Wonka Exceptionals Chocolate Bars. Scrumdiddlyumptious, [Derived
0 Comments | New Haven Register, May 26, 2010 | by Rick Sandella
Wonka Exceptionals Chocolate Bars. Scrumdiddlyumptious, Chocolate Waterfall, and Domed Dark Chocolate. $2.39 per 3.5-ounce bar or $4.29 per 8.5- to 9.5-ounce bag of minis. Bonnie: When I hear Wonka, I think of the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” where the kids search for the five Golden Tickets in the candy bars. Wonka is sort of resurrecting that sweepstakes with these chocolate bars, but instead of winning a candy factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate, 10 lucky Golden Ticket winners will win a trip around the world for two, valued at $40,000. Almost 4,000 others who find a purple ticket can win vouchers for airlines worth $500, Ticketmaster admissions worth $50, movies worth $25 and, of course, free chocolate.
The line includes Scrumdiddlyumptious (milk chocolate with bits of toffee, cookies and peanuts), Chocolate Waterfall (a blend of white and milk chocolate), and — my favorite — a melt-in-your- mouth Domed Dark Chocolate (dark chocolate topped with tiny domes of milk chocolate).
Although I didn’t find any ticket in these candy bars, I still feel lucky: My job required me to taste-test these delicious chocolates.
Carolyn: What do you think when you hear the name Willy Wonka? If you’re like most people I know (including Bonnie), you think kids’ candy or movie or book, and certainly not the decadent and fairly expensive chocolate for grown-ups that is this new line of Wonka Exceptionals chocolate bars.
The quality of the candy in all three flavors is much higher than in other Wonka candies or, indeed, than even most other Nestle bars. For instance, you can really taste the white chocolate in the swirls of the Chocolate Waterfall bar. And the dark chocolate in the Domed Dark Chocolate is good enough to be appealing even without its creamy domes of milk chocolate. The Scrumdiddlyumptious sounds more gimmicky than the milk chocolate and toffee bar it is (although it does have a sophisticated undercurrent of nuts).
In short, these are excellent upscale chocolate bars with a kiddie name that will, sadly, probably never find their adult market.
Ritz Munchables Pretzels Crisps. Buttery Flavor, and Cheesy Sour Cream and Onion. $3.79 per 12.25-ounce box.
Bonnie: Pretzel on the outside and a Ritz cracker inside: That’s Ritz Munchables. I’d snack on pretzels, not on high-fat Ritz crackers, but what about these?
The Buttery variety has a pretzel flavor and crunch, but that’s lost in the artificial ingredients of the Cheesy Sour Cream and Onion. Both are fatty at 5-6 grams total fat per 15 crackers, while pretzels generally contain zero. Although the label states 0 trans fats, both varieties are made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil (a trans-fat source).
Carolyn: Keebler’s Town House Flipsides Pretzel Crackers must be selling pretty well, judging from the debut of this new copycat product from Ritz, although I’m not sure why. Like Flipsides, Ritz Munchables are half-pretzel/half-buttery crackers in plain and cheese flavors. To me that makes both Flipsides and Munchables 100 percent confused.
These hybrids taste like neither pretzel nor cracker, and neither company’s cheese-flavored variety has enough cheese or other interesting flavor to make it a stand-alone treat. The silver- dollar-sized Munchables are also too small to top with a cheese slice or dunk into the dip they need.
Give me a plain old 100-percent Ritz cracker or 100-percent pretzel Snack Factory Pretzel Crisp any day.
Cream of Wheat Instant Hot Cereal. Healthy Grain Original, Healthy Grain Maple Brown Sugar, and SpongeBob SquarePants Variety Pack. $3.99 per 12.7-ounce box containing 8 packets of Healthy Grain or 12.35-ounce box of 10 packets of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Bonnie: I really would like to be able to recommend this new Cream of Wheat Healthy Grain Original Instant Cereal. Nutritionally, it’s wonderful. A serving provides close to the daily recommendation of whole grains (41 of the 48 grams) and contains a hefty 6 grams fiber, a minimum amount of sodium (170 milligrams) and no sugar. So why don’t I like it? It’s bland and grainy. In a word: horrid.
I also can’t recommend the Maple Brown Sugar Healthy Grain, which is horrid-tasting for different reasons: its artificial maple flavor and artificial sweetener.
The also-new SpongeBob SquarePants Cream of Wheat is too sweet for kids. The two flavors in the variety pack also contain artificial flavors, sulfite-containing coloring, some partially hydrogenated fats (aka trans fats) and little fiber or whole grains