Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” This quote is really famous you can see it on many printable items out there. That’s why we’re very grateful when friends gift us sweets (and sweetness). And while we don’t indulge, we taste-test whenever we can. We have separate posts for Kitkat, Pocky, McDonald’s and McCafé, and Magnum, but everything else – sweet treats and drinks, we feature here. And yeah, mom loves matcha very much!

This post is updated every time we try new market release sweets (be it pastry, chocolate, cake, ice cream, candies)  and drinks or when friends gift us and we try it for the first time….or just when we remember to take a photo (lol).

Starbucks Sour Apple Frappe 

Starbucks Sour Apple Frappe October 2022

The Starbucks Sour Apple Frappe is sour apple candy, combined with a creamy frappe base with  black drizzle…nothing too scary about it, not so sour actually. ^_^

Donuter Cronuts and Donuts

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Donuter Cronuts and Donuts

Definitely the best donuts and cronuts to date! Probably the biggest too! Pairs perfectly with your coffee and afternoon tea! The boston creme is certainly the biggest in the pack and while we’ve only tried these four, every single one is good. Not overwhelmingly sweet but ones you’d definitely want to have again.

They have interesting names too: (top right) Donuter Woody Donutson is the donut with chocolate glaze and sprinkled with chocolate curls, Cronut Monsieur Crognac is a croissant-chocolate donut with egg liqueur filling and white chocolate glaze on top, Cronut Crobston is a croissant-donut with vanilla filling, glazed with chocolate. And although just named as it is, Boston Creme is a jelly donut/berliner with vanilla filling and dipped halfway on with chocolate frosting.

Donuter is a Czech company and they only have three branches in Prague, with one in Brno that unfortunately closed down permanently. We’ll surely try the other ones soon!

Chocolatey Love A-Fair : Tony’s Chocolonely and Ben&Jerry’s Lovechild

August 2022

Tony’s Chocolonely Milk Chocolate White Nougat

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Tony’s Chocolonely milk chocolate white nougat

Originally released in 2011 as a limited edition flavor along with two others, this milk chocolate nougat bar, became a crowd favourite that’s it’s back in the shelves. Tony’s Chocolonely bars has a unique history, you can read more about it here. 

Like the other bars, this is not too sweet and doesn’t make you want to drink water immediately after. It’s a feel good chocolate bar, and if you read the packaging before you take a bite, it makes you feel even better knowing where the ingredients come from.

Ferrero Rocher Chocolate Bar (hazelnut)

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Ferrero Rocher Chocolate Bar (hazelnut) – September 2022

We’ve always been familiar with the Ferrero Rocher ball,  a chocolate and hazelnut confectionery of many layers, covered in foil and placed into a paper liner. They’ve recently released chocolate bars in 4 different flavors – Original Milk Hazelnut, 55% Dark Hazelnut, White Hazelnut, and Hazelnut & Almond. Since this bar doesn’t have melted hazelnut chocolate inside, it’s not as sweet as the Ferrero Rocher ball.

Toffifee White Chocolate (July 2022)

Every Confection and Sweet Drink : Toffifee White Chocolate, July 2022

Toffifee released a limited edition white chocolate version of its famous caramel cups (July 2022). The cups are made of hazelnut (10%), caramel (41%), but instead of creamy nougat this version has skimmed milk cream filling (37%) and white chocolate buttons. These don’t stick like the chocolate version and is not as sweet.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink : M&S Vanilla New York Style Baked Cheesecake

M&S Vanilla New York Style Baked Cheesecake

We’re fairly new to Marks & Spencers desserts. There’s a grocery store delivery service that carries M&S sweets and other brands that are not in our usual stores.

There’s a lot of different flavors that M&S would put out every now and then, and the first one we’ve tried is this frozen Vanilla New York Style Baked Cheesecake.

This basic cheesecake on a biscuit base can of course be decorated, topped with your favorite fruit, jelly, or even icing. Otherwise, they also have ones topped with berries, tangerine glaze, among others. (We’ll be trying them soon.)

We love that the base is not too sweet, not too thick, and doesn’t crumble a lot. The cake itself is also just right, soft and melt in your mouth but not overwhelmingly sweet.

We’ll try the mandarin next!

