Candy Bar Lab

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.

Norwegians have three extra letters in their alphabets, including this one: ø. According to Wikipedia, this is a monophthongal close-mid front rounded vowel or, in less fancy words, it sounds like the vowel in “bird”. All of this said, I’m still not sure how to pronounce Firkløver, but the word (and the packaging) look very nice.

Anyway… let’s talk about the candy bar. It’s pretty hefty - about 3 1/2 ounces. Compare this to a standard Hershey’s chocolate bar, which is only about 1 1/2 ounces. From a quick glance of the web, it also has a hefty price tag. I was lucky enough to score this one as a gift from a Norwegian friend wanting to show off his country’s goods (thanks Gunnar!).

Structure
This is an 18 segment molded milk chocolate bar with pieces of chopped hazelnuts spread throughout.

Texture
I’m always concerned about thick chocolate bars. I don’t want to work to bite through them. This wasn’t a problem at all with the Firkløver. Even though it as a nice temper, it’s still soft and smooth to bite through. The chocolate feels very thick and creamy, but it melts away effortlessly leaving small pieces of hazelnuts for the finish. Overall, the chocolate and crunchy hazelnut textures work perfectly together.

Taste
The chocolate flavor is just really good. I don’t know what else to say except I wish all milk chocolate was this good. There isn’t a ton of hazelnut flavor, but you do get some at the end after the chocolate starts to subside.

Verdict
There’s nothing creative or fancy about this bar. It’s just a milk chocolate bar with nuts in it, yet it’s incredibly good. I definitely recommend trying one of these out one day.