Cadbury Mini Eggs Popping

Cadbury Mini Eggs were a bit of an Easter tradition in my house growing up. For what seems like my entire childhood, most Cadbury products were Easter only. I know it's blasphemy, but I am not and have never been a fan of the famous Creme Eggs. Even to my young, Starburst-addicted tongue, they were just too sweet.

Cadbury Mini Eggs are a different story. I like them better than Hershey's chocolate, and there's none of that messy white (and yellow) junk inside. Also, the candy shell has a lovely matte finish with a little more sophistication than the gloss of an M&M or Robin's Egg. The particular variety reviewed here has popping candy inside and was purchased at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Ontario.


The eggs smelled like hot cocoa, and the candy shell and the chocolate on the inside seemed very crunchy (probably because of the popping candy). The popping effect didn't kick in right away, but once it did, each individual pop was mild - there were just a lot of those little pops.

It was a fun and interesting combination: mild, rich, creamy, milk chocolate and active popping candy. The pops were a good match for the texture of the shell. I prefer the regular eggs, just because too much popping candy can be annoying, but the pops were gentle enough here for me to not mind too much.

B+

Cadbury website

Doritos Scream Cheese

Even though I've probably tried 3 new flavors of Doritos in the US within the past year, I was still excited to see a different flavor when I was shopping in Windsor, Ontario. Maybe it was the metallic bag. Little did I know that "Scream Cheese" was the product of a contest to name a new Doritos flavor in Canada. It was a good call for them to bring in outside talent to name their products - remember Nacho Cheesier?

Contestants submitted their own commercials for the flavor they named online, and if you're interested, Ryan Coopersmith's winning video can be viewed on the Doritos YouTube channel. It's worth a chuckle, not to mention $25,000 and 1% of profits from future flavor sales.


Of course, what's really important here is how the chips taste. Thankfully, the cheese didn't smell like nacho. My best guess would be cheddar, with sour and smokey notes. The best part was the nice mild heat that kicked in at the end, as I thought it helped to set them apart from other flavors.

The powder on them was a bright, bright red, and when I wiped the corners of my mouth after eating (as Doritos inevitably make a mess), it looked like I had wiped some lipstick off. I liked the heat, but wasn't crazy about the sour. They didn't make me scream, but I do love a good old-fashioned mystery flavor naming contest. Bonus points for that.

It looks like they have another contest going on now, and I do have a bag of "Unidentified Flavor II" Doritos just waiting to be consumed. It looks like this time, they want to create a viral video, so check out their website at the link below if you are interested.

B

Doritos website

Maynards Juicy Squirts Sours

Before one of my Flickr contacts pointed it out, the thought hadn't occurred to me that "Juicy Squirts" is a funny name. It does sound a bit like something you come across online and can't unsee, but luckily, it's candy. Still, it's not something I want to search for on Google.

Maynards is part of the Cadbury family of brands, but it originated as a small family company in the United Kingdom. I have never seen the Maynards brand in the US, but over the border in Canada, they sell many kinds of gummies. For example, Sour Patch Kids are now part of the Maynards brand in Canada, but they are released by Cadbury Adams in the US (without much mention of that on the package).


Right away, I had a bit of an issue: half of the bag was cherry. There were four flavors included, but I only got 1 purple, 2 raspberry, and 3 apple. The remaining 6 or 7 gummies were all cherry. Unequal flavor distribution aside, the gummies were pretty large - about the size of my thumb. Each gummy was full of a different color (and flavor) juice, and it reminded me of the Gushers fruit snacks I loved as a kid.

Green was a slightly floral green apple, but I'm not sure what the red inner juice was supposed to taste like. Maybe some sort of red berry? In any case, the flavors went well together.

Purple was either grape or blackcurrant, but honestly, I'm not sure. It did taste a lot like fake grape, and was my favorite of the bunch. Maybe I'm just saying that because there was only purple in my bag.

Red (cherry-shaped) had a standard red, medicinal cherry flavor. My husband figures that the ingredients must be the cheapest, and that was why there were so many in this bag.