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Twix Salted Caramel (September 2021)

Twix Salted Caramel

Did you know that your Twix pack can have two different bars? Right Twix, they say, is “chewy caramel on crisp cookie, cloaked in velvety chocolate” and the left bar is “smooth caramel on crunchy cookie, enveloped in creamy chocolate.

The new Salted Caramel sticks also has unique differences. The left TWIX Salted Caramel combines crispy tasty biscuits with delicious caramel, the finest chocolate and a salty twist. The right Twix Salted Caramel makes delicious biscuit, sensual caramel, creamy chocolate and a pinch of salt a wonderful taste experience.

May 2021

Starbucks’ 3 New Summer Drinks:

Caramel Brownie Cream Frappuccino – Caramel Brownie brûlée treats smoothly blended with milk and ice and topped with cooling coffee whipped cream and an indulgent Caramel Brownie topping.

Chocolate Coffee Crunch Frappuccino – A scrumptious combination of Chocolate Caramel Brittle pieces made from sunflower seeds, blended with milk and ice, and topped with delicious coffee whipped cream and chocolate caramel brittle pieces.

Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino – Icy cold combination of strawberries and milk blended with ice and topped with swirls of whipped cream.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Ichiban Tea House

Bubble Teas (2020-2021)

Finally, bubble teas are once again a thing here. During the pandemic, many bubble tea shops opened and we would tried them once lockdowns were lifted. Ichiban teahouse is the kids’ favorites but mostly the mango ones. I’ve tried their matchas but they’re not as good as the Find Tea offerings. I don’t know why but my throat gets itchy with Ichiban drinks. 🙁

While the kids mostly get fruit teas, I often have the cream cheese ones and with grass jelly instead of boba, and no sugar.

Update October 22, 2022: FindTea closed its shops for now. 🙁

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Find Tea Creamcheese Fraps

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried :  Lemon Loaf and Matcha Latte

Matcha Latte + Lemon Loaf (October 2018)

It’s getting cold as autumn has started. This means being at home and trying to write could not be as effective. ^_^

So I do go out walk some to see the leaves turning orange and gold, and then have a cup of warm matcha latte. I also write while there, as most coffee shops could smell of smoke, Starbucks doesn’t. And I like it that way.

While I mostly have coffee when it’s cold, I appreciate the coffee aroma a lot.

Dalgona Coffee (March 2020)

Dalgona coffee trended and we just had to try. It is made by whipping equal parts instant coffee powder, sugar, and hot water until it becomes creamy. You then add it to cold or hot milk. It can also be topped with coffee powder, cocoa, and crumbled biscuits.

And because my skills in using a whipping a hand mixer is catastrophic, it didn’t froth. It’s probably because I used erythritol instead of sugar. ^_^

It’s good though, sweet but a bit bitter that’s just right, it’s also nice that you can adjust the coffee or sweetener as you prefer when preparing it.

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried  : Knoppers Nussriegel

Knoppers Nussriegel October 2018

We recently tried the new Knoppers nut bar. We love Knoppers crispy waffles and often buy them in bulk.

The nut bar did not disappoint. They are delicious, I bought a few more after trying them and my kids love taking them to school as snacks.

Reese’s and Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Dipped Pretzels

Reese’s and Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Dipped Pretzels  (June 2017)

These two packs are Snyders Pretzels coated in 1. smooth peanut butter candy (Reese), then drizzled in creamy milk chocolate… 2. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate  –  dipped in white crème and sprinkled with cookie bits. Bit salty, but ok.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino and Raspberry cheesecake

Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino and Raspberry cheesecake (June 2017)

Sometimes, working outside of your comfort zone makes you do more! And if there’s free cake I would of course go! “Top up your Starbucks account by €30 and get a free bakery item,” says the app. So I went to avail of the promo. I got a large Starbucks Caramel Frap instead of my usual matcha frap and I was asked to choose from the cakes, I tried the raspberry cheesecake as I often have the plain one.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Starbucks matcha via tea essence

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Starbucks Cookies and Cream Cake, Matcha Frappe

Starbucks Golden Chocolate Curls (December 2016)

Holidays are almost over but Starbucks may still have a lot of golden curls usually used for fudge drinks. I got a sprinkling of some for my chocolate frappe (I know it’s winter, but the heater is good enough lol).

They add a festive mood to your drink, and while we don’t celebrate these, we thank the baristas who put extra effort to make customers happy -even with just a sprinkling of golden chocolate curls.

