Werther's Chocolate Eclair

Mmmmm, who likes caramel?  Who likes chocolate?  Together?  Yes, tasty!  These were all the thoughts running through my brain as I picked out the Werther's Chocolate Eclairs off the shelf at the supermarket.  Honestly I picked them up for a few reasons, the delicious chocolately caramelly experience I was being promised, the fact that it was a new product and it was on sale.  Yes that's right, my candy consumption is often dictated by what's on sale.  These only cost me $1.99 which I consider quite good given the price of chocolate and candy over here.

The packet was a good size for the price and felt reasonably full which was nice, the packet was annoyingly difficult to get into without my trusty kitchen scissors but maybe that's a positive as it stops certain family members getting into my candy.  Maybe.

Inside the toffees were invidiually wrapped, a big plus in my books.  Nothing like getting a hard or semi hard candy only to find that a teensy bit of moisture has gotten in and stuck the whole bunch together because they aren't wrapped individually.

Each little candy is about the size of a large pellet and the same sort of shape.  The wrapper was easy to remove, a little twist off style.  And then the deliciousness began, smooth soft yet chewy caramel with a chocolatey centre.  It's easy to eat these candies several ways, either sucking until part gave way to access the chocolate or biting straight through were my two favourites.

This type of candy will travel well and store well which is plus and each one is as uniformly the same as the others.

The Final Verdict: 4 -  I really like these, in fact I was in the same store a few days after first buying them and almost picked up another packet even though they weren't on sale.  Only thing that stopped me was Cadbury had new products out.  I know I will buy these again, and porbably soon.                       

Sweetcorn KitKat

I love KitKats! In Australia we have the regular four fingered ones and the KitKat chunky, the latter comes in a few different flavours like caramel, cookies and cream, and cookie dough. Nestle who produce the local KitKats often bring out limited edition flavours there used to be a dark chocolate mint flavour which was awesome!

As many candy lovers know the Japanese have some fabulous candy options, and their KitKats are no exception featuring rotational flavours they come as delicious as Blueberry Cheesecake to as weird as Wasabi or Soy Sauce.

My first introduction the the funky world of Japanese KitKats was a four fingered variety brought back for me on a whim by a friend. I had asked for Lindt 99% Cocoa which I had heard about for someone else. Not only did I get two blocks of the Lindt (which by the way is not for the faint hearted!) but I was also given a carrot and apple juice KitKat. It was odd. But spurred me on to try more!

Fastforward another 12 months and another friend was travelling to Japan, I mentioned the KitKats as more of a recommendation that he should try some over there but to my delight he also brought back a packet for me!

This packet is the style often sold to students to give to one another to wish good luck on exams, it's something to do with what KitKat translates to in Japanese, something like 'surely you will win' maybe someone who knows more Japanese than me could help?

Anyway I'm burbling again. The KitKat! It was Sweetcorn flavour, and like the one I had previously it's totally.... odd. It's a white chocolate KitKat with vanilla wafers and a sweetcorn creme sandwiched between. It tastes very distinctly of sweetcorn with a strong buttery aftertaste of the white chocolate.

It was very fresh and this was even after travelling from Japan to Australia and then hanging out in my brother's apartment for a few weeks as the friend passed it to him to pass to me.

The Final Verdict: 3 - It was actually tasty, but just weird. Tastes just like sweetcorn but the texture was wrong. Having said that I'm not sorry I tried it and it seriously encourages me to try others.

Garoto Chocolate

I got a parcel today, well two actually. Through the Swap-Bot website, which I totes recommend if you're into receiving parcels in the mail and are willing to put in a bit of effort to send some yourself.

This was a international baking swap, send something local like a packet mix or spice mix to someone else in the world. Now the thing is my profile lists my candy obsession quite blatantly and I think the lovely young lady who sent me this parcel picked up on that (she'd have to be blind not to). So included in my parcel along with the Pao de Quejio mix and sprinkles she sent me were a variety of local Brazilian candies. The packet that most interested me? The chocolate!

I recieved five mini 'fun size' blocks, with different flavours. Now my Brazilian is a little shaky, or non-existant whichever, so I had to sort of guess the flavours based on the photos. I believe I received, a fruit and nut, a milk chocolate almond, a milk chocolate hazelnut, a white chocolate cashew and a dark chocolate cashew and honey.

Now, I am a bit of a chocolate snob, I feel with the effort that goes into making it you shouldn't settle for crap. In Australia we have the usual eating chocolate which does usually have some additives aside from the normal chocolate ingredients. Having said that I really like Australian chocolate, we also have upmarket brands that I am particularly fond of. I also like candies like Hershey and consider it chocolate.

These unfortunately were more like compound chocolate, you know the type, mainly used in baking unlikely to contain any real chocolate and heavily laden with vegetable fat. Most of the flavours lacked any real cocoa flavour and sort to stuck with the vaguely sweet feel. I also disliked that the nuts had all been diced very small, I prefer nuts in chocolate and candy to retain it's shape and be distinctively different to the chocolate as a whole.

The Final Verdict: 2 - Fun to try but I wouldn't buy it.

Razzles

Sometimes you come across something that must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Inevitably there are people who continue to think it's a good idea, however I simply think they must be delusional.

