Blueberry tastes just like blueberries. Strawberry tastes mostly like fresh strawberries, although I found it a touch too sweet for my taste. Grapefruit was pretty strong, typical of the fruit, but it had a slight cough drop aftertaste. Orange was very much like a real orange. J claimed it made his mouth explode with saliva. He also likened it to an orange freezie, his favourite. Michelle said the aftertaste of the orange Hi Chew made her want to drink actual orange juice. Darci tried the lemon and said, “Oh I like that. It’s bursty!” She also said the texture reminded her of gum, to which we all agreed. Jay was not a fan of the lemon, saying he could take it or leave it.

And then there was grape. Grape is my favourite flavour pretty much across the board. No matter what the candy is, I have rarely been disappointed by grape. Dave tried one and said it was as close to real grape as one could get. He liked it, we all did. But there is actually something better.

When I said grape a second ago, I expect most of you thought of a lovely, purple coloured fruit, and that’s exactly what I meant. But the Japanese are particular people and I applaud them for it, for I am also a particular person. The best flavour of Hi Chew, without a doubt and so agreed by nearly everyone who tried one, is white grape. The first Hi Chew I’d ever had was white grape and I purchased it specifically because of the picture of white grapes on the label. (The ones I purchased had no English on their label but I have lately seen ones that have the words Hi Chew on them. They always have a clear picture of what the flavour is though, so watch for that.) I thought I had reached sugar nirvana, the ultimate in taste sensation. My reaction to this candy was what I assume most people experience when they have great chocolate. (Chocolate is merely fine to me, I’m weird.) Dave managed a ‘wow,’ Amber said it was just like Welch’s white grape juice. Michelle said that the white grape was closer to the taste of the fruit whereas the purple grape was closer to the standard expectation of grape flavour.

A word of warning though. I have been known to hoard really good candy so that I don’t run out before I’m able to get more. I tried to do that with these but if you keep them too long they do lose their freshness and get a little hard and styrofoam-like, much like a Starburst would. Not that that bothered me much, it’s the taste that coos seductively in my pleasure center.

So much for the single fruit flavours, but that’s not all they make. No sir. Hi Chew Mixed Fruit was an interesting experience for all involved. Michelle and I like to smell our candy first to see if it elucidates the taste before we begin. This one smelled of pina colada, although Amber said apricot. The point is we didn’t examine the package carefully enough to decipher what actual mixed fruit it was supposed to be until we’d all tasted it. Michelle and I were baffled after the pina colada guess as once we started chewing, those flavours were in question. Amber guessed correctly, good for her, and chose mango, papaya & pineapple. These were, of course, clearly pictured on the label once we looked. J summed up the experience of this candy quite succinctly and said they zinged with flavour. And he also swore a lot. If you’ve ever eaten a bowl of fresh mango, papaya & pineapple together, you’ve noticed that fruit can be sweet and sour all at the same time. These chews were incredibly accurate in their capture of that intense quality and yet quite unlike any candy currently defined as sour.

Lastly we tried a totally non-fruit Hi Chew, Hi Chew Creme Caramel. These were very different in that they have crunchy bits inside the chew. But again, the authenticity of this candy blew Michelle and I away. We both love creme caramel and this tastes just like it. The crunchy bits inside emulated the burnt sugar top of the dessert and once chewed the texture of custard seemed to remain in the candy. Amber was the only one who noticed that there were two different coloured sides to the chew and smelt each one individually. She said the one side smelled like vanilla extract and the other side like toffee, cookies and cream. Once she tasted it she noticed a butterscotch-maple undertone. The only person who tried one and didn’t like it was J, who said he never liked crunchy and chewy together. I can understand that, he also doesn’t like actual creme caramel. Then he said that it felt like it might pull out his fillings and lest he forget to mention, ‘crunchy & chewy = ew.’

