Maltesers ARE NEW?

My family thinks I do not get excited. Not true I often exhibit this on the inside and on some special  and rare occasions on the outside. So when I was recently shopping my local Krogers supermarket I wish my family  had been with me because I believe I did have one of those rare outwardly excited moments.
I love to bargain shop and so after already having shopped most of the areas that bargains reside at this branch of Krogers  I though a quick check of the seasonal section might yield some left over from Christmas treasure before I headed up to the nearby registers. The area was it turned out now completely absorbed by the Valentine/Easter candy and novelty items. I  saw smack in the middle of all of those many boxes and packages of sweets (candy to Americans) a package that looked strangely familiar the strange part was it was not American candy but English sweets. No my eyes must be laying a trick on me as I started to pick the package up I nearly put it down again, It said NEW what I had thought it was had been around longer than I and was definitely not NEW. I picked it up anyway now curiouse to see what was NEW. It couldn't be,   it was MALTESERS. For those that grew up in America you probably have tried Whoppers. Whoppers according to wikipedia "Whoppers are malted milk balls covered with artificial "chocolatey coating" produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a small, round ball about 3/4 of an inch in diameter."

 This was the nearest I could find on a regular basis to Maltesers. Yes places like Chinese grocery stores sometimes have them or a visit to places like Canada or World Market could for a price find some but you cannot just go the the grocers and buy some :( . 
If i could get whoppers what did it matter you might ask. Here is the wikipedia description for Maltesers "Maltesers are a confectionery product manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. Maltesers consist of a roughly spherical malt honeycomb-like structured centre, surrounded by milk chocolate. Maltesers are sold in a variety of packaging, including plastic bags (ranging in size from small 'fun-size' upwards), larger cardboard boxes and tubes, and plastic buckets (ranging in size from medium to very large). " notice it has a milk chocolate surround not a  artificial "chocolatey coating" whatever that is. By the way the inside are so much better on Maltesers too!

Apparently created by the American Forrest Mars, Sr. in England in 1936, and first sold in 1937.
Strange that until now they have not been more easily available here? 
Anyway I compared this fresh bag with a worldmarket bag from Christmas.

The bag on the top is from world market and costs almost three dollars, Tasty crunchy wonderful and yes kind of expensive. The bag below cost 99 cents has it turned out even more crunchy fresh tasting and a lot less expensive so I will cut the blog off at this point so you if smart enough can do the right thing. The right thing in case you did not figure it out is to run to the store (or drive) and go try them for yourselves.

"The lighter way to enjoy chocolate"

"Nothing pleases like Maltesers"

Elder Betty, Coffee Crisp, and Violet Crumble

  The following several posts are late in being posted. Other things took over and the post was stalled until my family convinced me I had truly been remiss.
February birthday celebration continues, with Elder Betty from Mad Hatter.

This beer has a good flavour that does justice to its name. The elderberry flavour complements the flavour of the beer. Not a heavy or strong flavour but an enjoyable one.

I also tasted  a couple of my Christmas gifts. The first, Coffee Crisp, is one of my wifes favourites. (Which shows how giving she can be) It is, however, confusing that she likes it, since its pleasent coffee flavour would normally have her spitting it out. She hates coffee.

Anyway a nice mild coffee flavour, with a crisp wafer, surrounded in a nice thin layer of chocolate. MMM...good.

Finally Violet Crumble, made by Nestle in Australia, a poor imitation of Crunchie bars, which I love. You might think by saying this I am saying I don't like Violet Crumble. Well, you would be wrong. I very much enjoyed this.It's just that I like Crunchie more.

Something interesting I did find with this, and several other chocolate/candy items: the recipe changes from country to country. England offers the best version. Australia's is still good, but not as good. And least favourite is Canada, where things like bicarbonate of soda can clearly be tasted in items like Crunchie bars. Normally it is either not present or very subtle.