This thought process applies to Razzles. Now admittedly a candy that's been around since 1966 probably has a fair number of fans floating about who will denounce my position as gumist or something.....

Anyway, why did I think this candy was a bad idea? I think the original jingle answers that question:

"First it's a candy, then it's a gum. Little round Razzles are so much fun."*

That's right, it's the whole 'I can be two things!' that's bugging me. Usually when something tries to be two things at once it does neither well. Razzles for example is a nasty chalky pressed candy to start with, then a horrible rigid gum that has no flavour.

Short recap, I don't like Razzles, they can stay away from my mouth thank you very much. They had weird flavours as well, nothing was really distinguishable between the colours and I really only ate about three.

The Final Verdict: 1 - I've seen them in enough films and such to want to try them and I'm really sorry I did, somehow I feel the mystery has been lost.

Hi-Chew 6 Flavours

I am a recent Hi-Chew convert. Until about a month ago I did not even understand the joy that is Hi-Chew, since this moment of enlightenment I have discovered something essential to the eating of Hi-Chew. Either you like Hi-Chew or you don't. Upon giving a piece to a male friend I was rewarded with a screwed up face and spitting motion as he tried to get it out of his mouth.

Admittedly for the uninitiated Hi-Chew can be odd, it has the texture and consistency of a gum crossed with a chew. Sometimes it can be difficult to know whether to swallow the damn thing or not.

So desperate was I to try the Cotton Candy Hi-Chew variety that I ordered a packet from Japan through eBay, I have since oh joy of joys, found a small stash available at the Lucky 7 store at South Bank and am waiting to see if the one at Lutwyche has them too. I know that Go Go Mart on the Gold Coast has a huge range but being an hour from my house makes shopping there somewhat prohibitive.

Anyway I burble, the flavours I got were Cotton Candy, Lemon Soda, White Soda, Juicy Pineapple, Sweet Peach, and Candy Apple. As there's a bunch I've written a little blurb about each one.

Cotton Candy: This was the whole reason I got into Hi-Chew, I read an amazing review about it at CandyBlog.net and I was determined as a Cotton Candy (or Fairy Floss for Aussies)fan to get my hands on it. And oh boy, I was not disappointed!

It's creamy and sugary at the same time with gorgeous burnt sugar flavour, and the little sugar crystals add interest and texture. I really like the bounce the chew has and the simple flavour behind it, not at all flashy like say Starburst fruit chews.

The Final Verdict: 5 - Completely amazing, I've gone through two more packets since and plan to buy up next time I'm down the coast.

Lemon Soda: Interesting to say the least, it's quite a sunny yellow colour with the same bouncy feel and nice chew. No extra texture in this one and it has a very lemon flavour, but the thing that ruins this one is the strange bitter aftertaste. It almost tastes like carbonation, like the effervesence you get in a fizzy drink but at the same time it isn't fizzy.... perplexing.

The Final Verdict: 3 - These were borderline on the ratings, almost a 2 but I did enjoy trying them, just probably won't buy them again.

White Soda: I assume this to be Lemonade, kinda like Sprite I guess just not as sweet. It has a very true lemonade flavour but the same bittery aftertase as the lemon soda and that's about all I could really say, this one was kinda non.

The Final Verdict: 2 - more because it was just boring, I mean a Lemon Soda AND a Lemonade? The Lemon Soda tasted better.

Juicy Pineapple: This is one of the Hi-Chew Jr range, supposedly geared towards children's tastes. I don't really know what this means, because isn't ALL candy aimed at children? Anyway, I liked this one quite a bit, it had a pretty colour and lovely flavour pineappley but not sharp or acidic very much tasted like pineapple juice, for some reason Golden Circle brand....

The Final Verdict: 4 - very enjoyable and I'm sure I will buy it again.

Sweet Peach: I'm not a person who is into peach flavoured things, I dislike peaches so why would I like something flavoured like a thing I hate? Well I was surprised, I really liked this one, it was floral and fruity and nicely sweet. It is again from the Jr range so perhaps that's why I liked it so much, it's flavour overall was softer than most peach flavoured things.

The Final Verdict: 4 - again this was really nice, I'll buy it again if I can find it.

Candy Apple: I was intrigued to see this one as it's a partner flavour for the Cotton Candy, both festival themed. When I was little we used to get these lollipops called Rosy Apples and they were red and green and supposedly toffee apple flavoured. My senses always thought they were tasty. My senses were wrong. This candy gives a whole new meaning to 'toffee apple flavour' it's mild on the apple but definitive, has tasty little sugar morsels throughout and a subtle burnt sugar flavour, heaven!

The Final Verdict: 5 - or maybe 4.5, almost as good as Cotton Candy but not quite, definitely up there.

Rating System

So below you'll find my scientifically devised rating system. Which may change, when I get picky or bored. Just to keep things interesting.

1 - WTF did I just put in my mouth!? Get it out! Bad bad bad!

2 - Well, that was a fun and interesting candy experience. Not one I'll repeat but fun nonetheless.

3 - Tasty candy, tasty enough that I'll probably buy it again and eat it.

4 - Scrummy good candy! Will definitely find and purchase again!

5 - Candy Heaven! So good I must stockpile immediately!

? - Weird candy, so weird in fact I have no idea how to rate this and suspect the candy industry is making fun of me.