Back around Halloween there was a thread discussing Canadian versus American Smarties candy. Somebody at work here brought in an assortment of Canadian Nestlé miniatures, including Smarties, Aero, and Coffee Crunch.
The Smarties’ shell is too thick, overpowering the chocolate taste. Aeros are muffled by the air ecapsulated in them. Coffee Crunch is an excellent idea, but the execution is marred by the thin and low-quality chocolate. In general, I was disappointed by the chocolate as Nestlé chocolate is usually good.
I am so glad that somebody else feels the same way about Canadian Smarties as I do, dropzone. There is just something not quite right about them, to my taste. And the candy shell is not only too thick, but has a strange “starchy” quality.
But Canadians, don’t take offense I love y’all for the cheap liquor your government sells me, tax-free!
Mint Aero? Dark Aero? We might have something there.
They can start importing Coffee Crunch today, thin chocolate and all. Wait–Wife works for a flavor company that I think sells to Nestlé. She likes coffee. Maybe she can put a bug in their ear…
Heh, I think it’s in NATO someplace where we can buy stuff at each other’s exchanges. All they seem to sell is Booze, Ciggies and Smarties, bless their souls. I find that the Canadian soldiers are by far the happiest on post!
I know several people on board who disagree with the OP. I know if Racinchikki were able to post she would proclaim her love for the Canadian Samrties. Which reminds me, I have to mail her a couple of bags…
M&Ms taste too much like peanuts for my taste. I’ve yet to find the perfect candy-coated chocolate.
Hmmmm, are Canadian KitKats different? Let’s find out. Yes. The chocolate is not as sweet and tastes burned. It’s sticking to my tongue would fill my mouth with its flavor, if it had much. The wafers have a stronger, less bland flavor, which is good. Overall: not poisonous but not the same. Nor are they the same as the English KitKats we used to get.
I grew up in Canada and I have to agree that Smarties aren’t as good as M&Ms.
On the other hand, any time someone I know takes a trip to Canada, I ask them to bring me back a supply of Aero bars. Aero bars are wonderful. You have to get the full-sized bars, though. The miniature ones just don’t cut it.
The main problem with Aero bars is that they have a narrow temperature range for optimal consumption. Too warm and they’re mushy; too cold and they become brittle. 70F is just about right.
Yeah, these Aeros seem stale, too. Too much surface area exposed to oxygen. They should use something inert to puff them up instead of plain ol’ air. Helium, perhaps?
I used to like Aeros too. (I should say by way of preface that all the candy bars mentioned in this thread, with the exception of Coffee Crisp, can be found in the UK.) But my main complaint about them was that they just ended up tasting dry, like chocolate-flavoured cotton. And there’s the staleness factor too, though I found that varied from bar to bar. I guess despite billions and billions of dollars’ worth of research Nestle still hasn’t got the aeration process down to a T.
I also find the same problem with UK Smarties as does tatertot, in that they’re too crunchy. I also went off Toffee Crisp, a Nestle UK product that has little if anything to do with its Canadian near-namesake.
If all this sounds like I’m mightily cheesed off with the Nestle range of almost-chocolate, you’re right. I don’t buy candy bars anymore unless they’re the Lindt Excellence bars sold by the cornershop downstairs from where I work. 70% cocoa–now THAT’S chocolate!
You mean those dough balls that look like donut holes on the outside, but are acutally a big greasy mass on the inside? No thanks.
And before anyone else asks: Jelly donuts are not donuts. (Imagine me wagging my finger a la President Clinton.) It’s not a donut unless it’s cake-y inside and it’s got a hole. The symbolism is very important here.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned my favourite not-in-the-USA chocolate bar: Oh Henry. Man, I miss those.
That’s something else I have to do when I go back to Canada for the holidays, I guess…
Speaking of Canadian chocolate vs. American, try a Canadian Zero bar. The milk chocolate ones (silver wrapper) are OK, but the semi-sweet (gold wrapper) are great. I’ll be having one for dessert when I go to have supper.
