Candy Bar Lab

The Smash! packaging caught my eye right away. It appeared to have little chocolate covered ice cream cones flying around with little candy bar particles floating in the background. I wasn’t exactly sure what was in the candy bar though. Instead of reading the ingredients, I decided to jump right in and take a bite. For a moment, I thought there actually were ice cream cones smashed up in it, but I realized the pieces were too salty. Then it hit me. Smash! is filled with crushed up bits of Bugles. Now the packaging makes sense because Bugles look like little ice cream cones.

Structure
A molded milk chocolate bar with crushed up pieces of corn chips mixed in.

Texture
The bar crumbles apart as you bite through. Because there are so many corn chip bits incorporated throughout, the structural integrity of the chocolate is compromised. That’s not a bad thing though, because the bar is thick and would be difficult to bite through if it were solid chocolate. The corn chips provide a ton of crunchiness. Overall, the Smash! is very similar to the Ritter Sport Corn Flakes Bar, though these pieces are a little lighter and crispier than regular corn flakes.

Taste
The milk chocolate is very good. It’s creamy with a deep flavor. The corn chips bits are noticeably salty and the corn flavor pokes through on the finish. The chocolate and chips work well together.

Verdict
A very solid effort. My only complaint is the thickness of the bar. It should have been a little thinner. All in all, a very good tasting candy bar though.

The Peanøtt Kubbe (”Peanut Log”) is a Norwegian product manufactured by Freia - a subsidiary of Kraft Foods. This bar didn’t stand out much amongst the dozen or so candy bars I currently have from Norway. The ingredients list - chocolate, peanuts, and toffee -looked good enough, but it’s not exactly exotic; we have bars like that here.

Structure
The inner toffee core is first surrounded by a layer of dark chocolate and next by chopped peanuts and milk chocolate. The package contains two segments.

Texture
I was expecting the toffee center to be firm and chewy. To my delightful surprise, it was very soft and smooth. The milk chocolate is soft and creamy, while the dark chocolate is a bit harder and the chopped peanuts provide crunch. All together, there are many textures and they work together wonderfully.

Taste
The flavor is deep and complex. The toffee center has a burnt caramel flavor. The dark chocolate cuts the sweetness of the milk chocolate and adds to the uniqueness of the overall flavor (I can’t think of many candy bars with dark and milk chocolate). Of course, both of the chocolates used are high quality and taste great. Finally, the roasted peanuts add to the mix by providing a nutty background flavor.

Verdict
The Peanøtt Kubbe is an amazing candy bar with many textures and flavors all working well together. It’s one of the best candy bars I’ve ever had actually. I’d say this one is even worth buying online and having it shipped, but I can’t find a place online that sells it. If you ever come across one, either online or off, do yourself a favor and buy it.

The bright, bold packaging really stands out on the Kvikk Lunsj (Norwegian for “Quick Lunch”). With it’s three horizontal stripes, it dawned on me that it looks like a country flag. I wouldn’t have a clue off the top of my head which one, but after some quick research, I figured out that it does in fact look just like the flag of Bolivia.

As for the actual candy bar, it’s apparently quite popular in Norway. The average citizen there consumes nine per year.

Structure
A molded milk chocolate bar with four long segments - each with a wafer center. A Marabou Stork (the Freia mascot) is imprinted four times on each segment.

Texture
The chocolate coating is thick and well tempered. It’s VERY smooth and thoroughly coats your mouth as it melts. Overall, Freia milk chocolate is thick, creamy, and very satisfying. The inner wafer isn’t quite as crispy as its Kit Kat cousin, but it does provide a nice complement to the chocolate coating nonetheless.

Taste
The milk chocolate is again the star. It has a distinct milky flavor that I can now attribute as unique to Freia products in the same way I can pick out Nestle or Hershey’s chocolate. The wafer is mostly tasteless, but I appreciate that it is not overly sweet. This allows the chocolate taste to shine on it’s own.

Verdict
This bar easily gets a thumbs up from me. It’s basically a Kit Kat (a bar I already like), except with better chocolate. The fact that it has cool packaging is a bonus.