I bought a chocolate bar at the grocery store.  This is I know in and of its self is not worth a blog post.  Here's what happened.  I stood in line with my basket full of things like fresh bread, yogurt, muesli, orange juice and a bag of rice.  Then it turns out that the line isn't moving and I am standing next to a display of chocolate that is bigger than the bread isle.

At first I look away.  Then I start reading labels.  Some of this is easy because the chocolate bars are labeled more or less in English.  Other bars have good pictures so there is little doubt what is inside.  That's when it catches my eye: LZ special.  What is that? It says in English this: Nestle LZ Special and in one circle "Milk" and in another box "New."  There is fair amount of Cyrillic and I can only make шоколад-- chocolate and the picture only seems to reveal squares of chocolate with little ball of chocolate floating towards the square of chocolate.

Of course, this is when the line starts moving and I have two options. One, I could pick up the chocolate bar and put it in my cart or two, I could leave it there and never know what it tastes like.  I choose the first. <!--more-->

If you are imagining Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory right now--golden ticket and all--I want to warn you: you might be disappointed.  I was.  So I get the chocolate home.  I put away my groceries because I am a responsible adult and then I open the chocolate bar.  I break off a square and now I can see air holes through out the chocolate.  It's as if the entire bar has been aerated. I bit in and it's chocolate.  It's fine but it's nothing special and the texture with all of the air bubbles is a little off putting.  I am used to chocolate being smooth even if it has nuts or something in it and this is not.

So I decided to do a little bit of research.  This is what I found on the <a href="http://www.nestle.bg/page.asp?id=55&amp;pid=5" target="_blank">Bulgarian Nestle site</a> and really it's worth a look because the pictures give a pretty good idea of what the inside of the chocolate looks like.  But if you don't read Bulgarian the rest of the site probably won't do much for you.  Then I tried to good the name "LZ Special" in English but I didn't get any hits.

A search on the US Nestle site didn't return any hits either... I wonder why? That's when I took a closer look and realized that google was directing me to the Nestle UK site.  How does google know everything?  Anyhow, this was more productive and by looking at the pictures of various candy bars I was able to do a visual search for my "LZ Special" candy bar.  The only thing this turned up was the <a href="http://www.nestle.co.uk/OurBrands/AboutOurBrands/ConfectioneryAndCakes/Aero.htm" target="_blank">"Aero" bar</a>.  The pictures seemed to match but the product names were different. The written description seemed to match the bar of chocolate I brought home and ate.  Hum....

I then went to Wikipedia because if Wikipedia can't settle this than who can, really? Just to be clear, I wasn't expecting much.  Then I found this<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Bar" target="_blank"> hysterical page</a>.  As I am sure you have seen by now, the page on Aero bars includes the history of the candy bar as well as the various different flavors that have been made since the 1930's and the fact that the candy bar was only sold for a short period of time in the states.

Apparently, it didn't go over big there and after a short run in the 1980's it was discontinued.  The thing is does that mean that we have bad taste? How is that a candy bard that at that point had success in the UK for over 50 years wasn't successful in the states? Maybe it was an issue of marketing but what if we just have bad taste and don't know something good when we see it?

That's when I couldn't get this thought out of my head: what if this means that I have bad taste too?  I didn't love the candy bar when I tried it.  The chocolate was fine but the air bubbles were off putting.  The pages I read said that the bubbles are supposed to melt in your mouth (or something like that) but this didn't happen to me.  Then I started to wonder, maybe there's something wrong with my mouth or maybe it's not me at all and I got a defective candy bar.

Then the thought crossed my mind, maybe I just shouldn't be writing a whole post on a single candy bar. Oh well, I am too far in now.  So in conclusion, if I weren't so lazy I would correct the Wikipedia post which currently contains an error. Aero bars are not being sold under that name here in Bulgaria rather they are being sold under the name LZ Special.

And I am sorry to end on this sad note, for those of us dying to know: how do the bubbles get in the bar? We will have to wait a bit longer to learn these secrets.  The Aero Wikipedia page explains "according to the entry in the patent database, Aero bars are formed by a method involving chocolate in a liquid state on the verge of solidifying. Air is run through the chocolate with a vacuum as it cools (in the form of many very small bubbles), resulting in evenly distributed bubbles throughout the bar and a honeycomb-like texture. The exact procedure for making the bubbles is a closely guarded secret."

Oh well--but I can't help wondering would eating just one more bar reveal the secrets of the air-bubbles to me?