We meet the infamous Lindt Chocolatiers once again in the octagon as well as British powerhouse Cadbury in this battle royale of life, death, and chocolate. A real struggle for dominance in a land of despair.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Toffee – United Kingdom
Although Hans felt a slight uvula response, they both enjoyed this one. Toffee was a nice ratio to chocolate.
‘What is this? What is this? Do you think I don’t know the law? Wasn’t it I who wrote it?’ Iconic lines from the character Auntie portrayed by Tina Turner in Max Max: Beyond Thunderdome. They have absolutely nothing to do with this episode, but a nice, light snack and a bubbly variety are here in this one-two punch from the great white north that is the sweet land of Canada.
Coffee Crisp – Canada
Growin up in Anacortes, Washington, Canadian television was easily found on the dial for Hans as a boy. Coffee Crisp commercials were constantly running, as well as commercials for cold and flu medications. It seems that Canadians must get the sniffles and yearn for something sweet most of the time.
Aero is interesting. These products get their name from all the holes in them – like they’re full of milk that had some kid blowing bubbles into it with a straw and then cooled and hardened quickly.
This time we visit Germany and Japan with a couple more varieties found at Uwajimaya (I think they were both found there at least). We some some violence, a little acquiescence, and some reflection.
Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Corn Flakes – Germany
Interesting square shaped bars. The packaging is fancy and everything, but yeah the corn flakes weren’t the way we expected.
Japanese chocolate is an interesting thing, especially the darker varieties. It tends to focus more of the cacao rather than the sweeter side of things which is a nice change.
I would say that literally every time we visit Canada we go to Walmart. I mean, if you’re traveling north from the states, in combination with exchange rate it’s just super cheap. Peanut butter was first sold in Canad and so that’s a staple bought often. Instant noodles no available in the states are common as well. But Walmart has a great candy selection, and Canada has some different stuff. So enters Walmart, joined by the devious chocolatiers of Lindt that snarl and guffaw as your teeth rot.
Lindt Creation Lava Cake – Switzerland
From what I’ve read, there are factories producing Lindt products all over, so these might not actually be made in Switzerland. Just so you know. I’m sure the Lindt Chocolatiers are nice people as well, but I like the idea that they are snarling, violent people with hidden tusks and some odd agenda involving your teeth.
We started going all in for requests. Although we don’t record these episodes on a regular basis (we usually will do two or three then chill out for a few weeks), we still can do a few special requests. Well, today we got something from Kit’s mom and gave it a try among other things. The other two are ones that were found at Uwajimaya, a Northwest based chain of Japanese supermarkets. Let’s give everything a look.
Loard’s – Rocky Road – United States
Loard’s is a fixture in downtown Livermore, California and has been there since 1950. The little shop offers candy as well as ice cream – on one of the first visits Hans made to California to see Kit, she took him to Loard’s to try it out. Her family has frequented the place since she was young, and her mother thought maybe we should try out their rocky road (one of her favorites).
Kit – 4
Hans 1.5
Crunky – Japan
A bar along the lines of a Krackel or a Crunch bar. This one’s from Japan. Here’s a little from Japan Talk –
Crunky is a chocolate bar filled with toasted grains often listed as “malt puffs” on the ingredients. A large number of flavors of crunky have been launched over the years including ice cream snacks. Crunky products often have engrishnames and marketing slogans. Oddly, Japanese products covered in engrishtend to get attention in the English speaking world and candy companies appear to have caught on.
Crunky bars – https://amzn.to/2DqAdMp
Kit – 1
Hans – 1.5
J Coco – Coconut & Pecan in Milk Chocolate – United States
Another J- Coco variety. We’ve tried quite a few of these in this, past and upcoming episodes and we’ve had mixed feelings.
Today’s picks were both found in Canada. A couple of places we like to visit are the Walmart in Richmond, BC which is to say the least, much different than any Walmart we’ve been to here in the states. What’s different is most notable in the parking lot. Lots of Teslas first off. We’ve even seen Ferraris and once a Bugatti. Another is T&T Supermarket which are an Asian chain of store exclusive to Canada. The Choc Nut came from there. IT was a new location in Lansdowne Centre and it was ultra busy.
