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Showing posts with label dark chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark chocolate. Show all posts
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Indemini Báez Ecuador 80% dark chocolate bar review
My parents were on vacation recently and as they often do they were kind enough to bring me back a candy treat, the Indemini Báez Ecuador 80% dark chocolate bar! I am not generally the biggest fan of dark chocolate but take a look at this review and you can decide for yourself if it is worth checking out!
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If you are not subscribed yet head over to the youtube page and sign up for new reviews
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Bounty Dark review
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Aero dark review
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Zero dark review
What is with all the "dark" versions of chocolate bars coming out these days? Is dark really better or just a fad? Take a look at my Zero dark review below and see what you think.
You can also see the review of original Zero if you are interested here:
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You can also see the review of original Zero if you are interested here:
If you are not subscribed yet head over to the youtube page and sign up for new reviews twice weekly!
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Brookside Fruit Flavored Centers dark chcoolate acai & blueberry review
This is something a bit different, dark chocolate and blueberries from Brookside. I am not sure if they could be classified as healthy candy (a bit of an oxymoron) but something I thought was worth checking out. Take a look at the video below and see what you think.
If you are not subscribed yet head over to the youtube page and sign up for new reviews twice weekly!
If you are not subscribed yet head over to the youtube page and sign up for new reviews twice weekly!
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
M&M's Dark review
It is time to take a trip to
the dark side with my M&M's Dark review. I have
reviewed most other M&Ms products but this looks like it only came out around
2005 so I am finally catching up.
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the youtube page and sign up for new reviews twice weekly!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Merci chocolate review
Here we've got a whole product line up for review! Let's say thanks for Merci!
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Merci (product line) - 4 / 5
Merci Milk Chocolate - 4 / 5
Merci Almond - 4 / 5
Merci Praline - 4 / 5
Merci Marzipan - 2 / 5
Merci Coffee - 4 / 5
For more on Merci you can check them out online at - http://www.storck.us/en/brand/merci/
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Merci (product line) - 4 / 5
Merci Milk Chocolate - 4 / 5
Merci Almond - 4 / 5
Merci Praline - 4 / 5
Merci Marzipan - 2 / 5
Merci Coffee - 4 / 5
For more on Merci you can check them out online at - http://www.storck.us/en/brand/merci/
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Mars Dark review
Check it out, its time to have a look at Mars Dark.
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Mars Dark - 4 / 5
For more on all things Mars please check out their site at http://www.marsbar.com/ and for more reviews please check our Reviews Page, or just subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Mars Dark - 4 / 5
For more on all things Mars please check out their site at http://www.marsbar.com/ and for more reviews please check our Reviews Page, or just subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
M&Ms Ads - Becoming Superstars
When last we talked about the M&Ms the little candy coated super-stars we're headed full tilt into the new Millennium. While other companies we're floundering to maintain clean cut mascots in a world full of cynical and way too smart kids the M&Ms managed to ride a tide of good will bolstered by smart mature humor and a constantly evolving sensibility that kept them fresh. Maybe what worked so well for them was that they stopped being aimed specifically at kids. The M&M characters left their pure cartoon roots with the introduction of the mixed media CG versions of the characters, and Mars stopped even making commercials without them. They reached a mass awareness that few mascots have ever achieved and kept on pushing, to become, and stay, the biggest of mega-stars in the candy world.
To be honest, figuring out how this all went down is pretty confusing so |I'm going to assume I will be getting some of this wrong. Lets be clear: I am not a historian. This is a light fun pop survey of the modern M&M characters as seen through their advertizing. There are other places on the web, or in print if you're looking for cold hard facts. Like Yellow, we're just here to have a good time :)
So as we got into the early 00s foreign markets expanded, the brand grew, and ads specifically targeted at non-western markets began to hit. This change alone makes sifting the chaff on the internet pretty complicated especially since some of the campaigns and ads were used in different countries at different times, or under different circumstances. Anyhow, suffice it to say the opening of foreign markets and ad campaigns, makes it extremely messy.
Lets take a step back though and have a look at some ads. As the century ended, the M&Ms were interacting with celebs in new mixed media adverts, and establishing the core dynamic of the Red Yellow relationship that we all know and love.
The candies declaring themselves the Spokescandies of the new Millennium at end of '97, and I missed one ad they featured in one that I had to share. I love this one, and wanted to make sure I posted it.
Its great to see Dick Clark still young (youngish) and its nice that he was comfortable making fun of his age.
With the launch of Crispy M&Ms in '99 there were more than a few ads featuring the new character and flavor.
Oh Puddy. You always entertain me :D
And Red, you're always pulling fast ones...
As I said Red and Yellow especially we're developing the classic Laurel and Hardy playing off each other riffs, and the public loved it. Here are a few other turn of the century ads that feature the M&Ms just being their own funny selves.
That is a little disturbing. funny but disturbing. This next one just features Red, but its pretty cute.
And finally here's an ad from '99 that I think shows where all the ads were headed in the early '00s.
This is a really great one. The airport ad is awesome because it showcases Red and Yellow doing their thing. It's got them bickering lovingly, being funny interacting with our world. They even break the fourth wall directly, they acknowledge that they are in fact candy, and it all wraps up with a solid tag at the end. This is the shape of the ads to come.
Getting into the 2000s for real-sies now they launched a fun campaign at the start of the year.