So, as always, it’s up to you. Do you like your candy to surprise you with its near magical capture of an already existing taste? Or do you prefer it to stick to preconceived ideas of flavour and not ruin your dental work? All I can say is that I found Hi Chew to be unique in the realm of candy. And that suits me fine.

A great place to buy Hi Chew…

http://www.jbox.com/SEARCH/hi_chew/1/

Photo from Wikipedia.

A few months ago my good friend Brian brought me three treats from his visit to Michigan. Any foreign candy is exciting to me since I know no matter how good it is, I may only taste it once. Hershey’s Kisses Chocolate Truffles came on a long, bar-shaped tray, 5 kisses in all. These were delicious and quite rich, great melt-in-your-mouth quality. Michelle said it tasted like an ultra-rich Hershey’s Kiss. She said she almost felt like she’d eaten a Belgian chocolate. One of these was delightful but I only ate one, that was plenty to satisfy my desire. So rich.

Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate with Cranberries, Blueberries & Almonds caught me quite off guard. The addition of the fruits and nuts made the dark chocolate sing and all I could think was, ‘mmmmm’. Delicious.

Lastly from the Michigan group, Hershey’s Cacao Reserve 35% Milk Chocolate Truffles were also delightful but for me the real treat was that they came in a little pocket tin. I am a tin collector and Brian’s thoughtful gift, empty of chocolates, now sits on my shelf. Again, these were quite rich. I would eat only two at a time, at the most. A very nice treat. Michelle thought they had a buttery aftertaste, that the breakdown of the truffle was oily but in a good way. It reminded me of a Lindt truffle, very creamy. Darci, who isn’t usually a fan of Hershey’s chocolate, thought that these were much better than Hershey’s kisses. I would have to agree.

Dave was also nice enough to drop by one day with Cadbury Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs which we both loved. Also, we tried the Cadbury Popping Mini Eggs to which Dave exclaimed ‘Where’s the pop?” Perhaps white chocolate would have been better.Malteasers Dark Chocolate were tasty and nice but maybe a little too dark for me. The malt center isn’t sweet enough to balance it. Plus, my favourite way to eat Malteasers is to slowly let them melt in my mouth. This just isn’t possible with the dark chocolate. Without a little milk in there they almost didn’t want to melt at all and therefore my enjoyment of them was limited. It took me several weeks to finish my small bag.

Mr. Big Chew or Mr. Chew Big, whatever you call it, I loved it. Michelle, Darci and I all dug into our pieces and they were swiftly gone. We all agreed that the middle of the bar (the chew part, I suppose) was awesome and that they should make it with nuts. When one of us remarked that it was kind of like the middle of a Turtle, someone else exclaimed ‘They should make a Turtle Bar!’. No argument here. Michelle thought that there weren’t as many rice crisps in this as in a regular Mr. Big bar and I think that’s a good thing. Too many rice crisps is why I stopped eating Mr. Big in the first place. Darci likened it to a party in her mouth.

And finally, three chocolate treats that I absolutely insist you run out a buy immediately. Assuming you’re not lactose intolerant. Milka Strawberry Yoghurt bar is incredible, a little expensive but totally worth it. J, Michelle and I were all impressed with the soft delicious chocolate that turned all melty the instant it hit our mouths. The soft strawberry yoghurt filling had sweet, crunchy, toffee-esque strawberry bits in it that were just delicious. One of the best chocolate bars I’ve had in a long time.

Lindt Wafer bar is also incredible. Lindt chocolate is always good but to put a flattened pirouline cookie inside is inspired. Orgasmic.

Last, but certainly not least, Kinder Joy. A plastic egg splits in two and on one side you get your expected, fun Kinder toy. On the other is a dream come true of chocolate fantasy. Delicious, Ferrero Rocher-like nuggets in a bath of liquidy white chocolate goo on top of liquidy milk chocolate goo. Everyone of my friends who’s tried this so far has been too swept up in the deliciousness of it all and been rendered unable to speak. J was a little confused by the packaging but once he figured it out and the chocolate hit his mouth he collapsed on the floor in delirious excitement. Once he regained consciousness he said he would be happy to jump into it and swim around. Go. Get. One. Now.

