Tag Archives: Cadbury

Feb 06 2016
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Column, International Bar

Friends and friends and candy bars

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Happy new year, everybody! An entire month and change late!

Apologies for the hiatus; life’s been a bit of a whirlwind lately: I left a job, went on a Christmas vacation to the California coast and a New Year’s vacation to the California mountains, found a Lady Bar, worked at a fashion convention and lost a 1-on-1 basketball game for $100.

As I’ve navigated the highs and lows of the past few months, one of the great constants has been the support of my friends, who, in addition to being overall swell people, have also supplied me with more than my fair share of candy bars to sample.

A very genuine thank you to all of those who sent bars my way, including:

The friend who goes to visit a candy factory and knows you like silly hats

Many thanks to Jacki Bar, who not only sent along some delicious treats from her tour of the Hammond Candies factory in Colorado, but also sent this sweet-ass hat, which I immediately put on, because attention:

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Great hat. Why don’t you see more of these nowadays?

Of course, she also sent some sweets:

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Hammonds Whoopie Pie bar was, well, not exactly a whoopie pie facsimile, but, instead a dark chocolate bar with vanilla creme. It was definitely a tasty chocolate bar, but given the whoopie pie billing, I can’t say it completely lived up to my expectation (me and the whoopies go way back).

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Gimme more of dat creme, yo.

More than anything, the bitterness of the dark chocolate overpowered the gentle vanilla in the creme, and anyone who’s had a whoopie pie knows that the creme is paramount. If Hammonds had adjusted the ratio ever so slightly, this would have been a knockout. Continue reading →

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Oct 27 2015
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Trick Season

Trick Season, Treat Season: Pun candy gonna pun

IMG_5197This is a Cadbury Creme Egg with a green “yolk” instead of a … well … yolk-colored one. They taste exactly the same [Ed. note: A boon for those of you who like Cadbury Creme Eggs more than I do].

IMG_5200But this one is better.

Because “Screme”.

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Aug 28 2015
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Awkward Candy Moments, International Bar

Tops, Twirl and the United Arab Emirates

IMG_4437Full forewarning: This is going to be one of my longer posts. It’s going to end with me hunched over a public granite sittin’ place, grateful for my life, blowing on a toy and realizing there is a very attractive woman in a pantsuit observing me as though I was a science project.

If that is not your cup of ginger ale, you might as well stop reading here.

The story begins, well shoot, probably back in college, where I met two women who would end up having a profound impact on the person I’ve become today. One of those, Marin Bar, had as much to do with me sticking on the Missouri club rowing team as anyone short of my coach and my doofus partner-in-crime; that team grew me right up and taught me the meaning of dedication, camaraderie and responsibility … all things I learned through osmosis trying to follow Marin’s lead. The other, McBarsney? She only stuck her neck out and taught me the basic job functions and knowledge base to successfully attain an open position at her newspaper — a position for which I was woefully underqualified and a position upon which I was able to build a middling career.

Because the universe has a fun way of connecting talented and wonderful people, both Marin and McBarsney ended up half a world away in Abu Dhabi, UAE, dropping their brand of bop all upside the Middle Eastern media scene. True Breakers Off of Pieces [Ed. note: There has to be a better name for BOaP fans. It might just be “readers”.], the two of them were kind enough to send a first-care-package-from-Mom-freshman-year-of-college-sized parcel of regional Gift Bars my way featuring a number of the fun sweets they come across on a daily basis in the UAE.

Thank you, gals, for everything. Here are my thoughts on the sweets you encounter on a daily basis:

IMG_4362Twirl

Sometimes you just gotta twirl. A Cadbury product, the Twirl is very similar to a Flake, only instead of having its thin, rippled chocolate exposed to the dangers of the world, it’s encased in another layer of chocolate, which lends to a less-messy eating experience. Thumbs up on that one.

Also, somehow, the entire bar tasted very similar to a Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll. Obviously without the cake and the creme and the little white cardboard tray underneath, but a Swiss Cake Roll nonetheless. Top marks. Continue reading →

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May 08 2015
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Uncategorized

Caramell-oh boy!

IMG_4017Caramellos have always sort of been there.

Never really advertised nor lusted after, yet a mainstay enough in the Walgreens’ candy aisle that I knew they were always an option.

[Ed. note: Apparently they were advertised at one point. In a … terrifying … manner.]

In the past week, I’ve stumbled onto three.

I don’t know how they found me, but they did. I can’t say I’m mad.

Tasting Notes

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Caramello 1 (a Gift Bar from the wonderful Jules Bar): Euro style

– These buggers. With their wrappers. And their CDM-style, smooth-ass chocolate.

Such convenience.

Such convenience.

– Just top-notch. I’d prefer if the caramel were a little less stringy/runny, but this is a winner right here. Also it’s rich enough that you don’t necessarily want to eat the whole thing in one sitting, which is where that swell wrapper comes in handy.

Caramello 2: U.S. style (pictured at top)

– Given my preference for CDM chocolate over standard U.S. chocolate, I was prepared for an inferior candy bar.
– I misjudged.
– The chocolate tastes and feels almost the same as the Euro-style bar. It might be, only very slightly, a little less milky in the chocolate department, but not a difference worth making a big deal about, especially compared to traditional American chocolate bar.
– Didn’t these things use to have a brown, red and yellow wrapper? What happened, guys?

