Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits

I remember when I was a kid and Skittles first hit Australia.  It was a revelation to me, these tiny chewy candies bursting with flavour!  Up until then the closest thing that we had were Kool Fruits and they were both bigger and not as juicy.

My love affair with Skittles continued until my last year of highschool when the bastards took away the grape flavour, my favourite, and replaced it with blackcurrant (though it might also be blackberry, I haven't checked in awhile) then to add injury to insult they took away lime and replaced it with green apple!  WTF Mars Inc!  WTF!

Ahem, so upsets aside I still love Skittles, I refuse to eat the nasty Australian variety so instead I shop at Candy Time in Brisbane and buy a large box of American Skittles for $3.99 and thus balance is restored to the universe.

However on occasion Mars Inc decides to play freaky God-like games and brings out limited editions.  Which I love!!  I've tried many a freaky Skittles version over the years, most would get a rating of 1.  Seriously.  Fun times but let's not do that again.

Fizzl'd Fruits though!  Man!  They got something right with these ones.  They've got different flavours to the regular packs, featuring berry punch, melon berry, raspberry, strawberry, and wild cherry, all covered with a fizzy dusted coating.

Oooh, the fizzy coating!

They were all pretty much even covered with the fizzy powder and had a nice crunch to the exterior.  The interior had the usual expected Skittles chew and juicy flavour.  I liked most of the flavours, except the wild cherry and berry punch, nothing cherry flavoured tastes good to me and the berry punch was just... off.

Of the three I enjoyed, raspberry was the best, tangy and sweet and the fizzy coating paired perfectly!  Strawberry and melon berry were a tie after the raspberry, and honestly I did eat the other flavours just to get the fizzy coating.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I really debated whether to bump this up to a 4 because I did really enjoy them, it's just with two flavours I didn't like there's really only 3/5 of the packet I'm going to eat.  But seriously try these, especially if you like fizzoes.

Whittaker's Dark Caramel and Dark Ghana Peppermint

So, it's been a little bit since the last review.  Turns out unexpected and slightly major dental work will drastically reduce one's ability to consume candy, who would have guessed!  It didn't help that for two days my mouth would only open a few centimetres.  But that's behind me now, on to better things.... like rich dark chocolate!

These two blocks were purchased for me by my brother E on a recent visit to New Zealand.  Okay, I'll admit it, I specifically requested he see if he could find them, I've been able to source some of Whittaker's chocolates in Australia but not these two and they were the ones I was most interested in.

But first, a little history!  Whittaker's Chocolate has been produced since 1896 according to their website.  The original founder, James Henry Whittaker sold handmade chocolate and confections from a horse and cart to the locals in Christchurch, by 1913 a base of operations had been created in Wellington and plans to expand across New Zealand had been formed.

During 1931 Woolworths Australia expanded into New Zealand and were selected to carry some of Whittaker's products, on a side note Woolworths and Big W were the two locations I was able to find some in Australia, a very limited range based on what I can see on their website.

Today Whittaker's roast their own cocoa beans for their chocolate and produce chocolate, toffee chews and fruit bars in their range.  The website lists the Peanut Slab as the most popular product, I haven't tried it though my friend Annie had a spasm last time we were in a chocolate store and she saw them.  I'm guessing she likes them.

Gooey caramel filling

However back to the chocolate at hand, I'm a softie for a good bit of dark chocolate.  I'll often pick it over milk, especially when I want a good hit of chocolatey endorphines.  Whittaker's Dark Caramel really delivers on the dark chocolate flavour, it's a sweet smelling bar that actually smells sweeter than it tastes.  Rich cocoa notes and a fruity note come through if you allow it to melt on the tongue.

The caramel filling was intriguing, it's not like any caramel I've tried before.  Light, and syrupy it was a really pleasanty contrast the the strong chocolate flavours, it toned down the coffee notes in the chocolate and was a really nice balance.  Think a strong cheese and and sweet fruit, the create harmony on the palate.  This bar was largely the favourite in my family, only ER wouldn't try them, she doesn't eat dark chocolate.

The Dark Ghana Peppermint was a real treat and the one I was most looking forward to.  It's a single origin chocolate, meaning all the beans are sourced from Ghana, like coffee this creates a particular flavour that is specific to the region due to different growing conditions, plants, soil quality and so on.

I've tasted single origin before and I really can assure you there is a difference. I've heard of single plantation chocolate which I'm dying to try, particularly as cacao plants are notoriously temperamental so making a chocolate bar from a single plantation shows commitment.

