One of the new candies unveiled at this year’s All Candy Expo was this new twist on a classic candy: the Abba-Zaba Chocolate Cream center. When Brian told me about his find on the showroom floor I couldn’t help but respond by asking a gazillion questions about it. For me, a new addition to the Abba-Zaba family was big, big news.
The original Abba-Zaba is a sweet taffy with a stripe of peanut butter running down the center. There’s also a Sour Apple variety with the taffy carrying the flavor and the peanut butter center remaining intact. What I found most exciting about this new Abba-Zaba was the replacement of the peanut butter with “chocolate cream” (ok, so it’s really mockolate), which sort of takes away the consistent component of the candy. I was curious to see if this hurt the formula of the bar at all.
Opening up the package, the taffy is a bright pale white, and appears the same as the original Abba-Zaba. So at the very least half of the original is still present in this new flavor. The taffy has a sweet, light vanilla-like flavor and I’m immediately reminded of vanilla salt water taffy that I’d get as a kid from the relatives visiting Long Beach Island, Cape Cod or some other coastal New England vacation spot.
The chew is very substantial. Some places it was so hard I had to crack it off with my teeth, but most of the bar stretched and cleaved easily with less work. It softens quickly in the mouth and gives a great chew.
After a few very tough bites in, you reach the chocolate cream which has a wonderful rich color and is very smooth. The chocolaty center is like a melted ganache and the flavor reminds me of Smucker’s fudge sauce. It’s got a sweet, thick, throat-burning cocoa taste and although it lacks the complexity of real chocolate, it still delivers a reliable flavor.
Overall I liked it, as I’m big on chocolate and this is great option with the summer heat in full swing. I only wonder why the taste geniuses at Annabelle’s didn’t think of keeping the peanut butter center and making the taffy chocolate-flavored. Maybe for next year, right?
Buy Annabelle’s online:
- at Candy Crate
- at Candy Direct
- at Old Time Candy
- at Amazon.com
