Healthy candy is an oxymoron to me. It’s not that healthy food tastes bad, but rather that there’s little in candy that can be deemed nutritious. But after dark chocolate was discovered to contain some of the highest concentration of antioxidants, candy began to be repackaged with a healthier spin.

These days, it’s not unusual to see a bag of gummies touting they’re filled with “antioxidants;” that’s a brilliant marketing ploy that really means there’s vitamin C, most likely in the form of ascorbic acid, in there. And though something that has vitamin C in it seems healthy, you ingest more than enough in your everyday diet, as evidenced by the few cases of scurvy we hear about.

At the All Candy Expo, it was impossible to saunter by a booth trying to sell snake oil with claims of why their product was so healthy. It has pomegranate! Made with real fruit juice! No artificial flavors! Only 100 calories! I like candy, but I’m very skeptical about eating it when I’m being fooled into eating it for the wrong reasons.

There was one seemingly odd exception to this rule. When I approached the BrightSpot booth, a small candy company based in Chicago, they began trying to extol the virtues of their candy. I seemed pretty blase about their speech until I heard words like “probiotics.” I was definitely intrigued and curious when I was given a bag of each of their Gimmie Chocolate Candies.

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The 100 Grand bar is a candy bar that I grew up with. So to me, it’s at least 100 years old. But the truth of the matter is that this confection doesn’t even qualify as a Retro Candy Flashback because it debuted in 1966 (I think a candy has to be at least fifty before it gets that privilege).

Having one of the more unique mechanisms for invention, the bar began its life as a byproduct of the then-popular television game show The Big Surprise. In this show, contestants answered questions in order to win a prize that totaled, you guessed correctly, 100 grand. It’s akin to someone issuing a millionaire bar to play off the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? craze a few years back.

The candy originally billed itself as the $100,000 Bar, but the brand we think of today developed in the eighties due to the popular term for that denomination of currency.

In tune with most Nestle products, this one is pretty simple in terms of its ingredients: milk chocolate, caramel, and crisped rice. One unique difference between it and a good portion of Nestle’s confectionery lineup is that this candy still uses real chocolate.

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I love to read the comments you guys post. It’s always great to see whether you agreed with my review or had a differing opinion I might not have have considered. I particularly enjoy the suggestions you leave.

On my article reviewing the expired 100 Grand Dark Bar, a fellow Candy Addict staff member, Monica, used her keen insight in my search for a great crisp rice bar, and she recommended I try Nestle’s Crunch with Caramel. I did just that and didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would. Having had my interest piqued in various Crunch Bar varieties from her suggestion, I then decided to try the Crunch Dark Bar.

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Crisp rice has always been a favorite staple of mine in the various niches of candy out there. Krackle, Crunch, and of course, 100 Grand all come to mind. It’s never been a candy I think has been fully pushed to its amazing potential, and since the retirement of the Caravelle Bar, I don’t think the world has had any close competitors to assume that challenge.

Regardless, I still like Krackle and 100 Grand bars a great deal (and to a lesser extent Crunch). I just always wished there could be something more to them. I would be willing to try anything that could give crisp rice bars the success they deserve. And in this case, anything meant purchasing the Limited Edition 100 Grand Dark Bar from a candy bin at the Dollar Tree Store, a product that had ceased to be marketed about two years ago.

Like so many candies I didn’t get to try, this one debuted while I lived outside of the U.S., and had made a quick exit before I had the chance to return. But the fact that it had long since expired did little to dissuade me from ripping open the wrapper.

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