Candy Bar Lab

I purchased this German candy bar a few weeks ago and have been anxiously waiting to try it out. The excellent packaging for the Ritter Sport product line is the first thing that caught my eye. It’s distinct, simple, and successfully conveys what’s inside - which is a milk chocolate bar “chock full of whole roasted hazelnuts”. They’re not kidding either. Judging by the packaging, there must be 40+ hazelnuts in this bar.

Structure
A square, molded milk chocolate bar with 16 small square segments - each embossed with the Ritter Sport logo. Whole hazelnuts are liberally distributed throughout.

Texture
It’s really thick (enough to conceal the whole hazelnuts), but easy to bite through. The milk chocolate has a nice feel to it; very smooth and not at all grainy. The hazelnuts are nicely toasted and thus, provide a great crunch. Smooth chocolate and crunchy nuts are a classic, heavenly combination and this bar doesn’t disappoint in delivering that combo to it’s fullest potential.

Taste
This is a straightforward, two tone tasting experience. There’s milk chocolate and there’s hazelnuts. Nothing else thrown in to confuse it. The hazelnuts taste fresh, like they were toasted right before being sealed in. The milk chocolate is good, though I noticed it wasn’t intense. In a way that’s good because it balanced well with the hazelnuts, but the chocolate flavor was fleeting. In the end, I think it all worked.

Verdict
This is a very simple, yet really high quality candy bar. Most importantly, the packaging doesn’t lie. There are a lot of hazelnuts in it, so you feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. I’d definitely buy more of the milk chocolate with hazelnut bars, but I’m also going to try to get my hands on the 22 other Ritter Sport varieties.

In the UK and the Middle East, the Dove brand of chocolate is known as Galaxy. This particular product from them seems very similar to a Flake and possibly an Aero. It seems that outside the US, people like air in their chocolate. I’ve never seen anything like this regularly sold over here in the States. I previously enjoyed Mint Aero, so let’s give this one a try.

Structure
The whole bar is very long and thin. The center consists of thin layers of milk chocolate, separated by pockets of air. The layered centered is enrobed with a thin shell of milk chocolate.

Texture
It crumbles a lot. I had to put my hand below my mouth to keep the small pieces from falling on the floor. The scraps of chocolate do melt quicker in your mouth than a big hunk of solid chocolate would. Overall, it’s very light and delicate.

Taste
It tastes like milk chocolate. In terms of quality, I would put it a half-notch above Hershey’s. Dove (i.e. Galaxy) is marketed as a high-end chocolate, but I’m not convinced it’s all that good.

Verdict
There’s nothing particularly offensive about this bar. It’s just boring. I like plain chocolate bars, but I usually reach for something higher in quality if that’s what I’m going for. If the only distinguishing feature of the bar is that it has a unique texture, it should improve upon the regular feel of chocolate. I’m not sure that Ripple accomplishes this.

On a recent trip to London, one of my friends was nice enough to pick up some bars that I generally can’t find here in the US. The first of these bars that I’m digging into is the Kinder Bueno; but first, a few interesting facts about this product…

• “Kinder” is the German word for “children”. “Bueno” means “good” in Spanish.
• Kinder products are produced by Ferrero, the makers of Nutella.
• My mom thinks these bars are “wonderful”.

Structure
The package contains two small bars, each with four wafer pockets filled with hazelnut cream. The whole bars are enrobed in a thin layer of milk chocolate and drizzled with dark chocolate.

Texture
When you pick this product up, you’ll instantly notice how light and delicate it is. In fact, both bars came to me slightly broken from their overseas trip in a suitcase. The wafers are crispy and the cream filling is really light and smooth. I’ve tried similar products with cream centers that are dry and chalky. This is nothing like that. It’s closer to whipped cream. Kinder Bueno also get points from me for a nicely tempered chocolate coating.

Taste
I hadn’t actually paid attention to the packaging that states “Milk and Hazelnut” as the flavors and shows a tall glass of milk next to the bars. I usually think of milk as a base, not a flavor. But as I was tasting this bar, I really picked up on the milk flavor. The hazelnut was tertiary, behind both the chocolate and milk flavors. Overall, the flavors are very subtle. The wafers are mostly flavor-neutral, but the thin chocolate layer is surprisingly good.

Verdict
This is getting a big thumbs up from me. I could eat six of these in one sitting. The only knock (and its hypothetical one) is that it might be better with pieces of chopped hazelnuts in it.