The 3 best mass-produced sweets

[Liveitloud]

I'm not even a sweet eater but for me hands down it's Snickers. Second runner up would be Baby Ruth.

[saturnbar]

Eskimo Pies, they just chnaged the chocolate shell, its thicker and I like the chocolate better. ch

[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!

Jeanne - is it this place?

Thank you Kim and Baroness! It's not the original place I was thinking of (still haven't found it), but now I can use the Skor bits and not the Heath bar crumbles - it makes a big difference in cheesecake, for what it's worth

[petit cochon]

My supermarket cookie staples:

Walkers Shortbread Highlanders

Jules Destrooper Chocolate Thins

Pepperidge Farm Milanos

In terms of candy, I find Haribo's gummy/marshmallow -hybrid frogs strangely compelling, even though I would be hard pressed to describe them as, well, GOOD. Also, Star Mix (thankfully NOT a temptation now that I'm back in the States!). And candy #3... I look forward to Cadbury Creme Eggs every spring - though 1 per year is generally more than sufficient!

[Sugar Apple]

Hard to narrow it down but my favorites are:

1. Goo Goo Clusters (I might have to start eating at Cracker Barrel if they sell them)

2. Heath Bars

3. Cadbury Fruit and Nut

[Wholemeal Crank]

This is so difficult because I swing back and forth between which ones I'll be craving from time to time.

I always am happy to find these, a list heavily weighted towards the non-chocolate because I spent decades allergic to it, so had to make do....

Snickers

Sweet Tarts

Spree

Lemon Heads

Mini M&Ms (the perfect proportion of candy shell to cheap chocolate, at this lower concentration the cheap chocolate matters less)

Reeses (mini are the best)

Other than snickers, I do love some nut-containing items like m&m peanuts and the payday bar, but they're often disappointingly stale.

[Fat Guy]

For a little comparison of Heath and Skor, please see the topic I just started: Toffee Throwdown.

[petite tête de chou]

I vote with my mouth as well as nostalgic factor.

1) Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan. No other candy bar does it for me but this one. I love the different forms of bitterness. My husband wants nothing to do with it. Mine, all mine! I eat it very slowly over the course of a couple days with black coffee.

2) Necco Wafers. Powdery, crunchy, sugar wafers from the 1800's?? Call me "half-pint" and I'm there! Husband *really* doesn't like these. Hmm...notice a pattern?

3) And as much as I enjoy the higher-end black licorices Good & Plenty has owned me since childhood. The candy is soft yet crunchy, sweet yet bitter, white and PINK (I *was* a little girl once)and...my husband absolutely will not put even one of these in his mouth! Apparently this is a requirement for being voted as my favorite candy. Who knew?

[Jaymes]

and...my husband absolutely will not put even one of these in his mouth! Apparently this is a requirement for being voted as my favorite candy. Who knew?

Which has got me to thinking...

What are his three favorites? And do you like any of them?

[Kouign Aman]

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.

They dont have different formulations. The brand gives the same recipe to each manufacturer (we have this info from the Cadbury factoru in Dunedin).. What they have is variation in raw materials. NZ milk tastes different from all the milk I've tasted in the US. NZ sources east asian chocolate beans. I suspect in the US they use south american bens, etc. Whatever the reason, the NZ or British Dairy Milk is quite different from the IS one. Marked difference in 'caramelly-ness'.

[Kouign Aman]

Malt tablets

Bassett's Licorice Allsorts

Milkchocolate Lindor - the little domed-square ones are better than the big spherical ones.

[Blether]

They dont have different formulations. The brand gives the same recipe to each manufacturer (we have this info from the Cadbury factoru in Dunedin).. What they have is variation in raw materials... different from the IS one. Marked difference in 'caramelly-ness'.

Thanks for posting this. Let me guess - the UK/NZ version is more caramelly than the US one ? Is that right ? (I haven't tasted the US version, though I've had (grew up on) the UK one and have had the Aussie. Funnily enough before leaving the UK in my twenties, I'd developed a preference for Mars's Galaxy. Ripple was always a strong challenger to Dipped Flake).

[Kouign Aman]

Yup, to me the commonwealth chocolate is the caramellier/maltier one.

I dont like cadburys much here, and I wondered why I liked it so much on vacation. That info cleared up the mystery.

Now, Why Did Cadbury's stop making the Whole Nut bar?

Had to buy Whittakers (oh my, and so good too. Maybe better?)

[Blether]

Yes, I always preferred Whole Nut to Fruit & Nut - in fact it was a big favourite of mine for a while. Probably because they never had an ad campaign for it quite as effective as

. I think that's Frank Muir in at the end there, making it up as he goes along. Edited November 10, 2009 by Blether (log)

[KatieLoeb]

1)Jars of Nutella. The larger the better.

2)Kit-Kat Bars.

3)Toblerone.

I'd certainly separate out the baked goods. Not the same as chocolates/candy.

1)Pepperidge Farm White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie

2) Friehoffer Chocolate Chip Cookies

3) Nilla Wafers

[Tri2Cook]

I don't eat many sweets (mass produced or not) but my favorite candy bar was (I don't know if they still make it) the Payday because it had some serious salt balancing the sweet and they managed to refrain from burying it in chocolate. I don't mind Skor but I usually scrape off some of the chocolate before eating it.

[petite tête de chou]

and...my husband absolutely will not put even one of these in his mouth! Apparently this is a requirement for being voted as my favorite candy. Who knew?

Which has got me to thinking...

What are his three favorites? And do you like any of them?

Oh but he does hate to narrow anything down and actually make a choice...let alone three.

This is what I squeezed out of him:

1) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I knew this one already. He loves milk chocolate that melts instantly on his tongue (think Dove and Cadbury's). I think the Cups are way too sweet but I like nibbling at the crimped edges of these bad-boys...yeah, that sort of behavior gets me into trouble.

2) Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar with or without almonds. My guy is not a risk taker and this candy bar will "Always be good." I'll eat this...but it's always accompanied by a wish for REAL chocolate (think at least 70% cocoa content) and that puts a damper on my enjoyment of this stand-by treat.

3) This is where his decision making abilities failed him. "Toffifay...I liked those. Nestle Crunch? I really liked Whatchamacallits...." Poor guy. Of those, only the Crunch bar piques my interest. I enjoy the contrast of textures but the chocolate is lost but for the sweetness. Taking a very-fine-indeed product such as the cocoa bean and smothering every aromatic, intense, complex and bitter quality with sugar is a chocolate travesty!

[misstenacity]

Cella Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries

York Peppermint Patties (small size)

Mounds

...sensing a theme here?

[rad1964]

1. Kit Kat

2. Whatchamacallit

3. Skybar

PS: Chris A. - You can get Zagnuts here! Zagnut Bar And everyone else will hate me because you can find so many "lost candies" there!

[Paula E]

Toblerone

M&Ms (dark please)

Carr's Ginger Lemon Cremes (so help me I"ll eat an entire box in one sitting if no one intervenes)

A long time ago, my answers would have been Mounds, Bit O Honey, and Charleston Chew, but the latter two items are difficult to find nowadays.

Re Goldenburgs Peanut Chews:

My husband loves these. When we lived in Philly he especially enjoyed tormenting the pigeons in Washington Square Park. He would throw a chew down, and suddenly, Alfred Hitchcock lived. The birds would go insane over the chew (frantically pecking but unable to eat it) until some brave enterprising squirrel dived into the mass of freaking feathers and made off with the loot. Poor pigeons.

[merstar]

Another vote for LU Petit Ecolier cookies! Also, Dove milk chocolate bars and Nabisco Social Teas and Graham Crackers.

[Shel_B]