Candy Bar Lab

This is my second shot at a lime flavored, dark chocolate candy bar. The first one by Choxie didn’t quite live up to my hopes, but hopefully this one by Dagoba will find the right balance of taste and texture.

Structure
A 10-segment, molded dark chocolate bar with lime flavoring and small bits of macadamia nuts mixed in.

Texture
The macadamia nuts were completely unnoticeable. In fact, I ate a few sections of the bar and started writing this post before I took another glance at the picture and noticed they were in there. That’s how unnoticeable they were. You’re pretty much getting plain chocolate with this product. Fortunately, the chocolate was rich and very smooth.

Taste
The macadamia nuts were once again unnoticeable. The lime flavor was VERY subtle at first, but became increasingly noticeable on the finish. The chocolate was delicious (better than Choxie), so I wasn’t too upset by the light application of lime flavor.

Verdict
This candy bar desperately needs some texture, which it should have gotten from the macadamia nuts. They simply needed to be bigger and more plentiful. The lime flavor was a little underwhelming, but that can be forgiven because the chocolate is pretty good. In the end, I would have preferred a plain dark chocolate Dagoba bar to this effort.

Heath Bars were easily one of my top three candy bars as a kid, along with Snickers and Twix. For me though, it’s best form was in Ben & Jerry’s Heath Bar Crunch. Unfortunately, I don’t believe they make that stuff anymore, but I can still have a plain old Heath Bar like this one whenever I have a craving.

Structure
A thin slab of toffee enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
The toffee is crunchy and brittle. You’ll notice that the chocolate doesn’t quite stick to the toffee, so there’s a tendency for it to want to break off if you don’t commit to biting firmly through the bar.

Taste
Toffee is such a magical taste. It’s pretty much caramelized sugar and butter. In fact, that’s exactly what it is, so it’s no surprise that it tastes good. Combined with milk chocolate - even less than stellar Hershey’s brand - toffee is even more magical. I could pretty much eat Heath Bars all day and not get sick of the flavor.

Verdict
I’ll admit that I’m completely biased about the Heath bar. There was no way I wasn’t going to give this a thumbs up. I’ve been enjoying these things for a couple of decades and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Flavors that work for ice cream generally work for candy bars too. Cookies and Creme, Peanut Butter Cup, and Mint Chocolate Chip are all delicious as ice cream and candy bars. Hershey’s Take 5 reminds me of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby, which is one of my all-time favorite ice cream flavors.

Structure
From the bottom up, Take 5 is two segments of hard waffle pretzels, peanut butter, caramel and chopped peanuts.  Each segment is enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
You’ll first notice the crunchiness of the pretzels, then the crumbly peanut butter and finally, the creamy caramel that sticks in your teeth and outlasts the rest of the components. The chocolate coating is very soft, but smooth. Overall, the Take 5 is a bit on the dry side, but that’s to be expected from a product consisting of peanut butter and pretzels - I don’t really fault them for that. Just keep in mind that this is a product that goes well with something to drink.

Taste
This is a salty candy bar and really tastes a lot like a plain old chocolate covered pretzel. However, the caramel, peanuts and peanut butter all add further deliciousness that elevate the Take 5 beyond it’s classic candy cousin.

Verdict
There’s so much going on with this candy bar. It’s crunchy, salty, sweet, chewy and just plain good. Though Hershey’s is using fake chocolate with this product, that wasn’t a deal breaker. The pretzel, peanut butter, and caramel do most of the heavy lifting, while the chocolate seals everything in and plays a supporting role. Don’t get me wrong though, this candy bar would be even better if it had real chocolate.