after dinner sneeze

t says:  Candy bars intrigue me – especially candy bars from “foreign lands”.  While England is not exactly an exotic country, they do do things a little differently there and some people swear that it’s better.  Having had only a handful of test subjects, I can neither confirm nor deny these statements.  But!  Go ahead and check out this bar that g, cm, and I found at Capo Giro.

"Double Decker"

It sounded pretty good, boasting chocolate, cereal crispies, and nougat.  It had a “From England” tag on the box, so I figured that it was worth a try (I’m a sucker for “limited edition” or “rare” offerings).  I bought one and kept it for “later consumption”.  About 12 hours later, I consumed it.

The product sustained a bit of damage - the nougat's busting at the seams.

So you see that this bar had a bit of a manufacturing (or transportation) issue, in that the nougat that forms the top layer of the candy innards was busting out.  Whether someone had squished the bar or the factory had messed up, I hoped that this would not affect the overall taste.  I split it open, to find this:

It has layers ... like a parfait ... and everyone loves parfaits, right?

So the top layer is the nougat and the bottom is the crispies.  Excited, I dove in, but to be honest I was a little let down.  The nougat was very viscous, far outlasting the crispies as I chewed.  And I don’t think there was enough chocolate.  Yes, I know I’m whining about a candy bar, but the concept held such promise!  It was like two candy bars in one!  The problem is that that’s exactly how it ate – it ate as if someone took two candy bars, put them on top of eachother, and shoved it in his/her mouth.  Sorry Cadbury – going to have to work on making the two fillings jive better with eachother.

Flash forward a month.  g saw those commercials for some Hershey’s product that was “aerated” so it had lots of little air pockets.  I think she said, “what the crap is that?  That’s so weird!”  I reminded her that I had encountered, eaten, and written about a Cadbury “Flake” bar that had a similar concept: a chocolate bar filled with air.  She had forgotten.  I had not.  Score 1 for team t.  I had also encountered one of these “Air Delight” bars well before the advertisements were on tv and I took pictures of it.  Then I forgot.  Well here they are.

"Air Delight"?

A chocolate version of "great taste, less filling."

Ok, so the pictures turned out horribly (can’t wait to get my hands on an iPhone 4S), but I can at least tell you what it tastes like.  It tastes kind of like a cross between a classic Hershey’s bar and 3 Musketeers nougat filling.  It’s definitely lighter/creamier than a classic Hershey’s bar (but still has that Hershey’s “taste” – i.e., it doesn’t taste like chocolate … it tastes like “Hershey’s”), but it’s not sticky/liquidy like nougat.  That said, I kind of think the Flake bar did a better job with aeration as that felt even fluffier than the Air Delight – it felt more fragile, more elegant.  I’d say that comparing the two is kind of like comparing a Tempurpedic mattress to a $50 knock-off – they’re both trying to do the same thing, but there’s something about the original that just feels different.  Would I ever buy it again?  Probably not.  If I’m having a hankering for chocolate, I wouldn’t eat Hershey’s.  If I’m having a hankering for Hershey’s, then I’m going to go for the original.

Finally – g showed me this very interesting chart.  I might buy one just so I can study it and better understand the world of chocolate candy.