but I’ll stick to the Snickers Crème Eggs.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is one piece. There are 130 calories, 5g of fat (2g saturated), 14g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving.

Rating: 5/10

Pecan Egg: My mom would always eat these. I always thought the Pecan Egg was a lump of pecans. It’s actually nougat covered with caramel and chopped pecans.

How does it taste? Think butter pecan ice cream, and you’re pretty much there. The nougat is soft, but firm enough to hold it’s shape. It’s very sweet and tastes strongly of vanilla. The caramel is very buttery, lending to that somewhat fake butter flavor that I associate with butter pecan ice cream. The pecans could be crunchier, but they are adhered with sticky caramel, so they’re going to absorb some of that moisture.

In all, the flavors blend well together, and this is pretty good. I’d like to give it a try frozen.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is one piece. There are 130 calories, 6g of fat (0.5g saturated), 14g of sugar, and 1g of protein per serving.

Rating: 6 /10

Name: Eggceptionals/Pecan Egg
Brand: Elmer’s
Store: Walgreens
Price: $0.34/$0.50
Weight: 1 oz. each

Nestle Turtles

When I was younger, I never understood why these were called turtles. Actually, scratch that. I’m still not sure why they are called turtles. I assume it’s because if you squint hard enough, they kind of resemble a turtle with little pecan-feet and a pecan-head sticking out of a chocolate-shell.

The mascot for these is a turtle decked out in a suit complete with a top hat and monocle. If his fashion choices are supposed to indicate a more upscale treat, it’s not really working. He’s too cute, and, well, these just aren’t anything special.

The dark chocolate turtle is sweet and chewy. The caramel is semi-soft, stretchy, and – well, pretty bland. It’s just sweet. There are no buttery, salty, or burnt sugar notes. The chocolate is bland also. It’s not particularly chocolatety, but again, just sweet. The nuts were the last hope for these, and they aren’t doing a good job either. They taste plasticy and stale.

The same things can be said for the milk chocolate turtle. It’s a bit sweeter than it’s dark chocolate sibling, but is otherwise the same. It’s just a little blob of sweetness, nothing deeper than that.

These aren’t truly bad, but I wouldn’t have them again. I have, however, decided that ‘turtle’ is a fun word to say.

Nutrition Breakdown: The serving size for the milk chocolate turtles is 2 pieces. There are 160 calories, 9g of fat (4g saturated), 15g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving. Serving size for the dark chocolate turtles is 2 pieces. There are 160 calories, 10g of fat (4.5g saturated), 13g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving.

Rating: 5/10

Name: Turtles
Brand: Nestle
Store: Unknown
Price: Unknown

Ritter Whole Hazelnuts

I’m not crazy about hazelnuts alone, but I love hazelnuts and chocolate – I can eat Nutella by the spoonful. American candy doesn’t often utilize the combination, but thankfully, European hazelnut confections are pretty easy to come by.

This is a perfectly simple combination: milk chocolate and whole hazelnuts. The chocolate is rich with diary notes. But more important is that this bar is seriously chock full of hazelnuts. Every bite contains a fresh, crunchy hazelnut; there are no gaps between them. Looking at the list of ingredients, I see that hazelnuts are actually the second ingredient, after sugar.

I think of this as a hazelnut Mr. Goodbar, only better. It’s simple, inexpensive, and made with quality ingredients. Sometimes I think that candy-makers should stick with this formula instead or running away with wacky flavor combos (not that I don’t love those too).

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is six squares, or about one-third of the bar. Each serving contains 210 calories, 14g of fat, 17g of sugar, and 3g of protein. It also contains 8% of the RDV of both calcium and iron.

Rating: 9/10

Name: Milk Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts
Brand: Ritter Sport
Store: Target
Price: $1.66

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