Candy Bar Lab

I like most candy bar packaging. There are plenty of examples of both upscale and common candy bars that have great packaging. The Troika, on the other hand, has terrible packaging design. I think they were trying to make it look upscale, but in failing to do so, created a design that looks cheap and generic. More annoying though, is that the packaging of the Troika fails to convey anything about the product itself. I shouldn’t have to comb through the ingredients in small print on the back to get an idea about what’s in the product.

Structure
The Troika consists of three inner layers enrobed in dark chocolate. From top to bottom, these layers are raspberry jelly, chocolate truffle, and marzipan.

Texture
Upon biting in, the chocolate shell broke off into thin pieces - separating easily from the rest of the bar. The jelly was soft. It reminded me of canned cranberry sauce, though a little firmer. The chocolate truffle layer was lost in the mix between the jelly and the noticeably dry and crumbly marzipan. Overall, kind of an odd combination of textures.

Taste
I’ll start with the good news. The dark chocolate coating is very high quality and tastes great. The bad news… the rest of the flavors aren’t good at all. The raspberry flavor is underwhelming and didn’t work with the marzipan at all. Like the texture, the flavors were an odd combination.

Verdict
This candy bar just isn’t very good. I don’t understand why they tried to put together this combination of ingredients. Marzipan and raspberry jelly? I don’t understand the appeal of that. The one bright spot for this product was the chocolate, but I’m kind of annoyed good chocolate is being wasted producing Troikas.

I’ve formed a habit of looking for candy bars wherever I go. The other day, I was in a costume store looking for a Halloween getup and found myself scanning the candy stacked up at the checkout counter. Amongst the Gummy Flesh Fries and Sour Mud Worms, I spotted an odd looking candy bar - the Rainbow Coconut Bar. The bright colored packaging includes the tagline “Pure Coconut for Pure enjoyment!” and a quick scan of the ingredients shows that it’s almost entirely made of coconut.

Structure
A solid slab of coconut, sugar, salt and corn syrup pressed together. It’s not quite a rainbow, but it is striped on either side with red food coloring.

Texture
It’s tough to bite through, as the coconut has been pretty tightly compressed. Once you get a bite in your mouth, you’ll notice it’s chewy and a bit dry.

Taste
I was expecting the Rainbow Coconut Bar to be really sweet. It’s actually not at all. The sugar content is relatively low and this allows real coconut flavor to poke through. Some bites are a little salty which I would normally like, but didn’t quite work here.

Verdict
I admit, when I purchased this candy bar, I was already expecting a dud. I bought it because it was different and I thought it would be fun to blog about. Even though I’m giving it a thumbs down, it surpassed my expectations. Ultimately though, this candy bar is too one-dimensional (only coconut) to get a positive review. I’ll still reach for an Almond Joy next time I want a coconut fix.

Rocky Road has always been one of my favorite ice cream flavor combinations. Traditionally, it’s a mix of chocolate, marshmallow, and walnuts (or sometimes almonds). This candy bar has the chocolate and marshmallow, but interestingly, the manufacturer elected to use cashews as the nut. Cashews are more expensive and softer than walnuts or almonds, so I was a little surprised they’re used in this product. On the other hand, I absolutely love cashews, so maybe they were in fact a brilliant choice. We’ll see.

Structure
A rectangular slab of marshmallow topped with chopped cashews and covered in milk chocolate.

Texture
95% of the Rocky Road is made of the marshmallow interior, which is light and fluffy. It has the texture of a homemade marshmallow, not like the Jet-Puffed marshmallows you buy at the supermarket, which tend to be drier. The chocolate, on the other hand, was disappointing. It had an unpleasant, waxy consistency. The chopped cashews were almost completely lost in the mix - as I would have predicted. Again, walnuts or almonds would have been a more logical choice.

Taste
The marshmallow is sweet and has that distinctive “marshmallow” flavor. I guess it comes from the combination of vanilla and egg whites. However it happens, marshmallow just tastes distinct and this product tastes mostly like that because the chocolate and the cashews bring no flavor of their own.

Verdict
A “rocky road” candy bar makes sense. It’s a classic combination that goes together as well as peanut butter and chocolate. Annabelle’s is the only company I am aware of that makes a candy bar like this, but I was less than impressed with their offering. All it needs to be great is better chocolate and, in my opinion, almonds instead of cashews. They would then have a huge winner.