Single origin chocolate is not something that I would recommend as everyday eating, it has greater complexities than a regular bar of chocolate and really if you're going single origin the point is to taste the region within the chocolate.  In this case I'd say Ghana tastes smoky with a sharp and surprising berry quality.  Based on the Dark caramel I wasn't expecting anything quite so zinging, it was nice and the peppermint fondat that was smoothly flowing and delicately flavoured cut the fruity notes in the chocolate extremely well.

Flowing pepperminty filling.

Both bars came to me in excellent condition, bear in mind they were purchased in New Zealand, then endured however long in my brother's luggage, a plane trip back to Australia and a trip through customs before arriving in my hands.  Both were shiny and had zero damage, both had a nice snap and good bite to them, which are all things I want in a bar of chocolate.

The Final Verdict: 4 - Whittaker's makes some delicious products, both of these were worth the effort and time.  The Dark Caramel probably won out as the favourite, given the unexpectedly good caramel that was hidden inside.  However the Dark Ghana Peppermint definitely had the better tasting chocolate.  If I could get these in Australia both would be purchased again in a heartbeat.

Mentos Rainbow and Cola

Rainbow Mentos

Mentos have been around for a while now, originally developed in the 1950's in the Netherlands they were originally available in only the minty flavour.  They were originally intended as a breath mint but the hard coating and soft chew proved popular so additional flavours have since been added.

Until recently only three were available in Australia, mint, spearmint, and fruit (strawberry, lemon and orange).  This changed rapidly about 12 months ago when limited edition rolls started cropping up and new permanent flavour rolls appeared.

Cola Mentos

Two of the new flavours recently added are Rainbow, available at all Woolworths service stations and starting to show up in other locations such as confectionery stores, and Cola which is available in all major supermarkets and service stations.

I saw the Rainbow roll at a service station as I was leaving and I was in a hurry so I didn't stop to get one.  I then spent the next two weeks searching every supermarket and candy store to try and find them.  I must have seen them early in the roll out phase because I finally caved and went back to the specific service station to get them, but now see the damn things everywhere!

Fruit images on the roll.

I like this roll because it's pretty!  The rainbow print along the packaging has some nice colours and graphics.  It also displays the flavours well, grape, strawberry, orange, watermelon, pineapple, raspberry and apple.  There's two of each in the package, which is a standard Mentos thing, 14 pieces to a roll.

The candies inside are just as pretty, pastel colours in a complete rainbow spectrum.  The flavours are reasonable as well, strawberry was as expected, as was the orange, due to having tasted them in the regular fruit roll.

Pastel candies.

Of the new flavours raspberry and watermelon were my favourites, both fresh realistic flavours.  Pineapple was good too, but acidic and sharp like real pineapple, green apple was a bit sickly but I'm not really a green apple fan.  The grape was puzzling, I expected it to taste like grape bubble gum that fakey sort of flavour (which I enjoy) but it was far more true to the fruit which threw me.

The Final Verdict: 3 - They were enjoyable and fun but there weren't enough really good flavours to grab me and make me want to buy it again.

Pastel brown candies.

The cola ones were interesting, the packet was as attractive but the candies inside were pleasantly pastel brown, sort of a tan colour, which doesn't normally attract me but for some reason I liked the look of these.

The taste was very true to cola, sweet with a slight bite to it.  Unlike the Hi-Chew there was no fizz sensation.  Like the packet of rainbow there were 14 candies in the roll in total.  While the cola roll was not as good looking as the rainbow I'd almost pick it as the favourite because of the consistency that I would eat all the candies in this roll.

The Final Verdict: 3 - These are tasty, I think I like them more than rainbow but probably not enough to choose it as my go to Mentos flavour, I'd still pick mint if I'm wanting Mentos.

Interesting Japanese Candies

Weird Japanese Candy!

Honestly I know nothing about either of these candies, I can tell you that one is hard and the other chewy and they're both fruity but that's about it.

I was given them through Swap-bot and they are mega cute!  Both Hello Kitty branded, which I do love!

Bad sticky candies! Bad!

This one tasted of pineapple a bit, kinda of like tropical juice with extra pineapple in it.  There is a pineapple and I think a banana on the side of the tin, and lots of Japanese writing!  There is also the words 'lips candy' maybe that's the name?  Possibly?  Who knows, they were tasty but very sharp in flavour and they made my mouth hurt after eating a few.

What really bugged me was how a few days after opening we had a lot of rain and the sheer humidity made all the candies stick together in one big clump even though they had been dusted with sugar AND the container was closed.

Awww, Kitty has a friend.