Starbucks Matcha Tea Essence (November 2016)

How sweet are my friends? Very! They know I love matcha, and where else is the best matcha than where it originally came from?

We received a package from Japan full of Matcha goodies, and it includes this Starbucks Via Tea Essence.

I of course tried it as soon as I can, using this Starbucks Tokyo City Mug that was also sent along in the package!

Thank you dear friends! ???

Starbucks Cookies and Cream Cake (September 2016)

I’m not sure when the cookies and cream cake was introduced but we’ve recently tried it, and it’s the bomb!

While paired with Matcha Frappe (an all-time favorite drink), it does get too sweet to my liking (mom speaking here).

I couldn’t get to finish this piece in one sitting, I’ll probably pair it with Americano next time!

PS. Couldn’t remember if there’s a chocolate fudge cake before this one or has it always been the truffle cake that we regularly have, but we miss those both!

August 2016

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Green tea pumpkin seeds, Matcha Koala’s March, Glico Double Pretz Matcha

Starbucks Marble Chocolate on Crunchy biscuit (August 2016)

Tried a similar treat in London a year ago, and I really liked this treat. Glad to see this yummy slice of goodness in Viennese Starbucks’ shelves.

While waiting for our friends to meet up with, daughter and I enjoyed some silence while having this piece and she also had matcha latte.

They arrived a little later than our designated time, but that’s ok.

—

Various Matcha Treats (August 2016)

The Glico Double Pretz look like Pocky sticks but they are dusted instead of being coated in a flavoured fudge. This matcha Double Pretz are dusted with matcha powder and also has a hint of vanilla.

Koala’s March which is the same as Hello Panda but only koalas is daughter’s favorite. This one has matcha inside instead of chocolate.

And have you ever tried Green tea pumpkin seeds? We’ll see how these taste like. I hope they’re good.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Bortolotti gelato

Bortolotti Free Gelato (July 2016)

We met up with a friend who treated us to gelato (we were inside the salon so the photo turned out too dark). Regardless, Bortolotti Eis have some of the same flavors in Vienna. It’s also warm so the gelato were a welcome treat! Surely we had: straciatella (daughter), vanilla (son2), lemon (son1), and dark chocolate for me.

October 2015

Starbucks Truffle Cake

This is like a slice to die for. As mentioned years ago (lol).

One of the very few “not-sour-cake” we love.

C has no school today so we went out to the city, looked for some goodies at the first district and then had this for snack (22nd district).

I had seaweed salad which I saw from the grocery store. Been trying them, to see which one has the best.  Had to crop it out of the photo because it’s not as appetizing to look at.

Royce’ Potato Chip Chocolate (August 2015)

Studentska Milk Chocolate (August 2015)

Remember the aunt we went out with for dirty ice cream? She went to Prague and gave us this yummy Sudentska bar!

Eating sachertorte like brownies – October 2014

Sacher Torte

We often try Sacher torte from different Konditoreis, though we often forget to take photos lol.

That’s gonna be our next project, trying out the different famous Viennese cake in different cafés.

C is the only one who likes the sour cakes, so here he is, if he sees this on the menu he would ask for a slice, but I was out today and just took a slice home for him.

October 13,2014

Mondate

Remember when she had her wrist broken when she fell of her bike? It was the right wrist, this time, she fell off the school gym and broke her left arm. Having no school today we went out to meet a friend and as usual, she got Starbucks truffle cake and hot choco drink. I had matcha latte, it’s a bit cooler today.

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Matcha All day!

Matcha All Day! (August 2014)

Met up with my matcha-loving friend and we had Starbucks Frap while walking around the city. We met up later with another matcha-loving friend and we got to try Ferrari Natural Gelato Eis Manufaktur’s yummy gelato too! Met up with hubby later for dinner and Pidgey sat on my Matcha cheesecake before I ate it lol. #PokemonGo

I’m glad that we walked a lot that day too, as I’m sure my sugar spiked so much with all the matcha treats!

London Treats (October 2014)

London was a joy to explore, and their sweets are also worth coming back to! Some that we had tried and loved are Harrod’s chocolate scones and pistachio cronut, Starbuck’s chocolate caramel schortbread, and Hummingbird’s cadbury smores cupcake!! (can’t find the photo of the other cupcake) Lecker!

