The 3 best mass-produced sweets

[JeanneCake]

I can usually find Skor bars at CVS; the Heath bars at a supermarket - but while you can buy Heath bar crumbles (smashed up candy bars) in the bakery aisle (so you can add them to cheesecake batter, or cookie dough, or buttercream) you cannot buy Skor bits. And the Skor bits are much, much better!

Who remembers the name of the online store that sells "old time" candy - the stuff we grew up on and can't really find easily - if at all? I checked it once and I think they had a 3# bag of Skor bits that I kept meaning to buy and then forgot until this thread!

[Darienne]

OK. OK. I've never even had a Heath bar and I'll find one and try it.

If I might be allowed to mention a book on this subject, Steve Almond's Candyfreak; A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America is well worth the reading. The title is off base to me...it sounds like something almost unsavory, but the book is a good read, all about the candies which are no longer there. Really enjoyed it.

[snowangel]

Steven, did you see Skor bars? Both Heath and Skor are made by Hershey but -- in a classic late 20thC story -- twasn't always this way. Heath was an independent British candy company, and Skor was Hershey's attempt to battle with them when Heath was bought by Leaf. Of course, later on down the road, Hershey bought Leaf, meaning that both bars were in the Hershey line. I wonder if they've pushed Heath off the shelf and given the space to Skor....

Here in MN, Heath is much more widely available than Skor.

[John DePaula]

OK. OK. I've never even had a Heath bar and I'll find one and try it.

If I might be allowed to mention a book on this subject, Steve Almond's Candyfreak; A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America is well worth the reading. The title is off base to me...it sounds like something almost unsavory, but the book is a good read, all about the candies which are no longer there. Really enjoyed it.

Candyfreak is, indeed, a good read. Not at all what I expected, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was this book that led me to try, umm... purchase these examples from the Boise Candy Co:

[rlibkind]

Almost any chocolate covered cherry, i.e., Cella's in the Northeast and MidAtlantic. Don't know if it's nationally distributed, but there've got to be other manufacturers. It doesn't compare to a fine chocolatier's version, but I love those artifically colored-flavored "marischino" cherries.

[Amy D.]

M&S's Percy Pigs - the only time i'd been thankful when they started producing something in smaller bags, because once i've opened them I really can't stop eating until they've all gone.

Galaxy Caramel

Maltesers

[Lindacakes]

What is a Red Vine, please?

Fat Guy, I think the Candy Machine aspect of what you are talking about is very important. I got a Letter of Concern in college for attempting to move the candy machine from the 3rd floor of the dorm to the 4th floor of the dorm. I thought the candy machine added a lot of personality and I wanted it closer. For many years I had the entire text of that letter memorized, and I must still have it somewhere. "Propensity for a mishap to occur was great . . . " was the crucial part.

There's something about the Nourishing Mother of a candy machine, particularly for people in dire circumstances. Those who have stayed up all night for a press O.K., and are eating breakfast from it. Those who are travelling and must surge onward fueled by it. Your classmates whose brains must depend on it.

The happiest candy machine I've known was in a very small airport in West Virginia and stocked only Lance products.

It was emblazoned with the memorable logo: Why go round hungry?

The finest nourishment available in a candy machine is a peanut block.

[Joe Gerard]

This topic is particularly timely for me as I spent the last two evenings rifling through my five year old's Halloween loot to conduct a similar rxperiment. I tasted a bunch of chocolate bars and suddenly had a vivid recollection of why I stopped eating them years ago - they suck. They were uniformly awful, featuring terrible chocolate, mealy or grainy textures and an overdose of sugar.

I think Walker's shortbread is a good product, and Haagen-Daz, at least the basic flavors.

[Hest88]

What is a Red Vine, please?

Picture a Twizzler, but one that's just sweet--without that sickly artificial strawberry flavor.

Last week I had a discussion with a co-worker who's from the East Coast. He maintains that East Coasters love Twizzlers and hate Red Vines, while West Coasters love Red Vines and hate Twizzlers. Since this California girl's tastes support his theory I couldn't deny it.

Is there a difference between Heath bars and Skors taste-wise. I like both, but I don't eat them frequently enough to have done any analysis.

