White chocolate Snickers?

My readers may remember that I really like Snickers bar. I find the mix of chocolate, caramel, nougat and nuts to be the perfect mix of indulgent sugar and protein. Sugar and chocolate for endorphins, nuts for feeling not too guilty about the high sugar content. I tried many of its variants: the one with almonds which I really liked, and the one with hazelnuts which is to this day my favourite Snickers. I recently tried a limited edition (or so it said in the wrapping) white chocolate Snickers. £0.99 for a bar. I don't think it was worth that price. So far it is my least favourite Snickers bar. Is it only me, or does white chocolate make desserts taste bland?

L'Halloween et ses friandises

Photo prise à la vitrine d'une boutique l'année dernière, que je prends ici afin de servir mon propos. L'Halloween est maintenant dans moins de deux semaines, cela veut dire que je dois sérieusement commencer à acheter des friandises pour les Halloweeneux qui vont venir. En fait j'ai déjà commencé, mais je dois me modérer: il faut prendre garde à ne pas offrir des tentations pour les gourmands qui demeurent ici. Et puis il y a les quantités: quand est-ce trop, quand est-ce trop peu? Cela dépendra des visiteurs. Qu'offrez-vous à ceux qui passent par chez vous? Quelles étaient les friandises que vous préfériez avoir? J'ai toujours eu un gros faible pour les Mars, mais il y a plein d'autres affaires que j'aimais beaucoup et que je ne retrouve pas ici, ou que je ne retrouve plus du tout. Peut-être que ce n'était pas si bon que ça et que c'est la nostalgie qui parle encore.

Snickers aux amandes (et autres)

Bon ben ça va mal: j'avais acheté durant mon séjour au Québec deux barres de Snickers aux amandes (yum, yum), j'ai fini par les manger toutes les deux. Celle sur cette photo était la dernière. (Et oui, ça peut sembler cave, mais il m'arrive de photographier un truc aussi bête qu'une barre de chocolat quand je veux faire de ma food porn.) Je ne retrouve plus de Snickers aux noisettes nulle part ici, qui était encore meilleure que la Snickers aux amandes. Je ne trouve pas non plus de barre Mars aux amandes, que je n'ai pas mangée depuis des années, mais qui a l'avantage comme les autres susmentionnées de mélanger chocolat et noix et donc de me donner un petit boost d'énergie et d'endorphines quand j'en ai besoin. Faudra me trouver autre chose, de la Snickers aux banals arachides sans doute, mais la Snickers aux amandes ça avait de la gueule.

Snickers & Almonds

I bought this Snickers bar twp days ago at the airport. You can see it is just not your ordinary Snickers bar. It is bigger, for one, as it is a two pack. It is also a Snickers Almond Bar. I have been wanting totry them for ages and I have been unable to find any in England. I even bought two to make sure I would enjoy it again if I liked it.For me, Snickers is the quintessential comforting chocolate bar and, since it has nuts in it, it is sort of nutritional too, at least to some degree. I never feel completely guilty munching one. So what is the verdict for this variation? I really loved it! Not as much as the one with hazelnuts, which is my current favourite, but tastier than the normal one with peanuts (which I still like). Almonds, like hazelnuts, give the bar a certain air and taste of snobbery, in a good way.

Starbar

Sometimes after lunch, I try to calm my sweet tooth and give myself a sugar boost with a chocolate bar. This is what I did today, with Cadbury's Starbar, something I did not remember trying before. I sually have a Snickers, but this is not exclusive. This one has many things similar to a Snickers bar actually: it has peanuts and and caramel. The caramel is smoother though. That said, I can't help suspecting strongly that this is Cadbury's answer to Snickers (Starbar was launched in 1976, Snickers in 1930). And I was unconvinced. I am not sure why. It is a good enough chocolate bar, it's just not... original enough, I guess. Snickers is stocky, it's like a working man's chocolate bar. This has a fancier wrapping, a pompous name, but it's just an imitation. I will stick to the original for now on, thank you very much. Or the Snickers with hazelnuts, which is maybe my favourite chocolate bar nowadays. But Starbar? Even the wrapping irritates me a bit.

Snickers & Hazelnut

My long time readers know of my love for Snickers as chocolate bar of choice for both endorphin and energy boost. Well, I recently discovered a new variety of Snickers: Snickers & Hazelnut. Guess what is different with this bar. Yes, you guessed it, very perceptive of you: hazelnuts. Maybe I am a sucker, I don't know, I don't really follow new recipes of old successes, but I really love the added taste of hazelnuts in my Snickers. It gives it a distinctive and actually distinguished taste. Because let's face it: hazelnuts are far more sophisticated than peanuts or, well, peanuts. Added to the workmanlike Snickers, it's one of those odd matches that actually work. Like I said on Facebook: "Eating Snickers and hazelnut is snob, but it's good". Maybe not something they'd use for their advertisement campaigns, but I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line. In any case, if you want to try a great classic revisited with success, try this bar.

Snickers in the Snow

This is a completely anecdotal post, about a piece of chocolate that is now my comfort food as well as my daily energy boost. I am blogging about it again, because I (re)discovered that the settings enhance the experience.

So it has been regularly snowing over England. It feels pretty much like winter and it is almost cold. I guess it is cold for here. As I mentioned before, at work I have a Snickers bar after lunch, to give myself an energy boost. it is all the more necessary to have sugar to get through wintery temperature.  So today and yesterday I had my Snickers straight after lunch, as usual. I ate it outside, walking in the snow. It was a lovely feeling. Snickers is delicious on a cool August afternoon, but in winter it tastes a thousand times better.

Wednesday is a long, slow Purgatory

This is the thing that came to my mind tonight: if Mondays are Hell, then Wednesdays are a Purgatory. I am no longer a Catholic, but I guess this is what it means to be a cultural Catholic: you often perceive life with the same emotional framework. There was plenty to do at work, enough to keep me busy, but it was still boring, it was tiresome, it was long. I got plenty of endorphin shots in the form of a Snicker bar and, in the morning, donuts. I have been bad.

The particular thing about the suffering in Purgatory is that it is supposed to be temporary (unlike Hell). It may take a few eons, it may be just as painful as receiving hellish torments, but you are not there forever. I am not sure if it is so comforting. But every Wednesday, in the middle of the week, where the energy you had at the beginning is gone and the weekend so far away, it is necessary if you want to keep your sanity to repeat to yourself that this is temporary.

Snickers and energy boosts

Maybe it is the weather, maybe it is because I work so darn hard sometimes, but I have discovered that in the afternoon I often feel deflated after lunch and I am in need of an energy boost. I go the lazy way: instead of making a healthy balanced lunch, I munch something quickly then get myself a chocolate treat fill of sugar and bad stuff, but it also allows me to get the energy I need (and the comfort) to finish my day. Since Café2U is gone, I have to get my sugar intakes from the vending machine. I have tried many different chocolate bars, but now I have settle for Snickers. I don't find them as good as their sisters the Mars bars, but they have peanuts in them, so that means it has also proteins, not only sugar, so I don't feel so guilty eating it. But I love peanuts too. And chocolate. And caramel. So I have the essential energy and the just as essential endorphin to survive the afternoon. Moral of the story: comfort is a biochemical reaction.