Candy Bar Lab

Whatchamacallit brings back memories of my 80’s childhood. Not because I actually ate many of them, but because I can remember those cheesy ads I used to see on TV. Back then, Hershey’s actually used real chocolate to cover this product. Sadly, today they use vegetables oils instead of cocoa butter because it’s cheaper and therefore, print “chocolately coating” on the packaging.

Structure
A peanut flavored crispy interior topped with a layer of caramel and enrobed in a milk chocolate coating.

Texture
The crispy center reminds me of Cheetos. Ok, that sounds weird, but imagine a Cheeto without any cheese on it. That’s what I thought of when biting into the center. Sadly, but expectantly, the chocolate coating is gritty. I wish I could go back and sample this Hershey’s product with real chocolate. The chewy caramel layer works nicely to provide some balance and depth to the texture of the bar.

Taste
The Whatchamacallit flavor experience is packed with sugary sweetness and vanilla. There’s really no chocolate flavor to be found, which is sad considering that I carefully taste candy bars looking for flavors. The caramel has a bit of saltiness, which cuts the sweetness a little, but it also has an artificial caramel taste that isn’t very pleasant.

Verdict
After I was done, I figured out what this candy bar reminded me of; these big tins of chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn my dad used to get for Christmas. I used to love that stuff. However, these days I’m not a fan of Whatchamacallits.

Sky Bars are manufactured by NECCO, New England Confectionary Company, which I associate with NECCO wafers — the worst candy ever made (one of the flavors is clove! yuck…). I learned never to eat them again after I first tasted one around 1987. So I’m hoping that NECCO’s Sky Bar turns out to be a lot better than those terrible chalky wafers.

Structure
A molded, milk chocolate bar with four segments - each with a different filling (caramel, vanilla cream, peanut butter, and chocolate fudge).

Texture
All of the fillings are soft and pretty similar in consistency.  The caramel and vanilla fillings are noticeably granular - not pleasant. There’s really no excuse for having sugar crystals in a finished product, especially in a product like caramel, which should be silky. The peanut butter filling was surprisingly the smoothest of the bunch, which is kind of weird because peanut butter doesn’t need to be smooth - it can be a little more coarse and crunchy and still be good.

Taste
When I first tried the peanut butter filling, I thought it was the caramel filling.  It doesn’t taste like peanut butter. With my second bite, I could make out a little bit of the peanut flavor. If you’re expecting it to be anything like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, you’d be way off.

The vanilla filling is forgettable. I really wish it had been marshmallow filling. Instead, it’s too sweet - like the inside of a Cadbury creme egg.

The caramel center is slightly salty, but has no deep, caramel flavor like I would prefer.

The chocolate fudge filling is my favorite. It tastes like brownie batter, which to me, is a good thing. I love licking the spoon after making brownies. Like the other fillings, it’s more sugary and sweet than anything. It could have been a more intense chocolate flavor, but it was good enough.

Verdict
The concept of four different fillings in one candy bar is cool.  If executed well it would be really good but this bar is not well done.  The chocolate is sub par and none of the fillings are very good (though I did kind of like the chocolate fudge). It’s a classic example of a product that does a little bit of everything, but doesn’t do anything particularly well. If NECCO were to combine the classic name and branding of the Sky Bar with high quality product and good execution, this could become a thumbs up.

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.