Do the Hokey Pokey

A friend brought me back some New Zealand candies, one being the the Cadbury Crunchie. It boasts of “Golden hokey pokey honeycomb” in its description. Turns out hokey pokey is a term to describe sponge toffee- hard toffee with an additional baking soda/vinegar reaction that results in lots of tiny air pockets. This air-infused toffee thus has a honeycomb pattern and results in a surprisingly light and crispy bite that melts quickly in your mouth. One can easily finish this large bar without realizing it because it feels like eating a chocolate covered cracker. The Crunchie’s airy nature reminds me of a few bars that are currently trying to expand into lighter textures and crispier consistencies- such as the Butterfinger Crisp, or the Three Musketeers Truffle Crisp. But, Cadbury had this one early, from the 1920’s in fact. Too bad it’s taken almost a century to see this texture come out in candy bars again, but better late than never!

Chocomize my Chocolates

What are the new fad flavors in chocolate you ask? Your own! I checked out www.Chocomize.com where one can customize their own chocolate bar by adding whatever toppings, spices, and extras they want. The website is simple and you choose a base chocolate and then add on up to five toppings (which range from hot curry powder to gummy bears.) I tried two versions, one with dark chocolate with roasted pistachios, corn nuts, seat salt and toffee. Amazing! The various crunchy textures with the salty and sweet combo made each bite a new adventure. The chocolate base is a little thick (over quarter inch) and I was hesitant to break the chocolate because the toppings might fall off. (They are added just to the top.) My second choice of goji berries, hot curry powder, mango dices and roasted soybeans did not fair as well. I could not taste the curry, and the fruits all blended together with the abundance of chocolate. I recommend going with the nut and unique toppings over the fruit choices. They also have some pre-made favorites like Smores and Spicy bar to choose from. Next time!

A piece of work

From back when when ET chose Reese's Pieces, there was already a battle brewing between MMs and Hershey’s peanut counterpart. Hershey’s new “Pieces” line are colorful button-shaped candies that so closely resemble MMs you’ll be wondering where the “m” is. The new line includes: Almond Joy, Hershey’s Special Dark, and York. At least the special dark chocolate puts Hershey’s a shade off from a one-to-one comparison to the milk chocolate MMs. The Almond Joy Pieces have a coconut chocolate mix inside which makes for oddly shaped candies...that only a coconut fanatic would love. The York mint pieces were pretty good yet I was somehow expecting peppermint, not mint chocolate inside. Also, in general, the color and texture of these new line additions are not up to par with the Reeses Pieces.

So, my take:
Stick with original MMs instead of the Special Dark, try the York ones, and Reeses Pieces are still the best of all.