Chocolate

Terry's Chocolate Orange has three main selling points for those seeking novelty:

First, it's spherical.  That is, it's shaped like a ball-- or an orange, if you insist. 

Second, it is (naturally) flavored with orange oil (and unnaturally flavored with vanillin). 

Third, it is the only candy I know of that invites you to give it a good, strong whack before partaking of the chocolatey goodness. 

I'm given to understand that (by the standards of some) this once unique chocolate is now nothing special.  (Now that it's been available outside of the UK for quite some time.)  Personally, I think it's still unusual enough to be a bit of a novelty-- but more importantly, it's tasty.  But now I'm getting ahead of myself. . .

The chocolate orange is packaged in a box with tempting peep-holes on three sides.  Once you've worked your way through that barrier, you find an orange and yellow foil-wrapped ball bearing a blue sticker.  "Whack and unwrap", the sticker instructs you. 

Go ahead.  Do it.  A solid whack against a flat surface ought to do the job.  (Don't you just love it when chocolate gives you a way to work out any feelings of aggression you may be suffering?)

If you've whacked sufficiently, you'll open the foil to discover a neat arrangement of separate chocolate orange slices.  (If you didn't whack firmly enough, you can always break the slices off individually.)

Each slice is stamped quite prettily-- but looks only take you so far. Let's get on to the important things-- aroma, texture, and flavor.

Aroma:   It's very sweet, with a light touch of the citrus.

Texture:  Melt-in-your mouth creaminess.  Very smooth.

Flavor:  Above all, the flavor is sweet and creamy.  It's not a bold chocolate flavor, but this is milk chocolate, so that's not surprising.  The orange flavor has also been added with a light touch-- just a hint of it.  Overall, it's a pleasant, mild, quite sweet flavor. 

This may not sound like a glowing review, but I'm actually very fond of them.  This is the kind of chocolate that can disappear very quickly, if you aren't careful.  Orange-flavored chocolate is addictive!

If you like creamy chocolate and haven't ever tried an orange-flavored chocolate, do give this a try. 

 

I’ve always been a fan of caramel, and a candy bar called caramello simply has to be good. Or at least that was my reasoning when I picked this up in the grocery store.

Cadbury is of course the well-known British chocolate manufacturer, famous for their Cadbury eggs. They have licensed Hershey’s to manufacture their candy for the US market.

The Caramello King Size bar consists of six squares filled with liquid caramel. Each square has the word Caramello imprinted on it, and it all looks very appetizing. It can be a bit messy to eat, unless you can break the squares apart in the exact right spots. The suggested serving size is 1 bar, so I suppose you could pop the whole thing in your mouth, for a whopping 360 calorie treat.

The caramel filling is soft and runny and sweet. Very sweet. It doesn’t really have much of a caramel favor at all. This is definitely my biggest gripe about the Caramello – It doesn’t taste like caramel. And that’s really the whole point with a name like Caramello.
The milk chocolate shell is ok. lt seems a bit more creamy and chocolatey than your standard Hershey’s chocolate bar, but it doesn’t really stand out. And like the caramel, it too is very sweet.

Overall, the Caramello is a bit of a let-down. The sweetness is almost overbearing. The filling is creamy and has a mild pleasant taste, but the lack of true caramel flavor is disappointing.
 

Those who brave the stores the day or two after Christmas are often rewarded with half-price (or-- dare I type it?-- quarter-price)  tree trimmings, wrapping paper, and gift baskets.  Then there's the holiday candy aisle. 

By the time I did my post-Christmas shopping this year, the candy aisle was already picked over.  Either they'd sold a lot of candy or they'd packaged some of it up and sent it elsewhere.   (How dare they, really?  I'd hoped to snag some of my favorite Christmasy candies at 50% off retail, but those goodies were nowhere to be found.  Meanies!)

Putting aside my bitter disappointment (one must find a way to go on, somehow), I did manage to find a promising bag labeled "Hershey's Mininiatures" and "Mint".   

