Candy Bar Lab

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.

I don’t often see molded candy bars that have both milk and dark chocolate. In fact, the Nidar Yade is probably the first one I’ve had. It seems most manufacturers assume that milk chocolate and dark chocolate are mutually exclusive and that consumers want one or the other, not both in the same product.

Structure
A thin, wide molded bar with a bottom layer of dark chocolate and top layer of milk chocolate. Small, caramelized bits of macadamia nuts and hazelnuts are mixed in.

Texture
Perfectly tempered with a nice snap when you break it into the smaller, triangular pieces. The hazelnut and macadamia nut pieces are really small, but add a nice contrast to the smooth chocolate.

Taste
There’s about two or more times milk chocolate than dark chocolate, but in terms of taste, the two are split evenly. The dark chocolate is more pronounced when you first bite in, but the milk chocolate becomes more noticeable on the finish. It’s difficult to taste any hazelnut or macadamia nut because the pieces are so small, but you do get some extra sweetness from their caramelized coating.

Verdict
I don’t actually finish many of the candy bars that I review on this blog myself. I try to share with others if they’re good or I sometimes toss out the rest if they’re really bad. So when I eat an entire candy bar myself, like I did with the Nidar Yade, that’s a sign that it’s a damn good candy bar. I would put the Yade easily in the top tier of the candy bars I’ve tried so far.

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.