Hershey's Candy Cane

Product name: Hershey’s Candy Cane
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 43g bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

In honour of Christmas, I thought I’d post my review of Hershey’s Candy Cane today. Firstly, though, I’d like to thank the kind staff at A Quarter of Sweets who provided me with a discount on my last visit.

Described as ‘mint candy with candy bits’, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this bar – I hoped for white chocolate or something similar, but this phrase wasn’t used anywhere on the wrapper! However, it did contain cocoa butter which I took to be a good thing.

This Christmas product certainly looked festive since it was presented in fresh white packaging with red stripy tips to reflect the candy cane flavour. In addition to this, there were images of candy canes and the product itself. The inner bar was even more attractive, though, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it before! The main substance certainly looked like white chocolate but it was crammed-full of (artificially coloured) red candy pieces.

I was slightly apprehensive about trying this product since I love white chocolate and mint-flavoured chocolate, but I’m not a massive fan of candy canes and other mint sweets. As a result, I thought this bar may be more miss than hit with me. The aroma didn’t do much to alleviate my fears either since, whilst it had a strong mint smell, it wasn’t very sweet, and it did smell just like candy cane rather than something a bit different.

With my first bite, the bar was creamy but there was no mistaking mint as the main flavour (even though it only contained 2% peppermint oil!). It did initially taste more like a sweet than a chocolate but I quickly became accustomed to the flavours and found it began to taste nicer and creamier. Better still, I really enjoyed it, and it did taste like white chocolate with an added mint flavour!

I wasn’t sure if the tiny red balls were actual bits of candy cane (I suspect not) or just random candy pieces, but they were very crispy which provided a nice texture. In fact, even when these were left behind after allowing pieces of the bar to melt, it was still a pleasant experience.

There’s no denying it – this bar of Hershey’s Candy Cane was far nicer than I thought it would be and I’m hoping I don’t have to wait until next Christmas to have another! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

General Mills Reese's Puffs

Product name: General Mills Reese’s Puffs
Purchase details: £5.50 for a 368g box (United States Grocery)
Calories: 120 per 29g dry serving (160 per 29g serving with 112.5ml skimmed milk)
Country of origin: USA 

Now, before you go accusing me of anything, I haven’t cheated! This may be my first ever review of a breakfast cereal but I have only eaten it in the evenings as part of my ‘something to look forward to’ way of thinking. I can assure you that I am still starting my days with a trusty bowl of Sultana Bran!

Being a Reese’s product and, therefore, containing peanut butter, I’ve wanted to try this cereal for ages but I’ve always avoided it due to high import prices. I was delighted to effectively get this box for half price, though, with my Living Social voucher for United States Grocery which meant a £10 spend only cost me £5.

If you’re familiar with Reese’s, you won’t be surprised to see that this product came in an orange box, and I loved the way the image used a Peanut Butter Cup chocolatey shell as a bowl for the ‘sweet’ and ‘crunchy corn puffs’ that contained Hershey’s Cocoa in addition to Reese’s peanut butter.

The box contained around 12 servings, the details of which were recommended using the American cups system. Whilst the weight of the cereal was also provided in grams, I used this helpful website to translate the milk measurement into millilitres.

The packaging also stated that the ‘first ingredient’ was whole grain which, in this case, was corn. In fact, it contributed to 11g of each serving. On the downside, the second ingredient was sugar, although there were lots of vitamins included too.

Despite a whole list of colourings being provided, the box only contained two different shades of maizey-looking puffs. The dark brown ones were chocolatey whilst the lighter, yellowy coloured pieces were peanut butter. However, both varieties were coated in a thin peanut buttery layer. The balls were small and light in size which meant there were a lot in a 29g serving and I was surprised by just how much of a peanut butter scent they gave off. 

I did try a couple of dry pieces before I took the plunge with the milk and found them to be nutty, sweet and crispy. The peanut butter puffs were obviously nuttier but, due to the outer layer, both varieties had a nuttiness to them. The other variety was more sugary and, whilst not obviously chocolatey by itself, it did have an additional flavour going on.

