Candy Bar Lab

The last Lake Champlain bar I tasted was absolutely one of the best candy bars I’ve ever had. Sadly, it’s been a while since I’ve had any of their products. Recently, I stopped at the Lake Champlain Chocolates store in Stowe, VT and was inspired to test out this peppermint bar.

Structure
A molded bar of dark chocolate with small pieces of peppermint pieces mixed in, segmented into eight large squares.

Texture
The chocolate is perfectly tempered - smooth with a firm snap. Unfortunately, the peppermint bits they’ve added don’t improve upon the texture of the plain chocolate. They’re small, hard, and not really all that delightful to bite into.
Taste
Again, the chocolate is really good and the peppermint disappoints. This is only a 54% cocoa product, which is a low percentage for dark chocolate, but right in the range that I prefer. It’s not overly sweet and not too bitter. As far as the peppermint pieces I mentioned, they disappoint because they don’t really add much flavor. There’s a hint of peppermint on the finish, but not nearly enough to live up to the billing of the packaging, which lead me to believe that peppermint was going to be the main flavor character.

Verdict
A bad candy bar by Lake Champlain Chocolates would be a huge accomplishment for some other manufacturers. Honestly though, I really didn’t enjoy this candy bar. I did like the chocolate, but would have preferred it either without the peppermint all together or with more peppermint punch built in.

A little while back, I noticed that Trader Joe’s started carrying a wide variety of freeze dried fruits. They have strawberries, bananas, pineapples, apples and a couple others I can’t remember off hand. I’ve seen freeze dried berries at the regular grocery store before, but they were always really expensive for small bags. At Trader Joe’s, I picked up a pouch of bananas for only a couple of bucks.

So, I decided to throw some of the banana pieces into a candy bar mold with some chopped walnuts and dark chocolate (sorry, no pics). The bananas tasted awesome with the chocolate and are really crispy. In fact, I don’t think the walnuts were even necessary. If you ever get a chance, I recommend trying out some of the Trader Joe’s freeze dried fruits with your favorite chocolate. You don’t have to make it into a bar if you don’t want. Just eat the chocolate and the fruit at the same time and I’m sure it’ll taste great.

The Chokito immediately reminded me of the Freia Peanøtt Kubbe, except instead of peanuts, this version has rice crisps. Since the Kubbe is one of my favorite candy bars ever, I had high hopes for the Chokito.

Structure
An inner core of caramel fudge surrounded by rice crisps and enrobed in chocolate.

Texture
The caramel fudge center is firm, but soft enough to easily bite through and it doesn’t stick to your teeth. I would compare it most closely to the inside of a 3 Musketeers, except not quite as soft. The relatively large rice crisps provide a nice texture complement and the chocolate binds everything together well. The whole product is perfectly balanced texturally.

Taste
The flavor of the Chokito was a huge letdown. Specifically, the caramel fudge center tasted really artificial. If you’ve ever had the low calorie, Skinny Cow brand caramel ice cream cones, it tasted like the fake caramel in those. Unfortunately, neither the flavorless rice crisps or the sub-par tasting Nestlé chocolate could help make up for the odd flavor of the caramel fudge.

Verdict
The Chokito should be a great candy bar. Texturally, it’s fantastic and all of the ingredients really should taste good together. For some reason though, they don’t.