A Nice Day for a Picnic

I was worried my chocolate bar tasting would be derailed this week by an ill-timed stomach bug, but luckily I have recovered enough to devour an entire chocolate bar. Whew. Also, it's sunny in London. :)

This week my candy bar of choice (and by choice I mean next in the row) is a Picnic, which has been hyped up to me in remarkably hyperbolic terms by pretty much everyone. I wasn't sure it could live up to the expectations, but it seems like it did!

The Picnic (so named, I assume, because of the variety of ingredients) is definitely one of the more substantial bars I’ve tried. It's a lumpy flat-bottomed bar packed with "goodies", as Gin would say. Raisins, peanuts, caramel, crispy rice bits, biscuit center – what’s not to like? The whole thing feels almost like trail mix covered in chocolate (it must be the addition of the raisins), which means it must be healthy, right? The biscuit bottom gives it a really satisfying crunch, and peanuts, raisins, and crispy rice make it pleasantly chunky. For Americans, the Picnic can best be described as the love child of a Twix and a Baby Ruth. Yummmm.

I think texture is what really makes this bar. It is immensely satisfying – not at all mushy or soft like some other bars. I don’t love the chocolate on the outside, but it must be the same as I’ve been eating the past few weeks, since it’s another Cadbury, so I'll discount that. Besides, the chocolate to goodie ratio is so small that the coating doesn't overly detract from the rest of the bar. I would have preferred more caramel, since sometimes the saltiness of the peanuts made the bar a bit too savory, but that's probably down to my sweet tooth. Also - bonus - the Picnic is longer than most bars I’ve tried – meaning I had half to save for later!

This is truly delicious, and worth all the recommendations it got.

Four bars! A new record!

The Picnic has entered the race for my favorite English candy bar - can the Double Decker next week knock it off that pedestal? Stay tuned and see!

Bar-o-Meter



Chocolate Simplicity

Friday went by in a fog (see previous post), but I DID manage to pick up a new chocolate bar for the weekly post. (I am nothing if not dedicated to my culinary pursuits.) I think I've hit the Cadbury motherlode as this week's bar is a Wispa.

A bit of background here: Introduced to the UK in 1981 (good year), the Wispa was discontinued in 2003 when Cadbury looked to revamp its line. But the public protested on behalf of the bar, and in 2008, an internet campaign brought it back! (Morgan - and Wikipedia - are of the opinion that the entire "campaign" was a conspiracy by Cadbury to drum up interest, which in my opinion makes the story that much better.) In any case, the Wispa appears to be back to stay, and a good thing it is!

On first glance, it appears very plain - just a lightly aerated chocolate center (which kinda resembles coral) covered in a layer of milk chocolate. But when you bite into the bar, it's so light and fluffy, it somehow manages to taste better and creamier than regular milk chocolate. So simple, yet so tasty! I'm not generally a big fan of milk chocolate, but this is delicious (and, incidentally, my best value for money so far, at a mere 45 pence for the bar). The Wispa is well worth the many recommendations I've gotten so far, and fully deserving of a comeback (staged or not).

Three bars! (would have had more if we were talking about dark chocolate, but hey - can't win 'em all)

Bar-o-Meter



Chocolate - postponed!

Dear readers,

There will be a slight delay in this week's post, due to the effects of a hangover and the fact that I have already eaten five (no wait, six) biscuits today and a slice of cake.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure....my boss's leaving cake. Yes, we are ALL transportation nerds.



A Boost to the Blog!

Ha, if you've noticed, I've just realised I can add titles. Prepare for bad puns galore!

So, today I finally embark on the much-awaited second row of the candy display! (Please try and restrain yourselves.) As expected, the first bar is a Boost, which from what I can ascertain, has tried to market itself as some kind of energy bar. I suppose 30 grams of sugar can be classified as "energy". But for what it lacks in healthfulness, it does pretty well as a candy bar.

For the uninitiated (i.e., me), the Boost is a Cadbury's bar in a vaguely Yule-log shaped form. It's a chocolate fudge-y type center with crunchy biscuit (that's cookies for the North Americans) bits in it, surrounded by a layer of caramel, and then covered in chocolate. Kinda reminds me of a less-crunchy Twix bar. The chocolate in the middle is very sugary, but the crunchy bits are really satisfying, as is the thick layer of caramel on the outside.

This is pretty good! In fact, this is the best bar I've had since the well-reviewed Topic of a few weeks ago. (Though to be honest, don't think it's that hard to beat a Turkish Delight!) I think I'm a sucker for the biscuits and caramel combo. I'm sorry Morgan (who warned me off this one with dire proclamations), but I'm a Boost fan. Despite my rating being tempered somewhat by the intense sugar rush I got right after eating the whole bar that made me want to take a few laps around the 11th floor to quiet my jitters, I'm pronouncing this one a winner. Two and a half bars!

Bar-o-Meter

 



Jo fixes the blog!

.... with a new post template.


5 bars for me!

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Anne breaks the blog

So I apologize - have been having some technical difficulties lately. I'm looking to iron these out, so hopefully the blog will be up and running again soon. Seriously, I must be the least internet-savvy person I know...

Turkish Despair

So it's the third week of the chocolate adventure and I arrived at the shop bright and early on Friday morning, excited to explore the second shelf. But just as I reached for the first bar there, something caught my eye. The first shelf had somehow gained an extra bar - one that definitely wasn't there the past two weeks. The bright pink wrapper beckoned, glinting in the light. All too late I realized I was reaching for a Turkish Delight.

