Schoko-Orangen and Schoko-Bananen (Casali)

 Brand: Casali

Calories: 37 a piece

Calories per gram: 3.9

Price: $3.95

Where I found it: University of Washington Bookstore

Where you can find it: I honestly don't know.

Alright, I'll admit it: I bought this because it was Austrian.  *brick'd*  Had this been any other American snack, this would have been easily glanced over as the average Hershey bar.  No, once I saw the large SCHOKO-ORANGEN in large letters, I thought, "WTF, GERMAN!"  My mom wasn't any better, either, since she said, "Woah, this looks interesting!  Let's buy boxes and boxes of this stuff!"

This morning I had a chance to eat a piece of these things.  The presentation, I must say, was certainly interesting:

They look like terribly burnt, flattened croissants, ahah!  But it's clear they're meant to resemble orange slices, seeing that the name of the product is "Shoko-Orangen."  If you lift the bottom of the white paper, there's another layer of these orange slices--thank goodness, because this box is expensive.  

One piece is quite light at only about 9 grams, and as if these were produced during a bout of food rationing, Casali makes sure you get your daily sugar.

THE SUGAR!  THE SUGAAAR!  One tiny nibble is enough to send an army of orange, sugary tartness rushing towards your mouth.  As usual I'm overexaggerating, but really, folks--one piece is enough.  In actuality, though, I expected it to be far sweeter than what really comprised Schoko-Orangen.

I also expected it to be a chocolate shell with a saccharine orange syrupy filling, which to my pleasant surprise, was not.  It was a soft marshmallow, but not a very fluffy one.  

Schoko-Orangen likes to scream orange at you, because the chocolate was barely present, just struggling on the bare ridges of a cliff.  Even as I sought out the chocolate, the orange still dominated obstinately.  Still, with only one piece my "dessert desire" was satiated.

Buying a box wasn't a mistake, fortunately, and I would enjoy eating Schoko-Orangen (albeit very slowly).  If only the chocolate coating would have a stronger role!

 Brand: Casali

Calories: 50 a piece

Calories per gram: 4

Price: $3.95

Where I found it: University of Washington Bookstore

Where you can find it: German Deli

 

Enter Schoko-Bananen, Schoko-Orangen's more infamous, phallus-resembling brother.  It seems to be more popular perhaps because of the rarity of banana-flavored snacks in general.  And banana-flavored snacks!  How notorious they can be, just as chocolate Skittles are, seeing as they never taste decent enough off the tree.

Although after opening a box of Schoko-Orangen and having held expectations of what Schoko-Bananen would look like, it was somehow more... mundane?

They're obviously supposed to be bananas, of course, but they might as well have been chocolate eclairs.  No matter, though, it's the taste snacks are the point of, is it not?

Arggh.  This took far too many tries to photograph and it still doesn't look right.  Ah well.  

Much like Schoko-Orangen, Schoko-Bananen attacked my tongue with sugar, sugar.  It surely caught me off guard with its authentic banana taste and, uh, I can't really decide if I should be amazed or creeped out that they packaged "natural Chiquita bananas," meant to last a while on the shelf. 

Moreso than its orange counterpart was Schoko-Bananen a mystery concerning texture.  With Schoko-Orangen, it would be silly to assume that it would imitate the juicy blast an orange has when you bite into it, and so the marshmallow texture doesn't seem strange.  Schoko-Bananen, however, is a cross between the texture of an actual banana and a really firm marshmallow.  My first impression was that it was a chewier, firmer banana.

As for the taste, it was just like an actual banana!  Miracle, right?  Well, before you run out to your nearest Austrian grocer (lucky, lucky you), it should be noted that, in general, Europeans like their bananas on the unripened side.  I do too, so I enjoyed eating Schoko-Bananen, but other people may find the banana too sour.  

I'm paying Schoko-Bananen plenty of compliments (whoo, alliteration!), but to be honest, it was quite lackluster.  The chocolate, like in Schoko-Orangen, had hardly a role, and all it had left me was an intriguing imitation of a banana, and though good-tasting, was just that.  If anything, it had me hunger for an actual banana because it isn't the same thing.  However, at only 50 calories a piece, it serves as a good substitute for the real taste.