[Darienne]

I figure that if a Red Vine licorice can be listed, so can then our favorite candy. Made in Grand Junction, CO, but available by mail all over the States.

Dark Chocolate Almond Toffee. The best I have ever eaten in my life. Enstrom. Written up somewhere...can't recall where...but the recommendation led me there last year. Yummmm

Now THAT'S good candy.

[beebah]

1.The Cote d'Or Bouchee circa 1995 was always first choice sugar rush when perusing newsagents. However that was before the many changes that have rendered it an insult to some very happy memories(thicker, sweeter chocolate coating; smaller overall size; change of praline recipe and so on).

2.Topic bars are fantastic, so they get the number two slot.

3.Jaffa cakes. Leaving aside where they fit on the taxonomy of biscuits, it is very unfortunately very easy (for me)to eat a whole packet in one go. Dangerous stuff.

[nakji]

Curiously, Snickers is the one chocolate bar that you can rely on finding in pretty much any country in Asia. This is sad, because I can't stand the damn things. Nougat? Ick.

Note I said, "chocolate bar" and not 'candy' bar. This is because I'm from Canada, where we still make a pretense of calling the brown coating "chocolate". American "candy" bars taste like wax to me. For mass-produced chocolate from English-speaking countries, my ranking goes:

1. UK

2. Australia

3. New Zealand

4. Canada

5. US

Try a Dairy Milk from each country and see how you would rank them. This is a fun afternoon's work.

My list of top-three mass-produced sweets:

MeltyKiss

Mint Aero

Double Coat Tim Tams.

I have a box of Petit Ecolier in the kitchen which I literally just opened before reading this topic. My husband chastised me for calling it a cookie, when clearly, he thinks, it is a biscuit.

I had a hard time deciding between Twix and Meltykiss, but I chose MeltyKiss because you can choose to have just one. If you open up a Twix, hooboy, that sucker's getting finished. And no sharing.

[Darienne]

Try a Dairy Milk from each country and see how you would rank them. This is a fun afternoon's work.

That's interesting, that the same 'chocolate' bar has a different formula depending upon the country of origin...or the country of destination. I recall learning that Bailey's exported to the USA has more sugar in it than Bailey's exported into Canada. It seems that Americans like more sugar while Canadians like more salt and fat.

[pax]

You guys have given me homesickness with all these UK candies. I'm going to Wegman's today and buy a few choice ones...I know they have Violet bars, and Jaffa cakes, and the honeycomb crumbley ones I got in Oz when I lived there for a while, whose name I can't remember.

Viva Wegman's International aisles!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

What is a Red Vine, please?

Picture a Twizzler, but one that's just sweet--without that sickly artificial strawberry flavor.

Last week I had a discussion with a co-worker who's from the East Coast. He maintains that East Coasters love Twizzlers and hate Red Vines, while West Coasters love Red Vines and hate Twizzlers. Since this California girl's tastes support his theory I couldn't deny it.

Is there a difference between Heath bars and Skors taste-wise. I like both, but I don't eat them frequently enough to have done any analysis.

To me, Twizzlers have a weird rubbery texture that places it somewhere between one of those crappy fruit snacks and fruit leather. Red Vines have a kind of vague berry flavor rather than Twizzlers obviously fake strawberry flavor. Between the flavor and the texture, I just can't bring myself to eat twizzlers. For some reason they remind me of that children's chewable aspirin Mom used to give us.

I can find Skors and Heath bars at pretty much every grocery store in my area. The difference I've noticed between the two is that the toffee in the Heath Bars is much softer, almost mushy, in comparison to Skor bars. I'll eat both, but for eating as a chocolate bar, I prefer Skor bars because they don't make quite the mess.

[lesfen]

I figure that if a Red Vine licorice can be listed, so can then our favorite candy. Made in Grand Junction, CO, but available by mail all over the States.

Dark Chocolate Almond Toffee. The best I have ever eaten in my life. Enstrom. Written up somewhere...can't recall where...but the recommendation led me there last year. Yummmm

Now THAT'S good candy.