This is great on a number of levels, but I think the most important thing to note is the solo color offering. This is one of the first time solo colors were offered for a promotion. AND this wasn't a promotion tied into a holiday like Easter or Xmas where they gave us specially colored (or flavored) editions of the candy. This was just for the heck of it.
Another fun thing came up in the year 2000. And the next very serious ad addresses it perfectly.
That's right. Plain has changed, and in 2000 M&Ms re-branded their classic candy as Milk Chocolate. Such an obvious thing, but remember back when M&Ms started it was really a different world.
One more cute one on this, because I as I've mentioned before I smile for Patrick Warburton and always want him to succeed.
2000 also saw the release of two new M&M video games: The Lost Formula and Mini Madness.
In 2001 M&Ms started a long and strange journey trying out a lot of weird and sometimes very interesting flavors. For this outing they tried their hand at Dulce de Leche in some 5 Hispanic countries. Although it was a valiant attempt and actually sounds pretty good there wasn't much interest apparently and the product line was discontinued by '03.
In 2002 the ads continued, only got a bit more sophisticated. The Laurel and Hardy routine that Red and Yellow we're perfecting still had to be tempered. As much as I like the Airport commercial above its also VERY 90s. Here's the kind of standard ad that typified the early 2000s. Even though it only has Red you can see that it shows a literal and quirky take on the candy. More importantly it's just plain funny.
Love that Bradley Whitford (and this ad is during the height of his run on The West Wing).
2002 also saw the return and update of a previous successful ad campaign. The Global Color Vote was essentially the same trick they'd pulled in '95 but this time it was between Pink, Purple, or Aqua as the new color.
Here's a French ad featuring some cheerleaders?!
After Purple won the contest, it became an M&M color for a limited time. I'm not sure why they didn't keep it around or give us a new mascot like they did when Blue made the scene but they did feature a nifty contest looking for the bag full of Purple M&Ms to win a prize.
In 2004 the M&Ms launched another cool color campaign, only this one was all about the missing color! The hunt was on to find Grey M&Ms this time and it all started with this funny ad.
Here's one that maybe explains it a bit better.
And I always loved this bloodhound one though. Great stuff.
One of the interesting things about M&Ms getting so popular in the 2000s is that they started doing huge tie in marketing promotions. M&Ms had a number of movie tie ins over the years 2004 saw the start of the cross media tie ins, And not just with The Wizard of Oz. No instead I mean this beauty below inspired by the Addams Family to promote another limited run on Dark Chocolate M&Ms.
That's not all from '04 though. M&Ms also got big, and I don't mean regular big, I mean OGRE sized!
I actually think this tie in with Shrek 2 is a great one. M&Ms and Shrek are a really perfectly paired brand. But since M&Ms were in the midst of experiments in size and shape 2004 saw the first appearance of the most radical change yet, the M-Azing chocolate bar!
It sounds like the M-Azing bar was only moderately successful. The bar apparently stuck around in some form or another straight through until today and was finally re-branded and re-launched in 2013 as the new M&M chocolate bar. A bit more on that in the next post.
Aside from featuring in the new M-Azing bar, the M&M Minis we're also going strong in '04. I posted a few ads from this era of the Minis in my last blog post on this subject but here is another one to show you where the Mini advertizing was at the time.
At first I thought it seemed like a very 90s ad but then I realized that the M&M minis were being targeted at kids, while regular M&Ms were targeted at everyone.
Speaking of mass marketing the following year M&Ms teamed up with another film franchise that had probably the biggest mass market appeal possible. Watch the ad below to see the M&Ms join the Dark Side...
Watching this I have to wonder why Mars never just out and out put out a Dark Chocolate M&M on a permanent basis. I know they've got a few specialties at all times these days, but its weird that they kept bringing it back as a limited run.
2005 also saw the launch of Mega M&Ms. I'm guessing that the Ogre sized M&Ms went over so well that they decided to continue the line.
I know that ad didn't have the M&M characters in it but its pretty funny..
If the Chocolate M-Pire tie in wasn't the breaking point then it had to be the M&M tie ins for '06. These guys weren't just well known spokes-candies, they were true celebrities unto themselves. In 2006 Red and Yellow made a mark adjacent to Joan Rivers at the Academy Awards pre-show. To me this is huge.
Think about the number of eyeballs on that broadcast. Think about the fact that there are people who care about this from really all over the world. Its pretty serious stuff. I mean as serious as you can get for entertainers who aren't actually stars on the big screen.
They may be super-commercialized.... but can you blame them? I mean they are commercial characters. 2006 also saw ties ins for Pirates 3, and Shrek 3.
Pirates 3 in saw the launch of limited time white chocolate M&Ms, and Shrek the Third saw the return of Ogre sized M&Ms again, as well as this vacation contest.
I'm going to jump ahead a bit now, in 2008 M&Ms finally hit on a weird urban myth for their gain. At Valentines they launched a limited run of all green M&Ms. Green you ask? yes. I'm not sure how well known the rumor is now, but I totally remember as a kid hearing that green M&Ms we're for sexy time...
These also came at Christmas time that year. As good a time as any for an aphrodisiac (weather its true or not).
The summer of 2008 saw another side product launched from M&Ms. The M&M ice cream bar.
Its true...