Turkish Delight. I don't know who ever thought this would be a good idea, but apparently SOMEONE's eating this, as it's still available in stores. If you've ever had real Turkish Delight (which is disgusting, no matter what The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tries to tell you), it's a gelatinous, over-sweet, vaguely perfume-like confection - in a word, gross. The Turkish Delight candy bar, on the other hand, is even more gross. It's a solid, Jello-like mass covered in milk chocolate. The jelly inside tastes, for lack of a better reference, like eating solid dish soap. The chocolate surrounding it barely contributes to making it edible (although I did, in an act of desperation, pick off all the exterior chocolate to get at least some pleasure out of this bar). I think I managed one bite before spitting it out in disgust.

NEGATIVE BARS

I didn't think it was possible, but I found something worse than the initial disappointing Mars Bar. The Turkish Delight was completely inedible and frankly, should not even be available in stores. If I don't get another good bar soon, this endeavor may die a quick death (Although Morgan assures me that I've gotten through two of the worst bars available, so there must be something to look forward to). Until next week.

Bar-o-Meter

-X



Hazelnut Saves the Day

So, it's the second week and I've already broken the rules. As I faced the candy display this afternoon, I noted with dismay that the next few candy bars were all some variation on a KitKat or a Twix. And while the dark chocolate KitKat did look appetizing, let's be honest - at the end of the day it will just taste like a KitKat covered in slightly nicer chocolate. No suprises there. And as the whole point of this experiment is to try things I haven't tried before (what, you thought it was a clever ploy to justify eating more chocolate?), I boldly moved on.

Aaaaand got a Kinder Bueno. I've had these before, and I'm being strictly nationalistic here - I want genuine, flag-waving, tea-drinking, flat-cap wearing ENGLISH candy bars. So I skipped again and got a Topic. Woo! (In the interest of full disclosure, I'm planning on skipping the vaguely continenal-looking Guylian bar at the end of the row and going straight to - dum dum duuuuuuummmm! - the second row.)

So, after last week's disatrous attempt, will the Topic save the entire project? Actually, I thought it was very nice. The bar is basically a tarted-up Milky Way bar (American version) - caramel and nougat covered in milk chocolate. But the nougat is less sickly sweet and has a nice hazelnut flavor to it (and some actual hazelnut pieces - if you squint you can see one in the photo). Still a little too sweet for my taste but pretty good! And, indicative of its edibility (and handy smaller size), I not only actually finished it this time, I actually craved a little more. (Of course, that could just be the hangover.)

Two bars!

Bar-o-Meter



A Great Way to Begin - Mired in Disappointment

So it appears I am unable to work the complicated web-based tool that is Blogger. After adding a title and reposting the first entry, I’ve found that I can’t get the text to be visible! Then I deleted the photos by accident and had to re-add the entire thing. This should not be so difficult. Text below.

____________________________________________________________________________________

So – it begins!

I walked in this morning fresh from a brisk walk from the District Line, brimming over with excitement for my first candy bar. Imagine my disappointment, then, when the first bar is...a Snickers. Disappointment. (I should probably mention the ground rules at this point – if the candy bar is one that is available in the US – like Twix or KitKat – it’s not going to be tried out in the blog. However, special versions of said bars (orange, mint, dark chocolate) are admissible, since I don’t think we get that creative in America. :P

However, the next is a Mars bar, which I figure is particularly English, so I go for that. Result!

Except then I remember that a Mars bar in England is exactly the same as a Milky Way in the US. And unless I’ve misremembered the delicious taste of the Milky Ways of my youth, the Mars bar is actually just like a Milky Way, but gross. The nougat and caramel looked so familiarly tempting, but when I bit into it, it was so sickly sweet that I gave up after a few bites. And it probably says something that none of my chocolate-loving workmates would take me up on the offer of the other half of the bar.

Ick, the aftertaste is still with me now – this tastes like bad mush covered in worse chocolate. This is like the fast food equivalent of candy bars. My only hope is to take this home and freeze it, hopefully making it partly edible.

NO BARS.

Bar-o-Meter

X

What an inauspicious beginning. Maybe I’ve grown out of a taste for candy bars. (Horrors!) Maybe this is like that time I THOUGHT I wanted a Wendy’s hamburger and immediately regretted that decision. Let’s hope the next outing is a little better.



Dear blog afficianadoes -

I am starting up this old beast again, but this time I have a purpose. A necessary task, you may say. As someone who did not grow up in England, I missed out on all the joys childhood can bring. Namely, those related to food.

So I'm going to right this grievous wrong. I am going to eat my way through every distinctly English chocolate bar in my local corner store, starting from the top of the display case and working my way down. I'm also going to rate these bars, using the ingenious (thanks, Jo!) bar-o-meter below.

Not possible, you say? How can one person take on the gargantuan task that is the ridiculously large candy display at the local shop? Well, first of all, I'm not going hog wild from the start. I'm warding off obesity by only having these bars as a Friday treat. And I may share them with some of my more pleasant work colleagues. But I am determined to claim back some bit of the childhood I never had and eat every type of candy bar available to me, if it takes years.

And this blog won't just be dedicated to chocolate. Every time I sample some foodstuff that is distinctly English, I'll be sure to comment on it. Because really, it's not like I don't already spend too much time on the internet. But at least this makes me feel like I'm using my time in England well.,,THIS great purpose is why I'm living miles away from the family, Mom. :)

Let the eating begin.

Bar-o-Meter