Two Lindt Chocolates

I recently came across two small chocolate squares that really confused me. Both of these chocolate squares were made by Lindt, and both of them were milk chocolate. Before I even get into this, I should mention that both of these squares tasted great, and if this was a review they would both get really high scores. The confusion came from the fact that I wasn’t really sure what might be the difference between these two squares, seeing as they’re both marked as milk chocolate.

I’ll be honest, the Lindor brand from Lindt kind of confuses me (the red package is Lindor, the blue is just Lindt). My initial thought was the Lindor was the name of those yummy chocolate balls that Lindt makes. Kind of like the fact that M&Ms are made by Mars, who also makes Mars Bars. So my assumption before this day was that Lindor was just the name of a treat made by Lindt. Then I got these two squares of chocolate and I realized that my assumption was wrong.

Here I have a small square of chocolate, not a round ball, with the words Lindor on it and one with just Lindt. Had I been wrong, is Lindor its own thing too? It’s made by Lindt, but maybe it’s a company that Lindt bought later on and incorporated it into their Lindt line. Maybe the Lindor balls are just one small part of the Lindor line. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know the back story and eating these chocolate squares didn’t help that much.

I can however tell you that these squares are not just squares of milk chocolate, well at least one of them isn’t. The chocolate in the blue package was just milk chocolate... actually it was very good milk chocolate. The small red square was a smooth creamy milk chocolate cream covered in chocolate that was very similar to the blue square. On taste and texture alone I would say they both rank high. I liked the texture of the red square a little more, but it also made the square very delicate and mine was not in good shape.

What I get from this experiment, beyond a mouthful of tasty chocolate, is that Lindt is a chocolate company that makes nice milk (and other) chocolates. Lindor is also made by Lindt and is made with nice quality milk chocolate as well. Lindor also has cream in the middle. In this case it’s a milk chocolate cream, but in the case of the Lindor balls there are a few other flavours of cream available as well. I’m not sure if they make a square for each flavour of Lindor ball or if this is the only square they make.

Honestly I’m not even sure why they make Lindor squares at all. If given the choice between a Lindor square or a Lindor ball, I would go for the ball. The ball is much stronger than the squares and I think they have a bit more filling as well. It really seems odd to make Lindor in a square shape, considering the whole fun gimmick of Lindor is the fact that they’re balls.

New Junk Fud on the Road!

 Today Chris and Allison talk about a recent trip to the Philippines, full of spaghetti, fried chicken, ube and donuts.

Pick Up Treats and Beasts!

 If you really want to learn all about some beasts and the treats they love in alphabetical order, have I got the book for you.

Pick up Treats And Beasts right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts or on Amazon.

Potato Chip Flavours

 

I'm wondering if the world is running out of flavours for potato chips. The trend lately has been to try extreme or weird flavours or just copy already existing flavours. I feel like it's been a long time since someone has made a potato chip that was original, but also that made sense. It's not that I mind these weird flavours, it's just been a while since I've eaten a potato chip with a completely original flavour that made me think I'd eat another bag of them.

Check out my latest chip review, of a flavour that I've tried before, but it still tasted pretty good.

Canned Bananas?

 I feel like there are some foods that don't belong in a can, bananas might just be one of them.

CC

You Need Facts And You Love Snacks

 If you want to learn some really fun facts about the snacks you love, make sure to pick up my comic series called Snack Facts.

You can pick up every single issue (separate or in one collection) at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Sugar Free Review

 

I always find reviewing sugar free products to be a bit of a challenge. The problem I have is weather or not I should include the fact that they're sugar free. My findings are that most sugar free treats and candies aren't as tasty as their sugar filled counterparts. However, I have come across some sugar free treats that are pretty good. Maybe they're not as good as the original, but they're still pretty tasty. So when I write the review, should I talk about the fact that they're sugar free, should I compare them to the sugar filled version, what should I do? The other question is, do I mention the various sugar substitutes and various chemicals? These questions really challenge me when I'm writing a review for a sugar free treat, what do you think?

Check out my latest sugar free review.

2000 Reviews

 This week I crossed a pretty big milestone, 2000 reviews on candycritic.org. That seems like a lot of candy for one person to have eaten in a lifetime. Since this is such a big moment, I thought that I would share a few statistics and facts about these reviews that I’ve written over the years.

How many people have written these reviews? - Basically one person, but there are a few side notes worth mentioning. I have had a few people contribute to some of these reviews, and on occasion you might even see people’s names being dropped. However I can safely tell you that I’ve tasted each and every candy reviewed on this site and my words are the ones describing them. 

First review - The first review I ever wrote for candycritic.org was for a gum called Sand Hill Bubblegum. It was kind of the inspiration for the site. I discovered this gum at a store near my art school. At the time we had an assignment in school to create a website on any topic we choose. I thought it would be fun to create a website where I talked about candies that I’ve tasted (because I had just tried this unique treat). After that I just kept adding more and more reviews.

Highest Review - This is probably the most common question I get when people find out I have a site dedicated to reviewing candy. The highest reviewed treat is a British Kit Kat bar. I could go on and explain why it has such a high review, but instead I’ll just let you read it yourself.

Lowest Review - What often follows when I tell people the highest ranked candy is what’s the worst candy I’ve ever reviewed. It should be noted that the worst candy isn’t the worst tasting thing I’ve ever had in my life. After all, flavour is just 1 of the 3 scores I give a candy. The worst candy I’ve ever reviewed scored so low because it was boring and bland, rather than gross.

