Tag Archives: chocolate

March 5, 2016 · 3:56 pm

Nougat

I was having a lengthy discussion about candy bars with my roommate (we may or may not have had the munchies) when I discovered that he didn’t know what nougat was. I was kind of shocked. Nougat is an essential ingredient in a lot of great candy bars. Snickers has nougat. Baby Ruth has nougat. Big Hunk has nougat. LOOK! has nougat. Mars bar has nougat. Milky Way has nougat. And somehow nougat is still overlooked and underrated. It deserves more attention and affection. So I decided to blog about it to help get the word out.

Nougat is a chewy confection made with roasted nuts and sugar or honey. There are a few different types of nougat. There is white nougat, brown nougat, and German/Viennese nougat. They are all made differently but I’m not going to tell you the differences between them. Stop being lazy and do your own research on nougat if you’re so fascinated by it. Anyway, a long time ago somebody discovered that nougat tasted good and they decided to combine it with chocolate and the world was changed for the better. Nobody knows who originally combined the two, so I’m just going to give credit to the Pope. You can decide which one.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as baby ruth, big hunk, candy, chewy, chocolate, confection, LOOK!, Mars bar, Milky Way, nougat, nuts, snickers, sugar

November 30, 2014 · 4:37 pm

Smoked Porter with Chocolate & Orange Peel

Smoked Porter with Chocolate & Orange Peel is a limited fall seasonal beer from Stone Brewing Co. This is one third of Stone’s Smoked Porter seasonals. They also have Smoked Porter with Vanilla and Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers. This one is brewed with chocolate and orange peel. It’s a very descriptive name for the beer too. It’s a porter with a malty aroma of smoke, chocolate, and orange peel. It tastes like a porter with a roasted malt backbone with smoke, chocolate, and a little orange peel. It’s 5.9% ABV and very drinkable. It’s not the best beer Stone has to offer, but it’s a solid porter.

Critically at 13/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as chocolate, orange peel, porter, smoked porter, Smoked Porter with Chocolate & Orange Peel, stone brewing co

June 13, 2014 · 10:02 am

Tootsie Roll

A Tootsie Roll is a piece of candy that is similar in texture to taffy or caramel, but they claim that it’s chocolate flavored. I’m not sure if I believe them. It doesn’t taste like chocolate. It tastes like the stale memories of Halloweens long since passed. A Tootsie Roll is hard yet chewy, and they taste best when you let them soften up in your pocket for a while. The recipe for Tootsie Rolls involves using part of the batch of Tootsies from the previous day. So theoretically the Tootsie Roll you’re currently eating could contain trace remnants from the first Tootsie Roll ever made. It certainly tastes like it, doesn’t it? The weirdest thing about Tootsie Rolls is that they can’t agree to a uniform size. The short stubby ones are the ones you’re probably most familiar with, followed by the long skinny ones, and then the long fat ones. They all taste the same; they are just different sizes and shapes. I don’t like that. Make up your damn mind.

Critically Rated at 10/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as candy, chocolate, tootsie, tootsie roll, Tootsie Rolls

May 10, 2014 · 8:40 am

Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Fudge Core

Ben & Jerry’s are known for their premium ice creams, and Peanut Butter Fudge Core is one of them. It’s a core of soft peanut butter fudge surrounded by chocolate and peanut butter ice creams with miniature peanut butter cups. There’s no way to describe it other than WOW!… It’s rich, creamy, smooth, chocolatey, and peanut buttery. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like peanut butter or chocolate or peanut butter cups. But if it sounds appetizing at all, well, you won’t be disappointed. Ben & Jerry’s make some of my favorite ice cream flavors and this might be one of them. Try it out if you get the chance.

Critically Rated at 14/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Fudge Core, chocolate, Core, fudge, ice cream, ice creams, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, Peanut Butter Fudge

April 5, 2014 · 5:50 am

Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry & Chocolate Ale

Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel, Raspberry & Chocolate Ale is an American Brown Ale from Oregon’s Rogue Ales. Rogue is known for interesting and unique brews, and this is one of their more extreme offerings. It pours a dark brown with a creamy tan head. It has an intriguing aroma with chocolate and toasted malts, vanilla, raspberry, caramel, and coffee. It smells good, but it tastes even better. It’s sweet, chocolate, and you get the sweet and tangy sensation of raspberry, but and a hint of pretzel. It’s slightly salty and has bread/biscuit thing going on. It’s unlike any other brown ale I’ve tasted. You actually see the cocoa powder clinging to the side of the glass as you drink it. It has a decent 6.75% alcohol content and it makes for an excellent dessert beverage. I wouldn’t want to drink more than one though. It comes in a bright pink bottle with a gingerbread man-like voodoo doll on the label. It stands out on the shelf and that’s hard to do these days. This is a good beer and worth trying out, but I don’t think it will become your favorite beer.

