When I saw this bar my first reaction was, isn’t a Coffee Crisp already coffee flavoured? For those not in the know, and that means you’re just not Canadian, a “Double Double” is a term that many Canadians use to order coffee at Tim Horton’s. It’s used to order a coffee with two creams and two sugars. Tim Horton’s is a chain of doughnut/coffee shops in Canada that have become a bit of a national institution. If you’re unfamiliar, don’t despair, there are actually several countries around the world that have Tim Horton’s locations including the US, China, and UAE. Now that we’re all caught up, this brings me back to my original question, how to you make a candy bar that’s already coffee themed, taste like a coffee with two creams and two sugars.

We can assume that the sugar part comes naturally with just about any candy bar. The regular Coffee Crisp has a slight bitter coffee flavour, but it still is very sweet. The cream could be achieved by filling this bar with some kind of sweet cream icing or something. While these seem like logical ways to make this bar, the folks at Nestle decided to go a completely different direction and it tastes an awful lot like vanilla. I don’t drink much coffee, even at Tim Horton’s, so maybe to some people sugar and cream in a coffee has a vanilla flavour, but I somehow doubt it. While I like the idea of Coffee Crisp becoming even more Canadian by adding the Tim Horton’s Double Double theme, I just don’t feel like it actually works.

The other problem with the vanilla flavour is that it kills a bit of the coffee flavour, one of the perks of the original Coffee Crisp. There certainly is a slight hint of coffee, but you really have to seek it out. Coffee Crisp has never been one of my all time favourite candy bars because I’m not a huge fan of coffee flavoured treat, but I feel like they’ve actually ruined a little bit with this shot of sweet vanilla.