That's pretty funny :)
New limited time flavors also emerged in 2008. Wild Cherry hit the scene alongside Mint Crisp M&Ms as a promotion tied into Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
The biggest promotion of 2008 though came with the launch of mymms.com. Now there was finally a chance to change things up, and get your face, or whatever you wanted printed onto your M&Ms. Very exciting stuff.
After this commercial Mars took a different tack making a bunch of pretty funny commercials letting regular people become an M&M.
That ones probably my favorite, but there are some other great ones.
ha, contacts...
Gross but funny.
ha, earholes...
Good stuff all around.
Before I finally wrap this very long blog post up I'll mention one more 2008 M&Ms item. The launch of Premiums. Ms Green finally got something all her own here and it turned out quite well.
5 flavors of premiums were launched. I know I ate a few of them. They had a 'high end' vibe to them and I suppose they were pretty decadent.
Of course we know that Mint has been around since this time in on again off again limited runs, but this is where I first had it. A few more of the flavors were Rasberry Almond, which is actually a current limited run flavor, and Triple Chocolate. Both sound great to me.
I've had these and they do taste great.
mmm... so delicious sounding.
When we come back to this topic, I'll pick up from 2008 and we can watch some more ads together. These crazy M&Ms just became superstars right under your noses... pretty impressive. Thanks all, later :)
To be honest, figuring out how this all went down is pretty confusing so |I'm going to assume I will be getting some of this wrong. Lets be clear: I am not a historian. This is a light fun pop survey of the modern M&M characters as seen through their advertizing. There are other places on the web, or in print if you're looking for cold hard facts. Like Yellow, we're just here to have a good time :)
So as we got into the early 00s foreign markets expanded, the brand grew, and ads specifically targeted at non-western markets began to hit. This change alone makes sifting the chaff on the internet pretty complicated especially since some of the campaigns and ads were used in different countries at different times, or under different circumstances. Anyhow, suffice it to say the opening of foreign markets and ad campaigns, makes it extremely messy.
Lets take a step back though and have a look at some ads. As the century ended, the M&Ms were interacting with celebs in new mixed media adverts, and establishing the core dynamic of the Red Yellow relationship that we all know and love.
The candies declaring themselves the Spokescandies of the new Millennium at end of '97, and I missed one ad they featured in one that I had to share. I love this one, and wanted to make sure I posted it.
Its great to see Dick Clark still young (youngish) and its nice that he was comfortable making fun of his age.
With the launch of Crispy M&Ms in '99 there were more than a few ads featuring the new character and flavor.
Oh Puddy. You always entertain me :D
And Red, you're always pulling fast ones...
As I said Red and Yellow especially we're developing the classic Laurel and Hardy playing off each other riffs, and the public loved it. Here are a few other turn of the century ads that feature the M&Ms just being their own funny selves.
That is a little disturbing. funny but disturbing. This next one just features Red, but its pretty cute.
And finally here's an ad from '99 that I think shows where all the ads were headed in the early '00s.
This is a really great one. The airport ad is awesome because it showcases Red and Yellow doing their thing. It's got them bickering lovingly, being funny interacting with our world. They even break the fourth wall directly, they acknowledge that they are in fact candy, and it all wraps up with a solid tag at the end. This is the shape of the ads to come.
Getting into the 2000s for real-sies now they launched a fun campaign at the start of the year.
This is great on a number of levels, but I think the most important thing to note is the solo color offering. This is one of the first time solo colors were offered for a promotion. AND this wasn't a promotion tied into a holiday like Easter or Xmas where they gave us specially colored (or flavored) editions of the candy. This was just for the heck of it.
Another fun thing came up in the year 2000. And the next very serious ad addresses it perfectly.
That's right. Plain has changed, and in 2000 M&Ms re-branded their classic candy as Milk Chocolate. Such an obvious thing, but remember back when M&Ms started it was really a different world.
One more cute one on this, because I as I've mentioned before I smile for Patrick Warburton and always want him to succeed.
2000 also saw the release of two new M&M video games: The Lost Formula and Mini Madness.
In 2001 M&Ms started a long and strange journey trying out a lot of weird and sometimes very interesting flavors. For this outing they tried their hand at Dulce de Leche in some 5 Hispanic countries. Although it was a valiant attempt and actually sounds pretty good there wasn't much interest apparently and the product line was discontinued by '03.
In 2002 the ads continued, only got a bit more sophisticated. The Laurel and Hardy routine that Red and Yellow we're perfecting still had to be tempered. As much as I like the Airport commercial above its also VERY 90s. Here's the kind of standard ad that typified the early 2000s. Even though it only has Red you can see that it shows a literal and quirky take on the candy. More importantly it's just plain funny.
Love that Bradley Whitford (and this ad is during the height of his run on The West Wing).
2002 also saw the return and update of a previous successful ad campaign. The Global Color Vote was essentially the same trick they'd pulled in '95 but this time it was between Pink, Purple, or Aqua as the new color.
Here's a French ad featuring some cheerleaders?!
After Purple won the contest, it became an M&M color for a limited time. I'm not sure why they didn't keep it around or give us a new mascot like they did when Blue made the scene but they did feature a nifty contest looking for the bag full of Purple M&Ms to win a prize.
In 2004 the M&Ms launched another cool color campaign, only this one was all about the missing color! The hunt was on to find Grey M&Ms this time and it all started with this funny ad.
