Candy Bar Lab

Oh Henry! bars are made by Nestlé in the US and by Hershey in Canada. The Nestlé version has a different look, both outside and inside, than it’s Hershey’s cousin.  Frankly, the Canadian version looks much better. This week though, I needed a late night snack. So, I raided the Candy Bar Lab stash and picked out one of these “Peanutty caramel fudge bars in rich milk chocolate”. Sounded good enough, so I gave one a try.

Structure
Two segments of peanuts, fudge nougat, and caramel covered in milk chocolate.

Texture
The bar’s thin chocolate coating is dry and crumbly.  Inside, peanuts are sparsely distributed throughout the caramel layer.  In fact, if I didn’t take a close look, I wouldn’t have known there were peanuts at all because they are so crumbly and soft they get lost amongst the caramel.  The grainy bottom layer of fudge nougat is very chewy - almost like bubblegum. Overall, the bar’s components run together and do not compliment each other.

Taste
What’s probably most interesting about Oh Henry! is what you don’t taste.  The chocolate has little to no flavor and you can’t taste the peanuts at all. There’s a little bit of saltiness in the caramel (not much), but the fudge layer doesn’t add any taste at all.  What you do taste, is a lot of artificial vanilla, sugar, and a slight burnt caramel aftertaste.

Verdict
Oh Henry! was a disappointment both as a late night indulgence and again the next day. The crunchy, salty, sweet, and chewy combination I was anticipating turned out to be a crumbly, chewy mess. I’ll have to try to get my hands on a Canadian version and try that out one day. Until then, I’m sticking with Snickers if I want a chewy, chocolate, caramel & peanut candy bar.

I already knew that a couple of the world’s greatest culinary delights are made near where I grew up - the New Haven, Connecticut area.

1. Modern Pizza
2. PEZ

It turns out that back in the day, Almond Joys were also made in New Haven. Back then though, they were produced by the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company. Today, they’re manufactured by Hershey’s, which means they’re not actually made in New Haven anymore. Oh well…

Structure
The package contains two small bars, each consisting of a shredded coconut core topped with two whole almonds - all enrobed in a thin shell of milk chocolate.

Texture
The center is very soft, which makes the bar really easy to bite through. The coconut filling feels wet; like it’s bound together with a light syrup (in fact, I think that’s exactly how the coconut is held together). I like the consistency of the center a lot actually. It’s not dry or crumbly at all, which a coconut product could easily be. The almonds and chocolate shell provide a nice, crunchy contrast.

Taste
The coconut and toasted almonds are the flavor stars in this bar. They work together perfectly. The milk chocolate, on the other hand, is weak. It ends up being the role player in the group. All together, the flavors work well together. Though I would have liked a more intense chocolate experience.

Verdict
The combinations of flavors and textures in Almond Joy are perfectly conceived. This is a classic bar that deserves its spot on pretty much every candy stand you’ll come across in the US.

A couple years ago, I volunteered to make a few hundred little chocolate hearts for my girlfriend’s sister’s wedding. I had just learned to temper chocolate, but I was confident I could pull it off. Well, it was the middle of summer and the air conditioning decided to break in my apartment the weekend I had to make these chocolates. The humidity and 90 degree temperature in my kitchen that Saturday completely thwarted my futile efforts to temper chocolate and I was forced to travel to Burlington, Vermont (the site of the wedding) with nothing to show for my efforts.

We get there and my girlfriend suggests we buy the chocolate hearts from Lake Champlain chocolates, which was nearby. This saved the day. They were absolutely delicious; some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had.

Last week, a co-worker of mine (thanks Clinton) picked up a Lake Champlain candy bar for me and ironically, it had melted and cracked a bit in storage and transit from the store to me. Unlike my chocolate hearts effort however, this chocolate was salvageable. After a couple days of sitting in my kitchen, it was back to full health and ready to be eaten.

Structure
A six-segment, molded bar of milk chocolate with small pieces of raw almonds and sea salt spread throughout.

Texture
The milk chocolate is really smooth. It is amazing how different top-quality milk chocolate is from something like a Hershey’s Bar - they shouldn’t even be considered the same thing. Bad milk chocolate can be grainy - great milk chocolate is just so smooth (I can’t think of a better description). But besides the chocolate, there’s some great crunchiness from the salt and almonds. The sea salt crystals are definitely more noticeable, but the small bits of almond provide some depth of texture.

Taste
The milk chocolate is again the star - it tastes so smooth (I’m not creative today with my adjectives). The flavor lasts really long too - another sign of high-quality chocolate. They weren’t skimpy at all with the salt. If you don’t like heavily salted foods, you might be turned off by this candy bar. On the other hand, if you’re like me, you’ll love the combination.

Verdict
This bar is making me rethink my previous belief that I preferred dark chocolate over milk. Done this well, milk chocolate is amazing. The inclusion of saltiness makes it even better; heightening it’s flavor. Even though this was an expensive bar ($2.60 for 1.25 ounces), it would have been well worth it had I bought it myself (thanks again Clinton).