Candy Bar Lab

When my boss Andy first heard about this site, he was concerned there aren’t enough candy bars in the world to dedicate a whole blog to. I assured him that there are thousands of different candy bars and that it would take me years to get through the ones I already know about - let alone the thousands I’ve yet to discover.

At my local Target last night, I was reminded of just how many candy bars there are in the world when my girlfriend spotted one I had never seen before - a Ritter Sport with cornflakes in it. I obviously had to pick it up and even though I have a bucket full of bars at home waiting to be reviewed, I decided to eat this one next.

Structure
This is a square, 16 segment bar of molded milk chocolate with whole and crushed pieces of cornflakes incorporated throughout.

Texture
The cornflakes are surprisingly crunchy - much more so than their puffed rice counterparts. The bar breaks apart pretty easily though because there are so many cornflakes packed in. It’s easier to bite through than a regular piece of ordinary chocolate would be, which is nice because Ritter Sport bars are pretty thick.

Taste
Obviously, milk chocolate is the predominant flavor and it’s very good. You don’t really taste the cornflakes at all… at first. If you try really hard though, after the chocolate has subsided, you get a little bit of genuine cornflake taste. It’s interesting, definitely different from anything I’ve ever had.

Verdict
Cornflakes in chocolate is just unique enough that it caught my attention, but not so crazy that it’s a gimmick. This is a really good candy bar and I’d buy it again.

The whole cereal in chocolate thing got me thinking… what other cereals would work? Lucky Charms in white chocolate? Maybe Cinnamon Toast Crunch in milk chocolate? Cheerios in dark chocolate? Leave me some comments. Let me know if there are any cereals you think would be good to put in a candy bar.

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.

Bounty Bars used to be sold in the U.S. - up until sometime in the 90’s. I guess they were losing the domestic coconut candy bar battle to Mounds, so now you’ll have to look internationally to find one. Someone was nice enough to bring me this particular bar back from Argentina.

The first thing I noticed was the packaging. I love it. It’s very tropical and has kind of a 50’s tiki thing going. Another subtle touch that I appreciated was that the Bounty logo is repeatedly imprinted into the chocolate on the bottom of the bar (sorry, I should have snapped a picture of it). Imprinted logos on molded bars is common, but I’m not sure if that detail can be found on any other enrobed bars.

Structure
Two segments of shredded, raw coconut enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
This has a pretty thick chocolate shell and a soft center. Together, I think these two qualities compliment each other well. However, I had a problem with the center. It was rather dry and grainy - not as good as I was hoping for.

Taste
Besides the chocolate and coconut, I noticed a lot of vanilla flavor. It’s a bit disappointing that none of these coconut bars use any toasted coconut. I imagine that it would provide a deeper, more complex flavor to the whole bar. As I’m writing this, I’m reminded of Samoas (Girl Scout Cookies), which is one of the great cookies of all time.

Verdict
Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this bar that much. I say this is sad because I WANTED to like it more. The packaging is so appealing and they have a cool factor because they’re retro in the U.S. now. All in all, I’d eat another one of these if you handed me one, but I’d reach for a Mounds (or better yet, an Almond Joy) next time instead.