Here's one that maybe explains it a bit better.
And I always loved this bloodhound one though. Great stuff.
One of the interesting things about M&Ms getting so popular in the 2000s is that they started doing huge tie in marketing promotions. M&Ms had a number of movie tie ins over the years 2004 saw the start of the cross media tie ins, And not just with The Wizard of Oz. No instead I mean this beauty below inspired by the Addams Family to promote another limited run on Dark Chocolate M&Ms.
That's not all from '04 though. M&Ms also got big, and I don't mean regular big, I mean OGRE sized!
I actually think this tie in with Shrek 2 is a great one. M&Ms and Shrek are a really perfectly paired brand. But since M&Ms were in the midst of experiments in size and shape 2004 saw the first appearance of the most radical change yet, the M-Azing chocolate bar!
It sounds like the M-Azing bar was only moderately successful. The bar apparently stuck around in some form or another straight through until today and was finally re-branded and re-launched in 2013 as the new M&M chocolate bar. A bit more on that in the next post.
Aside from featuring in the new M-Azing bar, the M&M Minis we're also going strong in '04. I posted a few ads from this era of the Minis in my last blog post on this subject but here is another one to show you where the Mini advertizing was at the time.
At first I thought it seemed like a very 90s ad but then I realized that the M&M minis were being targeted at kids, while regular M&Ms were targeted at everyone.
Speaking of mass marketing the following year M&Ms teamed up with another film franchise that had probably the biggest mass market appeal possible. Watch the ad below to see the M&Ms join the Dark Side...
Watching this I have to wonder why Mars never just out and out put out a Dark Chocolate M&M on a permanent basis. I know they've got a few specialties at all times these days, but its weird that they kept bringing it back as a limited run.
2005 also saw the launch of Mega M&Ms. I'm guessing that the Ogre sized M&Ms went over so well that they decided to continue the line.
I know that ad didn't have the M&M characters in it but its pretty funny..
If the Chocolate M-Pire tie in wasn't the breaking point then it had to be the M&M tie ins for '06. These guys weren't just well known spokes-candies, they were true celebrities unto themselves. In 2006 Red and Yellow made a mark adjacent to Joan Rivers at the Academy Awards pre-show. To me this is huge.
Think about the number of eyeballs on that broadcast. Think about the fact that there are people who care about this from really all over the world. Its pretty serious stuff. I mean as serious as you can get for entertainers who aren't actually stars on the big screen.
They may be super-commercialized.... but can you blame them? I mean they are commercial characters. 2006 also saw ties ins for Pirates 3, and Shrek 3.
Pirates 3 in saw the launch of limited time white chocolate M&Ms, and Shrek the Third saw the return of Ogre sized M&Ms again, as well as this vacation contest.
I'm going to jump ahead a bit now, in 2008 M&Ms finally hit on a weird urban myth for their gain. At Valentines they launched a limited run of all green M&Ms. Green you ask? yes. I'm not sure how well known the rumor is now, but I totally remember as a kid hearing that green M&Ms we're for sexy time...
These also came at Christmas time that year. As good a time as any for an aphrodisiac (weather its true or not).
The summer of 2008 saw another side product launched from M&Ms. The M&M ice cream bar.
Its true...
That's pretty funny :)
New limited time flavors also emerged in 2008. Wild Cherry hit the scene alongside Mint Crisp M&Ms as a promotion tied into Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
The biggest promotion of 2008 though came with the launch of mymms.com. Now there was finally a chance to change things up, and get your face, or whatever you wanted printed onto your M&Ms. Very exciting stuff.
After this commercial Mars took a different tack making a bunch of pretty funny commercials letting regular people become an M&M.
That ones probably my favorite, but there are some other great ones.
ha, contacts...
Gross but funny.
ha, earholes...
Good stuff all around.
Before I finally wrap this very long blog post up I'll mention one more 2008 M&Ms item. The launch of Premiums. Ms Green finally got something all her own here and it turned out quite well.
5 flavors of premiums were launched. I know I ate a few of them. They had a 'high end' vibe to them and I suppose they were pretty decadent.
Of course we know that Mint has been around since this time in on again off again limited runs, but this is where I first had it. A few more of the flavors were Rasberry Almond, which is actually a current limited run flavor, and Triple Chocolate. Both sound great to me.
I've had these and they do taste great.
mmm... so delicious sounding.
When we come back to this topic, I'll pick up from 2008 and we can watch some more ads together. These crazy M&Ms just became superstars right under your noses... pretty impressive. Thanks all, later :)
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Big Bar Line Up - Wrapped
In case you missed it over the past month or so I posted an extensive look at some of the 'Big bar' chocolates available while walking the Candy Aisle here in Canada. I know it was more of a survey series but I liked all the pretty pictures and even just taking a closer look at them gave me a better understanding of what the various players are trying to achieve.
Does this mean I'll be eating more big bars down the line? I hope so. There are some really great offerings out there, especially from companies like Lindt and Ritter Sport. And hopefully that will translate here to the blog as well, in added reviews on some of the more interesting stuff.
For those who would like to check out the series of posts here they are in one handy dandy list:
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Hershey
Lindt
Ritter Sport
Dove and Godiva
Remainders
It seems like such a short list of posts but believe me it took a very long time to compile these lists with all the pictures involved.