Peanut butter filled products abound, so let’s get started. Reese’s Pieces With Peanuts are just like regular Reese’s Pieces, which I like just fine but they’re not my favourite. The peanut butter inside isn’t exactly peanut butter at all, I’m not really sure what it is. With the peanut added it was just too peanutty. It had a bad aftertaste, which my crew said might be from the peanut itself but I’m certain that it was from the candy shell. J said it was too dry and that a honey roasted peanut might have been better. Perhaps, but the only way I could eat more than one was to eat it at the same time as a Hershey’s Peanut Butter Kiss.

Hershey’s Peanut Butter Kisses had a good balance. J thought they tasted the same as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups but the girls disagreed. We found them creamier, quite delightful really. But as with many things peanut butter, my craving was satiated quickly and I only ate a few.

We also sampled Twix With Peanut Butter, which tasted exactly as I’d assumed it would: dry. Why in the world would you pair one incredibly dry thing, a cookie, with another incredibly dry thing, peanut butter? It should recommend drinking a glass of milk or a cup of tea right on the label.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups With Dark Chocolate were next on the block and met with mixed reactions. Michelle and J both prefer the creamier texture of the milk chocolate version but also thought the dark chocolate was okay. But I found the dark more enticing. Lately I have found my sweet tooth and my sweet intake to be curbed somewhat. The dark chocolate cut the sweetness way down and it hit the spot without being too cloying. That’s not to say I won’t eat a regular Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Or even a Reese’s Big Cup With Nuts. I love these and their no-extra-nuts counterpart. When I handed it to J, he exclaimed,

“It’s so big!”

“It’s a Big Cup.” I replied.

“It’s huge, it’s too much.” He protested.

“Huh, more for me then.” But he was too quick for me, downing it all in one bite and leaving me with just one. Too big, indeed. These are truly delicious. If you like nuts, go nuts with this.

I thought I’d be ending this on a happy note but then my friend Dave came by with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups With Marshmallow. I had already made the mistake of trying these and tried to hide my disapproval from Dave so as not to offend him and his sweet gesture. Fortunately for me he bit his first.

“Oh God, these are awful.” He started to cry. “Nasty-ass medicine taste!”

And then he inexplicably threw the rest of his cup into his mouth and cursed his purchase mistake.

“Damn my generosity. Stupid! Drown it with Coke!”

I felt it only fair to attempt to eat my cup but as I tried to pull it away from its wrapper I found it to be mercilessly difficult to unstick, due to the marshmallow. Assuming I was smarter than the manufacturers, I thought I’d salvage my sugar craving and cut the marshmallow part off. Wow, what a mistake. The gross marshmallow taste had permeated the whole candy and I spit the piece out of my mouth, disgusted.

So, honestly, why mess with perfection? Big or small cup, nuts or not, dark or milk chocolate, peanut butter is a welcome treat. But if you’ve got the time and inclination, try making your own at home. I found several excellent recipes on http://www.recipezaar.com/.

While I ended up buying a few of the same types of chocolate bars for this article, namely Coffee Crisp, Aero and Oh Henry, I’ve chosen to discuss them not by type but by style.

First, yogurt. I like yogurt. When used correctly, as it was in the case of my oft mentioned ‘best chocolate bar ever’ Kit Kat Lemon & Yogurt, it can be quite a delicious addition. Coffee Crisp Yogurt seemed to get it right. Both Michelle and I found it pretty tasty and agreed that the bitter coffee/sour yogurt mix went together well. I’m not a coffee drinker though, so it was fine with me that we cut the bar into pieces to share between us and J. J, a tried and true coffee drinker, loved the bar. He said when the wafer inside dissolved, it was like a burst of sugary goodness.

