Vote for your Dream Bean

Oh my, August is nearly over and this is only my second post of the month! It's not for lack of candy, that's for sure, I've just been preoccupied. I wanted to let you know that you don't have to wait until November to rock the vote. Right now, Jelly Belly is letting the public vote for their next jelly bean flavor. Your choices are: Mojito, Honey, Sublime Chili Lime, Thai Iced Tea, and Acai Berry. Go to www.dreambeancontest.com to cast your vote.

Frankly, I think my suggestion of a jelly donut flavored Jelly Belly should have made the top 5, but that's just my humble opinion. Maybe I'm a little biased (and bitter).

U-NO this is gross, right?

How fitting that last night I happened to catch a Friends re-run of the "mockolate" episode since I just had a mockolate experience of my very own. Usually I am not a chocolate snob. I don't know what the substance is inside of a Sixlet, nor do I know the chemical compound of the brown coating covering a Charleston Chew, but they taste good to me so I don't really care. My feelings changed once I encountered the U-NO candy bar.

U-NO candy bars have been a predominately West Coast treat since the 1920's. In 1970, the Annabelle Candy Company, which also manufactures the awesome Abba-Zaba, acquired the rights to the U-NO and has been producing them ever since. At first glance, the U-NO looks intriguing with it's shiny silver wrapper and bold font claiming, "Rich Creamy Chocolate". I knew going in that this bar was just going to be a big bite of all chocolate, but I thought I could handle it. Unwrapped, U-NO is a long brown rectangle, maybe a little bigger than a Giant Kit Kat, with slight ripples of "chocolate" along it's surface. The description on the Annabelle Candy Company website describes it as "smooth, rich milk chocolate truffle-like center, covered in milk chocolate and ground almonds". Ground almonds? Well, if they're in there they must be pulverized into dust, because I sure couldn't see them (or taste them for that matter).


The best way I can think of how to describe the experience of eating a U-NO bar is this: imagine eating a spoonful of Crisco shortening mixed with not-completely-dissolved powdered Nesquik drink mix. That's it in a nutshell. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the actual recipe. There was an unexplainable greasiness to the bar that left a film on the back of my teeth and roof of my mouth. It didn't melt in my mouth like normal chocolate, rather it kind of vaporized. And there was a bit of saltiness to it too. Overall, this substance called the U-NO bar is a mystery to me. A mystery I don't want to solve. Dare I say, it even gives mockolate a bad name.

Annabelle Candy Company Inc.