I hope you do take the opportunity to go back and check out any of the posts you may have missed. They're fun looks at whats on the shelves right now. There's some great, and some definitely no so great looking stuff out there. Thanks for reading all :)
Does this mean I'll be eating more big bars down the line? I hope so. There are some really great offerings out there, especially from companies like Lindt and Ritter Sport. And hopefully that will translate here to the blog as well, in added reviews on some of the more interesting stuff.
For those who would like to check out the series of posts here they are in one handy dandy list:
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Hershey
Lindt
Ritter Sport
Dove and Godiva
Remainders
It seems like such a short list of posts but believe me it took a very long time to compile these lists with all the pictures involved.
I hope you do take the opportunity to go back and check out any of the posts you may have missed. They're fun looks at whats on the shelves right now. There's some great, and some definitely no so great looking stuff out there. Thanks for reading all :)
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Almost Perfect Candy
I was out in Whitby, Ontario last week and my brother in law clued me into the Almost Perfect store.
This is the kind of store a lot of you may have seen if you live in or near an urban center. This is essentially an irregular food store. It's full of food that's been rejected, not over any health concerns but most likely because the food was discontinued, or possibly seasonal and the major retailers don't want it on the shelves anymore.
You can also find some of these items if you are the kind of person who goes on factory tours. I remember when I was a kid going with my parents to both the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont (or maybe it was headquarters), and most significantly when I went to Hershey Pennsylvania. These factory tours of course ended at the gift shop, and both of these companies offered "irregular" food products there. As a kid this just fascinated me to no end. The products may be slightly off, but they're crazy cheap and just awesome.
Almost Perfect seems to offer more of the straightforward food items focusing on seasonal stuff, maybe with misprinted packaging, or remainders of limited editions. They specifically have a pretty decent candy section too, which was of course my main reason for wanting to go.
Some of the items like this entire stand of Allan candy was a bit weird. I'm not sure why any of it wouldn't be on the market. These are the guys who make "Big Foot" and I'm sure I'll get to their products sooner or later in reviews. These are weird flavors, so maybe they were just limited time or discontinued. Hard to tell since I'm not that familiar with their product lineup.
More likely is seeing something like this Imported Continental European Dark Chocolate. Seems fine and all, but nothing I would imagine anyone would buy, especially if its not an in house brand or some kind of off-shoot loss leader to get people into the store. Without a good brand name behind it why on earth is anyone buying it? My guess is they are not. And that's why it's at Almost Perfect.
Here is a very interesting one, and something I wish I could've reviewed. But I wouldn't feel right reviewing something from Almost Perfect when I really don't know why its there. Most likely this unique variation on the classic Hershey bar didn't sell and was discontinued, but I don't know.... maybe it was awful, or maybe its still in development. Whenever the reason its not sticking around I don't think Hershey wants it representing them.
Do you suppose these Reese Eggs were sitting around in a warehouse since Easter? My guess is yes. The sure tasted great though, I bought a bunch of these!
Here are some great looking Red White and Blue M&Ms. I suppose these are from this past 4th of July. We'll see if they turn up again next year.
I love the idea of Fierce Cinnamon Hot Tamales. Do you think maybe they were too fierce for the public? Are these still available in real life?
Here's another one that I'm not sure of. Don't these exist on the market now? Why is this one here? Could it be because it has the "New" label on it?
Finally a simple question. Whats wrong with all these Jolly Ranchers???
This is totally a store that's good and bad at the same time. I mean how cool is it going to a store to get something no one else has? BUT then the truth sinks in, maybe other people don't want this stuff. for a reason...
I'll have to keep my eye out for more 'irregular' candy, or off the beaten path kind of stuff. Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to a store like this and what your impression has been.
Thanks for joining me, later all.
This is the kind of store a lot of you may have seen if you live in or near an urban center. This is essentially an irregular food store. It's full of food that's been rejected, not over any health concerns but most likely because the food was discontinued, or possibly seasonal and the major retailers don't want it on the shelves anymore.
You can also find some of these items if you are the kind of person who goes on factory tours. I remember when I was a kid going with my parents to both the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont (or maybe it was headquarters), and most significantly when I went to Hershey Pennsylvania. These factory tours of course ended at the gift shop, and both of these companies offered "irregular" food products there. As a kid this just fascinated me to no end. The products may be slightly off, but they're crazy cheap and just awesome.
Almost Perfect seems to offer more of the straightforward food items focusing on seasonal stuff, maybe with misprinted packaging, or remainders of limited editions. They specifically have a pretty decent candy section too, which was of course my main reason for wanting to go.
Some of the items like this entire stand of Allan candy was a bit weird. I'm not sure why any of it wouldn't be on the market. These are the guys who make "Big Foot" and I'm sure I'll get to their products sooner or later in reviews. These are weird flavors, so maybe they were just limited time or discontinued. Hard to tell since I'm not that familiar with their product lineup.
More likely is seeing something like this Imported Continental European Dark Chocolate. Seems fine and all, but nothing I would imagine anyone would buy, especially if its not an in house brand or some kind of off-shoot loss leader to get people into the store. Without a good brand name behind it why on earth is anyone buying it? My guess is they are not. And that's why it's at Almost Perfect.
