This week's candy is Mazapan De la Rosa, described on the package as "the authentic Mexican-style marzipan candy." And the candy is indeed made in Mexico. I found it at Wal-Mart, which I know is evil and I shouldn't shop there, but whatever, I've accepted the fact that I'm a horrible person sometimes.

The package contains 8 little individually-wrapped circles of candy. Each one weighs 1 ounce. The plastic wrapping has a rose on it and the whole thing is really quite pretty. I like that they're individually wrapped. If they weren't the whole thing would just be a mess of peanut crumbles.


Mazapan has just three ingredients: sugar, peanuts, and the ever-nebulous artificial flavors. The candy itself is in a smooth circle, and each one I've eaten has broken in half when I opened the plastic. It's very dry and crumbly overall, and the texture is a bit paste-like when you dissolve it in your mouth. There are little flecks of peanuts every once in a while, which is nice. It's very sweet and peanutty, but not like peanut butter - it actually tastes like peanuts. It reminds me of a dry peanut butter fudge more than any kind of marzipan I've had. However, like peanut butter, it sticks to the roof of your mouth like crazy. This candy requires a beverage to go with it.

I like it. I bought it on a whim because it was cheap (I think $1.99) and vegan and kind of pretty. And because I love peanut brittle, peanut butter, peanut butter fudge, peanuts themselves, and any derivative thereof. I'm going to give it an 8/10, because it's a unique product here in the states, and because it's something I'd actually buy again. Each little circle has 134 calories, 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and 14% of the RDA of calcium. I thought the calcium part was especially interesting. Not bad for candy.

Labels: product review

Posted by Amanda at 1:13 PM | Permalink

I was at Five Below a few weeks ago, looking for interesting candy, and I had to get these. I love me some fruit snacks, but often they have gelatin in them. Plus: Simpsons! And only a dollar. You can't lose.

Or so I thought.


Straight up, these are foul and disappointing. First, they aren't shaped like Simpsons characters. I totally thought they would be, and that made me pretty sad. I wanted to eat a little vegetarian Lisa. What they are shaped like is fruit. There are six kinds: orange, lemon, cherry, grape, green apple, and strawberry.

They taste like waxy nothing. Honestly. Here's the run down:

Cherry: It's like someone put a single drop of cherry cough syrup in a vat of fruit snack mix and called it a flavor.
Green Apple: The best texture of all of them. It's plumper, softer, and not as waxy. However, it tastes like a watered down jolly rancher.
Lemon: Lemon things are always my favorite, so I was hoping this one would be okay. It's not. Before I went vegan I used to get those honey-lemon cough drops, and I guess this kind of tastes like that. If you're tasting it from 3 months ago.
Orange, Grape, and Strawberry: These should all be shaped like some kind of magical nothing-fruit, because seriously, they are so non-flavored that the only reason you can taste any difference at all between them is because you brain sees something shaped like a strawberry and tries desperately to create a strawberry taste for you so that the universe doesn't collapse into itself

I'm calling it a 2/10. I'm throwing the box away. And I totally wasted that dollar. The only reason these don't get a 1 or a 0 is because I wasn't actually dry heaving afterward.

Labels: product review

Posted by Amanda at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ritter Sport Peppermint

I've heard so much about these, but I could never find them anywhere. So after last week's review, when Lindsay from vegan chai offered to send me one, I jumped at the chance to try it. And now I can say with complete convinction that this is the most fantastic chocolate mint bar I've ever had and that it's a damn shame it's not widely available in the US.


Inside those little squares of chocolate is a smooth, fresh, delicious minty paste of some kind that I would like to eat entire bowls of. It's a generous amount, too; when I broke the bar apart and only saw those little stripes of white, I was a little disappointed. But then I bit into one and found a big well of the stuff, so I was happy again. Honestly, it's just like a peppermint patty - only so much better. Whoever is responsible for importing Ritter Sport products needs to remedy this situation, stat.

This one gets a 10/10 from me. I may cry when I finish this bar, just for lack of being able to get another one. Plus the german name is really fun to say. Pfefferminz!

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate

This is a really mild dark chocolate. It almost tastes like milk chocolate to me, actually. It's very smooth and sweet, but still has more depth of flavor than the milk chocolate that I remember. I don't have much else to say about this bar; it's simple and very good. It would be a good "starter" dark chocolate for people who aren't crazy about the really dark stuff, because it's not bitter at all.


This one gets a 10/10 as well, because even though it's not breaking any new ground in terms of flavor or novelty factor, it's a really good, highly munchable chocolate bar that I will definitely get again.

I am officially a big fan of Ritter Sports. They rock. They're cute and delicious, and the square shape and little chunky nuggets of chocolate make me feel like I'm playing with edible blocks. Go Ritter Sport!

Labels: chocolate, product review

Posted by Amanda at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

Before Friday I had only ever seen Ritter Sports online. These square German candy bars aren't available at any health food or grocery stores in my area, but while I was at the farmer's market I spotted them in a display case at a German deli. I'd never even given the place a second look before, since they mostly sell meat and other extremely non-vegan items. But the lure of bright red packaging and the promise of chocolate covered marzipan were too much to resist; I plunked down $2.50 and then ran back to a produce stand to try and get the meat smell out of my nose.

Of course yesterday I was at Target and I saw the very same bar (and the plain dark chocolate variety, which I'll review another time) for less than $2. Damn.


