Candy Bar Lab

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.

In the US, the only Cadbury candy bars I ever see are the solid, molded variety with nuts and dried fruits mixed in. These bars are actually produced by Hershey’s under a license agreement. In the rest of the world though, there’s a big variety of Cadbury enrobed products like the Cadbury Boost. I suppose the Hershey’s licensing agreement might prohibit Cadbury from exporting these candy bars to the US.

Structure
The inner core is a chocolate ganache-like filling, where the bottom half has small, round bits of biscuits (cookies) mixed in. This is surrounded by a thin layer of caramel. The whole bar is enrobed in milk chocolate.

Texture
The chocolate filling isn’t as soft as I was expecting or would have liked. It’s slightly softer than the pure chocolate coating, but not much. The biscuit pieces are perfectly crunchy, but there aren’t enough of them. I would have liked the whole center, not just the bottom half, to include biscuits pieces. The way the caramel is layered so thin, it’s not noticeable at first. But since it’s so chewy, it lasts longer than the other components, so you end up with some caramel in your mouth after everything else is gone.

Taste
The milk chocolate, both the coating and the filling, taste good. The caramel is slightly salty, which complements the overall sweetness of the product.

Verdict
The Cadbury Boost is a reconstructed Twix bar, though it’s not quite as good. Twix has a higher proportion of caramel and it’s solid cookie bar provides more crunch than Boost’s small, round bits of cookie. That said, it’s still pretty darn good and Cadbury chocolate is tasty.

I previously reviewed Annabelle’s Rocky Road - an American made candy bar with chocolate, marshmallows and cashews. I was underwhelmed by that product, so I’ve been on the lookout for a great rocky road candy bar since. So, I was really excited when I received this Australian made rocky road bar last week. From the packaging, I could tell it’s different from Annabelle’s. Instead of using a solid slab of marshmallow enrobed in chocolate, this version has big pieces of marshmallow mixed into a slab of chocolate. And instead of cashews, VooDooo’s version has peanuts.

Structure
Whole marshmallows and roasted peanuts in milk chocolate, cut into rectangular slabs.

Texture
This is a very non-uniform product. There are different sized marshmallow and peanut pieces mixed throughout. The chocolate is really thin in some places and really thick in others. Along the outside of the bar, the chocolate barely coats some of the marshmallow pieces. I think VooDooo might be making these by hand, rather than using automatic machinery, but I can’t confirm this.

Taste
The marshmallow and peanuts are fine. The chocolate - a huge disappointment. It’s really sweet and flavorless. It barely tastes like chocolate actually. If I were served this candy bar blindfolded, I would have guessed that it had white chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

Verdict
VooDooo Rocky Road was a big let down. I had high hopes from the packaging and first look that this would be a great candy bar. But immediately upon biting in, it was clear that the chocolate was sub-par and that ultimately killed it’s chances of getting a thumbs up from me.