Here is a very interesting one, and something I wish I could've reviewed. But I wouldn't feel right reviewing something from Almost Perfect when I really don't know why its there. Most likely this unique variation on the classic Hershey bar didn't sell and was discontinued, but I don't know.... maybe it was awful, or maybe its still in development. Whenever the reason its not sticking around I don't think Hershey wants it representing them.
Do you suppose these Reese Eggs were sitting around in a warehouse since Easter? My guess is yes. The sure tasted great though, I bought a bunch of these!
I love the idea of Fierce Cinnamon Hot Tamales. Do you think maybe they were too fierce for the public? Are these still available in real life?
Here's another one that I'm not sure of. Don't these exist on the market now? Why is this one here? Could it be because it has the "New" label on it?
Finally a simple question. Whats wrong with all these Jolly Ranchers???
This is totally a store that's good and bad at the same time. I mean how cool is it going to a store to get something no one else has? BUT then the truth sinks in, maybe other people don't want this stuff. for a reason...
I'll have to keep my eye out for more 'irregular' candy, or off the beaten path kind of stuff. Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to a store like this and what your impression has been.
Thanks for joining me, later all.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Milky Way Midnight Dark review
Today we are back with yet another Milky Way review! You know I just can't get enough of these things :) Here we have a look at Milky Way Midnight Dark.
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Milky Way Midnight Dark - 4 / 5
This is a Mars product, and you can learn more about it on the internets right here.
For a look at the classics, please check out my review of the original Milky Way, and the Milky Way Simply Caramel. Both are stellar! Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more awesome reviews hitting the site and YouTube Channel twice a week!
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Milky Way Midnight Dark - 4 / 5
This is a Mars product, and you can learn more about it on the internets right here.
For a look at the classics, please check out my review of the original Milky Way, and the Milky Way Simply Caramel. Both are stellar! Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more awesome reviews hitting the site and YouTube Channel twice a week!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Big Bar Line Up - Remainder
So if you've been following along with my series of posts on Candy Aisle Big Bars you know that we've covered a lot of ground. But there are really SO many more big bars that we could talk about. There are whole blogs out there that deal with this topic. Granted once you pass a certain point it seems like most of the big bars are more for the Fair-Trade, Whole Foods crowd than regular candy aisle walkers like myself. Now I know that there are a lot of chocolates out there for that market and its great, but I'm more interested in the everyday stuff. So what I've gathered here for today's post is a reasonable sampling of some of the remaining big sized candy bars I've seen some-what commonly around town, or at least in regular, popular stores.
I'm interested to know if I'm missing out on the one line of chocolates that I simply must try or at the least should have heard of, so if you've got something that I didn't cover in these posts, please feel free to let me know :)
Lets start with the two 'other' bars that in Canada you'll find everywhere.
Caramilk is fantastic. Just check out my review. So its no wonder that its a staple of the Big Bar section of every store here.
Neilson's Jersey Milk is an interesting one here in Canada. They are a Canadian company that's been around for just over a hundred years. As you might guess from a name like Neilson's Dairy, they make milk, and milk products. In Canada you can find them in the biggest national grocery chain (Loblaws) and these chocolate bars made by them most everywhere else as well. Jersey Milk chocolate is practically a Canadian institution. As a kid these were probably the most prevalent fun size candy in everyone's bag at the end of Halloween night. The company has a longstanding relationship with Cadbury Canada, even owning their Canadian operations for a decade or so. A few of Cadbury's Canadian chocolate bars like Mr. Big and Crispy Crunch even were sold under the Neilson logo for a time. Jersey Milk, along with the others were all sold back to British Cadbury in the late 90s and this bar is now produced by them (only it retains the Neilson branding). I haven't personally had one of these in quite a while, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it soon!
Now these next two are new but they're very heavily "candy bar" influenced, and the kind of thing you'd see in any regular candy aisle, so I thought I should mention them now.
Who knows if wither of these bars will stick around, but I'm interested in trying them. Sometimes the form factor can really matter. I think both of these could be significantly different in this larger form.
Here's a weird one right?! I can't say that I've ever seen a straight up Nestle Dark chocolate bar before... but here it is. Straight from the local dollar store (meaning it could be an import) with honey and almond pieces. Very interesting.
Talk about BIG bars, that's a 400gm bar! Although I'm not familiar with Waterbridge this is one of a few things I saw at Wal-Mart.This is apparently their Belgian style chocolate while this next Mountain Range themed line is Swiss.
I found the Waterbridge Mountain Range line up at my local Lowes and think simply based on packaging alone that I'd prefer to go with it than the Belgian Style ones I saw earlier.
Here we have another Canadian institution found in the Dollarama :( Laura Secord are not known for having big chocolate bars in stores however so I don't feel too bad. Somehow this must have slipped into production and ended up here. Laura Secord is known for having almost boutique 200 chocolate retail locations across Canada. They are a really wonderful very high quality chocolatier perhaps best known for boxed chocolates and I'm certainly planning on getting some of their stuff onto the site here soon!
Here's two that I know virtually nothing about at all... Although that Heritage bar sounds alright. Apparently Jacquot is a very well regarded French chocolate, and the only thing I can see online about Heritage is a listing for something produced by Mars Canada... which doesn't seem like the same thing as this...
Another Dollarama special the Rocher Blanc comes in Milk and Dark and has nice packaging. I believe its French, but can't bank on that.
