While on a mission at my local Ralph’s, ostensibly for drinks and cleaning supplies, I decided to make a detour into the candy aisle. I didn’t expect to buy anything, as I’m fond of spending as little as possible, and only tend to indulge in my sweeter passions when they come at a decidedly inexorbitant fee. As it turned out, deviance from my intended path proved unwise. The store was holding a major chocolate sale – and Hershey’s bars weren’t the only discounted items.

Indeed, sweets from all over the world were marked down! Hazelnut-studded Ritter squares from Germany touted their half-priced goodness alongside super-dark French varietals which, even after their markdown, sold for $4.50 apiece. While all of these were tempting, my eyes were drawn to the Cadbury selections. At 4/$3.00, the British candy maker’s offerings were competitively priced with the offerings from Hershey’s and Nestle. How could I resist? Four scrumptious-looking Cadbury bars were on display, and one of each found its way into my basket. Three extraneous dollars later, I was out the door with my British booty.

Arriving home, I arranged the bars before me on the kitchen table and took inventory. My collection, swathed in a wrap of regal purple, included Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Royal Dark, Fruit & Nut, and Caramello bars. I eagerly opened my first 99-gram (3.5 oz.) bar and bit in.

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And then there was U-No. This is the fourth and final oddly-named retro bar in my mini-cycle of candy that spiraled out of a dream I thought I had about overhearing a woman speaking to her husband when in New York City. (The other three candies are Oh Henry! Look!, and the 5th Avenue bar.)

Unlike those other three bars, I had U-No as a kid. And I remember liking it. So today we’ll see if I’m transported back to those halcyon days of rare treats, or caught in a transporter with a fly, like Jeff Goldblum, with disastrous consequences. And really, I’m a little worried, because my childhood taste was far from infallible.

Two things I didn’t realize growing up: U-No’s have powdered buttermilk and crushed almonds in them. That might have freaked me out at 8, but it intrigues me now.

So, will I still like this unique candy in the lunar-module, super-shiny wrapper?

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I thought I’d try something different with this review… consider it a kind of “stream of consciousness” review. I’m going to write what comes to mind as I try the Snickers Rockin’ Nut Road.

The new Rockin’ Nut Road Snickers wrapper promises “almonds, caramel and marshmallow-flavored nougat wrapped in dark chocolate” – sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Opening it, there really is no real aroma at all. Biting into it, I see that the nougat is snow white so not only does it taste like marshmallow, it looks like marshmallow too. The one thing that hits me, besides the marshmallow taste, is that it’s not overly sweet like a regular Snickers can be.

The Rockin’ Nut Road Snickers is very s’mores-ish tasting and the almond gives it a similar consistency that graham crackers would. The almond flavor isn’t very strong though – the most prevalent flavor is the marshmallow nougat. I don’t really taste the caramel at all, which is a shame because I really love caramel. The choice to go with dark chocolate was a wise move – Snickers milk chocolate would have made it too sweet.

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I don’t know who started this whole “combine salt with chocolate or other candy” craze, but I wholeheartedly support it! I am not a salt freak by any means, but the judicious sprinkling of salt on caramels, in chocolate, or other candies is really yummy. That’s why I pounced on the Vosges Barcelona Bar when I saw it at Cost Plus World Market. (Cost Plus has a really great selection of sweets, in case you didn’t know).

Chicago-based Vosges makes chocolates flavored with an assortment of spices and exotic ingredients. Their Barcelona Bar is a dark milk chocolate (41 percent cacao) with hickory-smoked almonds and grey sea salt. Yowza! The salt is not overpowering–it tickles the roof of your mouth and alerts your taste buds to pay attention. The chocolate is smooth, but the main flavoring in this bar is the almonds. They don’t skimp on the almonds in this bar at all. Every bite is filled with the crunch of almonds.

I really enjoyed the bar, but since I am not completely in love with almonds in chocolate (I mean, I’ll eat it if it’s there, but if I had my druthers I’d have plain chocolate or chocolate with peanuts), I probably wouldn’t buy it again. The Vosges chocolate bars run about $7 each, so they are definitely a gourmet treat.

Another Vosges bar I tried recently is the Bobbi Brown Beauty Bar. Yes, that Bobbi Brown. I was scanning a wall of chocolates when I spotted the cosmetic maven’s logo on what appeared to be a chocolate bar. I looked more carefully at it, and the description indicated it was a dark milk chocolate bar with matcha green tea powder in it. Two of my favorite ingredients! This purchase was a no-brainer. I tell you, I could buy a case of this chocolate bar. The matcha flavor is actually quite subtle, but what it does is enhance the flavor of the chocolate. It’s milky but very flavorful, and I swear the addition of matcha helps the chocolate flavor linger. Good stuff, that! I would definitely buy this bar again. And again. And yet again.

• Vosges Chocolate

Buy Vosges bars online:

• at Vosges
• at Amazon

candy, sweets, chocolate, matcha, salt, Bobbi Brown

Once again, my cash fell prey to an addiction to candy that says “new” on the label. This time, the Dove Dark Chocolate Large Tablet Bar made it into my shopping basket. I haven’t found these large bars for sale on the internet yet, but surely it’s just a matter of time before online sellers add the bars to their Dove collection.

The wrapper claims three servings per bar, and I concur, although I ate two of the three. Like most high-quality dark chocolate, the bar melted easily. It tasted quite good—a lot like the chocolate coating on the original Dove ice cream bars. In general, I prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate, but the Dove bar is definitely worth eating again. My only real complaint is the ice cream craving it left with me. The bar is scored into small rectangles, each with a “D” in the center. I assume the idea is to break off pieces to share, and also the source of “Tablet” in the product description. I tried to break along the lines and got a clean cut about half the time.

The process of forming Dove’s dark chocolate is definitely not a quick one, and may be responsible for the perfect balance of sweet and bitter. Here’s what the company says:

After carefully roasting the beans and milling them into a super fine texture, we gently fold our cocoa butter with the beans to create a luscious cocoa liquor. The dark and haunting cocoa liquor is then poured through the time honored traditional sea shell, known as a conche. This refines the flavor and ensures an even smoother and silkier texture.

The large tablet bars come in three varieties: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate with almonds. The bar with almonds is the heaviest, weighing in at .14oz larger than its counterparts. I’d like to try the other two tablet bars, and now that fall is here, I might make Dove s’mores over a campfire. After all, the manufacturers say “DOVE® Dark Chocolate Large Bars are perfect for multiple occasions, including everyday indulgence, baking/cooking, dessert and “anywhere” enjoyment.”

• Dove Chocolate

candy, sweets, chocolate, almonds, Dove, review