Cadbury: It's Not Just For Easter Anymore!

When I arrived home from work the other day, I found an object of beauty sitting on the kitchen table: a Cadbury fruit and nut bar. I still have that creamy chocolate on the brain, so I typed "Cadbury" into the Epinions search engine, just for the fun of it, and what should immediately come up but the candy bar that has become my very favorite form of decadence since the perplexing disappearance of Hershey's almond and raisin nuggets. How could I resist such a fated reviewing opportunity?

I've always been a Hershey gal, and until I went to England in 2001, I associated Cadbury exclusively with Easter. I anticipated and adored the Cadbury Bunny commercials, but the eggs themselves didn't do anything for me. Then I took my little trip across the ocean, and the aisles were full of strange candy I'd never seen before bearing the name Cadbury. Orange bars! Mint! Fudge nut! I admired all the colorful wrappers but didn't gorge on English chocolate until I got home, having bought a couple of everything on a grocery shopping spree on my last day in Northampton.

I savored the chocolate, thinking it would be a long time before I'd get to taste Cadbury again unless I gave the eggs another shot. And then I made a shocking discovery. This stuff had been right under my nose all along and I'd missed it! Or did Tops suddenly, coincidentally start stocking Cadbury bars right after I got back from England? At any rate, I quickly fixed upon my favorite, and it remains a delectable delight six years later. And as the back of the royal purple wrapper indicates, it's manufactured by the Hershey company here in the United States, so I don't even have to feel disloyal about it.

The Cadbury fruit and nut is much heftier than a Hershey almond bar and accordingly is considerably more expensive, usually between one and two dollars. It consists of 32 chunky squares, which makes for easy division if you're inclined to share or to save some for later. The milk chocolate is exceptionally creamy and studded with bits of raisins and almonds for the perfect taste combination, at least for someone like me who grew up crazy about Hershey almond bars and Raisinettes.

Each four-ounce bar contains 570 calories, so it's best to indulge only once in a while, but that's preferable anyway, since anticipation heightens the enjoyment. Just don't feel obligated to restrict yourself to one a year!