I would have loved to be in the presentation meeting when the candy designers presented the concepts for the Happy Hippo. This is a treat that’s been around for a while, so many people don’t really think about the strangeness of the concept. Someone walked into a meeting at at an office building (in Germany I imagine) with the intention of selling hippos as a good idea for a chocolate cookie treat. My assumption is that one of two things sparked this. It could be that they planned to sell a whole bunch of different animal shapes and for some reason the hippo just worked best. It could also be that Kinder had plans of selling connected wafer like balls filled with chocolate, and someone commented that it looked a little like a hippo? While it’s not the weirdest candy concept I’ve ever seen, it is a little odd.

Fortunately Kinder not only put this treat out, but they’ve kept it going for a while. While the theme is a little weird, the treat itself is well balanced and fairly unique. The chocolate is the star of the show with this treat, and that’s a good thing. There are some people out there that see Kinder as a company that sells toys with crappy chocolate, but I would argue that Kinder chocolate is a lot better than most people let on. It may not be the best chocolate on the market, but it’s far better than average. It’s smooth and very creamy, since the focus is on a milk and white chocolate blend. Again, the dark chocolate purists out there might hate this stuff, but for those of us with open minds when it comes to chocolate it’s not that bad.

The wafer containing this white and milk chocolate combination does almost nothing for the flavour, and really adds only a little texture. The texture it gives is unique, and melts in your mouth leaving the chocolate to dominate. Alone I’m never a huge fan of this kind of wafer treat, but with the right fillings they work well as a delivery method. Without the wafer the chocolate would melt really quickly in your hands and you also wouldn’t have the opportunity to bite the head off of a hippo.