Here we are, with the third in my series of four oddly-named candy bars (that is, the Oh Henry!, Look!, 5th Avenue, and U-No).

In 1936 it seemed a great idea to William Luden (of cough-drop fame) to name a food after a street in New York City. Now, sure, linking your candy bar to arguably the wealthiest bit of real estate in the world might seem to be a good move to give your candy some cachet, but present-day maker Hershey should remember this: it also sets high expectations. (Yes, I know there’s a 5th Avenue in Reading, PA, where this bar was made, but don’t tell me they weren’t trying to associate their bar with the famous Manhattan boulevard.)

When you open this big bar (2 oz, 56g), you immediately smell the peanuts. Hershey’s label describes the bar as “crunchy peanut butter in a rich, chocolately coating.” Notice, they didn’t say a chocolate coating. We know what this means, unfortunately. Yup, it’s mockolate.

Still, maybe this candy tastes good anyway. Is it, for example, better than a Butterfinger?

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The Clark Bar has been the Big Foot of my candy life. For years and years I have scoured gas station after convenience store in hopes of spotting this elusive bar. My obsession with it began several years ago when I read glowing reviews of it and its brother Zagnut, a product that was easier to track down.

But my search had always ended in frustration… until now. This past week at Walgreens, in a bag of Old-Fashioned candy packaged by Necco, amidst Banana Splits and Necco Wafers, these Lost Cities of Atlantis appeared as if they were weren’t one of the most difficult candies I’ve ever tried to find.

I had always intended to try the full-sized bar, but this package only sold the miniature version, a small concession for being able to finally sample this product.

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There is no candy company out there that is both as famous and infamous as the New England Confectionery Company, aka Necco. That is because they produce many products people adore (Clark Bar and Sky Bar) and many products people despise (Conversation Hearts and Mary Jane).

I have never really had anything against the company. I do enjoy several of their products, and have no major qualms with some of their more disliked candy. I don’t think Necco is as good in quality as other brands out there, but I know what I am getting and am satisfied when I pay ten-cents for a day-after Valentine’s Day candy sale box of conversation hearts.

Except during the holidays, I rarely see Necco products in stores, excluding Necco Wafers. That is why when I saw this orange bag dangling at a Walgreens, I was immediately drawn to it. The bag read, Necco Old Fashioned Cream Drops.

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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.

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It’s hard to believe that the world’s first combination candy bar is still an unknown name for most. I am referring to the GooGoo Cluster, which was made by the Standard Candy Company back in 1912. Like most classic and retro candy, they can be difficult to find unless you live in the region that is producing them. So in this case, anyone who isn’t living in the South is very possibly missing out on a very tasty piece of history.

What made the GooGoo Cluster so new in 1912 was, unlike Hershey’s and all the other large candy companies at the time, the GooGoo Cluster wanted to be more than just a solid bar of chocolate. Instead, the creators of the GooGoo made a mound of marshmallow, caramel and roasted peanuts covered in milk chocolate. Now that’s a candy with ambition! How the GooGoo got it’s name is shrouded in myth, since no one exactly remembers who was first to suggest it.

As the years have passed, the recipe for the GooGoo has remained unchanged due to Standard Candy Company’s strong ties to tradition. Even so, new varieties of the GooGoo have been added; the GooGoo Supreme with pecans instead of peanuts and the GooGoo Peanut Butter which replaced the marshmallow and caramel.

Ready to find out how they taste?

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Nestle’s Coffee Crisp is a bar that has a very dedicated fan base. When I first heard of it, it was though an online petition that was demanding it’s distribution back in the United States. I found it recently on the shelf at a convenience store I happened to be in, and I couldn’t help but wonder what all the hype was about.

It is described as a coffee center surrounded by light wafers and covered in milk chocolate. Sounds harmless enough, right? Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready quite for what I was about to taste.

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As you may or may not have heard, the FDA has recently announced that it’s planning on changing their definition of chocolate. The new rules that the FDA wishes to set will allow chocolate to be produced without cocoa butter (but still with cocoa solids) and be allowed to put “chocolate” on the label. I don’t know about you, but when I want chocolate, I want the REAL thing! It’s like making peanut butter with no peanuts!

Why is such a thing being proposed in the first place? Well, to be blunt, it’s cheaper for manufacturers to use vegetable/tropical oils and trans fats in instead of cocoa butter. Obviously we, as consumers, aren’t being considered here. As Candy Addicts I’m sure we’ve all tasted this “mockolate” before, and it’s gross.

What can you do to help? Simple, just visit the Don’t Mess With Our Chocolate site and/or Cybele’s Candy Blog. Both sites have great ideas on how to spread the word and do you part to save our chocolate. Chocolate is perfect the way it is. Let’s keep it that way!

• Don’t Mess With Our Chocolate
• Cybele’s Candy Blog coverage

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