Yes! We used to receive Enstrom's as an office gift from a sales rep. When she retired, we were sad and missed her... but we really missed that Christmas treat.

1. Little Debbie's Nutty Buddy. I hate to admit that I lose all control when eating these and end up with a wafer bib.

2. M&M's... regular or peanut, I can't choose.

3. Mother's Flaky Flix. My friends on the west coast tell me that these are no longer available, and that makes me really sad.

[Moopheus]

I can find Skors and Heath bars at pretty much every grocery store in my area. The difference I've noticed between the two is that the toffee in the Heath Bars is much softer, almost mushy, in comparison to Skor bars.

A good reason to prefer eating Heath bars only when they are enrobed in ice cream. They're quite crunchy when frozen.

[slkinsey]

Nilla Wafers

Peak Freens

Almond M&Ms

[Jenni]

Surely Lindor is the best mass produced chocolate known to man?! If it's too "high class" for this thread, then I suggest (in no particular order) topic bars, snickers and kinder beuno.

[Jaymes]

I can find Skors and Heath bars at pretty much every grocery store in my area. The difference I've noticed between the two is that the toffee in the Heath Bars is much softer, almost mushy, in comparison to Skor bars.

A good reason to prefer eating Heath bars only when they are enrobed in ice cream. They're quite crunchy when frozen.

Heath vs Skor - Battle Royale

[mizducky]

I'm going to list cookies and candy separately, for the self-serving reason that it allows me to list more items.

Cookies:

Pepperidge Farm Milanos--I am dangerously compulsive around these things. I can inhale an entire bag of them in the blink of an eye.

Fig Newtons--when they're fresh and soft, I find them really satisfying. When they're stale, forget it.

Entenmann's soft chocolate chip cookies--I may be imagining it, but these seem not quite as good as they used to be. But when I first became addicted to them, they were the next best thing to scarfing raw cookie dough.

Candy: Yeah, people are right that, compared to gourmet-quality chocolate, American mass-market candy bars are pretty danged mediocre. But I still had a few Old Reliables with which I could satisfy myself:

3 Musketeers--I think I got into this one more because it was substantial in size than anything else--the light-weight filling meant the bar could be bigger and still come in at the standard (puny) weight of vending machine bars. Plus I liked the softness of the filling.

Junior Mints--a texture thing again: the soft little mint patties. Plus the mintiness somehow made the chocolate coating seem a little more chocolatey.

Hershey's Special Dark--As a kid I'd go through those bags of Halloween miniature chocolate bars and pick out all the Special Darks. It was my first escape from milk chocolate to the wonderful world of dark chocolate.

Edited November 5, 2009 by mizducky (log)

[ruthcooks]

I'm pretty sure Goo-Goos belong in the top three. Originally made in Nashville (the name stands for the Grand Ole Opry), GooGoos became available mostly in the South, and are now wherever you've got a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. Cracker Barrel also sells maple sugar candy and many other types of old-fashioned goodies.

For the uninitiated, Goo-Goos are marshmallow and caramel patties with a coating of peanuts and chocolate. There are variations, but I prefer the original even though I'm not a peanut fan. I think it's because peanuts are more crunchy.

Raspberry Lady Bugs is my No. 1 commercially made cookie, but far from a vending machine item, they are difficult to find and very expensive.

[velveeta]

1) Ritter Sport Bittersweet bars

2) Girl Scout Samoas (the chocolate coconut ones with about 1,000 grams of fat per)

3) A tie: Kit Kats and Andes Mints

Nutella is not considered a candy, it's a nutritional spread, right?

[Kim Shook]

I can usually find Skor bars at CVS; the Heath bars at a supermarket - but while you can buy Heath bar crumbles (smashed up candy bars) in the bakery aisle (so you can add them to cheesecake batter, or cookie dough, or buttercream) you cannot buy Skor bits. And the Skor bits are much, much better!

Who remembers the name of the online store that sells "old time" candy - the stuff we grew up on and can't really find easily - if at all? I checked it once and I think they had a 3# bag of Skor bits that I kept meaning to buy and then forgot until this thread!

Jeanne - is it this place?

[baroness]

Nutsonline.com also have Skor bits by the pound.