Critically Rated at 13/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as American brown ale, chocolate, pretzel, raspberry, Raspberry & Chocolate Ale, Rogue Ales, Voodoo Doughnut Pretzel

March 4, 2014 · 11:55 am

Ben & Jerry’s Hazed & Confused Core

Ben & Jerry’s recently released new ice cream flavors that they dubbed Cores. They are called Cores because they have a core of fudge, caramel, or jam. It’s pretty brilliant idea, now you can have a perfect spoonful of ice cream every time. I bought a pint of Hazed & Confused Core as soon as I discovered them at the store. Hazed & Confused is chocolate and hazelnut ice creams with fudge chips and a hazelnut fudge core. The chocolate ice cream is smooth and rich, the hazelnut ice cream is creamy and nutty, the fudge chips add a little bit of crunch and texture, but the hazelnut fudge core steals the show. It’s basically a column of Nutella right smack in the middle of your pint. It’s beyond delicious. It’s indescribable how amazing this ice cream is. You have to try it. Like right now. Stop reading about Ben & Jerry’s Hazed & Confused Core and go buy a pint for yourself. You shan’t regret it.

Critically Rated at 15/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as ben & jerry's, chocolate, chocolate ice cream, Core, Cores, fudge chips, Hazed & Confused, hazelnut, hazelnut fudge, hazelnut ice cream, ice cream, ice cream flavors, ice creams, pint

February 12, 2014 · 1:12 pm

Payback Porter

Payback Porter is an American Porter from San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers brewery. It’s a fairly typical porter: it’s very dark brown in appearance, almost black with a mild amount of carbonation. It has a rich malty aroma, with chocolate and coffee undertones. The taste is of roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, smoke, and piney hops. It’s very well rounded and has a pretty decent 7.5% alcohol content. If you’re a fan of porters and stouts than you’ll probably like this brew. If you like Budweiser, I wouldn’t recommend it. This is a beer for beer buffs, not for amateurs. You should try it, especially if you’re lucky enough to find it on tap somewhere.

Critically Rated at 13/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as American Porter, beer, chocolate, payback porter, porter, san francisco, San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, speakeasy ales & lagers

January 4, 2014 · 8:58 am

Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar

Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar is a chocolate bar with real bits of bacon. They describe it on the package as being 62% dark chocolate with Hickory smoked uncured bacon and Alderwood smoked salt. It tastes like your standard dark chocolate candy bar. You wouldn’t know that there was bacon in it unless someone told you it wasn’t kosher. It has a little bit of a salty taste, but you can hardly detect any bacon. It’s good. It’s just not bacon-good. I was a little disappointed. I wanted more bacon. It was way too subtle. If you’re advertising a bacon candy bar, I expect to taste some fucking bacon. For shame, for shame.

Critically Rated at 9/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as bacon, bacon bar, candy bar, chocolate, chocolate bar, dark chocolate, dark chocolate candy bar, mo's, salt, uncured bacon

December 30, 2013 · 8:50 am

Santa’s Little Helper (beer)

Santa’s Little Helper is a Russian Imperial Stout from the Port Brewing Company. It has a coffee malt aroma like you would expect from a good stout. I also get whiffs of chocolate and dark fruits. It tastes of roasted malts, chocolate, wood, coffee, espresso, and bitter hops. It is very rich and flavorful, a very robust malty beverage. It’s also pretty strong with an alcohol content of 10%. This is the kind of beer that you go out of your way to get. Hell, it’s the kind of beer that you Instagram before you drink. Plus it has a cool name that doubles as a reference to The Simpsons. You know who likes this beer? People with good taste.

Critically Rated at 15/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as chocolate, coffee, dark fruits, port brewing company, russian imperial stout, santa's little helper, stout

December 15, 2013 · 6:18 pm

Oaktown Brown Ale

Oaktown Brown Ale is a bold & soulful American brown ale from San Jose, California’s Calicraft Brewing Co. It has a rich malty aroma with hints of roast coffee, nuts, chocolate, caramel, and oak. It smells like it has a lot of flavor, but the first sip is disappointing. I can taste coffee, nuts, wood, roasted malts, chocolate, caramel, and toffee but it’s too thin and feels watered down. It’s not exciting. It’s bland. And you don’t want your craft beer to be bland. It has a 6.7% alcohol content, which is decent but not good. There’s not anything special about this beer. There’s nothing terrible about it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and I definitely wouldn’t expect to be hailed as a hero for bringing it to a party. It’s a boring and forgettable beer. Even the label is boring. The only reason to try it is to say that you tried it. And that’s not a good enough reason.

