Day Seven: Coffee Crisp Chocolately Crunch

Happy Saturday!

I was going to take today off from this chocolate blog, cause I'm beginning to feel unhealthy...but I think it's all in my head. AND I went to the gym, so perhaps I need a little reward ;)

I am trying to try new chocolate bars instead of eating some of my favourites. (I don't want to be biased!) So here it is:Coffee Crisp Chocolatey Crunch
makes a nice light snack

Did you know:

• This bar is available only in Canada, therefore there is no Wikipedia listing for this chocolate...boring!

Light indeed! Don't let it's claim fool you though, this bar is anything but healthy! It is however, very light tasting. This was definitely more chocolatey and less coffee-y than your standard Coffee Crisp (which actually works out better for me cause I don't like coffee). I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package that there was a layer of those awesome little crispy rice pieces that can also be found in the CRUNCH bar. The crispy rice added an extra oomph to this chocolate bar!

They have reduced the amount of wafer and replaced it with - yes that's right, more chocolate, and changed the shape of the bar. This one was more flattened and wider - making it more manageable to eat.

Unable to find much on this new bar, I located one of the original commercials for Coffee Crisp. Classic!

How do I like my coffee?
Chocolatey!!

Rating:
Milk Factor:0
Smiles: 3
Calories it was worth: 220 out of 260

Day Six: 3 Musketeers

Who knew eating a chocolate bar every day would be such hard work.

After a little too much of the liquid courage last night, I am definitely not sure I want to cram more sugar into my system. Today would have been the perfect day for a deep-fried Mars bar!!! But alas, here's my selection for Day Six:

3 Musketeers
Whipped Up, Fluffy Chocolate-on-Chocolate Taste Big on Chocolate, Not on Fat!

Did you know:

• Outside the U.S. and Canada, the product is known as Milky Way, which is also known as the Mars bar.
• Originally, it had three pieces of candy in one package, flavored chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, hence the name.
• At 5 cents, when it was introduced, it was marketed as one of the largest chocolate bars available, one that could be shared by your friends.

Ok - so before I open this, I must admit that I have never had one of these, nor have I ever seen someone eat one, so this is going to be a total surprise for me!!

Wow, this may be the only chocolate bar that I cannot finish! It is super rich and lives up to its claim of being whipped up and fluffy. The inside of the bar is an interesting chocolate flavoured nougat. That`s about all there is to this chocolate bar - simple and chocolately.

Speaking of nougat, I have encountered this in many of the bars I have eaten, so I decided to dig a little deeper...(thanks Wikipedia)

The "nougat" used as an ingredient in many modern candy bars in the US and UK is different from traditional recipes, being a mixture of sucrose and corn syrup aerated with a whipping agent such as egg white or hydrolyzed soya protein or gelatine. It may also have vegetable fats and milk powder added, and is typically combined with nuts (usually peanuts), caramel or chocolate.

Sounds yummy!

Upon further research, I discovered that this bar is and or has been available in a variety of different flavours including: vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mint, cappuccino, french vanilla, cherry, raspberry, orange and chocolate strawberry brownie. Talk about choices! This lovely bar is also produced by Mars Inc and claims to have 40% less fat than other bars....could be cause there is nothing but chocolate in it. :)

I would definitely recommend sharing this one with a friend.

Rating:
Milk Factor:4
Smiles: 1
Calories it was worth: 200 out of 260

Bonus: 40% less fat than the average

Winterlicious

Ok, I must interrupt my chocolate blogging for a minute.
Last weekend, a friend and I went to check out what all this buzz around Winterlicious was about. I have lived in the city for three and a half years now, and have not once experienced the prix fixe (this is a very common thing in France btw).

Anyway, I picked out this Italian restaurant on College street called Coco Lezzone - supposed to be higher end, really nice place, and it had a great menu. We had beet salad with Goat's cheese to start, tilapia with veggies and rice for our main, and then an awesome lemon tarte for dessert. The food was absolutely amazing!!! And our waiter was quite hospitable (and attractive, which never hurts for tips).

So at the end of the meal, my friend was enjoying her espresso, and I the last of my wine, when I noticed upon setting my freshly emptied glass down, the 'manager' swoop in and clear it immediately. Well, I did think this odd, but didn't really put too much thought into it, until he cleared my friends espresso before she was finished with it. So we paid our bill and I was waiting for my friend to come back from the washroom when cute waiter approached me and said....ready????

He said "I'm sorry, I know this is really rude, but would it be possible for you to wait at the bar for your friend? We need the table". "HUH?!?!" Did we not just pay $100 for a meal? I realize it WAS off the Winterlicious menu, but we ordered wine, espresso, bottled water (which was $8!!) and you can't wait 2 min for my friend to get back from the washroom? Oh, and the restaurant wasn't even full) Sure if I was just there for the cheap menu and ordered tap water and no wine or coffee, then kick me out.

