Jive talking

You might've heard about all the crazy snow we've been having up here in the Northeast. If memory serves me correctly, we've had five snow days since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Crazy. Yesterday I had 2 1/2 precious hours to myself while the Sugar Baby was in school, so I went to the spa went to Costco, the dollar store and, for some unknown reason, Aldi's. Well, actually I know the reason. I made a wrong turn and ended up in the Aldi parking lot and thought, what the heck. Let me just go in. I've decided that place completely and totally creeps me out, but they do have some interesting candy. (At least from what I could see, thanks to the woman who parked her cart right in front of all the chocolate and couldn't be bothered to move it. Harumph!) In any case, I found two things of note. The first was a Route 1 Jive bar: "Crunchy biscuit topped with caramel and a creamy milk chocolate coating." Uh oh, chocolate "coating." But since it was only 49 cents, I figured what the heck. I love the description on the back of the wrapper:
"Candy bars are loved by millions worldwide. With so many made every year, they could easily stretch right across the USA-- all along Route 66!" Um, what? The bar is called Route 1 but now they're talking about Route 66. To further confuse, it's made in Germany. I don't pretend to understand. As for the taste, it was very similar to a Twix, although ever so slightly larger. These weighed in at 2.1 oz., whereas a regular Twix is 2 oz.
When I eat a Twix, I like to pull part of the caramel off the top with my teeth to reveal the little holes in the cookie part underneath. You couldn't really do that with the Jive. The top layer of cookie came off onto the caramel, so I couldn't tell if there were holes in the cookie or not. All in all, though, this was a pretty good candy bar, even if it was chocolate "coating" and for 49 cents, it was a bargain.The other find was a Choceur "Deliciously Crispy Peanuts & Flakes" (Rich Milk Chocolate with Crunchy Peanuts and Cornflakes). Now, you know how I feel about Ritter Sport Cornflake. It is my favorite candy bar of all time. So I was nervous to try this. Frankly, I thought the peanuts wouldn't be a good addition. But I have to say, this is a damn good candy bar. The combination of peanuts and cornflakes gives it an almost peanut brittle-like taste. I still prefer the Ritter, but then I did the math. The Choceur was $1.99 for 7.05 oz., versus the Ritter which is $2.69 for 3.5 oz. Clearly the Choceur is the better choice. I just wish Aldi wasn't so creepy.

Chocorooms: Possible Contender for This Year's Best Candy Find

Aldi has started appearing in Connecticut. Apparently this chain is more well-known in the Heartland, but until recently, I'd never heard of it. For the official scoop, go here. Now here's my interpretation: it's like Cosco and Trader Joe's got together and had a baby. But, unbeknownst to Trader Joe, Cosco was having an affair with IKEA, so we're not really sure whose baby it is. The stores are small and the products are stacked, like at a warehouse store, but everything comes in normal sizes, so you don't have to buy 300 granola bars at a time. You can get a lot of your groceries there, but not all. Most of the products are under their own label, but are made to look strikingly similar to the name brand.
So let's get to the good stuff. The candy. They had quite a few Hershey options and several Haribo gummies, but they're known for their brand, "Choceur," which is made in Germany. I picked up a bar (a raisin and nut one), but then my attention was diverted to a bag of White Chocolate Almond Clusters (almond and cinnamon biscuit pieces with white chocolate). They also had a milk chocolate version with gingerbread pieces. I had to be selective, because Aldi only accepts cash, which I never carry.
The clusters are little bumpy logs-- more crunchy stuff than chocolate. They're good, but white chocolate isn't my favorite. These were really sweet, but they didn't knock my socks off.
The Chocorooms, however, were a totally different story. These days, the Sugar Baby is obsessed with mushrooms. We've taken many walks in the woods lately, looking for inky caps and puffballs, so the Chocorooms were a no-brainer.The woman at the checkout told me they were "so good!" and that she had bought several boxes because they're not a regular item. I should've followed her lead.
These little cuties are made by Meiji from Japan. According to the package, they are a "chocolaty combination cap and Crispy cracker stem." Okay, so they're "chocolaty," not chocolate. But man, these things are really yummy. A little bite of crispy/sweet/creamy chocolatyness. They are, in fact, very similar to Pocky. I love that the serving size is 11 pieces. You can eat a lot because they're so small. And yes, the Sugar Baby (and his girlfriend, the little Connection) gave them their seal of approval.