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Gelateria Italiana street gelato

Gelateria Italiana (July 2014)

This street kiosk gelato is one that’s recognizable easily being in the center of Vienna, by the big St. Stephan’s church plaza. We often get a cone or two when we pass by. We walked a lot today and met up with one I consider an aunt. We had some street gelato from this kiosk. We walked a while more, looked at some shirts at shops, and went on our way to meet up dad at Starbucks to get some frappe.

We met up with Aunt’s son (in red shorts) there too. ^_^

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Starbucks Java Chip Frap

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Matcha and matcha – waffle and wrap (June 2014)

Matcha Latte and Belgian Waffle (June 2014)

I finally came to know someone who also loves matcha, and she also loves animes, volleyball, and many other things I also like. At times, I have matcha latte even when it’s a little bit warm outside. The Belgian waffles are Starbucks’ menu regulars and they are nice to pair with the matcha latte!

Here’s to more matcha dates!

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Assorted gelato

Assorted Gelato (May 2014)

No trip to Venice (or any Italian city) is complete without trying out their gelato. Daughter had cookies and cream, son1 has lemon, and son2 has vanilla. I had panna cotta!

Unlimited Matcha Ice Cream (April 2014)

There’s an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant we love called Ebi, they have an ordering system that includes tablets!

We would just pick our orders from the menu on the tablet and the friendly staff brings them in to table. You just really have to remember what you picked so you don’t end up eating your siblings’ orders! ^_^

And the dessert station is where you can also come back to get all the sweets you like! They have a selection of ice creams and matcha is of course our top pick!

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Matcha Ice Cream

Matcha Ice Cream (February 2014)

We tried Kuishimbo and loved every dish we tried, and we also love the matcha and black sesame ice cream served as a dessert. The restaurant is not so big, but we love that it’s authentically Japanese.

January 2014, cookie and truffle cake

Winter Date

Hot chocolate, truffle cake, and chocolate cookie – to much sugar but for this warm weather, a much needed boost. (?) Trying out which is a good instagram filter – in the upper left photo, it’s “rise” which seems to brighten up dull raw photos.

Zanoni Eis (May 2013)

“You can’t buy happiness. But you can buy ice cream, that’s almost the same.” is the motto that Zanoni Eis goes by. This famous salon has a wide range of gelato flavors and we often drop by for some. Especially with friends, even when the weather isn’t so warm!

December 2012

—

Pancakes

Who says pancakes are for breakfasts only?

Went shopping out with the little boy and it times was so fast, it was 5 but already so dark, he said he’d go for some pancakes when I asked he wanted to eat.

So this counts as snack, alright!

Just look how happy he looks.lol.

—

Sacher Torte at Residenz Schönbrunn

Went out to explore Schönbrunn palace with a college friend and colleague.

Getting hungry is inevitable, as walking around Schönbrunn takes long hours. We dined at Residenz Scönbrunn.

We got the traditional Austrian food – Wienerschnitzel, potato salad, Kaiserschmarren, and C ended it all up with a slice of Sacher torte.

—

Hello Kitty Strawberry-Raspberry Drink (June 2012)

Found this Hello Kitty strawberry and raspberry mix drink in a 350ml sip bottle and brought it home for my daughter.

She said it’s not too sweet and the mix of berries is good. I honestly just thought it cute, because it’s Hello Kitty!

There’s also a multifruit version, but I wasn’t able to grab one. We’re not big fans of multifruit juices so we’d probably skip that one.

Ingredients read: water, sugar, multi-fruit juice from multi-fruit juice concentrate: apple juice 17.9%, strawberry juice 2%, raspberry juice 0.1%, acidity regulator (citric acid) among others.

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Starbucks Truffle Cake

Starbucks Truffle Cake

The Starbucks truffle cake is our favorite among the cakes at Starbucks. It’s really soft and moist, like the best cake we’ve ever had in Vienna. Viennese cakes tend to be sour because they most often than not have fruit jams.

This truffle cake is very different as you would really taste the chocolate in it and the icing perfectly blends in too. This treat is perfect paired with black coffee, but ask for a glass of water too.

Update September 2016: not on the shelves anymore. 🙁 But they’ve introduced new chocolate cakes!

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Choco pop (Starbucks, September 2011)

Starbucks Chocolate Pop (2011)

Starbucks introduced Chocolate Pops in March and we tried the Rocky road flavor but we probably won’t try the others as the cake base is rather dry. This was a treat for the little girl after her hospital check up.