I thought the whole point of Winterlicious was to get new customers to come try out your restaurant. If that is not the point for the restaurant then why participate? I think it is absolutely attrocious to invite people into your restaurant for a meal, and then usher them out when you feel like they should be done. I will not be returning to this restaurant, EVER, aside from the amazing food and our friendly waiter...give me a break!

Day Five: Mars Caramel

To be honest, I'm getting tired of eating chocolate bars...

This morning I was not feeling well, so I chose something that should be easy on my stomach:

Mars Caramel
Did you know:

• Since the summer of 2006, all Mars Bars produced in Canada are peanut-free. Mars is one of the few chocolate bars in North America for which no size of the product has any trace of peanuts.
• In February 2008, Mars Canada introduced a new variety of Mars bar called "Mars Caramel" to compete with the Cadbury Caramilk and Nestle Aero Caramel bars.

Ok, so I was a little skeptical of this chocolate bar in the first place, considering it is obviously just a ploy to get a larger share of the market (like every 'new' chocolate bar is). But holey!!! This was like a GIANT Caramilk bar! Move over Cadbury! I don't care how you get the caramel into the chocolate anymore - I no longer have to break you into individual pieces to eat you. The Mars Caramel offers the opportunity to get ALL of your caramel cravings in at once. I don't think it needs to be said that I am not one to 'save' parts of or even whole chocolate bars. I once even tried buying them in bulk at Wal-Mart and putting them in the freezer, but this just resulted in me figuring out that I really like frozen chocolate and left me with a giant tummy ache.

Once you start eating a Mars Caramel, there are no 'savesies' for later, which is just fine by me!

I did find it odd that there was no slogan on the packaging of this chocolate bar. There was also very little advertising (accesible via the internet) or web hits for this, I assume that's because it is a Canada only launch? I aslo checked out www.mars.com Grab your pillow guys, cause it's a BORING site. It seems to only link to their coporate site, for the life of me I cannot find anything exciting on Mars bars....

until i found this: Deep-fried Mars Bar. Now this is for a regular Mars bar, but I'm going with the assumption that you could deep fry a Mars Caramel just as well!

I would recommend this chocolate bar to anyone who is bored of their old Caramilk bar. I would not recommend this to someone who doesn't like eating a whole chocolate bar all at once, cause once this baby's open it's gotta get eaten.

Rating:
Milk Factor:1
Smiles: 3
Calories it was worth: 200 out of 210 (throw in a couple of peanuts and it'd be worth 210, but then of course it would be more calories)

Day Four: Sweet Marie

Ah chocolate!

I sauntered over to the local convenience store by my work (where I frequent, and actually I have to credit my friend, the owner, for the idea of trying a new chocolate bar each day) and was greeting as "Ms. Chocolate" from my new friend. I cannot tell you how awesome this was (or not). But anyway, after much deliberation at the candy counter and after having listened to my friend tell me that "it's ok if you want to get the same thing you always do because some people just don't like change." HA HA HA. It's not like i ate only chicken fingers in restaurants until I was 16!!

Well, bring on the change big guy:

Sweet Marie
"With lots of fresh roasted peanuts"

Did you know:

• There was no Wikipedia entry for this chocolate bar!! I figured out that it's because this baby is Canadian!
• The Sweet Marie was named for a London, Ontario woman who was the subject of a poem by her boyfriend. Cy Warman penned the poem to Marie after walking her home one night in 1893. The poem was later turned into a hit song and the chocolate bar followed soon after. Thanks Trivia Guys!

Lots of peanuts indeed. While I cannot guarantee that they are 'fresh', they do taste roasted and they aren't stale. On the inside of this bar there is a ribbon of what seems to be chewy caramel ? (it's chewy nougat actually) and it holds the bar together amazingly.

The ratio of peanuts to chocolate in the Sweet Marie definitely allow you to eat more than one...as it is not too rich, and the nougat is a nice compliment. It does kind of remind me of an Oh Henry! bar, but with way more nuts.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves the salty vs sweet combo.

Rating: Milk Factor: 0!
Smile Factor: 2
Calories it was worth: 260 out of 320 (I would say about 200 of the calories were from the peanuts)
Bonus: It's Canadian!

Day Three: Kinder Bueno

Well it's Day Three.

It's also dentist appointment day for Erin - probably a good thing to occur at the beginning of my 30 day chocolate bar challenge.