Critically Rated at 9/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as alcohol, American brown ale, bland, brown ale, calicraft brewing co, chocolate, craft beer, nuts, oaktown brown ale, roast coffee

September 15, 2013 · 12:36 pm

Rolo

Rolo is a candy. It has nothing to do with YOLO. Let’s just get that out of the way. A Rolo is a soft chewy caramel covered with milk chocolate. It’s simple, sweet, and delicious. They are packed in a tube, with each bite-sized piece stacked upon each other. It’s not as satisfying as a Snickers bar. You eat one Rolo and you want another one and then another one. It’s good, but you’re never content. That’s how they get you. You just keep popping them into your mouth until they’re all gone. And you don’t really care when they are gone. You should be mad when you run out of candy. But you’re indifferent when you run out of Rolo. They are decent candies, but nobody would ever notice if Rolo was taken off the market tomorrow.

Critically Rated at 8/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as candy, caramel, chewy caramel, chocolate, milk chocolate, roll, rolo, soft chewy, tube

September 12, 2013 · 9:53 am

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared is a flavor variant of Snickers, the classic candy bar and food staple of fat kids everywhere. It’s called Snickers Peanut Butter Squared because it’s a Snickers bar with peanut butter added to it and it’s cut up into cubes. If you like peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, and nougat covered in milk chocolate and served in bite sized pieces, this is the candy bar for you. If that doesn’t sound delicious, you should go to Hell and take your fucked up taste buds with you. This is a good candy bar, and I don’t even like chocolate bars that much. I’m more of a Skittles/Starburst/fruit chew kind of guy. But you can’t go wrong with a Snickers bar and peanut butter is always a welcome addition, so you should get your ass to the store and buy some Snickers Peanut Butter Squared today. You should share it too. It’s always nice to share.

Critically Rated at 15/17

Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young

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Tagged as candy, candy bar, chocolate, chocolate bars, good candy, nougat, peanut butter, peanuts, snickers, snickers peanut butter squared, squared, taste buds

May 12, 2012 · 9:34 am

Mint M&M’s

M&M’s are a staple of a happy childhood. M&M’s are bite-sized chocolates with a colorful candy shell. You should know this already, even if you didn’t have a happy childhood. Sometimes when a product is successful, they add more shit to the original formula to make it better. With M&M’s they added peanuts, peanut butter, pretzels… and now they have mint flavored M&M’s made with dark chocolate. It’s a sexy flavor with the sexiest spokescandy (the green one). It has a smooth chocolate mint flavor, it is like an Andes mint but crunchier. It tastes good and it’s refreshing, but it won’t make your breath smell better. You shouldn’t rely on candy to hide your halitosis anyway.

Critically Rated at 11/17

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Tagged as candy, chocolate, chocolate mint, dark chocolate, m&ms, mint, mint flavor, mint m&ms, spokescandy

April 25, 2012 · 9:53 am

Pretzel M&M’s

Candy is good. Chocolate is a good candy. M&M’s are a popular chocolate candy. Snacks are good. Pretzels are a good snack. Pretzels are a popular snack. People like to combine good things. Like chocolate and pretzels. The makers of M&M’s figured this out, and we’ve been able to enjoy Pretzel M&M’s ever since. And life has been good. If you like bite-sized chocolate candies, but wish there was a crunchy, salty pretzel center, this is the product for you.

Critically Rated at 13/17

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Tagged as candy, chocolate, chocolate candies, chocolate candy, good candy, m&m, pretzel, pretzel m&m's, pretzels, snack

March 26, 2012 · 8:23 am

Peanut M&M’s

The classic bite-sized chocolates in a colorful candy shell get a peanut center in this upgrade. People like salty peanuts. People like sweet chocolate. People like small orbs that they can eat. If you haven’t tried Peanut M&M’s at this point in your life, I’m guessing you have a severe nut allergy. If you’re ever bored, I suggest you try a handful of these delicious candies, and then immediately inject yourself with an EpiPen. It’s totally worth it.

Critically Rated at 13/17

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Tagged as candy, candy shell, chocolate, m&ms, nut allergy, peanut, peanut m&m's

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