Cote D'Or is a brand I'm not too familiar with, but I've got something from them in the works for a review soon. All I can say is that I found these two Dark Chocolate beauties at a grocery chain called Metro here in Canada, and I LOVE their little elephant logo. Adorable.
PC is a brand every Canadian will be familiar with. If you want more info just check out this post for some thoughts of mine on the line. Probably not something I'd buy, but I knew this had to exist somewhere...
Next up we're going into the world of Fair-Trade. Here is a line of chocolates that I've been told are very good. This is the Canadian chocolate brand Camino.
I'm not one to go in for Fair-trade stuff too often since I don't feel like I can justifiably afford the cost, but since this is a well respected Canadian brand I thought I should mention them. And hey lets not forget, Cadbury's Dairy Milk is also officially Fair-Trade.
There's are LOTS of environmentally friendly brands out there nowadays. How about these ones:
Endangered Species Chocolates, with the very desirable website http://chocolatebar.com/ have exactly the story you'd expect... 10% of proceeds, all organic, not fair-trade (but this is about the animals not the people or financial equity), and all the other good stuff you want from your socially responsible chocolate company :/
I should probably stop talking about this stuff, since I'm sure to say something to annoy someone.
Of course I skipped a lot of stuff here. It seems like everyone has an in-house brand now as well. Wal-Mart has Great Value which for my money is actually pretty decent chocolate. There's also nationally here in Canada the Carnaby line at Shopper Drug Mart, as well as their lower end Life brand, out west Safeway has their Select Line. And there is Simply Foods, No Name, and you'll even see Milka or big bar Ghiradelli around here sometimes. Really there are about a zillion others, but this is a god enough place to stop.
Before I wrap up I think I should include a few pick ups of brands I've mentioned in earlier Big Bar Line Up posts. Here are some late entries into the Hershey, and Lindt posts.
I'd definitely like to try that Hazelnut Mousse...
So there you have it. Big Bar chocolates are interesting and a world I haven't really delved too deeply in. Frankly taking these photos for this series of posts is probably the most I've looked at them in my life. There are just too many other things to get done and if I'm personally buying a chocolate I know I'd rather go for a standard chocolate bar. Less cost, less size, better value on the spot.
For those interested though, maybe I should make a few exceptions and start reviewing a couple of these... especially the more 'candy bar' style ones... Let me know what you think and thanks for joining me on this walk down the candy aisle.
I'm interested to know if I'm missing out on the one line of chocolates that I simply must try or at the least should have heard of, so if you've got something that I didn't cover in these posts, please feel free to let me know :)
Lets start with the two 'other' bars that in Canada you'll find everywhere.
Caramilk is fantastic. Just check out my review. So its no wonder that its a staple of the Big Bar section of every store here.
Neilson's Jersey Milk is an interesting one here in Canada. They are a Canadian company that's been around for just over a hundred years. As you might guess from a name like Neilson's Dairy, they make milk, and milk products. In Canada you can find them in the biggest national grocery chain (Loblaws) and these chocolate bars made by them most everywhere else as well. Jersey Milk chocolate is practically a Canadian institution. As a kid these were probably the most prevalent fun size candy in everyone's bag at the end of Halloween night. The company has a longstanding relationship with Cadbury Canada, even owning their Canadian operations for a decade or so. A few of Cadbury's Canadian chocolate bars like Mr. Big and Crispy Crunch even were sold under the Neilson logo for a time. Jersey Milk, along with the others were all sold back to British Cadbury in the late 90s and this bar is now produced by them (only it retains the Neilson branding). I haven't personally had one of these in quite a while, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it soon!
Now these next two are new but they're very heavily "candy bar" influenced, and the kind of thing you'd see in any regular candy aisle, so I thought I should mention them now.
Who knows if wither of these bars will stick around, but I'm interested in trying them. Sometimes the form factor can really matter. I think both of these could be significantly different in this larger form.
Here's a weird one right?! I can't say that I've ever seen a straight up Nestle Dark chocolate bar before... but here it is. Straight from the local dollar store (meaning it could be an import) with honey and almond pieces. Very interesting.
Talk about BIG bars, that's a 400gm bar! Although I'm not familiar with Waterbridge this is one of a few things I saw at Wal-Mart.This is apparently their Belgian style chocolate while this next Mountain Range themed line is Swiss.
I found the Waterbridge Mountain Range line up at my local Lowes and think simply based on packaging alone that I'd prefer to go with it than the Belgian Style ones I saw earlier.
Here we have another Canadian institution found in the Dollarama :( Laura Secord are not known for having big chocolate bars in stores however so I don't feel too bad. Somehow this must have slipped into production and ended up here. Laura Secord is known for having almost boutique 200 chocolate retail locations across Canada. They are a really wonderful very high quality chocolatier perhaps best known for boxed chocolates and I'm certainly planning on getting some of their stuff onto the site here soon!
Here's two that I know virtually nothing about at all... Although that Heritage bar sounds alright. Apparently Jacquot is a very well regarded French chocolate, and the only thing I can see online about Heritage is a listing for something produced by Mars Canada... which doesn't seem like the same thing as this...
Another Dollarama special the Rocher Blanc comes in Milk and Dark and has nice packaging. I believe its French, but can't bank on that.
PC is a brand every Canadian will be familiar with. If you want more info just check out this post for some thoughts of mine on the line. Probably not something I'd buy, but I knew this had to exist somewhere...
