As a self-acknowledged chocoholic, I can’t resist trying new chocolate candies that appear on the market. When I saw the ads for the Milky Way Midnight, I got all excited. Everyone knows that dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you. With this new formula, I could almost count this new Milky Way as health food! I promptly boogied on over to the drugstore to get one.
As I bought my Milky Way Midnight, my excitement mounted. Even the wrapper was fun. It looked all exotic and mysterious. I peeled back the wrapper, bit off a good chunk… and immediately regretted taking such a big bite.
The regular Milky Way consistency was all there. The creamy blend of chocolate with the gooey caramel and lightly chewy nougat all had a familiar mouth feel. But instead of the dark chocolate I was expecting, I got hit with a burst of orange flavor. I’m generally not a big fan of fruit-flavored chocolate – I like my chocolate to taste like chocolate. So I was totally unprepared to be eating something so orangey.
When I swallowed, the Milky Way Midnight left a weird aftertaste in my mouth. Somehow the caramel flavor lingering in my mouth turned the orange very bitter. Really not the dark chocolate experience I had hoped for. I decided to take a second bite, just to be sure. The second bite just intensified the bitter orange flavor from the first bite. So much so, that I did something I never do: I spit out the chocolate.
For people who are a big fan of fruity chocolate, the Milky Way Midnight might be a nice change of pace. But for someone like me who was looking for the earthiness of good dark chocolate, the Midnight was a big letdown.
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I really like this candy bar. It has an undertone of buttery flavor and when I’m out for the afternoon this is the bar I pick up for an energy boost.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:58 amMy husband has been eating the “fun size” and “not even a bite size” versions of this candy bar for years now. I can usually only find it in mix bags around Halloween.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:12 amThis has been a favorite of mine for at least a decade now. Perhaps it’s just of of those things you learn to love as a kid and then grow attached to. I’ve never thought of it as being fruity, though. If anything the dark chocolate just didn’t have that much of a flavor, so it allowed me to enjoy the straight blend of the caramel and white nougat.
They were a bit hard to find (only fun size at Halloween) for years, but starting about 2 or 3 years ago, the full size bar has been a regular item at the Walmart and variety of other stores check out lines.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:00 amI love chocolate….specially milky way that’s my favorite…when the midnight came out… I had to try it…It’s delicious and creamy…it does taste fruity, I always wondered what fuit did it taste like, now i know it’s orange…thanks
October 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pmI’ve been eating these for years, but I’ve never noticed a fruity flavor to the chocolate. Guess it’s time to pick up another one and see if I can taste the orange flavor.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:50 pmThanks so much for your comments! I love hearing other people’s opinions. You guys are making me wonder if I somehow just got a bad candy bar. Maybe I’ll give it another try one of these days.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:13 pmI haven’t purchased an original Milky Way bar since these came out. The Walgreen’s by me has a coupon about once a month where you can get three of the full sized bars for a buck. The Midnight, along with Reese’s Nutrageous, are my favorite candy bars in the world.
October 17th, 2008 at 3:42 pmI gotta go with the mob on this one – this has been my favorite drugstore candy bar for years. I’d take it over a regular Milky Way – or any other Mars or Hershey’s confection – any day of the week. Well…maybe not Tuesdays. Nope, wait…yeah, even Tuesdays!
October 17th, 2008 at 4:23 pmProbably one of the best candy bars on the market IMO. I think you need to try this one again.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pmThis is not a new candy bar; been around for quite a while and I love ‘em. Maybe you got a bad one, because I’ve never eaten one that tasted like “orange flavor.”
October 18th, 2008 at 11:46 amI always eat the minis, which might explain the taste difference with the orange because of different chocolate to nougat ratio. I also think it has a lot to do with the malt in these and the lower grade dark chocolate that coats it mixing in an odd way. I recommend you try a Mars bar if you can find it. It’s almost the same premise, but vastly superior as a British bar with real sugar. Welcome to the staff!
October 18th, 2008 at 12:29 pmI’ve eaten many a Milky Way Midnight in my day and I must say that I’ve never had the ‘orange experience’ either. Sounds like you must have eaten a funky one. Give it another chance!!!
October 19th, 2008 at 2:22 amYou definitely had a bad candy bar or something because Milky Way Midnight is definitely a way better tasting candy bar (And without ANY orange flavor) than you let on.
As soon as you said “orange” was what you tasted, I knew something was wrong.
The original Milky Way is a bit too sweet for me, but the Midnights almost kinda taste like good Chocolate ice cream… It’s weird to describe but the whole thing mends so much better with Dark Chocolate than Milk Chocolate (And I”m a die-hard Milk Chocolate lover)…
Cadence, I really feel like you need to go buy another one (From a different store perhaps) and give it another shot because your review really sounds much different from the candy bar that I’ve had multiple times.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:02 pmAs others have noted, this candy bar isn’t new at all. I’ve been eating them for years. I can see how you would mistake it as a new candy though since they are just now really being advertised. They still aren’t what I call readily available. While it’s not my favorite candy bar, it’s definitely one I through into the mix every now and then. I’m not even a big dark chocolate fan, but in this case, it just works. (It’s all about the vanilla nougat!) I think it’s quite possibly on of the richest candy bars on the market. I agree with some of the other comments about you having a bad bar since I’ve never tasted any fruity undertones whatsoever.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pmOk, my peeps: I’m bowing to the greater wisdom here. I’m going to try another one and see what happens. My experience was SO different from the consensus that I’m wondering if somehow the candy bar went bad (I didn’t know that they could do that). I usually love dark chocolate so I’m willing to give it another shot. I’ll try a different store, too, just to be on the safe side. When I try my new bar, I’ll let you guys know what happened. Thanks so much for the comments!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pmHey, I’m not sure how recent you get on this site!! I just recently started getting Milkyway midnights and I hate dark chocolate but the vanilla nougat blends in really well. Anyway, candy bars can go bad they usually have an expiration date on them that most people dont see b/c it blends in with the wrapper. I also like rollos and let me just say if you get those and it’s bad you can tell. It has a nasty after taste and a fruity flavor to them, not a good combo. Have you tried a differemt bar recently?
January 21st, 2009 at 10:37 pmI think they are the best regular candy bar on the market! I just wish they were easier to find!
September 11th, 2011 at 5:26 amThis is the only candy bar I really eat anymore. Every other nut/nougat/peanut butter filled bar a I just can’t stomach in my older years. The midnight bar has just the perfect taste to it. Don’t know what the orange you were tasting was, never had any fruity taste in my bars.
October 31st, 2011 at 4:44 pm