Abbott's Also Candy Store Milk Chocolates

The first chocolate place I visited on my 2012 20th wedding anniversary trip was Abbott's Also Candy Shop in NW Indianapolis.  I've all ready shared the shop with you all as one of our "On the Road" posts so today we're going to look at the milk chocolates from the 1/2 pound box they gave us for review.  There were no labels for the pieces so I'm just going to call these Milks 1-5 and describe every thing in full sensory fashion.  I spread out the enjoyment of these over the course of a week, Moderation, remember, but you get to feast your eyes on these right now.

Milk 1 has an odd shape to it, I can see several pieces of something underneath the milk chocolate layer that has a cocoa and vanilla fragrance to it but nothing to give me a hint by smell of what I can see.   I think I make out a pecan shape there, do you?  But I also see several smaller and more rounded shapes as well.  I take a crunching bite into the pecan shape and discover it is a pecan that has a very sweet flavor as though it has been glazed.  Another crunch into a rounded shape isn't as sweet, but I can't quite place the nut, though these tone down the sweetness of the pecans letting the more natural nuttiness out.  There are no layers of caramel or nougat here, just nuts and milk chocolate, so I think this is a mixed nut milk chocolate treat.  The various nuts are all crunchy, some sweet, others not, but the milk chocolate has vanilla a creaminess to it that is the first and final flavor meaning this is a well-balanced piece.

Milk 2 looks similar but not identical to the one above, clearly there are nuts somewhere underneath the milk chocolate but this has more heft to it and also a tangy caramel smell.   One of the specialities from Abbott's Also is their Gismos, a type of turtle candy with pecans and their famous caramel all covered in milk chocolate.  I'm betting this is one of these but let me take a bite to find out.  There is a soft crunch as I take a bite to find a bottom layer of thick caramel and a top layer of several pecan pieces, yup, I guessed correctly.  The nuts are not sweet like in the previous candy and the caramel has a strong tang to it, both of these flavors almost outstrip the milk chocolate but at the end it's thickness and creaminess remind the final essence in my mouth.

Milk 3 reminds me of a peanut butter cup in terms of the shape and the way the paper cut sticks to it, suggesting the chocolate was poured directly into it and just placed in it after it was formed.  It also has a roasted peanut and milk chocolate fragrance so with two senses I'm fairly certain of my identification. I take a bite and the bottom makes a snap sound.  I didn't guess right this time.  On the bottom is something white and sweet, I think it might be coconut, but the top is several half peanuts all covered in perhaps caramel and of course milk chocolate.  If I'd known I could have given it to our Fruit Acolyte who can also handle coconut for us when that particular assistant is unavailable.  I can say that it isn't a strong coconut flavor but also that this like some of bars we covered from different decades like the Mallo Cup or the Cup O'Gold but in a two bite size.

Milk 4 looks like Abbott's Toffee, English variety covered with milk chocolate.  This has a toffee scent to it through the milk chocolate layer so by two senses now I believe this is indeed the Toffee.  These are big at 1.25 square with over a quarter an inch thickness to them and they feel heavy but then toffee is dense.  A snap can be heard when I take a bite.  This is the solid form of toffee and inside I can see almond slivers so if you have tree nut allergies be aware of this.  The initial flavor is the milk chocolate but that melts leaving behind the crunchy toffee with its tangy sweetness and almond buttery essence as the dominant feature.

Milk 5 has a oblong shape to it that might suggest another nut and it isn't the round shape that Abbott's creams generally are.  It has a primarily creamy chocolate scent to it and when I take a bite it makes no sound because the center is soft and fluffy.  A burst of chocolate then a coolness of mint fill my mouth then these fade to a chocolaty cool cream flavor with the mint only in the tingle in my mouth.  So this is a mint milk chocolate then with the mint as part of the creamy chocolate center.  That's interesting because the shape completely fooled me into thinking this was something entirely different.  I think chocolate lovers who like mint will find this a nice comparison when normally we think of dark chocolate and mint together.

Abbott's Also Candy Shop has two locations in Indianapolis run by the same family so if you visit either, mention this review to them.  Milk chocolate fades more quickly than dark so it isn't surprising that one of these candies ended up being less chocolate than we would hope.  But four out of the five were very well balanced in terms of the chocolate and you should give them a try.  Taking this into account plus the desire to support more state business and family owned and operated companies, Abbott's Also milk chocolate gets an OK in terms of Sacrament status but I'm betting their darker chocolates will be even better so come back later this summer to see that feature.