Friday, October 5, 2012

Coffee Crisp review

Well here we are finally, a new country and a whole new candy aisle to explore. Today I thought we should start with a true Canadian classic, Spoiler warning, this is one of my favorites. In terms of originality, this one is just tops. Lets have a look at Nestlé's Coffee Crisp.


Why on earth aren't there more coffee flavored things in the world?! People LOVE coffee. All over the world people are just crazy for it. Why is it I can only find a coffee flavored ice cream from Haagen Dazs, and chocolate bars in the organic fair trade section of Whole Foods?! this is absurd. I want coffee flavored stuff all over the place. It just makes good sense. Where is my coffee flavored potato chips? My coffee flavored breakfast cereal? My coffee flavored energy drink? (all awesome ideas BTW). For now I'll just have to settle for the biggest and certainly most commercially available coffee flavored chocolate bar (in Canada at least) the Coffee Crisp.

The package tells us that this "Makes a nice light snack". And the logo has a steaming cuppa joe brewing right out of the O in Coffee. I like the design work here, Maybe more than that though, this has a nostalgic place in my heart. As a Canadian and a long time ex-pat I have personally, and have heard others, profess their love for coffee crisp abroad on many occasions. If there was one singular chocolate bar that Canadians seem to want to share with the world it would be this. Maybe its because the mixture of coffee and chocolate is so original, or at least it was for many many years, but whatever the reason Canadians have a special spot for this particular chocolate bar and I'm glad to finally share my love for it with you.


The bar itself is based around the wafer cookie. You know the kind. Often now you see it in Chinese candy and cookie aisles, but it had a definite western hey day in the mid 80s. Light wafers pressed together with a flavored cream or frosting, in this case chocolate form a kind of layer cake of goodness. Its not gooey, but there is a smooth quality to it once you get through the crisp wafers that would sometimes just dissolve in our mouth. So with Coffee Crisp specifically these wafers are held together with chocolate and coffee, then the whole thing is surrounded in a thin coat of more chocolate.

The bar smells great when opened, definitely like coffee with just a hint of chocolate. This is what I want from my coffee chocolate bar, a bold choice. 


 Biting into the bar reveals those wafer layers I was talking about, and you'll see the middle layer shown above is actually made of a coffee, or perhaps chocolate / coffee mixture. The texture is wafer, it snaps subtly as you bite, but the flavor is all sweet coffee and chocolate. Eating this bar is an original experience, and one I always remember fondly.The aftertaste is great, lingering just the right amount.

Despite it being a bit warm and the outer chocolate layer melting off a bit on my fingers I think this is really a fantastic chocolate bar. If you can get it, please do. This is an excellent choice, a real Canadian classic, and I highly recommend it.

Walking the Candy Aisle rates Coffee Crisp - 5 / 5

This is of course a Nestlé product, and is available in Canada, some parts of the US (I believe in limited capacity), as well as some parts of England and Australia. Let me know if you've found it in your other random part of the world. Canadian travelers have done a pretty great word of mouth job on this candy and I expect many specialty stores all over the world will have it in some small quantity. For more on this delectable chocolate check out the Nestle Canada page on it here.

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