The second one is a little cardboard box, again Hello Kitty themed with silver wrapped chewy candies inside.  There's also a Hello Kitty sticker, I think the idea is you collect the stickers.  Anyway the sweets are a mild yellowy colour and smell sweet.  They also taste fruity but they're much milder, it's not orange, it might be mango but I don't think so.  I think it's probably a fruit mix, it tastes like it has pineapple notes with a bit of lemon and a creamy taste, good though.

The Final Verdict: 2 - The flavours are vague, nothing stands out in a definite way and the tin of hard candies sticking together is a big boo-boo in my books when it comes to candy, it generally means the container doesn't seal correctly or firmly enough.

Hi Chew Purin

Mmmmmm..... Hi-Chewy goodness

More Hi Chew!  So in my previous post I discussed how much I enjoy Hi Chew, the tasty chewiness, the weirdness over whether it's a gum or a candy, it's crazy!

This packet was given to me by a friend, the lucky girl lives near a Japanese supermarket so has more readily accesible Hi Chew than I do.  It comes in a nice package, yellow and brown coloured but completely in Japanese!  I don't speak or read Japanese at all, so I'm guessing the flavour here.  I did find the flavour on the Morinaga website, but as it's embbed flash heavy I was unable to use my translation program to understand the website.  It was pretty though.

So based on some research and looking at the graphics on the packet I'm saying this is purin flavour!  Purin is a Japanese custard caramel dessert I imagine, and by Wikipedia's reports, that it's something like Creme Caramel or Flan.  Therefore before even trying a piece I was expecting a sweet caramelly chew which was fine by me.

Does anybody else gt really happy when they get exactly what they were expecting?  I sure do, which made this Hi Chew really nice.  It was sweet and it was caramelly without being sickly or overpowering.  What was a nice addition is little caramelised pieces of sugar, similar to the Toffee Apple and Cotton Candy I tried.  The flavour all round is very pleasant, it doesn't burst out and shout about itself but it also lacked the subtle tastiness of the Cotton Candy.  I was left perplexed, yet not disappointed.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I think it tasted to me like an element was missing, it was very similar to the Cotton Candy but just didn't hit that same mark and I can't even really say why.  If it had maybe a deeper caramel flavour or some richer buttery notes similar to toffee I think I'd be more satisfied.

Bittersweet Chocolate Pearls

Edible ball bearings!

Dark chocolate is a fickle thing.  Unlike milk chocolate where there are extra things thrown in like vanilla and milk (duh) to lighten the taste, dark chocolate's flavour is largely carried by the type of cacao bean with different growning regions resulting in different tastes and the fillings or items enrobed in the chocolate.

What's great about dark chocolate is that to fulfill that really strong chocolate craving it take far less than with sweeter milk chocolate.  I love a piece of really good dark chocolate over a whole block of sugary inspid milk any day.  Lindt Excellence Orange Intense is a particular favourite.

These little gems were a welcome surprise,  I was given them by my brother W.  He actually raided some of my Haigh's Dark Peppermint Frogs so bought these as a peace offering.  If this is what I'm gonna get everytime he eats some of my chocolate then I beg him to do it everyday.

I was presented with a clear cellophane package with nothing on it other than a label that reads "Bittersweet The Chocolate Boutique" there is no ingredient list or other information, not even a weight or package size.  It doesn't even tell me what it is!  Fortunately brother was able to relay information about what the product was.

Inside there were little balls of dark chocolate, really small like little ball bearings or those irritatingly hard silver balls than people put on cakes.  They're all fairly uniform in size, with a very shiny surface indicative of well tempered chocolate and rarely do you get two stuck together.

Inside the little balls of mystery is a crunchy middle, it tastes and feels like a cereal, maybe puffed rice.  It's hard and the distinctive crunch and relative bland taste of the cereal is delicious against the really dark chocolate.

I snipped the top off the bag I was given and stored them in a screw top jar, they've kep very well for almost three weeks, they still taste and look exceedingly fresh.  In fact a small thing that pleases me infinitely about the Chocolate Pearls is that unlike other chocolate balls these do not rub against each other in a way that damages the surface, they all remain shiny and perfect.  Nothing ruins a good bag of chocolates like dull surfaces from being bashed together.

Bad new is these little delights are only available from one place, Bittersweet at the Barracks in Brisbane, so if you live in Brisbane then lucky you!  If you don't then check out their website as they will deliver. 

The Final Verdict: 4 - These were gorgeous, tasty and satisfying without needing to eat a whole pile.  The downside was the lack of information on the packet, not even ingredients, nor could I get any info about this product from the website.  I would buy them again, and better packaging would life my rating.