IMG_4016Caramello 3: At Trader Joe’s

– This is a good candy bar.
– It’s just not as good as the Cadbury kind.
– The chocolate was a little darker, a little waxier. Much more American-style, which highlights the contrast and slight saltiness of the caramel well.
– I am starting to think I’m becoming a CDM fanboy.

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Apr 05 2015
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It's Bunny Season

It’s Bunny Season: Burnley Manager Sean Dyche Does Not Share My Opinion on Cadbury Creme Eggs

Screen Shot 2015-04-05 at 8.51.06 PMLove this dude. Go Clarets.

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Apr 03 2015
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It's Bunny Season

It’s Bunny Season: “Look Out, It’s the Cadbury Brothers”

IMG_3873Don’t ask me how or where this thought originated, but for some time now, I’ve considered the major Cadbury eggs as something of the bullies of the Easter candy aisle. Like, if the candies all came to life in the same vein as they do in Toy Story, only went to high school, the Cadburys would both be wearing letterman jackets, shoving the Peeps into a locker and making fun of their little brother, Mini, for being a mathlete.

Everyone knows who they are, so they’re not going anywhere, but everybody else secretly doesn’t much care for them.

At one point in my life, the Cadbury Creme was my favorite candy, period. I’d eat scores of them every Easter and relish them in the month after, before they’d return in February. But then my tastebuds developed, or something, and holy wow, they are so dadgum sweet. The creme/frosting filling is just so overwhelmingly saccharine, I usually only eat one a year.

That’s right. The candy and frosting inside is too sweet for the candy bar blogger. Who also likes frosting so much he could probably run a frosting blog [Ed. note: if he had the time or lack of shame], too.

IMG_3879The Cadbury Caramel, too man. It’s a great thing to eat if you ever also have eaten an entire carton of apple dip in one sitting. Otherwise, nope. Not gonna do that.

But they’re ubiquitous this time of year and are one of the most iconic Easter candies out there.

And I bet the Rain-blo Eggs and the Jellybeans resent the hell out of that.

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Mar 31 2015
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Awkward Candy Moments, It's Bunny Season

It’s Bunny Season: Lesser-Known Siblings

IMG_3859The Cadbury Creme Egg and the Peep are iconographic Easter candies. They are front and center around this time of year and easy to find. They are the Peyton Mannings of their respective candy families.

But both have Coopers among their brood. (Don’t even get me started on that villain Eli.)

It’s important to remember that the Cadbury Mini Egg and the chocolate-covered mega-Peep, while oft-overlooked, are still probably better at football than most candies.

Tasting Notes

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– The mini-eggs are very reminiscent of an egg-like M&M, only with CDM chocolate inside and a matte finish instead of a glossy.
– They’re less melty than an M&M but smoother in composition.
– They taste nothing like a Cadbury Creme Egg.

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– Straight up, this is better than a Peep.
– Does that make the regular Peep the Eli of the family? This one is definitely Peyton. Or Archie. Perhaps Party Peep is Eli.
– Can’t wait to call him Party Peep. Forever.

***

Awkward Candy Moments

“That is $17 of Easter candy. Great variation, too. You are about to have a good afternoon, aren’t you?”

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Mar 25 2015
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Awkward Candy Moments, Google Search That Brought Traffic to BoaP Of The Day, Non-Fiction

“That’s Definitely the Record, Man”

IMG_3823“So, are we going to talk to them or what?”

“Dude, you know I don’t do openers.”

“I know.”

…

*breath*

…

“So, we think the both of you are absolutely adorable. Can we buy you a drink?”

…

(squinting in recognition) “Were the two of you at CVS earlier today? And, like, fighting over him buying you a candy bar?”

[Ed. note: Any input/suggestions on better openers is welcome and encouraged.]

****** Continue reading →

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Feb 22 2015
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Brit Week

Brit Week: A Candy Bar Even Neil Armstrong Could Love

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Do you remember going to the space museum when you were a kid?

It … kind of sucked. Sure, there was the likely day away from school and the bus ride commingled with terrified parents to look forward to, but of the museums, the ones centered around space lacked dinosaurs and fun costumes. It was just planets and stars.

[Ed. note: This is in diametric opposition to my feeling about space museums now. Because space is awesome. And learning about space is awesome. I want to learn about all of the celestial bodies and phenomena and ponder whatever the hell infinity is. If this blog ever takes off, I’d love to very generously compensate Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain to me everything that’s ever happened. We don’t even have to go in his sweet spaceship, though I’m still secretly hoping he invites me. Space is the best.

But when you’re 7, dinosaurs and lightning and tribal weapons are just so much cooler.]

Continue reading →

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Feb 18 2015
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Brit Week

Brit Week: Union Jack, I Got Your Back

IMG_3623About a month ago, I did a little bit of ranting about some silliness involving Hershey’s, Cadbury, and international trade and commerce. In response to said silliness, I vowed to import a smattering of candy bars and eat them in succession.

Basically, the Boston Tea Party, only in reverse.

Well, friends. It’s here. Welcome to Brit Week. [Ed. note: Yes, I know it’s Wednesday.] Continue reading →

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