Jennifer Garner has been talking up her new series The Five-Star Weekend. All eight episodes are streaming now on Peacock, but that doesn’t mean the promotion has stopped! Food & Wine just dropped a fun 10-minute video of Jennifer and costar D’Arcy Carden doing blind taste tests. For each round, Jennifer and D’Arcy were presented with two similar items and they had to determine which version was bougie (expensive), which was budget (cheap), and which they preferred. The first offering was strawberry smoothies, one from Erewhon (bougie!), the other from Jamba Juice. Jennifer and D’Arcy easily identified bougie vs budget correctly. Here’s what I found interesting: both ladies felt that the Jamba Juice smoothie smelled more like strawberries but tasted like water, while Erewhon’s gave no fruity smell but then delivered on taste. This got me thinking it was a missed opportunity on Food & Wine’s part — they should’ve done Erewhon “Sacred Water” up against iced tap water! But I digress… Round two was the single greatest food group: chocolate bars, which prompted further commentary on candy bars writ large. From the YouTube transcript:
Jennifer: I’m gonna start with this. [Picks up a Crunch piece]
D’Arcy: You think I don’t like this?
Jennifer: I know. I want to tell you something. I love cheap.
D’Arcy: I do too. Like Halloween candy?
Jennifer: Mhm.
D’Arcy: Yeah, me too.
Jennifer: Delighted.
D’Arcy: And I think I would never get a Crunch bar, but when you get a Crunch bar, the little one in your Halloween candy, it’s like such a pleasure.
Jennifer: Sure. What candy bar are you the happiest to open?
D’Arcy: Is a York a candy bar?
Jennifer: A peppermint patty?
D’Arcy: Yeah.
Jennifer: Adorable! It takes you away?
D’Arcy: Yeah. I’m on a ski slope. Mhm. What’s yours?
Jennifer: I’m super psyched to see a Twix, a KitKat. How do you feel about Mounds?
D’Arcy: LOVE.
Jennifer: So glad I asked! [laughs] so pleased with that answer. You just reached a new octave.
[From YouTube transcript, edited for clarity]
LOL, you can’t take the “Crunch” out of a Crunch bar! I love how they both clocked it right away, too. Jennifer and D’Arcy both agreed that the Crunch was better than the fancy Dubai chocolate. I myself love getting a pack of Buncha Crunch when I’m at the movies. As for the rest of their favorite candy bar selections, there’s much to discuss. York peppermint patty is an elegant choice, and I viscerally understood what D’Arcy meant about the instant cool, refreshing factor. It’s probably not high on most people’s list, but I appreciate D’Arcy for throwing it in the mix. But Twix? Nuh uh. Twix can be satisfying in a pinch, but in no way is it a list-topper. I said what I said! KitKat, however, is an undeniable giant in the field. People just don’t go around plotting (and pulling off) massive heists over so-so candy bars, you know what I mean? As for Mounds, I have to respect the selection while acknowledging that it’s not for me. I’m not a coconut girl! (Just a kooky, nutty girl.) But obviously Mounds can elicit profound love, as evidenced by D’Arcy’s voice dropping an octave in her emphatic response.
That rounds out the four Jennifer and D’Arcy named. So now I ask them, with the gravest of incredulity: WHAT ABOUT REESE’S??
I too think Dubai chocolate is overrated. But you know what’s not? D’Arcy Carden. Love her and wish her all the best. Not a robot! iykyk
D’Arcy was the best thing about this show. She was so subtly hilarious.
I was so excited when Dubai chocolate showed up in my small rural town, promptly bought some. I took it home, carefully opened the elegant wrapping, broke off a small piece, trembled with excitement, took a bite and spit it back out. I can’t recall the last time that I felt such intense disappointment. Never again, Dubai chocolate showed, never again.
Yeah, so disappointing! And I love the basic ingredients, but it somehow doesn’t come together.
My favorite? It used to be Snickers but over the several years of my consuming them they’ve changed the recipe so much I cannot abide them any more. Now I get very bougie & only want locally made chocolate.
My husband is out of town so I binged the show. It was OK. D’Arcy is a highlight. But honestly, the true star is probably Nantucket. And the food.
I’m on ep 5 and I feel the same. D’Arcy is the best part – and Timothy Olyphant. However, it’s hard to get through all of the up-close crying shots of Jennifer Garner when her lips have had so much work done.
You need to try the Canadian Coffee Crisp chocolate bar. It’s delicious.
