Candy Bar Lab

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.

The Peanøtt Kubbe (”Peanut Log”) is a Norwegian product manufactured by Freia - a subsidiary of Kraft Foods. This bar didn’t stand out much amongst the dozen or so candy bars I currently have from Norway. The ingredients list - chocolate, peanuts, and toffee -looked good enough, but it’s not exactly exotic; we have bars like that here.

Structure
The inner toffee core is first surrounded by a layer of dark chocolate and next by chopped peanuts and milk chocolate. The package contains two segments.

Texture
I was expecting the toffee center to be firm and chewy. To my delightful surprise, it was very soft and smooth. The milk chocolate is soft and creamy, while the dark chocolate is a bit harder and the chopped peanuts provide crunch. All together, there are many textures and they work together wonderfully.

Taste
The flavor is deep and complex. The toffee center has a burnt caramel flavor. The dark chocolate cuts the sweetness of the milk chocolate and adds to the uniqueness of the overall flavor (I can’t think of many candy bars with dark and milk chocolate). Of course, both of the chocolates used are high quality and taste great. Finally, the roasted peanuts add to the mix by providing a nutty background flavor.

Verdict
The Peanøtt Kubbe is an amazing candy bar with many textures and flavors all working well together. It’s one of the best candy bars I’ve ever had actually. I’d say this one is even worth buying online and having it shipped, but I can’t find a place online that sells it. If you ever come across one, either online or off, do yourself a favor and buy it.

The Double Decker is a British candy bar made by Cadbury. The name is presumably a reference to those red, two-level buses that are an iconic symbol of the country. Sadly, the packaging for the product has nothing to do with the buses. Instead, it’s bright orange and purple with a big, slanted logo across the front. Personally, I’m not a fan at all of the packaging design, but I won’t let that sway my opinion of the candy.

Structure
The name Double Decker fits the structure of the bar. It has two inner layers; the bottom one consisting of rice crispie balls spread amongst milk chocolate and the top one comprised of nougat. The whole bar is enrobed in milk chocolate.

Note: When your friends bring you candy bars back from overseas in their suitcases, don’t expect them to arrive in perfect condition.

Texture
The nougat is somewhere below a Charleston Chew and above a 3 Musketeers on the chewiness scale. The crispies are harder and larger than expected. I was thinking they’d be more like the kind in a Nestle Crunch. Instead, they reminded me of the ones in a Twix ice cream bar if you’ve ever had one of those before. Together, the chewy nougat, crispies and chocolate work well together.

Taste
There’s supposedly a light coffee flavor in the Double Decker. Either my taste buds were asleep or it’s REALLY light because I didn’t notice it at all. I’m sad because I thought this bar was bland. It was of course sweet, but neither the chocolate nor the inner layers had much flavor - just vanilla. I think a stronger coffee flavor would have helped.

Verdict
I’ve heard many times in my life that British candy bars are the best in the world. The Double Decker isn’t helping that cause. While the textures were good and different from anything I’ve had before, the flavor just didn’t cut it and ultimately, that’s what matters.