I stumbled upon this little tasty surprise the other day, while visiting a small mom and pop shop in my neighborhood here in Korea. What did I find you ask? A bar of chocolate from Hershey’s named Sprinkles ’n’ Crème! I’ve never seen this bar before, so I excitedly snatched the bar and brought it home to do some research. I went on the Hershey’s website and I couldn’t find a single thing about this bar of chocolate there. This leads me to believe it might be a Korean-exclusive candy bar from the uber-famous brand, Hershey’s.
Now, Nestlé and their Kit-Kat bars have a history of producing some wild flavors found only in Japan, but I’ve never seen Hershey’s try this maneuver before, especially here in South Korea. This is a welcome twist of events in my opinion. I know that I love to see new and exciting products hit the market. And, if you’re viewing this, I’m sure you do too!
While I usually don’t talk about candy bars, lest review them. Today is a perfect exception, because I’m total stoked about this find. And to be perfectly honest…
This bar also had a brother, err… sister. I’ll get around to reviewing that bar in the coming days, but first here are my thoughts on Sprinkles ’n’ Crème!
Packaging:
I’m a sucker for colors and Sprinkles ’n’ Creme has lots of them! The wrapper is fun, bright, and features a colorful design that just begs to be purchased from your local supermarket.
To give you a quick rundown of the design, it reminds of a bar of Hershey’s White Chocolate. They aren’t all that dissimilar. However, the design is made different with it’s colorful, rainbow text. The edges of the bar look like ice cream cones with sprinkles, which speak directly to the flavor of this chocolate bar. The Hershey’s labeled white chocolate pieces are even shaped like ice cream cones. One of them didn’t make it, because it melted… so sad… There’s also a pile of sprinkles on the label, just in case you forgot you were going to be eating them.
The bar is classically packaged at 39 grams (~1.38 ounces) and a not-so-waistline-destroying 205 calories. This bar is definitely a few grams lighter than our American counterpart chocolate bars or maybe the weight just varies depending on the type of chocolate bar. A lot of things here in Korea tend to be on the lighter side, so it’s to be expected.
The package opened easily by slipping the wrapper from the rear of the bar. Upon opening this white chocolate unicorn bar, no shavings of chocolate went flying about. It didn’t make even the slightest mess.
Flavor:
There are quite a few layers of flavor to this new bar of chocolate from Hershey’s. The base is clearly white chocolate, but the sprinkles bring out the taste of fruity notes that burst in your mouth as it sends you back to childhood memories of the past. You can almost taste the candle wax that has fallen from a birthday candle onto your slice of cake. It’s that tasty.
The initial taste from this bar begins with the intensely sweet flavor of white chocolate. This quickly transitions into ice cream with sprinkles or rather, birthday cake, once you masticate the tiny speckles of sprinkles.
Call me crazy, but I feel like the sprinkles have flavors to them. It might just be the colors talking, but something tastes fruity to me. Either that or my brain is just getting fooled by the rainbow colored messages it keeps receiving from this bar of chocolate. I’m going to go all-in and say there has to be an added flavor dimension here coming from the sprinkles.
Aroma:
The aroma of Sprinkles ’n’ Crème is surprisingly “fruity” with a healthy dose of birthday cake. The smell of white chocolate is as subtle as a sugary cloud. It would be easily missed if I didn’t have the nose of a bloodhound. There’s also a milky quality to the aroma that has hints of a rich and creamy vanilla ice cream. Taken in combination, the notes of the aroma bring to mind the birthday party’s of my childhood. You can almost relive the moment you tasted the birthday cake and ice cream. The aroma really does pack a strong sense of nostalgia, at least for myself.
Texture:
No surprise here! To touch, this bar has the consistency of a bar of Hershey’s White Chocolate. It left a sticky residue on my fingers, but didn’t melt during the time I was “playing” with it. You might have sticky fingers, but you’re not going to make a complete mess. Something that Hershey’s bars are known for, in my opinion. Other lesser bars of chocolate will leave your fingers in ruin — covered in a chocolatey mess.
The mouthfeel of Hershey’s Sprinkles ’n’ Crème is unlike the classic chocolate or white chocolate bars, which are waxy, creamy, and smooth. This one has colorful sprinkles buried within, which changeup the texture quite a bit.
The chocolate is firm, before giving way to a waxy, yet smooth texture once in melts in your mouth. It does have a bit of grit to it, mostly because of the hardened texture of the sprinkles as your molars grind through them. I typically like my chocolate smooth, but this bar of chocolate is simply more fun with sprinkles. If you can make it past the added grittiness, I think you’ll enjoy it too.
The Verdict:
There’s a good reason why flavors like birthday cake have found their way into the mainstream of ice cream and now chocolate! The flavor dances within your mind like the sweetest of highs, while you get blasted back in time to remember Johnnie’s totally radical birthday party, complete with Happy Meals and lots of cake and ice cream. Radical, dude!
This chocolate succeeds at doing all of the above with a flavor of decadence that is nostalgic, yet at the same time, refreshing for the collection of chocolate bars Hershey’s has created over the years. The flavor is rather unique for chocolate bars in general. This bar is extremely sweet, but still manages to provide a few extra flavor dimensions to not seem so overpoweringly unidimensional.
Hershey’s Sprinkles ’n’ Crème has me excited. Are we finally going to see a chocolate bar renaissance from Hershey’s that is the chocolatey equivalent of Kit-Kat Japan’s wildly unique flavors that seem to never reach the west? I seriously hope so! This simple bar of chocolate is one delicious step in the right direction.
What are your thoughts?
So, what are your thoughts about Hershey’s Sprinkles ’n’ Crème? Do you love the flavor of birthday cake or vanilla ice cream with sprinkles? What flavor of chocolate bar would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re interested in hearing about Korean snack nuts or instant ramen, check out my on-going series, Noodle Story: An Exploration of Korean Instant Noodles and my other series, I Think I’m Going Nuts: An Eyeful of South Korea’s Little Snack Nuts, here on Medium.
