Last night I went to Albertson's to peruse the bulk aisle for snacks, and on the way there almost ran into a display for Mars' new candybar Fling (It was originally introduced in Austrialia in 2007). Upon further investigation, and a tasting today with Kristi at Starbucks, I am not sure how I feel about this anymore. One of the companies marketing slogans is, "Your boyfriend doesn't need to know". Doesn't need to know what? That even though you claim to be on a diet, you're hoarding low fat chocolate behind his back? That you're having a torrid love affair with a "chocolate finger"? Does he care? Really? And what's with the term "Chocolate finger"? That raises all kinds of questions I don't want answered.
Mars new candy bar Fling.Geared,
retardedly at best, at women, the packaging is feminine and sweet, silver with a pink splash, that looks like it walked out of any emo kids deviantart account, and a cutesy script makes girls think twice as they run past it on their way to the bulk aisle. The picture on the package shows you it's kind of like
Twix's second rate cousin that comes over and sleeps on your couch for a week and eats all your food without offering to so much as replace anything. From all the reviews I've read it seemed like it might taste the same, but I was slightly surprised.
Fling in Hazelnut.
On the outside Fling is drizzled with a milk chocolate layer that contains, of all things, sparkles. The initial thought was "ooh pretty" quickly replaced with the thought "
OMG I'm eating glitter...". The "glitter" in question is
mica, a tasteless natural mineral found in rocks and body shimmer, which is safe to eat, and geared toward women and fabulously gay men. The FAQ on the website also states; "The shimmer, is actually a [sic] FDA approved mineral called Mica, that shimmers and is used occasionally by specialty
chocolatiers to add a unique and attractive sparkle to gourmet chocolate." Andy Wright of
Mother Jones writes, "Popularly known as Vitamin S (for Sparkle), Mica is also used in makeup, and in toothpaste, where it acts as a mild abrasive that helps whiten teeth. Yum!" Indeed.
Choc full-o-glitter!Kristi and I sampled 2 of their 3 flavors, Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut, (I omitted the Dark Chocolate in favor of Hazelnut). Each bar whops an 85 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 9 grams of sugar, and for a so-called candy bar, "diet" or not, it's not a bad deal.
The milk chocolate one was simply that, a milk chocolate "truffle" on a
meringuey type wafer cookie, covered in milk chocolate, good but not anything to get too jazzed about. The Hazelnut one was much better, especially for all you
Nutella lovers out there. Both bars were very rich and almost too much to finish.
It seems to me that the little wafer is basically a hard meringue cookie which replaces the normal caramel and butter cookies in most candy bars, by taking away the fat without replacing the crunch, leaving you feeling as if you've been satiated.
For those of you on diets who have those late night chocolate or candy bar cravings, Fling is perfect. It comes over promising to fulfill your desires, and you indulge, yet in the morning as you wake up, candy wrapper on the floor, you don't feel as if you cheated as much as maybe you could have. They might as well have named this
candy bar "One Night Stand", but I suppose "Fling" is much more PC and romantic for the 20-30 somethings. You're more likely to brag about a fling, than a seedy encounter at a
dimly lit bar that leaves you feeling bad in the morning. Curiosity got the best of me this time, and I think for what its worth, Fling isn't too bad, but honestly, if you plan to indulge in chocolate, I think Hortense over at
Jezebel said it best, "...why have a Fling with a novelty bar when you can have a lifelong relationship with a Snickers? I mean, really." I know, right?
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