Red (raspberry-shaped) had a nice, mild raspberry flavor with a slightly sour bite to it. Again, I'm not sure what flavor the center juices were, but I enjoyed the piece.

Overall, I liked the firm, chewy texture of the gummies. My husband thought they were sour enough, but I hardly found them sour at all. Combined with the bad assortment, Juicy Squirts Sours just left me feeling disappointed.

C

These have also been reviewed at Candy Addict

Cadbury website

Nestle Smarties

As I've mentioned before, in nearly every country but the United States, Smarties are candy-coated chocolates made by Nestle. Until I was in my 20s, I had never tasted these non-sugar disk Smarties, so this review is probably biased.

Naturally, I can't fight the temptation to compare them to M&Ms. Right away, the different colors of the Smarties appealed to me (pink and purple as standard colors!), and they were also slightly bigger than plain M&Ms.


There wasn't much of a scent (the cardboard smelled stronger than the candy), and the taste immediately reminded me of Halloween chocolate - a blend of candy and chocolate flavors stewing together in a vat. The candy coating seemed to add a sugary flavor, and because it is pretty thick, these were very crunchy.

I was reminded of Cadbury Mini Eggs (the chocolate eggs coated with a spotted candy shell to look like bird eggs) as well, but Smarties are much smaller than those. As a result, the chocolate seemed dominated by the shell. Although I don't think I'd turn these down if they were offered to me, I think I'd prefer plain M&Ms...but that's only if plain M&Ms and Smarties were my only choices.

Check out this head-to-head comparison at Candy Blog.

C+

Nestle website

Nestle KitKat Senses

While I'm on the subject of KitKats, here's something I picked up in Canada in March. My husband and I have been trying to cut back on sweets, so it's been tough to balance candy blogging with that. We haven't been depriving ourselves, because there's always room for a little indulgence.

Anyhow, I had seen pictures of this bar, and couldn't resist buying it while in Canada. But, because I had so many other treats, it sat in my "to be reviewed" cupboard for weeks. For those not familiar with the bar, it was basically a KitKat on the bottom with lots of hazelnut cream on top, all chocolate coated


It might have something to do with age, but the smell of this bar reminded me of Halloween candy; some catch-all mix of chocolate, caramel, and nuts. The bar itself is lovely, with "KitKat" stamped on each piece.

The chocolate was smooth, but it may have picked up other flavors from my cupboard, so I'll ignore that. For fans of hazelnut, though, I think this would be nice. The hazelnut topping was mild and creamy, but very sweet. I am not a huge hazelnut fan (I don't even really like Nutella). It was good enough, but I think I will give the rest of mine to someone who likes hazelnut more. One of the pieces was more than enough for me.

C+

KitKat Website

Skittles Unlimited

I picked these up at a gas station in London, Ontario last year and it was the last bag left. In America, these came out as Skittles Carnival, but in Canada, they were the Unlimited limited edition. One of my Flickr contacts pointed out what a contradiction that is.

Anyhow, these were a little old when I bought them, and since I didn't eat them right away, they were harder than usual, so I'm going to ignore the texture for the purposes of this review. Also, I apologize for only having a picture of the bag. In any case, here are my thoughts on the flavors.

Cotton Candy was very sweet and definitely tasted like the real thing. It was light blue in color, but reminded me of bubble gum, which brings me to...

Bubble Gum was pink, and also tasted like the real thing. It was that Dubble Bubble flavor of classic bubble gum, but also reminded me of some bubble gum flavored medicine I had to take as a child.

Candy Apple was a pale yellow, and made me nervous before I ate it. Apple doesn't always translate well to candy, but this wasn't too bad. It reminded me of apple cider.

Red Licorice was red, obviously, and tasted like Twizzlers. It even had some of the licorice texture, but that could have been my imagination.

Green Slushy was light green, and so tasty. This one was my favorite, and I could have eaten a whole bag of them. It had a nice sour lime flavor.

As a huge fan of tangy candy, the Green Slushy flavor stood out the most to me, but there weren't any bad flavors. I do prefer the regular Skittles, but these were a lot of fun to eat and share.

