It’s a Halloween tradition. Every year, when digging around through my surplus fun-size candy, I rediscover Aero. It’s a chocolate bar I’d never normally buy on its own in a full-size version, but in fun-size, it’s perfect.
Why do I like it? Because there are no bells and whistles. It’s just chocolate, infused with a ton of tiny little air bubbles. There are no pieces of candied fruit, no flecks of peanuts, no nougat swirl. After plowing through a ton of more fanciful Halloween treats, the quiet simplicity of Aero wins me over.
Of course, once the Halloween stockpile has been eliminated, I abandon Aero again for another year. It’s a cruel, cruel world for plain-jane chocolate bars.
This year, I thought I’d challenge this slight, just to prove to myself that Aero shouldn’t be neglected in the other months of the year. And what’s this? A dark chocolate Aero? You’re on, chocolate gods. You’re on.
The Pitch: Catchphrase: “Feel the bubbles.” Science-ish: “Aero Dark is made with 70% cocoa, making it an excellent source of magnesium, and it contains naturally occurring polyphenols like epicatechin (44 mg per 42 g bar).”
The Look: Very nice, very classy packaging. The appearance is very modern and “premium,” with gold accents and a palate of dark, rich browns. The bar itself is a series of eight connected speed bumps of chocolate, which makes it easy to share (if that’s your inclination).
The Taste: Aero is half about the taste, and half about the texture. The bubbles change the way the chocolate dissolves in the mouth – it’s a different sensation than with a piece of solid chocolate. As much as I like dark chocolate, I think the standard Aero milk chocolate is a better match for this bubbly treatment. The chocolate itself has a lightly fruity intensity (as expected with a 70% cocoa chocolate bar), though the flavour is more dull than it could be. It feels like it’s missing something. What, I don’t know, but something’s not quite right.
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RATINGS AND DETAILS
Cost: $1.49 at Shoppers Drug Mart in Calgary.
Value for cash money: Good.
Availability: Here and there. It’s not one of the standard handful of bars that you’ll find on every candy rack, but it’s not obscure.
Nutrition?: Per bar (42 grams): 250 calories, 16 grams of fat, 0 mg of sodium, 4 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein. Vitamin/mineral wise, 35% daily value of iron, and 25% daily value of magnesium.
The verdict: OK. Clearly not as good as a premium chocolate bar, but an OK step in the right direction. I prefer the milk chocolate Aero.
Yes I’ve picked up a few every now’n’then when {‘m feeling nostalgic. There was a time*shudder*when the old original milk chocolate Aero was one of the few decent chocolate bars out there. I’ve actually found the 70% version(as well as the 70% Kit Kat) for 69 cents per bar at the various $ Stores…Dollarama occasionally.
I have a personal problem with this product.. Oh don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of it. I picked it up at the checkout line yesterday. It is not the delicious taste I have a problem with.
My biggest problem is that this product seemed to have set a trend to “aerated chocolate” I had a problem with it in the seventies when this British product came out. The concept is really old, dating back to the thirties (a process patended by John Todd & Rowntree Ltd.)
OK.. for those not following where I am heading let’s think about this. A process that pump air into 50% of the chocolate bar. A 3.6 oz bar can now be manufactured with 1.8 oz worth of chocolate. That’s right folks.. the air bubbles occupy space, space which otherwise could have been occupied by real chocolate.
If you don’t mind paying for two bars of chocolate and only getting one, this product is for you.
Hmmm. And yet, if you buy your chocolate bar based on weight, a 42-gram Aero bar is going to be made with 42 grams of chocolate, as the weight of the air will be negligible. The air will indeed fluff up the bar, making less chocolate look like more, but it won’t matter to the weight. A 42-gram bar of solid chocolate will be smaller in size but equal in weight to a 42-gram Aero bar, as the bubbles only contribute volume to the Aero, not weight.
And as I said, if I’m only paying 69 cents…that’s pretty reasonable imho.
Quite right. 🙂 At that price, it’s totally worth it.
You misunderstood my point. Obviously a pound of steel is the same weight as a pound of feather. I was referring to a size/appearance of a 3.6 oz bar which can be manufactured with 1.8 oz (it will occupy the same size in the wrapper) –this is why I stated clearly “air bubles occupy SPACE, space which otherwise can be occupied by real chocolate”
You’re right about the size/appearance thing. If someone is buying a bar based on size rather than weight, they’re going to feel cheated out of some chocolate.
But your initial post actually got me curious about the size/weight of other chocolate bars at my grocery store checkout, and how they compare to Aero. Near as I can tell, Aero may be a bit lighter than many other chocolate bars, but rarely is it half as light. Also, on a chocolate-as-percentage-of-weight basis, all 42 grams of an Aero are going to be chocolate. Unless another chocolate bar is similarly chocolate-only, a 60-gram chocolate bar may easily have less than 42 grams of chocolate in it, once you discount the nougat, the nuts, the raisins, the caramel, the peanut butter, the rice crisps, etc. If it’s chocolate you’re after, a much lighter bar might have significantly more chocolate than a larger bar. 🙂
You prefer the milk variant? That’ s unbelevable! That has nothing to do with the real cocoa taste with the bubbels. I am so disapointed I nowhere can buy Aero DARK. Some years ago you could find them in stores but that is history..