Aero Vanilla Yogurt on the other hand, got it all wrong. Aero chocolate is pretty sweet on it’s own, so pairing it with yogurt should have been awesome. However, the curd-like yogurt wedged into the bottom of the bar was incredibly sweet as well, making for a sweetness competition in my mouth that felt like a war. Luckily I had water handy. J also found the bar to be yuck and said it had too much vanilla extract flavour. If I hadn’t had been so desperate to get the cloying taste from my mouth, I may have noticed that myself. Perhaps if they’d tried their yogurt mix with dark chocolate or lemon, it would have balanced better.

Both Coffee Crisp and Aero also decided to experiment with caramel, something that would normally have me clamoring for more. But sadly, Coffee Crisp with Caramel was another disappointment. The coffee flavour of the bar was softened a bit by the caramel taste, like a fancy coffee frappe thing. But honestly, I barely noticed a difference between this and a regular Coffee Crisp. As for the Aero Caramel, the less said about that the better. It was gross, plain and simple, and so say all of us.

Also deciding to have a go-round with caramel was Oh Henry and Nestle Crunch. By this time my funny friend Hilary had joined us. Her take on the Oh Henry with Caramel was that she tasted a hint of maple. J said it reminded him of halva, a dense, crumbly sweet he’d eaten in Israel and not liked. I’d also had halva before and didn’t like it either. Michelle said it was like taking a regular Oh Henry and making it a little less gooey. Hilary said it was the chocolate they serve in hell.

The Nestle Crunch with Caramel wasn’t a hit either. J said it was good until he tasted the caramel goo inside, which reminded him of green baby poo. I simply grimaced and reached again for my water, which I nearly spit out laughing as Hilary said the bar tasted like a bag of asses.

The final bar we tried was the Limited Edition Oh Henry Double Chocolate. I love Oh Henry and eat them quite often but due to my dislike of the overuse of chocolate, I hesitated before picking it up. The fudge portion had been chocolatized, the caramel had been chocolatized and that kinda lost me. Thankfully you can’t make nuts any more chocolatey or there wouldn’t have been any kind of taste demarcation line. J quite liked his chunk however, likening it to deity excrement. It was easy for me to hand over my second piece as I liked it not at all, but another piece seemed to change his opinion completely and he said it was too chocolatey and had made him feel a little sick.

Despite all our chocolate that day none of us felt chocolate satisfied. For me, not quenching the desire for the taste I’m expecting, makes me crave that specific taste until I satisfy it. Michelle, J and Hilary all agreed. Instead of reaching for one of these bars again, I think I’ll just pick up a bag of Chocolate Chex Mix. That stuff is delicious.

My favourite candy is barley candy. Sparkling like glass, simple and satisfying. For some reason it is a rarity in my area but fortunately a store exists near my friend Michelle’s work and she brings me pocketfuls often. One of my best memories of London, England was finding barley suckers everywhere, in numerous glittering colours and shapes. Yet another reason that London ranks as my ultimate fantasy home.

I am not the biggest fan of suckers or hard candy and tend to avoid them even when free but I never turn down the barley candy. In fact, I often crave it. I have been struggling with digestive difficulties of late and the one thing that relaxes and centers me when I am feeling ill is a piece of barley candy. Imagine my surprise, while researching this piece, to find that calming a sore throat or an upset stomach is what barley candy was traditionally used for. Perhaps my sweet tooth is smarter than the rest of me.