Treat with the most versions - I almost feel like there would be no candycritic.org if there wasn’t a Kit Kat bar. Kit Kat is not only the highest reviewed treat, but it’s the treat that I’ve tasted the most varieties as well. As of the posting of this article, I’ve tasted 89 different versions of Kit Kat treats.

Continent with the most reviews - It only makes sense that the continent where I’ve reviewed the most treats is the continent where I was born and also where I started this site. Of the 2000 reviews 860 of them are treats from North America. A few people have also been wondering why I don’t separate candies by country instead of continent. The main reason is that there are several candies where it’s really hard to pin down where they originated. A few treats are claimed by several countries and the last thing I want is an argument on that subject.

Type of treat most reviewed - The most common type of treat that I’ve reviewed is candy bars with 623 reviews. One thing worth noting about the candy bar section is the fact that I use the words “candy bars” to describe them. I used to use the words “chocolate bars” but I found that there were a few bars, like Eat More, that didn’t fit that description since  they didn’t have any chocolate. I decided to update the name and it’s allowed for more treats to fit into that category, although most do have chocolate.

Writing 2000 reviews has actually changed the way I feel about some foods. It’s also taught me a few things about food, cultures and even science. Here’s a few random things I’ve learned or that have changed about me since starting this site.

I tolerate licorice a bit more, I don’t love it, but I understand why people love it.

I’m a little better with spicy foods, much like the licorice. I'm not a fan of spicy foods yet, but I’m no longer the total wimp that I was.

I’ve discovered that chocolate and onions don't really work together. I used to have a theory that everything can be improved with chocolate, then I tried the Tayto Milk Chocolate Bar "with Cheese & Onion Crisps" and realized that onions just don’t work. I’ve talked to a few chocolatier since making this discovery and each has suggested that they want to try and make it work. I have yet to hear from any of them.

This Corn Is Steaming... But Not Mad

 This is a small basket of corn steaming from a street vendor just outside of Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon.

Want to see where all of the 10 Second Kitchen's took place, check out our Candy Map.

Pick Up Blue Orchid

 I've made a comic, it's called Blue Orchid, and it's pretty fun.

Pick up everything Blue Orchid right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon here or here.

Classic Candies From Around The World

It's funny, if I was to ask you what you might consider to be a "classic" candy, I'm betting there are several people around the world who would disagree. For example, this latest review from Japan is a true Japanese classic candy, yet many of us have only learned about it recently. If you want some better context (particularly for you Americans), it's only been recently that most of the world has learned what an Almond Joy bar is, and many people have never tried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Check out my latest classic candy review.

Quick List - The Worst Candies For Each Letter of the Alphabet - L-P

 A quick list of the worst candies from each letter of the alphabet. This time we're going to be checking out L through P.

Check out all my review for every letter of the alphabet right now at www.candycritic.org/alphareview.htm

Them Beasts Love Their Treats

 If you want to read a fun book featuring some awesome beasts tasting fun treats, then I have the perfect book for you.

Check out Treats and Beasts right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

I Don't Like Spicy, But I Love Sour

I'm not sure if I've ever met a person who equally likes sour or spicy foods. For the most part I find that people tend to lean more direction than another. It's like salty or sweet, some people prefer one over the other. It's not to say that if you love one you'll hate the other, it's just rarely a completely equal rating for anyone. Personally I'm a sour and sweet fan, but I do like salty too. I'm not a huge fan of spicy, but I'm trying to get better. I guess the next question is if there's any relation between liking salty and spicy together and liking sweet and sour together.

Check out my latest sour review (the candy is sour, I'm happy enough).

Giant Banana

 

The number of banana varieties that are out in the world is pretty amazing. Most westerners know one or two types. Occasionally you might see some odd banana at a grocery store that might be really small or maybe even red. For the most part people in the west have a fear of different bananas, that comes mostly from people suggesting that some bananas need to be cooked before they are eaten. As far as I know, there are no bananas that will do you harm if you don’t cook them, but they just taste pretty yucky and are often pretty hard (almost like an apple).

While living in Asia for the last few years, I’ve decided to expand my banana eating experiences and gone out on a limb to taste a pretty good varieties of them. I’ll agree that there are some that I’ve tasted that fit into the description of hard and probably better cooked. There have also been some pretty amazing discoveries as well. For example, if you come across some red bananas, you can eat them but they’re kind of dense, however using them to bake banana bread is a great idea.

Unlike most of my eating habits, my exploration into bananas has remained mostly offline. I don’t share my banana discoveries with the public, that was until today. At a grocery store in Kuala Lumpur, Allison came across what we can only describe as the biggest banana we’ve ever seen. The length is about 12 inches, and that’s the edible part. I don’t know how to describe this banana except to say that it’s obscenely huge.

We were a little nervous about buying it because there’s one fundamental problem, it’s huge. If it’s horrible then we have a lot of banana to eat. Even if it’s good, that’s still way too much banana for anyone to consume. Although we agreed to share one banana between the two of us, it was going to be a full meal.

The other unfortunate part is that this banana is that it wasn’t that great. Even though it appeared to be fairly ripe, it still tasted kind of green. I’m wondering if it even ripens entirely, or if it’s one of those cooking bananas. It wasn’t as green tasting as some other bananas I’ve had and it was softer then some, but it was still pretty rough to get through. As you can imagine, it was even more difficult to get through because it was so huge.

While I did not really enjoy this banana, I’m continuing to enjoy my banana tasting challenge. If anyone knows what kind of banana this is, please let me know so I can add it to my list of bananas I don’t really care for.