Candy Girls: IKEA Chocolate Bars

Last week, Aubrey was off cavorting in San Diego while Liz was stuck at home, forced to sample some of the grossest candy in Candy Girls' history. It wasn't all fun and games for Aubrey, however, as she had promised to bring back strange and unknown treats from IKEA and Trader Joe's for us to sample.

Aubrey had made several out-of-state and even out-of-country treks to IKEA stores in the past, and she knew that she wanted to share a review of one of her favorite hard-to-find Scandinavian treats, the Daim bar (review forthcoming), which she'd only ever found at IKEA. She'd also heard about the store's own brand of chocolate bar that was big, filling and well worth the 99 cent price tag. Would the cheap chocolate in the simple package hold up to the hype? IKEA is known for its clean Euro styles, and so we expected the same experience from the candy as we do from the store -- nothing fancy, but stylish (and hopefully tasty) nonetheless. IKEA makes three different large, 3.5 ounce chocolate bars, but since we knew we'd have an abundance of other treats to try, we limited ourselves to reviewing the Choklad Nöt (hazelnut in milk chocolate) and the Choklad Mörk (60 percent dark chocolate).

First Impressions

The packaging is simply designed, with each bar in a shiny, monochrome wrapper with its name in white writing. The bars are identically molded: segmented into little squares and stamped with a starburst design. The dark chocolate is shiny and has a distinctive snap, while a generous helping of nuts peeks through a cross-section of the hazelnut's milky chocolate. These aren't M&Ms: The milk chocolate melts right in your hands.

Aubrey: I was wondering whether the hazelnut would be a filling or just nuts.
Liz: I just want to keep saying "Choklad Mörk" and "Choklad Nöt" all day. Heh.
Aubrey: The bars are huge! This is a great bargain.
Liz: Choklad Mörk.

Taste

Having tested other chocolate bars not too long ago, we were able to do a little comparison tasting. Overall, the big bars impressed.

Aubrey: Mmm, the hazelnut tastes just like Nutella.
Liz: Totally. Yum!
Aubrey: I never think to buy milk chocolate because I think of it as too sweet, but this is really good.
Liz: There's a slightly sour aftertaste, but it's very mellow. Not at all like Hershey's milk spit-up flavor.
Aubrey: Hershey's is crap.
Liz: On to the dark. This has distinctive undertones...like tobacco, maybe?
Aubrey: I was going to say leather. It's very good.
Liz: It's a bit crumbly in the mouth at first, but once it melts it is a very nice chocolate.
Aubrey: I have to say that I prefer this to the Shaman dark chocolate.

Conclusions

With their tiny price tag, these are an amazing deal for the quality and taste. If there were an IKEA near here, we'd certainly buy these up to use in s'mores, other baking ventures, or just to munch. Only a couple more years!

Would we finish the bars: Yes, though at their size, it's probably wiser to share.
Would we buy again: Hell, yeah!
Rating: 4.5 out of 5