Next up was Pocky Goka or Five Fruit. The fruits in question are peach, apricot, jujube, plum and chestnut. Other than jujube, which I’d never heard of before, these fruits generally taste fine to my palate. But I must admit I tend to not be a fan of fruits mixed together, no matter what fruits they might be. I mentioned this at the tasting and ended up on a diatribe about what I’ve coined ‘soup culture’, the phenomenon that seems to be steadily occurring everywhere you look as nothing is ever presented in it’s simple, individual form anymore. Instead we seem to be inundated with everything mixed together as if no item can stand alone. That having been said I’m sure it didn’t help the tasting that it was well over 30 degrees in my house that day and these Pocky sticks had gotten melted and stuck together. The Pocky were so unappetizing that for the first time ever in our Pocky adventures, no one wanted to eat more than one and the remainder ended up in the rubbish bin.

Luckily we were rescued once again by my friend Michelle who seems to always have alternative snacks hidden somewhere (I’ve started calling her “Pockets”). We cleansed our palates with the truly delightful, and now most certainly my favorite, Pocky Honey & Milk. I’m not really a big fan of honey but it’s use here made for a deep and rich taste experience. An excellent alternative if one desires something sweet that isn’t chocolate flavored. Also a plus is that these were the least expensive of all we’d bought, by at least $2.

Pocky also comes in fancier (and more expensive) varieties. We tried the Pocky Coconut, which features milk chocolate with coconut pieces around the cookie stick this time. If only my dear grandmother were still alive, I’m sure she’d eat these every day. The smell inside the package was heavenly and the taste was like a dream. If you’re a fan of coconut, these are for you. Well worth the slightly higher price, you won’t likely be disappointed.

Finally our Pocky tour took us to another Glico product, Paripo, which is similar to Pocky in that a package contains many sticks. The sticks however are more like a thinly rolled Pirouline (cylindrical wafer cookie) with a filling inside. We tried the peanut butter variety and all enjoyed it very much. J said he preferred these with the filling on the inside instead of the coated Pocky cookie. To me there was no preference as I think both snacks are too different to compare. Michelle likened the peanut butter filling to the filling inside a Pirate cookie (Pirate cookies by Christie here in Canada are oatmeal cookies with peanut butter filling.) I agreed with her even though it’s been forever since I’ve eaten Pirate cookies. But the peanut butter taste inside the Paripo took me right back to my childhood with it’s unnaturally smooth consistency and incredibly light peanut butter taste. I would definitely recommend these.

I can only hope that my next visit to the Asian grocer will yield as many delicious purchases. And with any luck, they’ll have more new flavors of Pocky.

Maynards Sour Wine Gums seem to be regular Wine Gums encrusted with a sour crystal substance. The first one up was green and I was rather disappointed. Is this candy really supposed to taste sour? I suppose in direct comparison to a plain green one, it was slightly sour. But the sour coating really just got in the way texturally of the pleasant taste of a Wine Gum. Then I ate a sour yellow one which tasted quite a bit like lemon, but also wasn’t particularly sour.

The oddest thing occurred when I tasted the sour orange one. Instead of making my mouth pucker and salivate like you would expect any good sour candy to do, it simply tasted like an actual sour orange. Not a terribly nice candy experience, to be sure. Purple is my favorite Wine Gum, it has the most wine-like taste, if you will. Although these candies contain no actual wine, which makes me wonder what the name is all about. I think to be blown away by these, one would have to be really bored of plain Wine Gums. Which I’m not. Next candy…

The package of Maynards Mini Fruit Gums says, “Sweet, but not too sweet.” Well, they sure got that right. Compared to most candy on the market this was the least sweet tasting thing I’d had in a while. The lemon was mild but I’d hoped for tangy. The lime delivered on the tang but that somehow made the overall lime taste kinda bitter. The orange was also bitter but tasted okay whereas the strawberry, which is often my favorite, was awful. It tasted like strawberries about to go bad. Most surprising was that the cherry one tasted really nice, like authentic cherries. I would suggest that Maynards develop a fragrance based on this product, the overall smell inside the open package was the best thing about this purchase.

