Mint Aero: Chocolate Bar of the Week

Ever wanted to know what it would be like to bite into a cloud spun from the finest milk chocolate? Well, you should get yourself an Aero, or even better, it’s minty cousin. The process behind the Aero and Mint Aero’s unique texture, in which delicate chocolate shells are filled with an aerated interior, was developed in the 1930′s and has remained a firm favorite on the British chocolate scene ever since. What results is a bar of seven segments, each light, fluffy, and utterly delicious.

Over the years, Aero has come in many different flavors, including vanilla and orange, and over summer we stocked the new caramel variety. But the only one that’s held it’s own, other than the Original milk chocolate, is the Mint Aero. And it’s easy to see why – the bubbly composition of the bar and the delicate minty flavor compliment each other perfectly.

The Mint Aero has a distinctive green interior, covered with a milk chocolate shell.

As with all chocolate bars featured, the Mint Aero is only $2, and can be shipped, just get in touch on 212-989-9735, or at info@teaandsympathynewyork.com.

Lion Bar: Chocolate Bar of the Week #7

This week’s chocolate bar is on old-school favorite. No swanky ingredients here; no bubbles, or flakes or frills on top, just a good ol’ slab of milk chocolate, crammed with wafer, caramel and some crisp cereal.

Originally released in 1970 by Rowntree, the Lion Bar was known in some areas of the UK as the Big Cat. Now part of the Nestle stable, Lion Bar is a firm favorite back in Blighty. Its secret comes from a perfect balance of crispy wafer and chewy caramel, all encased in a generous helping of heaven’s nectar (aka. Milk chocolate). Unbeatable as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack with a hot cuppa.

As with all chocolate bars featured, we sell Lion Bar’s in-store for $2, and can ship: send us an email (info@teaandsympathynewyork.com), or give us a call (212-989-9735). And with Christmas on the horizon, may we point out how perfectly stocking-sized British chocolate bars are!

Walnut Whip: Chocolate of the Week #6

An old-school classic, loved by kids and their grandparents alike.  Indulgent vanilla fondant filling lies within a rich whirl of Nestlé milk chocolate, topped off with a whole walnut. Launched in 1910, this is Nestlé’s oldest product and its popularity shows no sign of waning – a million walnuts a week are used in the production of Walnut Whips, and one is eaten every two seconds in Britain!

An interesting aside – Walnut Whip’ is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘kip’, meaning sleep.

Available from ‘Carry On Tea & Sympathy’, our produce store next door, for only $2 a go. Well worth a try!

Smarties: Chocolate of the Week #2

Our Smarties are NOT like your Smarties. Oh no no no, we are not talking about the chalky pastels that pass for ‘America’s Favorite Candy Roll’, but instead the delicious sugar-shelled chocolate buttons from Nestlé, cousins of M&M’s if anything.

Smarties have been in production since 1882, originally sold as ‘Chocolate Beans’. They now come in eight colors (red, orange, blue, green, yellow, pink, violet and brown) and constitute of a crisp, sugary shell encasing a buttery nugget of chocolate. Utterly delicious and lots of fun – Smarties tend to be a firm favorite with the kids.

Not to get too philosophical about a chocolate pellet, but Smarties are a very quintessentially British ‘treat’. Over to Bill Bryson for further explanation:

“And the British are so easy to please.  It’s the most extraordinary thing.  They actually like their pleasures small.  That’s why so many of their treats – tea cakes, scones, crumpets, rock cakes, rich tea biscuits, fruit Shrewsburys – are so cautiously flavorful.  They’re the only people in the world who think of jam and currants as thrilling constituents of a pudding or cake.”

We feel Smarties fit perfectly into this classification.

And did you know, the technical name for the shape of a Smartie is an oblate spheroid… As well as easy to please, it turns out we Brits are actually quite boring as well. We really can’t work out why you all want to marry us so much?!

The pre-2006 technicolor Smarties. Responsible for many a Brit's first narcotic experience.

Since 2006, Smarties have been proudly ‘free of artificial colourings and flavourings’. Keep it a secret, but we kinda preferred the neon shades of yore – especially as there was a longstanding rumor that if you ate too many blue smarties, the dye would send you crazy!