Black Thunder – Corn Flake

My first experience with corn flakes and chocolate was Ritter Sport. To this day, that flavour remains one of the most popular. It sounds really strange on paper, but it’s one of those things you have to try to really understand. Like ketchup and eggs. Or fries and milkshake. Or jelly beans and eggs. Okay maybe not the last one, but you get the jist. Certain flavours don’t translate across cultures as fast, but rest assured they almost always do eventually, especially when it comes to chocolate. I’m just curious how Black Thunder will take on this combination which I’m guessing is somewhat foreign to the Japanese market.

As is customary of my habit of sniffing my snacks, this smells like your typical black thunder bar; it smells of chocolate and cookies. Nothing in the smell of this would lead me to believe it’s anything different from the standard bar. But we both know better.

When I got this bar, I was expecting something very similar to the classic Ritter Sport flavour – simple milk chocolate with corn flakes mixed in. Cutting through this, I see what appear to be little bits of roasted almond. I almost never say no to the addition of nuts for texture, so it’s a welcome surprise.

Flavour was surprisingly complex. The corn flakes and chocolate cookie pieces that all the bars have compliment each other quite well. The roasted almonds give it that nutty flavour, while I taste something else added. I could be wrong, but I tasted the hint of salt, possibly sea salt to give it a bit of extra flavour to add to the profile.

As with most Black Thunder bars, the texture is usually the more impressive thing to note. This one has to standard crunch of a typical bar with the crunchy cookie bits mixing with the other chocolate quite well. The corn flakes add a different kind of crunch, a softer crunch if you will, to contrast and switch things up a bit. The roasted almond bits are unmistakable, and nuts plus chocolate is always a great combo. It all comes together to make a bar that is complex in flavour and texture. It could be argued that there’s a lot going on and things might get confusing, but it’s mostly just different levels of crunch coming together. It would be a bad thing if the textures were different, like soft and hard, but this one works well.

This is an interesting take on the combination of corn flakes with chocolate. Unlike the Ritter Sport bar, the ratio is very different between chocolate to corn flakes. This one has more corn flakes and other pieces to chocolate, so it’s more of a crunchy, “chew on this” bar than the Ritter sport one. Both have their pros and cons; this one is a lighter, crunchier experience will the Ritter Sport will likely leave you feel more full on account of how the chocolate to corn flakes ratio is higher.

As with most Black Thunder, I cannot recommend these enough. The big disclaimer though, is like most varieties, it’s hard to find outside of Japan and specialty stores, so make note that will mean it will likely be pricey. But I still get at least one because I love these little suckers.