I shared the Maynards Fruit Mania with my fiancé, J. These were totally different from the Mini Fruit Gums and their claim of not being too sweet. Overall the Fruit Mania were too sweet and the strawberry was the worst culprit. It tasted like a big piece of jam and both J and I spent several seconds trying to chew its cloying bits out of our mouths. The cherry was also too sweet but J liked it, which he claimed to be weird since he hates cherries. But he obviously likes orange claiming them to be the fix he needed and that all of them could be orange. I liked them fine, they went down quickly. The lemon were interesting in that the first one tasted awesome. But a second one left us both with a little cough-syrup-like after-taste and all I was drinking was water. As always I saved the grape for last and lamented that there were only two! Which was a real shame since it turned out to be a deep and complicated flavor, sweet without being stupid sweet. I didn’t share the grape with J, opting instead to give him all the leftover flavors in the bag (lemon, strawberry and cherry). He then proceeded to shove all the remaining candy into his mouth at once and rapidly changed his facial expression to suit each flavor as his tongue found it. Through gumdrop covered teeth he exclaimed that it was a “cacophony of too (expletive deleted) sweet!”. Most amusing.

Every now and then a candy comes along that makes one wonder who the heck came up with this idea anyway. Maynards Milkies, soft foamy gummies shaped like milkshakes, are such a product. They were so weird that I offered them to all my Saturday visitors, as after trying one of each flavor, I was more than done. First out of the bag, the dreaded banana. If you’ve read my previous posts you know I don’t like artificial banana and even though this candy was still kinda gross, I can definitely say it was the best artificial banana tasting thing I’ve ever eaten. Michelle said that it tasted like a lighter version of marshmallow banana. Indeed the milk/gummi combo in all flavors reminded nearly everyone of marshmallow. My buddy Dave spit the banana one out almost immediately while his girlfriend Rebekah said it tasted like children’s refrigerated penicillin drink. All in the room made the ‘ew medicine’ face but she insisted that she quite liked that taste. It takes all kinds, I suppose. My best friend, Darci exclaimed, “Darci likee!” I have now christened her my artificial banana expert. At least I don’t have to taste it anymore. Nearly all the tasters had difficulty telling the difference between the wildberry and the strawberry, which were unanimously declared blah, mild and boring. Lastly was vanilla, by far the best in the bag. Darci really liked it and Michelle said she could have had a whole bag of vanilla. Jay said it tasted like coffee sweetener. Compared to the four of us, Dave and Rebekah thought the vanilla were basically flavorless. I said that was probably because vanilla is in so many things that they’d just become accustomed to overlooking (over tasting?) it. The most interesting thing, to me, was that I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d actually drank a milkshake, there was such a strong, thick, dairy aftertaste.

I think it will be actual milkshakes and original Wine Gums for me from now on. Cheers!

Michelle and I bought a list of things there and I’ll get to that, but first I need to tell you about the best chocolate bar I’ve ever had, ever. In May of 2004, I purchased in London a Kit Kat Lemon & Yogurt bar. It was truly heavenly. The white chocolate flavoured with a dash of lemon and the yogurt-like bit between the wafers have haunted my candy dreams ever since. Why they didn’t market this in Canada, I’ll never know.

But, for now, I’ll muse about these British sweeties…

Dairy Milk Turkish, like a Caramilk, but with Turkish delight inside. I like Turkish delight and am a fan of a Big Turk bar. The real difference here being that a Big Turk is one huge chunk of Turkish delight covered in chocolate whereas Dairy Milk Turkish is all segmented. We found it difficult to taste the jelly at all, which was much softer than in a Big Turk. Despite all that however, the bar was tasty enough and we ate the whole thing. But next time I want that taste, I’ll have a Big Turk.

Next up, Flake Dark. I remember being so excited when I ate my first milk chocolate Flake bar, the way the chocolate would shatter when I bit it but would pleasingly melt away when I just let it sit in my mouth. Similarly, the texture of the Flake Dark was just right and the chocolate shattered nicely when I bit it. But once I let it melt in my mouth I found I didn’t really like the flavor at all. It was just too intensely dark.