Today's selection (Jess, I couldn't find the white one...so I'll have to keep looking):

Kinder Bueno
Milk Chocolate Covered Wafers with Smooth Milky Hazelnut Filling

Did you know:

• Kinder is German for "children". Bueno is Spanish for "good".
• In 2007, Kinder Bueno was relaunched aimed at an adolescent market with a new series of adverts "a little bit of what you fancy" aired in the UK and Ireland.
• FYI JESS - Kinder Bueno White is not available in Canada or the US...I will be waiting expectantly for mine in the post :)

*sigh* This chocolate bar is amazing. I've actually never had one before, as I'm not a fan of hazelnuts in my chocolate! But as soon as I took my first bite, I had a flashback to the Nutella sandwiches I was allowed to bring to school everyday. As far as I'm concerned, those people at Ferrero are heros - convincing thousands of moms that it was a great idea (and healthy) to allow their children to take chocolate sandwiches to school!

The Bueno was great - it was chocolately on the outside (not melted), ad a crunchy inner layer, AND a creamy filling, that was not too overpowered with the taste of hazelnuts.

I must comment on the packaging. On the outside there are clear directions as to where to tear the package open, there is a glass of milk (which the chocolate bar didn't come with, but I think should), an attractive image of the bar half eaten so you can see the inside, and then there is a lonely hazelnut, half out of his shell nesting quietly on a great leaf with waterdrops. It's all very peaceful. Once I got to the inside each bar (there were two in mine) was individually wrapped, as if I was going to save one for later, and each of those wrappers had distinct pull tabs that opened the package with ease (like they have on gum packaging these days). However, as I sit here and contemplate the remains I notice that I did not follow a single instruction they gave me on how to open it. (don't worry it still tasted awesome!)

Overall, I give this two dentists' thumbs up! I'm off to floss and brush...

Rating:
Milk Factor: 1 (I didn't really need one, but they had one on the packaging!)
Smile Factor: 4
Calories it was worth: 220 out of 240

Bonus: each stick came individually wrapped! Awesome. Of course I still ate both.

Day Two: 5th Avenue

Oh boy,

Well out of sheer hatred for the cold (and not wanting to lose my fingers to frostbite for a chocolate bar), this is what I had in my bag today...
5th Avenue
Crunchy Peanut Butter in a Rich, Chocolatey Coating

Did you know:

• This chocolate bar was introduced in 1936 by the same man who founded Luden's cough drops (weird)
  

• This chocolate bar previously sported two thick chocolate-coated almond halves on top. This was discontinued some time in the mid-1990s.

• The candy bar is named for a street in Reading, Pennsylvannia, where Luden's throat drops were first created.

I would be more apt to have the following slogan:
"a rip off of Crispy Crunch coated in melted chocolate"

Now, fair enough, chocolate melts. But for those of you who aren't in the same postal code as myself right now, it's about 30 below zero, and therefore, no chocolate should be melting.

As for the taste, it was essentially a Crispy Crunch bar (which I suppose makes Crispy Crunch the fraud as the 5th Avenue has been around for decades).

The bar itself was quite tasty once I got around all the melted chocolate everywhere. It definitely was a mess! The chocolate was definitely RICH and chocolately (if that's a word) as it claimed and the inside was crunchy, but not quite the peanut butter taste I expected.

Overall, I am glad Luden reverted back to creating candy bars and not cough drops, and especially glad he didn't try to combine the two. I'd say, bring back the almond halves on top!

Rating:
Milk factor: 2
Smile factor: 1 (possibly two if I had licked the melted chocolate off the wrapper)
Calories it was worth: 220 out of 280

Day One: 100 Grand

Well, here goes.

It's Day One of my chocolate bar challenge. I spent a good 15 minutes looking around the Acme Candy Store in my neighbourhood for the perfect victim to start the month off. After much deliberation, I selected........

100 Grand
Chewy Caramel $ Milk Chocolate $ Crispy Crunchies

Being an American chocolate bar, I have never actually tried one of these yet!

Did you know.....

• The candy bar has been the instrument of radio pranks, where the host will specifically say "100 Grand" will be given away, and gift the winner with the candy bar instead of $100,000. The radio hosts Opie & Anthony did this once while they were on WAAF-FM. Seriously, you can listen to the radio spot here. Haha SUCKER!
  

• This 'candy bar' as our counterparts refer to it has been cameo'd on The Office, Seinfeld and the Colbert Report.

The bar itself came in two portions, which I find entertaining because of course I'm going to eat both of them anyway!! Upon my first bite my taste buds were both shocked and pleasantly surprised. I would say that the outside crispy chocolate coating reminds me of a CRUNCH bar, while the inside was more like fudge then caramel. Overall, I enjoyed the outside coating, but the fudge 'caramel' on the inside was a little to rich for my blood....hey, maybe that's why they call it 100 Grand.

Rating:
Milk factor: 2
Smile factor: 1
Calories it was worth: 80 out of 190

Bonus: There was a contest on the wrapper to win a suite for 10 ppl for an MLS game...although I didn't win, I enjoyed the otherwise plain wrapper.

This sugar high should get me through my late night soccer game tonight :)