With milk, this cereal was so good! It was sweet and chocolatey to the extent that it reminded me of chocolate-filled pillow cereals but there was an added saltiness form the peanut butter which took it to a new level. This saltiness seemed to mix really well with the milk so it kind of caught the edges of the back of the tongue, resulting in a whole-of-mouth experience. I also loved how, although the cereal tended to get ever-so-slightly chewy towards the end of the bowl, it remained crunchy throughout – just what I want from a cereal.

Despite containing quite a lot of sugar, I didn’t find this too sweet at all. I’ve known for a long time that chocolate and peanut butter work really well together but I was delighted to find adding milk also makes for a great flavour experience. There was a perfect balance between these three ingredients since none of the flavours dominated but each unique taste could be identified. Of course, that does mean that if you want a product that is either extremely chocolatey or extremely peanut buttery, this may not be the cereal for you but, if you appreciate a combination of the two with added milk, you’ll love this! 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Hershey's Mr. Goodbar

Product name: Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar
Purchase details: £0.25 for a 9g bar (United States Grocery)
Calories: 42 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

When I used the remainder of my Living Social voucher for United States Grocery on some Hershey's Krackel chocolates, I also picked up a couple of these Mr. Goodbar equivalents.

Simply ‘made with chocolate and peanuts’, these little bars came in basic but distinctive yellow wrappers with red writing. The chocolate itself didn’t look quite as dark in appearance as the Krackel although it did have the same strong scent, albeit with a very, very slight peanut buttery scent (well, just peanuts really!). The general shape and design of the bar was the same, with nuts visible through the base rather than crisped rice, and the white flecks from these were also evident on the inside of the lower part of the chocolate.

I found the Mr. Goodbar to be even less enjoyable than the Krackel when melting since the chocolate had the same slightly bizarre texture and, combined with the jagged nuts, this wasn’t ideal. However, it was wonderfully crunchy to chew and I was surprised at just how nut-filled the bar was.

The chocolate had the same quite dark taste but I found this less overpowering. However, I did wonder if this was because of the presence of the additional nutty flavour rather than a change in the chocolate recipe.

Whilst still a relatively plain-tasting chocolate, this bar had a bit more going on than the Krackel due to the nuts. It wasn’t in the same league as a Cadbury product, say, but it was still better than I thought it might have been! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.63/10

Hershey's Krackel

Product name: Hershey’s Krackel
Purchase details: £0.25 for an 8g bar (United States Grocery) 

Calories: 42 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

Having purchased a Living Social voucher a while back, which allowed me to get £10.00 worth of treats for £5.00, I recently visited United States Grocery’s new office location in order to get some American goodies. Since I had a little bit of money to spare, I decided to buy a few Hershey’s chocolates from the Miniatures range.

Like a lot of Brits, I’m not a huge fan of Hershey’s chocolate since we have it so good over here, but I don’t dislike it and I do like to try the different varieties. I certainly thought the Krackel was worth a go for £0.25 a pop!

This tiny snack came in a wrapper that was designed to look like a classic chocolate bar consisting of a foil wrapper with a paper sleeve. In reality, though, this red packaging was actually made of a single piece of paper that contained the simple white logo which featured a ‘crack’ all the way through the name.

The basic description provided was ‘made with chocolate and crisped rice’ and I was quite surprised to see that it both looked and smelt quite strongly of dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. The bar wasn’t the most attractive thing in the world but it did feature the Hershey’s logo and it was possible to view the rice through the base.

The chocolate had a pretty strong cocoa taste but it was actually quite sweet, considering, although there was also a slight bitterness towards the end of each bite. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it to be an enjoyable melt since, instead of feeling smooth on the tongue, it had a soft but slightly rough texture.

The crispy rice was the main texture, when chewing, but I still wasn’t a massive fan of the feel of the chocolate. The top layer was nice and hard to bite through but, after this point, it felt quite crumbly.

I’m not a great lover of plain chocolate so I did find this Hershey’s Krackel to be preferable. However, I did feel it was let down by its texture. 

Appearance: 6.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.5/10