Doves’ Silky Smooth Raspberry & Dark Chocolate definitely impresses with a wacky raspberry swirl design, leaving the smooth bottom looking almost hypnotic. The naturally curvy bar though just seems confused with so many swirling patterns. I do, however, like that that the bar does shine in the light, and there is little discoloration. The intense candied raspberry aroma is a nice treat.

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In terms of flavor, I’m somewhat torn. I appreciate the balance in this bar, something you don’t find in most candy. Dark to begin with, it has a very light over-sweetness that never seems abrasive. The raspberry adds another light counterbalancing touch. Unfortunately, that flavor is almost unnoticeable amid the rich, almost milky, fudgy dark chocolate. Dark chocolate should have some more more nuance. This one just tastes like fudgy brownie, albeit a good one. Moreover, the raspberry—when I did taste it—had an artificial flavor, like syrup. The bar lasts for a good couple minutes—not bad for candy.

Still, the mix of brownie-like dark chocolate—lightly, gently bitter—with rich, caramel-like creaminess makes this bar a treat. Moreover, because of that heavier fudgy consistency, Dove’s Raspberry bar doesn’t feel quite as waxy as what I’d expect, at least judging from other Dove Silky Smooth bars. It can cling to the teeth a bit too much, though.

All in all, a great bar, particularly at about $2 a pop.

Scores (for a candy bar)

Presentation: 4.0/5.0
Taste: 4.2+/5.0
Melt: 4.2+/5.0
Length: 2.7/5.0
Value: 4.2+/5.0
Verdict: 4.1/5.0

This bar has almost no discoloration at all, despite its price. Instead, you get a smooth top surface, crafted into perfect squares bearing the Ritter Sport mark. More negatively, the whole hazelnuts jut out excessively, both from the sides of the chocolate and from the bottom. The bar is thus very jagged.

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Thankfully, the quality is great for low-level chocolate. As you open the wrapper, a phenomenal aroma hits you, similar to the smell of fresh nuts collected from the backyard. Moreover, while the chocolate feels artificial and waxy, the cocoa still tastes great, largely because of the intense hazelnut flavor. That isn’t surprising, either, considering that the chocolate is overstuffed with huge, whole hazelnuts. Never do those hazelnuts come off as too hard, though. Moreover, the roasting process makes them extra smoky, infusing the sweeter, plain dark chocolate with a lot of flavor. Finally, the bar is very long for such a cheap candy bar, lasting at least for 5 or so minutes.

My complaints? The bar feels far too sweet for dark chocolate, and, again, the chocolate tastes waxy. It thus needs to draw most of its flavor from the intense, delicious hazelnuts, which really do compensate for the chocolate’s blandness.

As for melt, it’s practically nonexistent. Not only do the huge hazelnuts break up the bar’s waxy melt, but the chocolate melts extremely slowly. The pleasure of the texture is solely in the gigantic crunch.

Overall, then, if you can look past the artificial-tasting, overly sweet chocolate and focus on the delicious hazelnuts, this bar is a keeper, particularly at $2.79 a pop.

Overall Scores (for a candy bar)

Presentation: 4.0/5.0
Taste: 3.2/5.0
Flavor: 4.5/5.0
Texture: 4.0/5.0
Length: 4.5/5.0
Value: 4.6/5.0
Verdict: 4.0/5.0. Too sweet and waxy, but the quality of the hazelnuts is unmistakable. For less than $3, this is a fantastic treat.

Wonka delivers on the presentation, with a glimmering purple wrapper. The Domed Dark Chocolate comes in dark chocolate squares, each with a protruding milk chocolate bulb (of a slightly different hue from the dark chocolate) that bears the Wonka “W.”

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The taste doesn’t match up with the presentation’s flair, though. First, the dark chocolate, which has a bit of earthy sweetness and smokiness, doesn’t assert all that much flavor. The milk chocolate doesn’t help either with its blandness. In fact, the milk chocolate taste is almost nonexistent.

Finally, and worst of all, this chocolate is intolerably waxy, relying so much on lecithin for its consistency that it practically has no flavor of its own. In fact, I could only eat three pieces before throwing away the entire bar. Thankfully, the flavor didn’t last too long.

Even by candy bar standards, this is simply horrendous.

Overall Scores (for a candy bar)

Presentation: 3.5/5.0
Taste: 0.5/5.0
Texture: 1.0/5.0
Length: 0.7/5.0
Value: 0.5/5.0
Verdict: 0.6/5.0

This bar does a good job of coming off as classy enough, despite its cheap price.  The bar comes in little rectangles, each crafted into a perfect wave, with a Dove signature in the middle. There is some discoloration, but not too much.

Actually, for a candy bar, the Dove Silky Smooth bar tastes quite good, though it’s still far too sweet for my taste. On the uptake, you get a mildly sweet earthy flavor, almost like a mix of coffee and caramel. As you savor the chocolate, the caramel begins to pick up, becoming the dominant flavor—and it’s that flavor you get in the slightly cloying finish. That finish lasts for at least five minutes, unlike most candy bars, especially dark chocolates.