Valomilk

As many know I will try anything once.  Candy related that is.  I'll also often go on a bit of a hunt, an epic journey if you will.  Almost Lord of the Rings style, to find a certain candy I may have heard about.  One such candy is VALOMILK (which is how the company writes it), I stumbled upon these a few years ago after watching an episode of Martha Stewart where they were discussing retro and nostalgic candy.

According to the company website for Sifers, the makers of Valomilk, the candy was invented by accident around 1931 by essentially a drunk employee.  The employee in question was making marshmallow but as he drank the vanilla essence in the process (which has an extremely high alcohol content) he stuffed something up and the marshmallow didn't firm up.  So instead of firing the alcoholic worker they decided to make a profit instead and scooped the runny marshamllow into chocolate cups.  The candy has been made ever since by the same family and now remains as the only product they make.

Valomilk as a chocolate has a bit of a cult status, produced in the United States in the state of Kansas, it is not available nationwide.  Every batch is still made by hand and the company website actually features a section that links fans to location where the product can be purchased.

So, you can imagine that with such an elusive nature surrounding it, Valomilk was definitely a candy I wanted to get my hands on!  And thankfully I did.  They were shipped to me in a parcel from the U.S.  And survived surprisingly well.

One of the key features of a Valomilk chocolate cup is the runny and often leaky middle.  The packet I received had two cups in it, given I was expecting a sticky leaky chocolate treat I wasn't disappointed.  One cup had haemorrhaged it's filling everywhere, but the cardboard tray the pair sat on held the marshmallow in a sort of resevoir that was easily eaten with a spoon.

The second cup was intact, a little dry in the middle which I suspect was due to heat and time spent in mailing transit.  It was delicious though, cocoay chocolate and the sticky vanilla middle is satisfying.  I have seen recently a competitor called "Mallow Cups" but I don't really know all that much about them so couldn't really say whether they are a superior product or not.

I'd really like to try these when they haven't travelled through the U.S. Postal service and then through Australia Post to reach me, however realistically I think I'll have to travel to the Valomilk next rather than the other way around.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I was really excited to receive these and sample them, what let them down was the condition they were in and how messy they were to eat.  They tasted great!  And I think that if I got the chance to sample them fresher and in better condition then I'd probably rate higher.

Pretzel M & M's

I always like products that faced with their success decide to become mad with power and start pumping out different variations in order to maximise both their dominance and their profit.  Most of the time it doesn't work, I direct the jury to view exhibit A 'New Coke' of the 1980's.  It's nice to see when a company brings out new flavours and variations I'm interested to try.

M & M's are produced by Mars, you know the people with the planet named after their bar?  Anyway back in the 1940's Forrest Mars Sr was trying to figure out how to stop soldier's chocolate from melting, seemed that a colourful and tasty candy shell was the order of the day, so he teamed up with fellow chocolate entrepreneur William F. R. Murrie, President at the time of Hershey's Chocolates.  Figured out why they're called M & M's yet?

Anyway, fast forward 60 odd years and the original candy is still a hit.  But now with fun new flavours!  Regionally speaking there are over a dozen flavours available dependent on where you live.  Australia has things like mint, orange and crispy.  America has options like wild cherry, coconut and the topic of today's post, pretzel.

I got these in another swap, a private swap this time so the person knew to specifically get me things.  I got a very big bag (even though the bag says 'medium') of pretzel M & M's and even after travelling for two weeks in the post they were in perfect condition (Forrest can rest assured his plan worked).

Upon opening the bag they have a very distinct scent, different to the Aussie M & M's, much more cocoa sort of smell.  Pleasant though.  Pretzel M & M's are also HUGE.  About the size of a malteaser, but heavier.  They're incredibly easy to eat, the shell is slightly thicker than I'm used to but whether that's an American thing or specific to the pretzel variety I don't know.  There's a good layer of chocolate underneath, could be thicker but I'm not complaining.  Then comes the best bit, a solid ball of very crisp salty pretzel.

Now in my experience either you love salty/sweet candy or you don't.  I was introduced to the concept late in life, but it turns out I LOVE IT.  These pretzels are so morish, I had to put the packet away!  They also got the thumbs up from family members, M, E and B, which is encouraging as none of them have nearly the adventurous candy palate that I possess.

The Final Verdict: 4 - Tasty!  Mr Mars should be pleased with his legacy, I would love to receive these again.  Sadly I doubt they'll become available in Australia as the sweet/salty thing never really took off here.  Hence why I have to put my own chocolate into my popcorn at the movies.