Next up we're going into the world of Fair-Trade. Here is a line of chocolates that I've been told are very good. This is the Canadian chocolate brand Camino.
I'm not one to go in for Fair-trade stuff too often since I don't feel like I can justifiably afford the cost, but since this is a well respected Canadian brand I thought I should mention them. And hey lets not forget, Cadbury's Dairy Milk is also officially Fair-Trade.
There's are LOTS of environmentally friendly brands out there nowadays. How about these ones:
Endangered Species Chocolates, with the very desirable website http://chocolatebar.com/ have exactly the story you'd expect... 10% of proceeds, all organic, not fair-trade (but this is about the animals not the people or financial equity), and all the other good stuff you want from your socially responsible chocolate company :/
I should probably stop talking about this stuff, since I'm sure to say something to annoy someone.
Of course I skipped a lot of stuff here. It seems like everyone has an in-house brand now as well. Wal-Mart has Great Value which for my money is actually pretty decent chocolate. There's also nationally here in Canada the Carnaby line at Shopper Drug Mart, as well as their lower end Life brand, out west Safeway has their Select Line. And there is Simply Foods, No Name, and you'll even see Milka or big bar Ghiradelli around here sometimes. Really there are about a zillion others, but this is a god enough place to stop.
Before I wrap up I think I should include a few pick ups of brands I've mentioned in earlier Big Bar Line Up posts. Here are some late entries into the Hershey, and Lindt posts.
I'd definitely like to try that Hazelnut Mousse...
So there you have it. Big Bar chocolates are interesting and a world I haven't really delved too deeply in. Frankly taking these photos for this series of posts is probably the most I've looked at them in my life. There are just too many other things to get done and if I'm personally buying a chocolate I know I'd rather go for a standard chocolate bar. Less cost, less size, better value on the spot.
For those interested though, maybe I should make a few exceptions and start reviewing a couple of these... especially the more 'candy bar' style ones... Let me know what you think and thanks for joining me on this walk down the candy aisle.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Fry's Chocolate Cream review
Today we're taking another step into the wild world of fondant with Fry's Chocolate Cream bar.
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Fry's Chocolate Cream - 3 / 5
For more on Fry's and all things Cadbury please check out their official site - http://www.cadbury.co.uk/. and for more reviews please click through our Reviews Page.
Walking the Candy Aisle rates Fry's Chocolate Cream - 3 / 5
For more on Fry's and all things Cadbury please check out their official site - http://www.cadbury.co.uk/. and for more reviews please click through our Reviews Page.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
The Big Bar Line Up - Dove and Godiva
Today we're back with the Big Bars, and we're starting to run through them now. I think probably one more post'll do it. For now though we're looking at the small entry into the big bar market by Godiva and Dove.
Starting with Dove, I should say I have a weird thing about them. I think the only time I've ever eaten a dove bar was for a review here on the site. No you didn't miss it. Although I shot the review it is one of the handful of 'lost' Candy Aisle episodes. And since I never got to officially review it, I feel kind of mixed about it. Maybe these big bars are the way to go though. Lets have a look at their offerings.
Yup. That's nothing to write home about. I mean I'm sure its all fine, but they could add some variety to the mix couldn't they? Are these the bars that will sell the most? Seems like these are the most generic ideas they could find. Maybe I'm cynical though.... I guess I just don't see why someone is buying this over a Lindt or something else right beside it.
At least Godiva has a very specific type of chocolate eater in mind. They are playing directly into the dark chocolate and gourmet chocolate connoisseur world. Something I admittedly know very little about... (I'm an everyman here people). Anyhow, lets have a look at what they've got.
One Milk variety, and then its right into the Dark.
Frankly I'm a little surprised that they don't have anything higher than 85%. Those are already serious bars and I certainly don't think I could handle anyting stronger... but those dark chocolate aficionados can be very demanding. This is at least in part probably a good alternative to the Lindt offerings though.
Anyhow, next time we'll pick up the remainder big bars for a final post on this topic. Until then I'll see you in the aisle.
Starting with Dove, I should say I have a weird thing about them. I think the only time I've ever eaten a dove bar was for a review here on the site. No you didn't miss it. Although I shot the review it is one of the handful of 'lost' Candy Aisle episodes. And since I never got to officially review it, I feel kind of mixed about it. Maybe these big bars are the way to go though. Lets have a look at their offerings.
Yup. That's nothing to write home about. I mean I'm sure its all fine, but they could add some variety to the mix couldn't they? Are these the bars that will sell the most? Seems like these are the most generic ideas they could find. Maybe I'm cynical though.... I guess I just don't see why someone is buying this over a Lindt or something else right beside it.
At least Godiva has a very specific type of chocolate eater in mind. They are playing directly into the dark chocolate and gourmet chocolate connoisseur world. Something I admittedly know very little about... (I'm an everyman here people). Anyhow, lets have a look at what they've got.
One Milk variety, and then its right into the Dark.
Frankly I'm a little surprised that they don't have anything higher than 85%. Those are already serious bars and I certainly don't think I could handle anyting stronger... but those dark chocolate aficionados can be very demanding. This is at least in part probably a good alternative to the Lindt offerings though.
Anyhow, next time we'll pick up the remainder big bars for a final post on this topic. Until then I'll see you in the aisle.
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