Candy Bar Lab

I believe when this was given to me, my friend told me that it came from a popular store in Tokyo. In my head, I pictured the Japanese version of Neiman Marcus or something along those lines. Most of the packaging is in Japanese, so I have no (easy) way of identifying the manufacturer. There is one line in English that says “Green Tea”, so I at least knew what to expect before I ate this odd-looking, green candy bar.

Structure
A single, green bar of green tea flavored white chocolate with whole pieces of puffed rice incorporated throughout.

Texture
This is a solid candy bar that takes a little bit of effort to bite through. Two things came to mind when I first bit in. One, it reminds of a the Nidar Smash I previously reviewed - though it’s not as crunchy. Two, the puffed rice immediately reminded me of Honey Smacks, which I haven’t eaten in about 20 years.

Taste
The green tea flavor is light, but definitely noticeable. This is my first green tea chocolate product that I’ve tasted. I wasn’t completely turned off by it, but I wouldn’t say that I liked it better than regular old chocolate. The puffed rice actually has some rice flavor to it, which makes it different from the flavorless rice crispies found in candy bars like Nestle Crunch. Overall, this product’s flavor was subtle and different from anything I’ve tried before.

Verdict
I’m on the fence on this one. I wasn’t exactly craving more after a few bites, but I ultimately decided to give it a thumbs up because it’s clearly well made with quality ingredients and would be a very good choice for anyone looking to try a green tea flavored candy bar.

This is the another bar brought back to me from Japan by a friend on vacation. That’s pretty much how I get all my candy bars these days. Once people find out you have a candy bar blog, they love sending you exotic candy bars from around the globe. I feel bad that I haven’t been able to keep up my review writing with the pace that people have been sending me new bars.

Structure
A molded milk chocolate bar chock-full of crunchies.

Texture
It’s certainly crunchy. There’s just enough chocolate to keep the crunchy bits stuck together. It’s kind of like a rice crispy treat, except chocolate instead of marshmallow.

Taste
There’s almost no chocolate flavor, certainly less than you’d expect from looking at the packaging. It has a malty, slightly burnt flavor and is not very sweet. In general, it’s a pretty flavorless product.

Verdict
This just wasn’t a very good candy bar. I’m not a huge fan of Nestle Crisp, but if you’re in the market for a chocolate bar with crispies, I’d still choose that over a Crunky.

This is my second shot at a lime flavored, dark chocolate candy bar. The first one by Choxie didn’t quite live up to my hopes, but hopefully this one by Dagoba will find the right balance of taste and texture.

Structure
A 10-segment, molded dark chocolate bar with lime flavoring and small bits of macadamia nuts mixed in.

Texture
The macadamia nuts were completely unnoticeable. In fact, I ate a few sections of the bar and started writing this post before I took another glance at the picture and noticed they were in there. That’s how unnoticeable they were. You’re pretty much getting plain chocolate with this product. Fortunately, the chocolate was rich and very smooth.

Taste
The macadamia nuts were once again unnoticeable. The lime flavor was VERY subtle at first, but became increasingly noticeable on the finish. The chocolate was delicious (better than Choxie), so I wasn’t too upset by the light application of lime flavor.

Verdict
This candy bar desperately needs some texture, which it should have gotten from the macadamia nuts. They simply needed to be bigger and more plentiful. The lime flavor was a little underwhelming, but that can be forgiven because the chocolate is pretty good. In the end, I would have preferred a plain dark chocolate Dagoba bar to this effort.