Almond Roca Rumble

It’s been awhile since Cocoa-Heaven has had a showdown and what better time than now with the holidays approaching and with all this good holiday candy about? Damn straight. Today we have a face off of regular Almond Roca vs Cashew Roca vs Candy Cane Roca from Brown & Haley out of Tacoma, Washington.

Which one will come out on top?

Packaging:

All three are pretty identical, the candy cane variety gets a little “limited edition” button to inform you of it’s impending disappearance with a little candy cane. I have to say that I am glad the cashew version doesn’t have pictures of cashews. Cashews just don’t look right in picture form very often.

Winner: Candy Cane Roca. I like the festive green and red bag, bow and little candy cane decoration!

Appearance:

Each one is wrapped in the signature heavy foil of an Almond Roca treat.

Winner: NO ONE. They look the same. I like the color blue a lot, so I would lean towards cashew, but that’s not fair!

Appearance Inside:

Now here is where we separate the masses. Each one of these is a different Roca in it’s own right.

Classic Almond Roca

Thin chocolate layer rolled in crushed almond bits, most of which appear to have stuck to the bottom. Stiff toffee inside that breaks apart beautifully. Extra points for stratification!

Cashew Roca

The thin chocolate layer is also present, but instead of being rolled in almonds, the chocolate is rolled in crushed bits of cashew. There appears to be more cashew than on the classic almond roll. Nice! Along with what looks like some cashew bits included in the toffee.

Candy Candy Roca

Thicker chocolate layer than the other two, drizzled with white chocolate for a very pretty effect. There are no nuts at all in this recipe, but the classic smooth toffee is present. The toffee does not have the stratification that the original does, but a solid wall.

Winner: Cashew Roca. With all those nuts inside and out and that clean break showing that beautiful toffee, who could resist?

Taste:

Classic Roca:

The smell alone reminds of many Christmases and my grandma, extra points for that. There is just enough almond to exude the flavor but not overpower or make my mouth dry and the buttery toffee is sweet, sticky and stays in my teeth just long enough not to be annoying.

Cashew Roca:

I smell toasted cashews! And a faint hint of chocolate. The toasted cashew taste initially reminds me of toast. The chocolate hangs around in the background, but it’s the toffee that brings the great finish.

Candy Cane Roca:

There’s definitely peppermint in this Roca, it smells faintly like peppermint schnapps and chocolate. The chocolate itself is not that great, kind of dry but the toffee has bits of candy cane chopped up in it and delivers are powerful burst of mint and butter! Trust me it tastes better than it sounds.

Winner: Classic Roca. You just can’t beat the original on this one. While I really like the Candy Cane Roca, the overall taste of all the components together and individually are what make the treat great.

So who wins? Classic Roca has one, Cashew has one and Candy Cane has one.

By executive order, the one that I can find myself repeatedly unwrapping and eating until there are no more is…Classic Roca.

Delicious.

I’ve gotta find those peanut and mocha flavors now!