Kit Kat Mint Creme & Cookie Smash – Canada
We’ve not seen these larger format Kit Kat bars in the United States before, but there’s a whole slew of them up in Canada in numerous styles and flavors. Looking at the website for this product, we see this info in the ‘features and benefits’ –
A crispy wafer topped with a mint crème and cookie filling, covered in a rich, dark-chocolatey coating
We purchase 100% Sustainably Sourced Cocoa certified by UTZ, as part of the NESTLÉ COCOA PLAN. We work with UTZ and farmers to improve the quality of their products and strengthen their communities
There are 10, easy-to-break rows that come in a re-closable wrapper, perfect for sharing or saving for later, 210 calories per 3 pieces (42g)
We proudly support Kids Help Phone! NESTLÉ® Canada has raised more than $10.2 million in support of Kids Help Phone over the last 28 years.
Hans saw this one and was going to pick it up, then walked away. After looking around the T&T Supermarket a bit, it was like a worm in his head and had to revisit it once again and ended up getting it for review. It felt like a single, enormous bar, however it turned out to be multiple little bars.
In our third espiode, we’ve started to venture out and really start seeing all the different chocolate on the market. Well, at least we thought so. Lots of stores – many Asian groceries – perusing the chocolate sections. We were starting to see the products that were imported from foreign countries and ones produced very locally. This is the first episode with Kit’s Hello Kitty knife.
Ritter Sport Dark Chocholate With Marzipan – Germany
Founded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1912, Ritter makes a lot of different varieties. While marizpan isn’t Kit’s favorite thing (nor is dark chocolate), she decided this looked interesting enough to try.
jcoco Boharat – Seattle, Washington – United States
jcoco is part of Seattle Chocolate. Tried to find specific information about jcoco in particular, however mainly for that they are 100% woman-owned and fair sourced, as well as charitable to those in need. Hans is a big fan of exotic flavors such as curries, laksa and masala. This one jumped out immediately and sounded good.
In our second episode aired on August 3rd, 2018, we announce our intention to make this a regular program and try our first pair of found chocolate. We start to learn the flavors we both like – and dislike.
Mars Bar
We oft times journey northward to the magical land of Tim Hortons and maple syrup – Canada. You’ll be seeing a lot of Canadian chocolate as the series progresses. The Mars bar is one of them.
Kit is from the Bay Area and during our courtship, one place we visited was a big Ghiradelli store. It was pretty epic and they had these tornado or hurricane milkshakes where you could get a square of their chocolate blended into it. Was pretty amazing stuff. This is a dark chocolate bar.
So this weekend is the Northwest Chocolate Festival – and we’re going! Hoping to get a ton of samples and maybe some video there. You can check out our at www.nwchocolate.com!
This is our first episode of The Chocolate Break and where we got the idea to do the show. A lot of things have changed since this one, and hopefully you enjoy seeing this one.
BETA5 is a chocolate company in Vancouver, BC. The original reason we visited them was after I saw an article about them having an instant noodle infused chocolate bar, I had contacted them and they offered me a free bar if we came up and snagged it.
They also had an interesting sampler Kit noticed. Little multicolored fascinations with what looked like hand painted imagery on them. Flavors like earl gray and mango and combinations I’d never heard of before.
You might think ‘you really traveled over two hours for chocolate?’ Yep! Actually, we like going to Canada often for many reasins. First, it’s a nice change of pace. Then there’s the fact that Richmond BC has a big Asian population, which means more Asian stores which means more instant noodles to find to review on The Ramen Rater website. Plus there’s a Walmart there with all sorts of neat stuff and you can’t beat the exchange rate and the parking lot where we’ve seen Tesla, Ferrari, and even a Bugatti. Definitely a change from the ones in the states.
So check out these neat varieties from BETA5! Welcome to The Chocolate Break!