Number one ‘yoink’ out of the Hallowe’en bowl before trick or treaters, every year. Number two: Canadian Smarties, iykyk. Number three: Kit Kats.
Yeah, the hubby and I are old enough to steal candy from kids and not gaf.
I’m also not keen on Dubai chocolate; I got some as a birthday gift and was excited to try it … I love chocolate, I love pistachios, it should be great, right? No, nope! The crunchy sweet things messed with the enjoyment of the creamy filling and the too much of it all overpowered
the chocolate. Too many disparate ingredients and textures … just do one or two things and do them well. I have no idea if the chocolate was any good, and couldn’t really taste any pistachio.
It’s like when I used to go to one of those cupcake places. What I really wanted was a really good single flavor cupcake – vanilla or chocolate with amazing creamy frosting and maybe a decorative chocolate flake on the top. But all they sold were super complicated towered cupcakes with fillings and layers and lava drops with mixins and glazed and sugar work that made it hard to take a single bite that was cupcake with a bit of delicious frosting without goop or crunch or random things falling out of it.
Yes! I went to a fancy cupcake place once, in San Francisco (my trip to the big city) and never again! It’s all too much & overpowers the joy of eating a cupcake.
Honestly they’re both terrible. Nestle takes exactly like vomit, and Dubai chocolate is just weird online hype.
I’m a Twix girl the whole way, always have been. I love eating the chocolate and caramel off of it first, leaving just the cookie (it just feels wrong to eat it any other way). My 12-year-old son has picked up the habit of eating them like that too, but he actually loves Dubai chocolate (his friends introduced him to them). My 10-year-old daughter has recently discovered KitKats and instantly fell in love with them. Damn it…now I want some chocolate!
I’m a sucker for KitKats but I prefer dark chocolate. I was so excited to find dark chocolate KitKats at the HMart, so good.
I am incredibly spoiled when it comes to chocolate and I am a world-class chocoholic.
My husband is a serious bridge player, and his weekly game is near a Neuhaus boutique. He comes home every week with two or three pralines – they are divine! I never know what I am getting and I have never been unsatisfied.
That said, I also love good cheap chocolate. Trader Joe’s milk chocolate crispy rice bars are really good and there is a stash of them in my kitchen at all times.
My sister gave me Dubai chocolate for my birthday. I could not understand the fuss (neither could she – we sat there confused). I like all of the pieces of it, separately, but together it was just meh.
“Five-Star Weekend” is fun escapism — a nice reprieve from the hellscape we live in.
“Five-Star Weekend” plus a Butterfingers bar would be heaven.
I agree, I don’t particularly like Nestle, but Dubai Chocolate is disgusting in my opinion.
I love cheap candies! Twix and KitKat FTW!
Five Star Weekend was cute! I enjoyed it and it’s very bingeable. I felt like it ended a bit too abruptly but maybe that’s because they are building excitement for a second season. I could see it continuing, since it didn’t really feel like any of the plotlines were fully resolved IMO.
The only conspiracy theory I believe is that Dubai chocolate was created solely as search engine optimization to hide any results that talked about Dubai and human rights. Now search Dubai and all you get is that stupid gross creation.
I can get behind that theory.
I’ve had some delicious Dubai bars and some that were just ‘eh.’ There are so many different manufacturers, I think you just have to shop around.
Yes, it is my understanding that real Dubai chocolate cannot be exported for commercial sale. So unless someone brought some back from Dubai or you go there yourself,, you haven’t tasted real Dubai chocolate.
As far as the chocolate bars mentioned? I love Mounds and it is Twix over Kitkat for me any day! I don’t really care for Reese’s peanut butter cups but Reese’s has done some really interesting collaborations with other candy bars. There is one that I really like that I think is combined with Fifth Avenue?
Here’s the thing about Dubai chocolate, and I know it sounds bougie, but it *has* to be homemade to me. I have had store-bought, and it’s gross. But I’ve bought it from the Iraqi bakery in our town and it’s AMAZING. We have had it fresh from places in London (two different places), made by that shop, and it’s very very good. But random Dubai chocolate from the grocery store is not good.
Oh that sounds fabulous @Abby. I’m jealous because hearing how the original Dubai chocolate is made and it’s ingredients, I really want to try it. I’m sure it is wonderful!
The best chocolate was introduced to me by Duchess Meghan’s chocolate bars.
Compartés chocolate from LA is fantastic!
The bars are pricey $11 to $13 each but are amazing in diversity and superb in taste.
More $$ needed for overnight delivery, but it is a must in this blistering summer.