"A little something for everyone," the bag tempted.  Well, I'm certainly "one".  (One of what, I'll leave others to decide, but that's beside the point.)  I consider myself a passable fan of mint chocolate, and I'm not a chocolate snob, either, so the "Hershey's" part didn't scare me off.  I picked up a bag.  Half-priced mint chocolates?  That's worth a try!

These miniatures are the same size as your typical Hershey's mini-- a great size for snacking, and you get a good number in this 10-ounce bag.  The individual bars' wrapping is foiled paper in emerald green (dark chocolate), pale mint green (milk chocolate), and white-and-silver (white crème).  They would make an attractive display in a glass candy dish.  

One thing about the packaging does catch my eye.  There's a phone number on each individual bar.  "Nutritional Information 1-800-XXX-XXXX."  I suppose it's there so you can call and make sure the candy doesn't contain whatever common food ingredient you happen to be highly allergic to (in case you get it as a gift and don't have access to the bag with the ingredients and nutritional facts), but it's just a little too reminiscent of the Poison Control Center phone number you find on household cleaning agents and the like.  "In case of mint overdose, call this number." 

Well, let's get down to the taste-testing!

 

Hershey's Mint White Crème with Candy Bits:

I began with the white crème because I expected to like it least.  I believe that once upon a time I loved white chocolate, but I must've eaten too much of it, because it's now one of those things I have to talk myself into eating.  The thought of it isn't especially appetizing.  (So in other words, take my review with a grain of salt.)

I wasn't sure what to expect from the "with Candy Bits" portion of the name, but I suppose I must have envisioned tiny, broken bits of peppermint.  In any case, I was surprised when I opened that first wrapper.  There are red and green ball-shaped candy sprinkles suspended in the semi-translucent white crème!  Lots of them! 

The aroma is very minty-sweet, and it has a taste to match-- sweet (a bit too much so), minty, but a little boring.  (Again, I'm admittedly not very fond of "white crème".)  Unless the candy bits are what give the bar its minty flavor (which I seriously doubt), they seem fairly pointless.  All they add is a little color and a crunchiness that I didn't really like (very different from a nutty or crisp rice crunch).  Children may find them fun, though. 

Apart from its appearance, this mini is not very exciting, but it's not exactly bad, either.

2.5/5

 

Hershey's Mint Milk Chocolate:

There are no surprises when you unwrap this chocoalte.  If not for the ever-present minty aroma, this could be plain Hershey's milk chocolate. 

Yep.  Chocolate and mint flavors-- only the mint rather overpowers whatever chocolate flavor there is. 

There's not much more to say about this candy.  It reminds me a little of Andes mints, but I remember Andes being better than this.  There's a very slightly bitter undertone that I could do without.  I think I prefer regular Hershey's milk chocolate to this, but maybe that's just a sign that I'm not as much of a mint afficionado as I thought.  Still, despite my complaints, it's not bad. 

3/5

 

Hershey's Special Dark Mint Sweet Chocolate:

Again, the chocolate mini looks like a regular Hershey's Special Dark mini-- a deeper shade of brown than the milk chocolate.  It smells minty, but "darker" (yeah, I know; how imaginative of me!) than the milk chocolate does. 

There is a very slightly... almost burnt taste to this chocolate-- but contrary to how that may sound, it's not necessarily a negative.  It has a more chocolatey flavor than the mint milk chocolate does.  The mint isn't nearly so overpowering in the dark chocolate. 

If you like dark chocolate with a hint of mint, give this one a try.  I think it may be my favorite of the three. 

3.5/5

 

Overall, I'm a little disappointed.  Maybe I had too high expectations for these chocolates.  While none of them were exactly bad, I am not terribly impressed, either, and I probably wouldn't buy them again.  I'll stick to Andes mints when I get a craving for mint-flavored chocolate and York Peppermint Patties or Junior Mints when I want a more powerful shot of minty sweetness.

They were pretty cheap (especially considering that I got them half-price), but I think I prefer regular Hershey's chocolate (both their milk chocolate and Special Dark) to these holiday novelty candies.