The Nestle Milkybar Raspberry Egg is something I wouldn’t usually purchase but I was feeling adventurous. The small white chocolate egg was easily separated, so I ate the first half dissected. In the center was a splat of raspberry flavored marshmallow-like whip. I didn’t find it particularly raspberry tasting, but I really liked the texture of the whip, regardless of what it tasted like. The egg shell tasted fine for white chocolate, but wasn’t terribly interesting. I ate the other half whole, and although it tasted fine altogether, it was still pretty boring. This being my first Milkybar experience, whip or not, I just don’t see what the draw is. For the money, it just wasn’t exciting enough.

The last chocolate treat I bought was really a stretch for me but I’ve been seeing Revels advertising for some time now and just had to satisfy my curiosity. Six different chocolate covered items are advertised on the label. The first, were simply flat milk chocolate discs that tasted like flat milk chocolate discs. Secondly and most enjoyably were the malt balls. Malt is one of my favorites. Third go round was some kind of orange fondant. Surprisingly, since I dread chocolate and orange together, these weren’t terribly gross. But they weren’t great either. Fourth treat from the bag was coffee cream. Once upon a time, not too long ago, I loved coffee cream chocolates. Oddly I was never much of a coffee drinker, but recently I haven’t been able to enjoy anything coffee without having some weird physical reaction. Needless to say I don’t bother with coffee flavored treats anymore, this was the exception. The taste reminded me of the chocolates I once loved, but luckily didn’t make me sick. The last two candies were terrible but, to be honest, I waited a little too long past the expiry date to even open this package of Revels. I can only assume that time had gotten the better of what should have been chewy caramel and raisins. It was difficult to tell if they were either.

I saved my favorite treat for last. Club Lemon Soda will be a permanent addition to my British store visits. The ‘real lemon bits’ mentioned on the label were undetectable but otherwise, this pop is excellent. It was sweet and sour at the same time without being too much of either, possibly due to its having sugar and saccharin in it. I could drink this pop every day, I enjoyed it so much and I am once again left wondering, why I wasn’t born in the U.K.

I was actually excited about trying the Kit Kat Dark. I had such a good experience with the Dark versions of Caramilk and Cadbury Mini Eggs, that I fully expected Kit Kat Dark to be the same. In that, however, I was very disappointed. Smelling the bar before we tried it was possibly a mistake. Michelle said it reminded her of pipe tobacco, it had a deep, musty, unchocolatey scent. Undeterred, we all took a bite. I was expecting it to be much more bitter, given the smell, but really, it just tasted boring. There was no dynamic between the dark chocolate and the sweetness of the wafer, it just seemed thrown together. The dark chocolate itself reminded me of my childhood dislike for Italian Easter Egg chocolate. I will not bother with this one again.

The third new Kit Kat bar, Kit Kat Xtra Chocolate, I fully expected to be in the ‘not for me’ category. Although I eat chocolate and enjoy it, I wouldn’t consider myself in the group of people who love it. I don’t care for chocolate flavoured things as a rule, cake or ice cream for instance, and usually hate the double or triple choclating of things. (Brand new word, chocolating. Tell your friends.) In this case however, it turned out to be no big deal. Kit Kat Xtra Chocolate has a chocolate wafer in addition to the milk chocolate outside. Michelle noticed the wafer taste more than I did. To me, it was too subtle to really differentiate it from a regular Kit Kat. And without a plain one nearby to compare, I’ll just have to say I liked this bar and leave it at that.

Funny enough, the two people who shared the Kit Kat Dark and Kit Kat Xtra Chocolate with Michelle and I felt just the opposite. Jay and our friend Hilary liked the Dark one much better than the Xtra.

