Candy Bar Lab

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.

This is the second Cadbury Flake that’s been in my possession this year. The first was brought back from England and was thoroughly destroyed on the trip. Not surprising though, because this is a very delicate product. This one came from Australia and arrived in much better condition.

Structure
A long, thin bar of milk chocolate. The chocolate is layered in such a way that it creates air pockets throughout the product.

Texture
The Flake bills as itself as “the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate” and to that point, I completely agree. The Flake completely crumbles apart when you bite it. The problem is that I don’t think chocolate should be crumbly or flaky. I really hate the texture and worse, it’s messy to eat because it falls apart in your hand. You can tell from the picture above how even slicing it gently with a sharp knife causes the chocolate to explode into small pieces.

Taste
The entire bar is made of Cadbury milk chocolate, so it tastes pretty good.

Verdict
The Flake is very similar to the Galaxy Ripple, except worse. If you’re looking for a light, airy chocolate bar, grab an Aero.

I previously reviewed the Pop Rocks Mega Bar and concluded that it was the worst candy bar I had ever had, partly because the chocolate was crap. Well, some anonymous person contacted me with a profanity laced tirade about that review. They must have been a huge fan of the Pop Rocks Mega Bar because they said my review was crap and my blog sucked. Who knew people would get so upset about a candy blog? Anyway, I figured I’d give the bar a second chance because the first one I tried was admittedly not very fresh and maybe with better, fresher chocolate, the product would be decent. I had serious doubts, but I tried to keep an open mind.

Structure
A 6-segment, molded bar of milk chocolate with Pop Rocks mixed throughout.

Texture
The consistency of the chocolate is okay, but I don’t really like how thick the bar is though. It makes it rather hard to bite through. It would be better if this bar were about half as thick as it currently is. But the chocolate is of course, not the interesting part of this candy bar. The Pop Rocks are. At first, they feel just like regular crisp rice pieces. After a couple of seconds though, their carbonated properties become noticeable. Maybe others enjoy the fizzy, popping sensation, but it’s too much for me. If it only lasted a few seconds, I’d be okay with it. Instead, the popping lasts for a while though and moves down your throat as you swallow. It’s just a really odd sensation.

Taste
The Pop Rocks are completely flavorless, so the Mega Bar tastes like a plain milk chocolate bar.

Verdict
The second time tasting the Pop Rocks Mega Bar was a little better than the first, but only because I knew what to expect this time. That didn’t really help me like it any better though. I think the biggest problem is that the Pop Rocks themselves don’t have any flavor. I actually like strawberry flavored Pop Rocks and think those might work well with chocolate. I came across a review of the Chuao Firecracker Chocolate Bar, which also uses popping candy, but has better chocolate and some other flavors. I’m interested to try Chuao’s version out and see if popping candy belongs with chocolate after all.