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I Paid: $2.39 per 3.5-ounce bar (prices may vary by region)
As a kid, I always wondered about the Willy Wonka branding for candy. The movie promised some damned impressive stuff, but in real life, the best it got was Gobstopper (good, yes; multiflavored, sure; everlasting, not so much) and Nerds. The subsequent invention of the Nerds Rope did not build a particularly strong case for the brand's continued relevance.
Now, however, someone over at Nestlé has gotten the drift. The new Wonka Exceptionals have regal purple wrappers, unusual names, and charmingly creepy commercials featuring a singing Oompa-Loompa, guaranteed to get people back in the "Wow! This stuff is really neat!" mind-set.
In terms of quality, Wonka Exceptionals are something more than Snickers and less than Lindt. But each variety has an interesting selling point, theme, and sense of fun.
The Chocolate Waterfall flavor, a marble-patterned mix of milk and white chocolate, is probably the weakest of the three. The whole thing is a sugar bomb, recalling the sins of Hershey's bars.
Better is the Domed Dark Chocolate Bar, which puts a creamy dome of milk chocolate atop each square piece of dark chocolate in the bar. The dark chocolate has a pleasantly bitter edge, which contrasts nicely with the milk chocolate. Again, a little sweeter than you might want, but with interesting enough flavor counterpoints. This is a chocolate bar that's going to make a lot of kids out there quite happy.
Best is the Scrumdiddlyumptious variety, a chocolate bar with cookie, toffee bar, and peanut pieces inside it. The texture is delightfully crunchy, and the flavor starts toffee and ends peanut. Not too bad.
So, they're decent chocolate bars, and they're doing a lot to reinvent the Wonka brand (gimmicky, sure, but that's what we're looking for), something with a sense of wonder and style about it. Now, if only they'd get cracking on that Three-Course-Dinner Chewing Gum.
@ freshwhippedcreammichael -- my mother and I are in accord that Pretzel M&Ms are DIVINE!!!
Valrhona chocolate is also excellent.
Pretzel M and M's are vile. I've lost faith in commercially branded candy bars. Michel Cluzel for me.
I bought the Scrumpdilly and the Domed for old times sake and was disgusted by the quality of the chocolate. I couldn't even eat it. Why is it that in England you can by "cheap chocolate" that tastes good? Of course now that Hershey has bought Cadbury, that ride may be over.
(I know why it tastes better in the technical sense but why can't anybody match that quality for the same price point in...+READ
I bought the Scrumpdilly and the Domed for old times sake and was disgusted by the quality of the chocolate. I couldn't even eat it. Why is it that in England you can by "cheap chocolate" that tastes good? Of course now that Hershey has bought Cadbury, that ride may be over.
(I know why it tastes better in the technical sense but why can't anybody match that quality for the same price point in the States?) I think it puts us to shame.-COLLAPSE
I bought a packet of "Willy Wonka Kazoozles" at a grocery outlet for 33c. They describe themselves as "Delickoricious Chewy Candy" and "2 lemon ropes with cherry filling". They are weakly sour with an abhorrent texture. The outside is schoolbus yellow and something between gummy candy and Twizzlers and the inside is this pepto pink nasty, spongy marshmallow with the flavor of cherry cough syrup....+READ
I bought a packet of "Willy Wonka Kazoozles" at a grocery outlet for 33c. They describe themselves as "Delickoricious Chewy Candy" and "2 lemon ropes with cherry filling". They are weakly sour with an abhorrent texture. The outside is schoolbus yellow and something between gummy candy and Twizzlers and the inside is this pepto pink nasty, spongy marshmallow with the flavor of cherry cough syrup. I took one bite, cringed, took another and abandoned them on my desk. I'll get around to throwing them out eventually. They scare me more than a little as they've been open on my desk for over a week now and haven't changed texture or gone even slightly moldy.-COLLAPSE
Agreed entirely. I bought a couple bars with the image of a waifish 1970's Charlie Buckett. They were...okay... but not outstanding. I'd rather have spent the money on Pretzel M&M's. But since Charlie has been the CEO of Wonka Chocolates for the past 40 years, it's all going to a good cause, right??!!