The last Kit Kat surprise concerned a gift I bought for my friend, Dave, from our local British goods shop. Kit Kat Mint, due to my personal dislike of mint and chocolate together, is something I would usually never consider putting in my mouth. Dave was thrilled with the gift and tore into them immediately, letting Michelle, Jay and I have a try. To my absolute shock, it was the best of the bunch. The mint wasn’t overwhelming at all, being well balanced by the wafer. All the flavours blended well together and I was sad that I hadn’t purchased a package for myself. And speaking of packaging, I got 10 two-stick bars in a package for $2.00! What a deal! Also, the words ‘break starts here’ were printed on the chocolate itself. Cute.

So what have I learned as I tell a tale of Kit Kats? Firstly, some things never die. Artificial banana is the worst of all the artificial flavours and I need to avoid it, forever. Secondly, my tastes are changing. As I head toward 40, I find more and more that things I used to hate deserve a second chance. And whether I end up agreeing with my younger self or not, at least I’m certain of why.

Here in Southern Ontario, I often sit around with friends eating and discussing food. And lately, the more new products that seem to be on the shelf, the more I seem to eat. What better opportunity to try the new Cadbury’s Caramilk Maple chocolate bar? I’m not exactly sure where else this limited edition candy is available but I chose it for it’s Canadian appeal.

I like Caramilk (known as Caramello in the United States and Dairy Milk with Caramel in the United Kingdom) fine, but admit that I rarely choose it. When it comes to chocolate, I have been stuck in a bit of a rut and too often end up eating the same things over and over. Last week, however, my fiancé, J, came home with a Caramilk Dark Chocolate for us to share. I loved it and ate my all my pieces before J even had a chance to put the rest of the groceries down. Now, I’m not the biggest dark chocolate fan, but I thought the sweetness of the caramel mixed with the dark chocolate perfectly.

After that pleasant experience, I went to my local convenience store and checked the racks for things new. If I hadn’t been looking on purpose, the maple Caramilk would have completely eluded me. It’s packaging is only slightly altered from the regular Caramilk, a brown maple leaf blending seamlessly into the rest of the label.

Packaging aside, once opened I took a whiff of the bar itself and was pleased to find a noticeable, but not overwhelming, scent of maple. And then it occurred to me that I’ve never actually eaten maple and chocolate together.

I put the first chunk of it into my mouth and… I thought it tasted like a Caramilk, mostly. The maple flavouring didn’t really catch up until the end, leaving me with an unappetizing maple-wood taste in the back of my throat. It certainly didn’t thrill me like the Caramilk Dark Chocolate did.

Personally, I like to dissect my candy and see what tastes like what out of the mix. Since the maple could only really be described as a hint, I needed to ascertain where it was hidden. Slicing the largest piece of chocolate off the bar I ate it alone and discovered no maple taste at all, just the regular satisfying taste of Cadbury chocolate.

Next, I scooped out the caramel inside. The second it hit my tongue I recoiled. It tasted like maple syrup that had been burned or gotten old and perhaps fermented in some way. And therein lies my verdict on this candy: artificial flavour = boo!

Among my friends at least, I am unique. It is rare that I like artificial flavours and this was as artificial as it comes. The woody taste that I detected with a full piece of the candy and the rancid alcohol effect from the caramel alone I can only chalk up to being some chemical that is supposed to trick the taster into thinking they’ve eaten something that was originally supposed to come from a tree. I couldn’t bear to finish it myself and saved the last pieces for J and my friend Michelle. Neither of them are quite as particular (I’m sure they’d say picky) as I am and I couldn’t wait to see if they found the candy to be as much of a turn off as I did.

My fiancé tasted a piece and just kind of shrugged, saying he wouldn’t be buying it a second time. Michelle completely agreed, saying it had a harsh aftertaste. Guess none of us will be having maple with our chocolate again any time soon.
So, with two new products in my tummy, I am once again off to the shops for new products. And I’ll probably pick up a new addition to my regular lineup: Caramilk Dark Chocolate.

Photos courtesy of company website.