It's a nice-looking bar. I like the square format. It's chunky and cuter than the standard rectangular bar shape. The little squares snap apart easily and without much mess. The chocolate is glossy and smooth, with a nice little Ritter Sport logo stamped into the top of each square. The marzipan is a creamy color that contrasts nicely with the dark chocolate.

But the real question is, of course: how is it? Quite good, I have to say. The chocolate is creamy and pretty sweet for a dark chocolate. It melts nicely on your tongue. The marzipan itself is a bit crumbly and not terribly sweet or overwhelmingly almondy. When you pop a square into your mouth you mostly taste chocolate, but as you chew the marzipan flavor becomes stronger. I'd say it lends more texture than any pronounced taste, though. My favorite squares were around the edges, where the chocolate to mazipan ratio was a little skewed toward the chocolate side of things.

I'd give this bar an 8/10, because it's very tasty and pretty unique as far as candy bars go. I liked it enough to pick up another one at Target. But I like marzipan; when I had my boyfriend try it, he didn't care for it very much. I think it goes without saying that if you don't like marzipan, you won't like this bar. But if you do, definitely give it a try.

Labels: chocolate, product review

Posted by Amanda at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments

Something you may or may not know about me: I love sweets. Candy, chocolate, cake, cookies, whatever. It's my big food weakness. I love eating it, I love reading about it, and I love reading about people eating it - so I love Candy Blog. But most of what she reviews isn't vegan. And it's with that in mind that I've decided to start doing a Candy Review Monday. Every week I'll try some kind of vegan candy or sweet and post a photo and review. For this review I just pulled the shots from Terra Nostra's website, but from now on I'll have shots I take myself.

Ricemilk Choco with Almonds

I've tried the plain Ricemilk Choco bar once before and liked it, but I had to order it from Veganessentials because my health food store doesn't carry them. They still don't, but the last time I was there they did have two other varieties - almond and truffle.

The ricemilk choco is smooth and sweet. It's very reminiscent of milk chocolate, at least from what I remember. It could be almost too sweet for some people, but I've never met a candy that was too sweet for me so I like it. There's a good amount of almond bits in this bar, and it adds a nice crunch and offsets the sweetness of the bar a bit. I like this one better than the plain.



Ricemilk Choco with Dark Truffle Center

This bar is the same ricemilk chocolate with a darker chocolate center. The dark center really mitigates the sweetness, moreso than the almonds in the first bar. It's still sweet, but there's more of that dark chocolate smokey flavor that most of us are used to. It's a good bar, and very rich. Overall I still prefer the almond variety over the plain and this truffle bar, but all three are delicious and will definitely satisfy any lingering milk chocolate cravings.

Labels: product review

Posted by Amanda at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

Another one of the goodies in my Lightlife box were these Smart Strips. Now, I love these things. They were the first mock-meat I ever tried after going vegetarian lo those 10+ years ago. I loved them then and I love them now. They're the perfect sort of chewy and a bit juicy, but not in a gross way at all. The flavor is salty and savory and just... well, really damn good. But it's also subtle enough that you can use these in just about any type of dish.

Plus they pack a nice hit of protein and fiber - 14g and 4g, respectively - with no fat and just 80 calories. They work out to 1 WW point per serving.

My final rating for these is a 10/10, plus two thumbs up. I love them.


The chick'n strips adding their awesomeness to my stir-fry with peanut sauce.

The representative from Lightlife also sent along a link for $1 off coupons - check it out here if you're interested.

Labels: lightlife, product review

Posted by Amanda at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently received a box full of Lightlife products in the mail for testing/reviewing purposes. Yesterday I wanted a fast lunch, so I chose this tortilla wrap. This product comes in three varieties: Mexican Style, Breakfast Scramble, and Ranchero, which is the one I received. There is also a Smart Pretzel Dog that shares the same type of packaging.

Of the three wraps, the Ranchero is the one I'd be most likely to pick up for myself. The description on the package reads: "Chick'n-style veggie strips, brown rice, and vegetables in a spicy cilantro sauce." The package also informs me that the tortilla wrap is over 50% organic, which isn't something I usually worry about, but it's nice to know anyway.

Nutritionally, this thing has 300 calories, 6g fat (1g sat fat), 370mg sodium, 48g carbs, 7g fiber, 6g sugar, and 15g protein. It also has 50% of the RDA of vitamin C, 10% calcium, and 30% iron. It clocks in at 6 WW points.


And now to the real question - how does it taste? Pretty good, I'd say. I'm a fan of Lightlife's chick'n strips, so of course I enjoyed that part, and the cilantro sauce is nice - not as strong as I expected, either. There's a good bit of tomato flavor as well, and some pleasant smokiness. I didn't really notice the brown rice, but everything inside is sort of congealed together (as these things tend to be), so it likely just blended with the sauce and thickened it up a bit.

It seemed small when I first looked at it, but I ate it with some baby carrots and it filled me up pretty well. I still think that there's an awful lot of tortilla compared to the amount of filling, though.

My only real complaint is that the baking time given on the wrapper was way off for me. I wrapped it in foil and put it in the toaster oven at 350, just like the package says to, and 25 minutes later (20-25 minutes was the given span) it was still cold inside. I stuck it in the microwave (sans foil, of course) for 2 minutes and then put it back in the toaster oven for 5 minutes to crisp up the tortilla a bit, and then it was fine. I'm not sure what went wrong with the initial baking, but it was rather annoying.

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. It was good and it filled me up, but the heating instructions didn't work out for me and I thought they could have been a bit more generous with the filling.

Labels: lightlife, product review

Posted by Amanda at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments