This Brand Makes Higher Quality Versions of Your Favorite Candy Bars & They Taste Even Better
This Valentine's Day, how nice would it be to gift your sweetheart something chocolatey and sweet, but not chock-full of artificial ingredients and additives? Well, it's about time you get acquainted with Little Secrets—the candy brand you are going to be obsessed with (if you're not already a fan).
The Fair Trade Certified chocolate candy company debuted in 2015 with its chocolate pieces line (think a higher quality M&M) and since then it has added a treat that's similar to a Kit Kat bar, and as of January, a caramel chocolate cookie bar that's reminiscent of a Twix bar. We wanted to give you a closer look at how each of these chocolate treats compares to its respective competitors so you can make a more informed decision at the grocery store.
Little Secrets Cookie Bars vs. Twix
Ingredients: Fair Trade Certified sugar, glucose syrup, wheat flour, palm oil, nonfat milk powder, Fair Trade Certified cocoa butter, Fair Trade Certified chocolate liquor, butterfat, whey milk, salt, Fair Trade Certified cocoa powder, sunflower lecithin (an emulsifier), baking soda, vanilla extract.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin, PGPR, artificial flavors), enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, palm oil, corn syrup, skim milk, dextrose, less than 2 percent of salt, cocoa powder, soy lecithin, modified corn starch, baking soda, artificial flavor.
As you can see, there aren't too many differences in the nutrition label. Little Secrets actually packs a bit more sodium and one gram more of saturated fat. However, what you don't see above is that 23 of the 25 grams of sugar in a Twix bar are added sugars, whereas, in the Little Secrets bar, only 20 of the 22 grams of sugar are added.
Three grams of sugar may not seem like a lot, but when you think about how much you should have in a day, it does make a considerable difference. For example, the American Heart Association recommends that women have no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day and that men consume no more than 36 grams to maintain good heart health.
The main difference between Little Secrets Milk Chocolate with Caramel Cookie Bars is the quality of ingredients. You'll notice the key ingredients in Little Secrets chocolates are Fair Trade Certified, which means the way in which they were cultivated supports farmland sustainability and allows farmers to be paid fair wages and have safe working conditions. Not to mention it just tastes all-around better and it makes you realize how prominent the artificial flavors are in Twix bars.
RELATED: Cookies & Creme Twix Bar Has Officially Returned—This Time With Matching Sneakers.
Little Secrets Chocolate Pieces vs. Peanut Butter M&Ms
Ingredients: Dark chocolate (Fair Trade Certified unsweetened chocolate, Fair Trade Certified sugar, Fair Trade Certified cocoa butter, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], Fair Trade Certified natural vanilla extract), peanut flavored coating (sugar, palm kernel oil, partially defatted peanut flour, nonfat dry milk, peanut oil, salt soy lecithin [an emulsifier]), sugar, palm kernel oil, peanut butter (peanuts), less than 1 percent of tapioca syrup, coloring (includes vegetable juice, turmeric oleoresin), salt, gum acacia, carnauba wax, soy lecithin.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lactose, peanuts, soy lecithin, salt, artificial and natural flavors), sugar, peanut butter (partially defatted peanuts, palm oil), hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cornstarch, dextrose, less than 1 percent of corn syrup, natural flavor, salt, dextrin, coloring (includes blue lake, red 40, yellow 6, yellow 5, blue 1, red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, blue 2), carnauba wax, propyl gallate to maintain freshness, gum acacia.
Did anyone else look at the ingredients in the peanut butter M&Ms and think what does lake mean in this context? According to the USDA, color additives are either classified as straight colors, lakes, or mixtures. Lakes are formed through a chemical reaction of straight colors (color additives that have not been mixed or have undergone a chemical reaction) and precipitants of metals (in this case, aluminum cation) or substrata (aluminum hydroxide). Notice that the red and yellow colors of the Little Secrets Peanut Butter Chocolate Pieces are derived from natural sources: vegetable juice and turmeric oleoresin (extract).
Little Secrets' product is plumper and packs more peanut butter than M&Ms, plus the peanut butter tastes more natural in Little Secrets. Overall, M&Ms simply taste more artificial, which makes sense after examining the list of ingredients.
Little Secrets vs. Kit Kat
Ingredients: Dark chocolate (Fair Trade Certified unsweetened chocolate, Fair Trade Certified sugar, Fair Trade Certified cocoa butter, soy lecithin [an emulsifier]. Fair Trade Certified natural vanilla extract), enriched wheat flour, (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, palm oil, sea salt, baking soda.
Ingredients: Sugar, wheat flour, skim milk, cocoa butter, chocolate, vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, palm oil), milk fat, lactose, contains 2 percent or less of lecithin, PGPR, vanillin (artificial flavor), salt, yeast, baking soda.
The most notable difference between the two bars is the amount of wafer crisps in each. Little Secrets Crispy Wafers have double the wafer crisps than Kit Kat, even though there are only two sticks in each pack—remember, there are four smaller ones in a Kit Kat. Kit Kat also contains three more grams of added sugar (19 grams) than Little Secrets does (16 grams). Little Secrets also has a milk chocolate flavor, but we prefer the dark chocolate variety the most.
It's no secret that Little Secrets is onto something here. We will be choosing this candy brand over the original ones for its higher quality ingredients and overall better taste. And who doesn't want to be treated to the best candy bar out there?
You can find Little Secrets chocolates at Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, Earth Fare, Central Market, and Lucky's Natural Grocers just to name a few. You can also order them online on Amazon or on the Little Secrets website.