Other flavors include tiramisu, red velvet, and one coated in white chocolate and sprinkled with pink dust! The cake pops actually sell like hotcakes so we often just see the rocky road (or marshmallow pops) on shelves. We probably should try coming by earlier.

Hopefully they would improve over time and we’ll try them then. ^_^

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Tealicious Bubble Tea/Boba Tea

Tealicious Bubble Teas (July 2011)

Boba teas are quite new here, unlike in Asia where back in the 80’s can be enjoyed. It originated in Taiwan and spread around neighboring countries. A bubble tea drink be just teas or milk teas, and can have chewy tapioca balls (“boba” or “pearls”), but it can be made with other toppings as well like grass jelly, aloe vera. Nowadays, there are many flavors too.

Our favorites of course are matcha and taro as we are mostly familiar with these two!

When we saw the first store at the mall, we would get some especially when it gets hot, we even visited their new store when it opened.

Update: they sadly closed and we can’t find other bubble tea stores that we like. Here’s hoping we get to try them again! Meanwhile, mom attempts to make them at home with regular tapioca pearls. 😀

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Tealicious Matcha, Mango Frap

—

Every Confection and Sweet Drink We Have Ever Tried : Yoyogurt

Yoyogurt (February 2011)

An alternative for sugary treats is Yoyogurt yogurt – although topping your cup, glass, or cone with sprinkles, smarties, and chocolates defeat the purpose.

Every Confection We Have Ever Tried : McCafé treats (2011)

McCafé treats

Since we have a McCafé on walking distance, and is on a stop in between home and school, it’s our favorite when we crave for sweets.

While this is all about confections we have tried, we have a separate post on everything McDonald’s here.

Our usual picks include Blackforest Cherry cake, Caramel Sundae, Smarties Sundae, Smarties McFlurry, Donuts, and Cupcakes until the McCarons (French macarons) in February 2011 were introduced!

Cinnabon Strawberry Shake

Every Confection We Have Ever Tried : Goldschatz ritter sport

Cinnabon Treats (October 2010)

Never thought we’d be able to enjoy Cinnabon treats on our side of the world.

Aside from the usual cinnamon rolls and cinnamon sticks, we often have their shakes. Little boy here got his strawberry shake – to feel better after seeing a scratch near his temple.

Cinnabon may be too sweet for some, but once in a while wouldn’t hurt too much!

We’re also glad to see one of our good friend there!

—

Best New Chocolate – Goldschatz Ritter Sport

Ritter Sport chocolate variations are some of my favorite sweets…I just love the smoothness of each that I could finish all 16 blocks in one sitting. ^_^ I like the simple Vollmilch and Alpenmilch most. A regular Ritter bar is quite small compared to others I buy so when I saw the Special edition Goldschatz (gold treasure) the first time, I was immediately attracted. Goldschatz first came out in 2008 and I have no idea where I was that I didn’t know…the bar is a whopping 250g, 6×6 squares opposed to the usual 4×4. Goldschatz is a solid bar of milk chocolate containing 40% cocoa – 21% is from the extra special Trinitario bean — you could easily love the pleasant milky flavour that becomes cocoa-ish later on and totally melts smoothly in your mouth.

Just like my Ritter Sport favorites, this is not too sweet, not bitter but you will know that this is specially different than the regular ones with the lingering aftertaste brought about by the Trinitario bean — just chocolate that you’d love to have more than any other desserts. The gold wrapper is like an assurance that  this piece of yumminess is so worth every cent. Thus, Ritter Sport Goldschatz is my best favorite chocolate for this year, even if I’m 2 years too late to try it. ^_

Ice Cream in Sugar Cones (June 2010)

We went out to the long shopping street looking for some shirts and got some ice cream later. Probably gelato…as most of the sweet summer salons offer gelato – the difference between the two is in the proportions of ingredients. Gelato has more milk (and less cream) compared to ice cream. Gelato also doesn’t usually contain egg yolks but ice cream does.

Either, the kids love their choco, vanilla, and lemon flavors in sugar cones.

Singapore’s Uzumaki Ice Cream (July 2009)

Trying out Uzumaki Ice Cream, The Best Green Tea Ice Cream in the World (says on the board). These are soft serve ice cream swirls, and daughter had strawberry, son1 had matcha and the little boy had chocolate. To each his own flavor!