As for melt, this bar goes down richly. Expect Swiss-style milk chocolate. The Silky Smooth bar also melts rather quickly for such a viscous chocolate. While it clings to the mouth with a thick residue, its clinginess never feels overwhelming, and it tends not to cling to the teeth (thankfully). Instead, it leaves the sides of the mouth puckering with a thick layer of over-sweetness.

Scores

Presentation: 3.5/5.0
Taste: 3.0/5.0
Melt: 3.2+/5.0
Length: 4.0/5.0
Value: 4.0/5.0
Verdict: 3.5/5.0

Composition: Milk chocolate, toffee, crispy cookie, crunchy peanuts.
Region of Production: USA.
Price: $2.79 at CVS.

Very nice presentation for a candy bar, with the Wonka knack for flair really showing through. The wrapper comes in an attractive purple and displays the ingredients prominently—a bit more flair than the typical chocolate bar. And the bar itself is beautiful, with almost no discoloration of any type. It comes decorated all across with M’s of varying sizes, and it’s surprisingly smooth to the touch (within reasonable bounds).

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Taste-wise, the bar does well in integrating numerous disparate flavors, but it ultimately fails to create a balanced whole. On the positive side, every single ingredient can be tasted, as the toffee provides a slightly sticky, chewy caramel-like sweetness, the crispy cookie gives a great wafer-like crunch, and the peanuts leave you tasting just a bit of peanut butter in the chocolate. The problem? It’s so sweet that it feels one-note. The toffee is particularly egregious, leaving the back of your throat writhing from cloying, brittle, flaky bits of candy. This bar does truly have a lot of potential, but it misses the mark because of its very dull, monotonous, overpowering sweetness. Still, it’s very long for a candy bar, especially for a milk chocolate, as the sweet cocoa lasts on the palate for minutes.

Moreover, I do really enjoy the texture here, as it combines the crunch of wafer, nuts, and toffee with rich milk chocolate for a complex, crispy yet chewy, caramel-like mixture. Lots and lots of crunch throughout the bar.

So, overall, it’s a mixed bag – one that fares better than most candy bars but which isn’t enough to make me return to it.

Overall Scores (for a candy bar)

Presentation: 4.5/5.0
Taste: 2.2+/5.0
Flavor: 3.5/5.0
Texture: 4.0/5.0. The melt is horrible, but the crunch is so great it’s easy to overlook.
Length: 4.5/5.0. By candy bar standards, extraordinary.
Value: 3.0/5.0
Verdict: 3.0/5.0. Way, way too sweet for its own good. Still, good incorporation of flavor and great texture.

La Iberica is a “premier,” common producer of higher-end Peruvian chocolates, but it’s quality really doesn’t stand up to its name.

The bar has an odd taste for a white chocolate bar. Not very sweet at all (which is good), but it’s very bland. It has very little taste at all—just tastes like milk with very little creaminess or richness. Simply avoid it.

Overall Score: 0.0/5.0

Like the La Iberica white chocolate bar, this just has an odd flavor. It’s nicer than the last, but it quickly turns awry with a strong, overpowering, coffee-like taste. It leaves a bad aftertaste. It does have a nice melt though, and its taste isn’t that bad. It has a nice hint of raspberry at the beginning, but it’s very cloying at the end.

Overall Score: 1.5/5.0

Cote d’Or is somewhat of a pricier, everyday chocolate, especially for foreign audiences. When I had it, though, it was in Belgium, where chocolate is taken so seriously that Cote d’Or is simply frowned upon as a candy bar, whereas for Americans it might seem pushing towards the gourmet.

I tried about 6 or 7 flavors from Cote d’Or, but none of them struck me as anything special, so I’m going to write a quick overall review.

Generally, Cote d’Or bars are far too sweet. They suffer from what I call “candy-bar syndrome,” the sweetness that producers add into mass produced bars to give them that sugar rush that so many people are used to in candy bars. While Cote d’Or is praised as a higher quality of mass-produced bar, it tastes just like nestle to me. To be fair, its dark chocolate flavors are decent, since the bitterness of the dark chocolate helps to balance out the sweetness.

Recommended bars: Truffe noir; Fondant Pure, Dark Chocolate

Overall Score: 0.0/5.0

Very good for a lower-quality chocolate. It’s not cloying at all, nor is it overly bitter. The sweetness is well balanced, even though there is the obvious honey and nougat sweetness that is characteristic of toblerone. Still, it’s nothing special in terms of taste.

Overall score: 2.2/5.0, for a cheap candy bar. 1.5/5.0 otherwise.

Starts out with a pretty neutral taste and gets increasingly intense. However, for a bitter chocolate, it doesn’t taste too bitter. It’s really more of a dark milk chocolate. It has a decent melt but very little length—it’s just a normal candy bar. It has the creaminess and smoothness normally associated with the use of lecithin in lower-quality chocolates, but it’s not quite so cloying as expected. The more you eat, the more you actually want to eat.