Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Halloween Candy 2012 Part 2: Super-Timley Edition



Coconut M&M's

While I could have sworn these were slightly bigger than the M&M's we have over here, otherwise they're just normal green M&M's with coconut-flavoured chocolate. Something I couldn't be more in favour of. I'll give these a well-earned 4/5.

Hershey's Miniatures

If you'll excuse the horrendous pun, these, were somewhat of a mixed bag. The basic milk chocolate miniatures are average at best. I don't have the bag to hand anymore, but I'd imagine that's because they contain less cocoa solids than I'm accustomed to. While they certainly won't be winning any awards (please tell me Hershey's don't win any awards), they're at least passable.

Thankfully though, both the Krackel and Mr. Goodbar minis take that so-so chocolate and improve it significantly. Krackel with rice puffs, which give it a nice crunch and a subtle toasted rice flavour, which I quite enjoyed; Mr. Goodbar with bits of peanuts (and I'm guessing a hit of some kind of nut flavouring), giving it similarly crunchy texture and a nice, rich nutty flavour.

Then there's the plain chocolate miniatures. Wow. I haven't thrown up in a long time, but you don't forget what that tastes like, and these really aren't many steps removed from that. The thought that there may be full-sized bars of this stuff on sale in the US is both baffling and terrifying to me.

Overall, I think this selection deserves a 3 out of 5 for the Krackel and Mr. Goodbar minis, but I'd advise everyone to give the milk chocolate, and especially the plain chocolate ones a wide berth. 3/5



Wonka Giant Chewy Sweet Tarts

They really aren't kidding about the "giant" part here. These things are freaking huge to the point where I decided to break them in half for fear of choking. But they're entirely worth it. The four fruit flavours (apple, lemon, cherry and I think, grape) are all very tasty (no blackcurrant-flavoured duds in here), and satisfyingly tangy too. I'll give these bad boys a much-deserved 4/5.

Wonka Chewy Gobstopper

Now these were a major disappointment. On the outside they have quite tasty fruit-flavoured shells, with extremely smooth textures, making them quite satisfying to just roll around in your mouth. Bite into them though and you reach this clumpy, sugary core, which sure as hell ain't chewy, and had a flavour that I can only really describe as "musty" (though the certainly weren't gone off). Just about passable, I'll give these a 2/5.



Taffy Town Salt Water Taffy

Holy crap, this stuff was incredible. I don't think I've ever had a candy that was this immensely satisfying to chew, and the selection of flavours in here was delicious, my favourites being the watermelon and strawberry. Out of everything here, these are the only ones I'll definitely be getting again and as such they certainly deserve full marks. 5/5



Expired Easter Stuff

Seeing as the postage for all this stuff was fixed, I tried to get as much as much out of that (fairly hefty) fee as I could, packing a trio of (only slightly) expired chocolate bunnies into the box along with everything else. As such, I don't think it'd really be fair to review these, but dammit, I already took a picture and I'm going to use it.

And, in response to your question: Yes, I did eat all of them, in their entirety, myself.

Bonus International Selection



Tymbark Cherry Apple Drink

As the first soft drink I'd ever seen in the Polish section of our local supermarket, I was pretty excited to try this last Summer. While drinkable, the watered-down cherry flavour here certainly won't have me switching away from Pepsi Max any time soon. I'll give this a a rather disappointing 2/5



Tokuno 8.2 Salt Flavor Stick Candy

One of three types of Japanese candy I ordered from Play-Asia last Summer, I really wasn't sure what I was getting into with this one. What exactly did "milk flavor" taste like? And why the salt? Actually though, these were pretty great. In the tube above you get about a dozen hard candies with a mild, tasty, butterscotch flavour that's complemented quite nicely with the few salt crystals dispersed through each one. An odd combination maybe, but I enjoyed these quite a lot. 5/5

Pocket Candy Cream Soda

These, I was initially a bit disappointed by. On first inspection they seemed to be solid, boiled candies with quite a nice kiwi type flavour, but didn't the pack say something about "cream soda"? Then, the creamy vanilla filling came spilling out from the inside and everything made sense, and was delicious. 5/5

Pocket Candy Wildberry

So, having scoffed several of the cream soda variation of these, it's fair to say my expectations for this variety were high. Having popped one in my mouth, and having determined that "wildberry" sure tasted a lot like raspberry, I kept waiting for some tasty filling to come bursting out (sorry), but that was it. These were just solid, boring, raspberry-flavoured candies. I can't say I'm much of a fan of the flavour, but as raspberry candies go, these were pretty decent; I doubt I'll bee seeking them out again though. 3/5

And so concludes another set of Halloween candy reviews. I think I better go floss now or something.