O Canada!
Since Chocolate Friday falls on Canada Day this week, Karen sent me some chocolate from Canada. Thanks, Karen! In honor of my northern neighbors, please have a listen to the Canadian National Anthem, O Canada. Then go read about Canada Day, which apparently used to be called Dominion Day until very recently (I had no idea).
(Please note that I will try to convert spelling to Canadian where possible)
First up is the Canadian Oh Henry! bar by Hershey Canada.
You’ll note the maple leaf on the wrapper and that’s because it is maple flavoured. I usually don’t like Oh Henry bars, but I did like the unique maple flavour in this one. For those of you heading to Canada, you should buy yourself one to try it. Much like Tylenol with codiene, you can’t buy this in the US. But the good part is, that you can bring it through customs without paying duties if you don’t buy more than $300 worth.
Let me also point out one other funny thing I found on Hershey Canada’s website. They have a product line called Eat More. Yes, Eat More. I just had to laugh at that. Its exclusively a Canadian product. I was looking at that and thinking “Dudes that is just not going to help anyone.”
Next up is Nestle Smarties, eh?
These were very deceiving because I thought they were like US smarties, which are a hard candy made of sugar and have a sour taste. Not so with these, eh? These are more like M&M’s, but Canadian. Can you see the little maple leaf on the white one? That’s for the special edition Smarties. Oddly enough, on the back it says that Smarties are Canada’s #1 candy coated chocolate. I was very surprised they beat out M&M’s. If you go to the M&M website, they have a big map and you can pick the country you want to get info for, and Canada is not listed. But they must sell products there. Hmmm.
A quick dig at the Mars website, shows that the company they sell through there is called Effem Canada, but oddly enough, they don’t list M&M’s as a brand they manufacture. This is very strange. Corporate mergers and such confuse me.
And last but not least is the Maple Coffe Crisp, also a Nestle Canada product.
This bar happened to arrive defective. It looked ok when I opened the shipping envelope but later I noticed that the entire wrapper had been ripped open and someone had eaten the whole bar! It was very distressing. The faint taste of chocolate and maple in my mouth made me think I had eaten it at first, but I’m sure I would have remembered it. I mean, nobody eats a whole darn candy bar without even noticing do they? I mean even if it was light and airy and crispy and mapley and super delicious and you wish you could just go buy a big giant box of them and shovel them by the handful into your mouth until you exploded? Maybe. :)
One interesting thing I noticed about Nestle Canada’s website, the main page is titled “Welcome Home”. I like that. Nestle makes a very wide variety of products, not just confections. They make Haagen-Dazs (sp?) and pet foods and Del Monte brand products. All kinds of stuff, so their slogan on their page need to reflect a “fuller” tone, that represents a broader mindset and not just candy.
Thankyou, Karen, for sending me authentic Canadian chocolate bars for Canada Day!
July 1st, 2005 08:28
What a fun way to celebrate Chocolate Friday and Canada day :-) Though, I’m still trying to imagine the taste combination of maple and chocolate…
July 1st, 2005 08:50
I had Smarties in both Brazil and South Africa (multicolored just like M&Ms). They didn’t sell M&Ms there, though Mars had other items on the market. I always thought they were sweeter than M&Ms and after 4 years of no melt in your mouth goodness, I have to admit, I got a little choked up thinking about Smarties…
July 1st, 2005 10:55
Yummy! The Canadians will be happy to be included in your chocolate blogging I’m sure!! mid-pack mom
July 1st, 2005 11:20
I’m from Canada eh, and I didn’t know about the Oh Henry maple flavour. I make my own version of Eat-More bars Here’s the recipe.
2 Cups chocolate (chips or chunk chocolate of some kind)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 Cup corn syrup or honey
1 cup rolled oats
1 Cup chopped peanuts
Melt the first three ingredients then add oats and peanuts. Spread on a cookie sheet and cool. Cut and serve.
July 1st, 2005 11:30
Cool! Funny thing is, I always assumed these things were all over North America. And Eat More’s are really great. Not a typical bar at all, but still yummy!
July 1st, 2005 11:33
!!! You’re just trying to get me to send you more ;) Glad you enjoyed them.
I have to admit I haven’t tried the Maple Coffee Crisps yet, I like the regular ones so much.
Eat More’s used to be my parents’ favourite chocolate bar. I make Loping Loubob’s recipe - it is yummy.
Thanks for the great write up and the Canada Day wishes!
July 1st, 2005 11:38
That is so cool. I have a shirt that says “I [heart] Vancouver” where the [heart] is actually a maple leaf. I don’t think I’ve actualyl been to vancouver, but I do like the parts I have been to, eh. Hoser.
July 1st, 2005 11:45
i think karen ate the missing bar and just sent you the wrapper.
July 1st, 2005 11:59
Yummy report! Maple and chocolate sound so good:) The missing bar? That’s really odd, isn’t it?
July 1st, 2005 12:12
[...] on’t have to worry about traffic! Definitely check out Jon’s write up on some Canadian chocolate I sent him. WARNING: I’m about to ramble on about chocolate, so [...]
July 1st, 2005 13:37
I hate when I receive candy that has been already eaten. I have a mouse in my car that manages to eat the candy before I can get it home.;) Damn mouse.
July 1st, 2005 15:12
What a wonderful writeup and a great tribute for Canada Day. By the way if everyone comes up for Calgary Marathon - July 2006, they too can sample some of these treats first hand. By the way EatMore has always been one of my favs.
July 1st, 2005 17:02
Man, you better go catch the guy who ate your candy bar! I heard he runs really fast!
July 1st, 2005 18:27
Wuhoo! Happy Canada Day!!!!!
July 1st, 2005 18:44
wow I live here and have never seen the maple versions either!
July 1st, 2005 21:44
Great write up! Ahhh…the Canadian Chocolate Bar!! Given that you could actually taste the maple and chocolate I think your instinct that you actually ate it is probably the case. You probably just slipped into some kind of trance. Possible?! Hmmmm…as for the EATMORE bar…it is also the official candy bar of the Calgary Stampede. This may be because it does look a little bit like beef jerky (with peanuts!) Definitely something a cowboy would stick in his mouth. Eatmore labels are also fun to play with…you know…make the o-r disappear…
July 1st, 2005 21:49
I was explaining blogging/running/peanut butter to my sis and her bf tonight and i told them about your blog (and why i couldn’t have a peanut butter blog b/c you stole the market). So you came up in conversation in NC! Thanks for not disapointing today!
July 2nd, 2005 01:21
lol,, see I need to get out more,, I didnt know about the maple chocolate bars either!! oh and EATMORE had been around forever, and yeah about the Calgary Stampede, 18 years ago on the way to the stampede we heard there was an Eatmore eating contest, so the guys had to stop and buy a bar to see how fast they could eat one,, its mostly molasses and peanuts,, really really chewy,(but good) by the way, hubby came in third and won a pair of levi’s,,lol,, memories.
Heather
July 3rd, 2005 01:54
I’m late to the party here … but I have to put in a “yum” for Eatmores too …. (sigh) ….
July 3rd, 2005 14:08
I’m suprised that “Karen” didn’t show you the KitKat bars with the packaging with the different logo. From my sources, that logo is used everywhere else in the world that Nestl? sells it.
Oh yeah, and fix the RSS feed for your blog! It doesn’t work!