B

Skittles Website

Nestle Peanut Butter KitKat

This is actually something I had months ago, when I was in Toronto, but I remembered that I hadn't reviewed it yet. I found my tasting notes (recorded on my cell phone, of all places), so I thought I'd post it!

I love peanut butter. It's definitely one of my favorite foods, so I was really excited to see this KitKat in Toronto, even though it wasn't the freshest. We found it at a gas station, and they only had the one left because it was limited edition (I think). Therefore, it was a little stale.


The chocolate coating still tasted good, and was the standard milk chocolate. The wafers were okay as well. The peanut butter seemed to have suffered from sitting on a shelf, though, and was drier than I had hoped. At least, I'm assuming that was why.

Still, despite being past its prime, the peanut butter KitKat was pretty tasty! I hope Nestle makes these again, even though I'll probably never see them in the US. I don't know if it's fair to rate this bar, but I'll revise if I ever get my hands on a fresh one.

B

Nestle Website

Dare Viva Puffs Raspberry

My boss is very kind. Whenever she goes on a trip, for business or otherwise, she always brings something back for the lab to munch on. Most recently, she went to Ontairo, Canada, and brought us back some cookies. These Viva Puffs were one of the two kinds she shared.

Now, marshmallow fluff is not one of my favorite things. My mother likes it, but it really doesn't do anything for me. So, I didn't have very high expectations for these cookies. I guess that's probably why I liked them.


These were pretty tasty! The marshmallow was soft and fluffy, as it should be. The raspberry filling, despite tasting slightly artificial, was delicate and not too sweet. The "chocolatey" coating was nothing special, but it got the job done.

My favorite part was the graham cracker bottom. It was chewy and soft, and I could have just eaten the cracker and been pleased. All in all, the cookies were enjoyable, but not something I'd look out for on my own. Plus, each cookie had 3 grams of fat, and they weren't very big or filling.

B-

Dare Foods Website

Nestle Caramel Aero

On a recent business trip to Ontario, my father had time to shop. He is a big fan of chocolate himself, and, knowing my hobby, he brought me a variety of candy bars to try. I live almost close enough to Canada to make it worth it to cross the border just to buy candy, but not quite, so we try to have other reasons.

I tried mint and regular Aero bars last time I was in Canada and thought they were a lot of fun. My husband and I never got to try caramel Aero, though, so I was glad to see it included in the stash from my dad. We were expecting it to be like the mint Aero - caramel-flavored bubbly inside. We were wrong.


There was actual caramel inside, and lots of it. It was good, but it was a little too much caramel for my taste. The chocolate coating was fine. My main beef is that this is hardly an Aero bar. My picture doesn't illustrate this at all, but there is a thin layer of the signature bubbly filling...and that's it. You can't even tell it's there, and the caramel is overpowering.

My husband is more of a caramel buff than I am, so even though he noticed the lack of Aero, he didn't mind. I would have liked to see a better balance, but that doesn't change the fact that this was still a tasty candy bar.

B

Nestle Website

Nestle Mint Aero

More candy from my husband's and my trip to Toronto! I took a picture of both milk and mint Aero bars, but we gave away the milk chocolate one. This picture was taken in the car because I knew we wouldn't wait to try the mint flavor.

I had heard of Aero before in Japan but never tried it. Apparently, it was sold in the US in the 1980s, but unfortunately didn't catch on. While in Toronto, I spied caramel and dark chocolate flavors, too, but had already spent way too much money on candy.


Aero was not at all like I thought it would be! It was so light, airy (hence Aero, I imagine), and smooth. For some reason, I was expecting it to be more like Nestle Crunch or Lotte Crunky, but it wasn't at all crunchy. I can't say I really "felt the bubbles melt" because I didn't really feel the bubbles, but it was quite a pleasant experience.

The taste was a lot like a giant Andes mint, but a little milder. I was glad my husband and I split the bar because I don't think I could have finished it, but it was delicious. Great for mint chocolate fans. However, it did upset my stomach, and I later noticed that milk was pretty high on the ingredients list. So next time, I'll come prepared.

B+

Nestle Website