Black Thunder – Corn
Something that not a lot of people appreciate about me is my perspective that nothing in life is ever as simple as black and white, or yes and no. Life would be too simple if it was binary, and that’s not we humans operate. I see this as something that extends to nearly everything. In particular, food. I’ve done this long enough that there’s a good chance I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again anyways. We are in a wonderful time in which we are breaking down the boundaries of food and mixing random things together until something sticks. It isn’t like we didn’t do these things before, but we are doing them at such a rapid pace that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices and options available to us.
As I continue typing this, I realize that maybe I over hyped the concept of fusion and combination of ideas and going to radical places. Thinking about it now, today’s product isn’t revolutionary or polarizing. In fact, it’s not that crazy of an idea, I don’t think.
I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be any specific brand or type of corn, just that it’s supposed to be based on the ever popular corn on the cob. There’s a lot of ways to do corn on the cob. Being the healthy eater that I am (usually), I associate corn on the cob with just roasted corn with little to no salt or butter. I am aware that some people throw all sorts of things on their corn on the cob, which I imagine is what this bar would be based on as well. To me, fresh corn is tasty enough that it doesn’t need anything extra, but to each their own.
Black Thunder bars are characteristically rugged looking; they are very uneven and tend to look like a chocolaty, edible version of off-road terrain. This one however, looks a little easier on tires, since the filling is very clearly spherical. It’s more like a pebbled path that once had water running through it. As if it was once a gravel path, but water has worn it down over time to give it a nice, rounded, non-jagged feature to it. I’m not sure why I mention all this, as it is unlikely to change my desire to try this. While the original Black Thunder bars might seem a bit more jagged and edgy, nothing is tough or hard enough to actually cut the average mouth.
The initial bite starts off very similar to the classic Black Thunder; it’s not hard, but not soft either. It’s the Goldilocks of textures, just right. Judging from the cross section, it appears to have what looks like the typical puffed rice (I think), along with what appears to be dehydrated corn kernels, as well as tiny corn puffs. The texture of all three seems to vary from soft to slightly crunchy, but for the most part it isn’t too far off from the normal bar. Imagine eating a chocolate bar with corn flakes, as well as corn puffs in it. Taste is where things get real interesting though.
At first the flavour is of the sweet chocolate coating, and a somewhat strong corn flavour that reminds me of a sweet corn snack. However, it very quickly begins morphing into something savoury, and almost salty. If I were to describe it, it would be something similar to rice crackers that have soy sauce. It has a similar savoury taste to it, which I can only imagine is how corn on the cob is eaten in whatever region or event this bar is supposed to be based on. It’s weird, but enticing at the same time. The flavour is almost modulated, going from sweet one second to savoury the next, and then going back and forth.
I love chocolate, and I love corn. It’s not rocket science to deduce that for those reasons this one is a winner as well. It’s not just because this is a nice fusion of the two flavours, but it throws in a curve ball with that savoury as well. I’m pretty happy with this, and it’s definitely another winner.
