On a typical early Friday evening in a classroom at the
end of the hall, fifteen students sit idly while earnestly listening to their
professor’s lecture that started a few minutes pass 5pm. His talk began with a
modest conversation about the track of the subject’s course outline and like in
most cases these story-telling part of the class is always as lively as a boy
who had a few chucks of chocolate for energy boosters. As he patiently stirred
his steaming hot cup of coffee using the rolled-up coffee sachet (ingeniously
creative – ‘ahem), catching a few glances here and there, he comically tells
his bits of anecdotes, like stories posted on a timeline that are mostly a
variety of opinions, principles and what-not’s in government, and nosy businesses
and dirty politics. It was quite unpredicted action that ensue when he pulled
out an item from among his things, turned to us with his eyes wide open staring
over his glasses, ripped its packaging and readily shared its contents to everybody.
And since he allows us to take any knick-knacks during his class, it was quite
obvious that this was a treat to enjoy, and we sure did. We even have a laugh
at it when one of us tried to slip what was left in the package in the other
student’s bag which the teacher caught. A good laugh and Choc Nut is indeed a
delight to share.
Like your common Marca Pina Soy Sauce or a Datu Puti Suka, Choc
Nut is a Filipino household name in the arena of sweet treats that almost loved by everybody by mere reputation. It is an undeniable fact that this Filipino couture of sorts,
in the field of mainstream delicacies, is not even a full pledge
chocolate in its own right, but, it has captured countless hearts and
paletes.
This magical little bar is popularly known as Choc-Nut.
Its full product name is “King Choc Nut Peanut Milk Chocolate”. Quite a bit “corny”
for a chocolate bar some might think, but once you’ve grabbed one and nibble on
a bite, you’d quickly realize
it’s not so silly after all, and that’s a guarantee. King Choc Nut Peanut Milk Chocolates are
manufactured and distributed by Annie’s Sweets Manufacturing and Packaging
Corporation. This sweets company is located in Jica Road, Buhay na Tubig, Imus,
Cavite.
While a few of you might already be in a state of
reminiscing, others may be staring with blank faces as to what this product
looks like? Let me tell you some of its features. The entire packaging: a
combination of gold on the bottom part of the package and red on the product
label.
The individual wrapped packaging shows a bite size bar
shaped mini chocolate rolled in a foil and wrapped in a plastic with red
horizontal lines bearing the Choc Nut logo. The previous wrapper it has was
made of paper bearing the same design as now. Someone might ask what would it
taste like? Its relative sting on your tongue would be different from that of how
others would discover it, nonetheless, its namesake suggests exactly what it is
– a sweet nutty milky chocolate bar. Its big taste and its character is brought
to life by these simple ingredients, roasted peanuts, cane sugar, milk powder,
cocoa powder, and vanilla.
In answering further this particular question of taste uniqueness,
I tried conducting a taste-test survey among
a few of my classmates and professors to know who may have the same
liking for Choc-Nut, and to make the opinion gathering worthwhile, I infused a
variety of subjects for scrutiny. Come to think of it, this might be my first
crowdsourcing? Elegant!
And the contenders are:
Choc Nut
Hany Milk Chocolate
BarNuts
Choc-O-Star
The Judges Verdict:
Choc Nut
Although the Choc Nut falls apart as soon as you open it,
we withhold this due to its simple structure. This same structure is evident
among all participants. As for Choc-Nut, it was refreshingly a simple mixture
of tastes of a strong flavor of milky peanut without the peanut buttery
taste. Sweetness was light with a trace of bitterness, probably from
the salt added. Kind of rough or coarse in texture, and mostly dark brown in
color. Its reputation precedes its taste in most cases, and is without a
question a ready favorite for most who took the survey.
Hany Milk
Chocolate
It is
surprisingly noticeable that the packaging is pretty simple, the HANY logo is
decked out in a 50's-style font and almost copying Choc-Nut's package. However,
it readily makes up for like the choc-nut bar itself. The wrapper can be easily
removed and you can try swallowing it in whole, although there are times that
they crumble depending on your touch or grab. It has a very milky, sweet taste.
Some of the taste-testers commented that its sweetness vary from time to time probably
resulting from the quality of sugar used in manufacturing. It’s color also
varies, sometimes it is light brown in color while at other times its darker.
Nonetheless, it seems to be a surprising favorite for most.
Bar-Nuts
The packaging is pretty simple, with a
cartoon ant carrying a realistic photo of a choc-nut. This could the cheapest
choc-nut-like bar in the local market, amounting to less than ₽20 pesos. But
the catch here would be its size, yes, it’s small and almost a fraction of the
usual Choc-Nut bar and it has a darker color compared to its counter-part.
However, the wrapper is easy to remove and they taste pretty solid and pure for
a choc-nut. But what can you expect for a small choc-nut? Some of the opinions
gathered are, coarse in texture, sweetness is more relative to that of a locally-
made peanut butter.
Choc-O-Star
This
local milk choco bar can be considered a rookie in terms of popularity, hardly unknown
to the ones I surveyed. Most of the comments it garnered places it a notch
behind Choc Nut in terms of taste, sweeetness, texture and an overall impression
that its light to the senses, surprising low impact with a possible degree of likability.
Of the nineteen persons surveyed, there were only eleven returned
ballots that were qualified for canvassing (staged politics?) An
undistinguishable differences in terms of sweetness, texture and packaging were
announced making this challenge a head to head battle for all four
participants. The final ruling however, made two stand out and square it off
in terms of “expected standing” and a “surprising performance”. These two
are, the old favorite Choc-Nut and its challenger, Hany Milk Chocolate. Odds
were placed as two-to-one in favor of Choc-Nut, and for a moment, this may have
been the case if it not for a barrage of clashing looks, peculiar taste-buds and bottles of
mineral water to quickly drench the panels’ after-taste. Hany Milk Chocolate which was
deemed an underdog, fought hard to inch its way to first place. Although as it almost turned the favor around, surprisingly it only came in second behind a solitary vote that pushed Choc-Nut ahead the hard-fighting adversary. A daunted task have finally been revealed as who was the best among the ranks, so far. But don’t count out the second best, we
all, at one point do crave for sweets and everybody gets second chances….or
opinions in this case.
So what are you waiting for? Place your bets, dig in and
enjoy to your heart’s content. c”,)
