Sugar Savvy

It’s hot here in northern California. Usually our summers are naturally cooled by the fog drifting in off the Pacific Ocean, but now we are experiencing a full scale meltdown.

Being hot and sticky and wishing I could go swimming reminded me of my summers growing up in a New York suburb. My sisters and I would go a few times a week to a nearby lake where the rust-colored water was sure to leave permanent stains on our bathing suits. We’d run in and out of the lake, build castles in the mud-like sand and catch tadpoles. It was all fun but my favorite activity at the lake was going to the snack stand and getting a frozen Milky Way Bar.

Oh, the cool delights of a frozen candy bar filled with nougat. To me that remains the quintessential taste of summer, and nougat-filled candy bars such as Milky Way (called Mars Bars overseas), 3 Musketeers Bars and Snickers are still my favorite supermarket check stand candy choices. (By the way, nougat is generally described as a chewy candy made with egg whites, honey or sugar and often nuts or fruit.)

So when I stopped by my local See’s Candies store to pick out my weekly tasting selection, I knew what I had to pick – the nougats. See’s offers three, so I tried all three. Someone has to.

Tasting Report

Description:

Rum Nougat is piece number 35 on the See’s website and in the catalog. It is covered with milk chocolate and its slightly pink beige filling is packed with bits of walnuts, raisins and cherries. It is taller than piece number 45, the Peanut Nougat, and features two drizzles of milk chocolate across the top. The Peanut Nougat is squatter than the Rum Nougat and only has one swirl or line of milk chocolate across the top. The filling is a honey-beige color and you can see bits of the peanuts as well. The Dark Nougat, piece number 32, is covered with dark chocolate, its filling is smoother and much lighter in color, almost white. All three pieces can be viewed and ordered here.

Taste:
(Note: Because of the heat, my See’s Candies had been refrigerated. Before tasting they were brought back to room temperature, so I didn’t get my frozen nougat fix after all.)

Rum Nougat: Yo ho ho, you can really, really taste the rum flavor in this candy. It is a strong first note. As it fades, the taste of the cherries and raisins in the nougat filling take over. It was a softer nougat than the others. No actual rum appears to have been used in this confection. See’s way with nuts is undisputed. This candy was packed with excellent English walnuts. The chocolate taste was lost in the other flavors.

Peanut Nougat: Biting into this candy reminded of eating a Snickers Bar. The peanut nougat was sweet and packed with nuts. The nougat seemed saltier (which is odd since there is no salt in the ingredients list) than in the other candies and the milk chocolate coating stood out more. It was a very nice balance of tastes. Think of it as a “gourmet” version of that popular candy bar.

Dark Nougat: This one is a dark chocolate lover’s delight. The coating on my piece was very thick and the chocolate taste really dominated the candy. The almonds were not as assertive as the peanuts or the English walnuts in the other nougat candies. I didn’t even notice a coconut taste. The nougat seemed the chewiest with a nice resistance to the teeth but not so much as to endanger any dental work. It was blander than the Peanut Nougat (not a good thing) and the Rum Nougat (a good thing).

See’s Trivia:
My local See’s store is on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, California. Known as Shop 26, it first opened in 1938 and is one of See’s historic Art Deco style originals. Store 26 was scheduled to close in 2004, but community support and the support of the local Art Deco Society helped save it. Stepping into that shop is like stepping into a time machine.

Ingredients:

Rum Nougat: Milk chocolate coating (sugar, milk, cocoa butter, chocolate, soy lecithin, vanillin), sugar , English walnuts, raisins, cream, cherries (with artifical color red 40), butter, egg whites, salt, artificial flavors, milk

Peanut Nougat: Milk chocolate coating (see above), corn syrup, peanuts, sugar, brown sugar, cream, egg whites, milk

Dark Nougat: Dark chocolate coating (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, vanillin), corn syrup, almonds, sugar, cream, honey, coconut, butter, egg whites, salt, vanilla, milk.

Well-Fed Network Ratings:

I would rate the Rum Nougat a 3.5 out of a possible 10 as compared to other See’s Candies. The Dark Nougat is a 6. The Peanut Nougat is an 8 and I would definitely buy it again. Pros: The walnuts and peanuts were wonderful. I liked the dark chocolate hit on the Dark Nougat. The balance of ingredients on the Peanut Nougat really made it stand out. Cons: The overwhelming artificial rum flavor of the Rum Nougat was off putting. The Dark Nougat filling was just too bland despite the almonds and coconut.