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March 2009

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cadbury Easter Mallows

Cadbury Easter MallowsCadbury does more for Easter than just the Mini Eggs and Creme Eggs, but we see little of that in the United States. I was lucky to find these imported goodies at my local Cost Plus World Market.

This tray of Limited Edition Easter Mallows is huge. Even though it only weighs 5.29 ounces, the large tray made it look like there was a lot of candy in here.

The clear tray holds the 10 chocolate covered marshmallow domes. They’re cradled well, and though a few of mine were cracked (could have been me treating the package roughly), none of them were leaking.

Cadbury Easter Mallows

The candy construction is simple. A round cookie (biscuit) base with a dollop of Jaffa orange jam, then a heap of marshmallow, all covered in Cadbury milk chocolate.

They’re about 1.75 inches in diameter and about .75 inches high. The bite is soft and the chocolate shell is crisp and adheres pretty well to the marshmallow.

They smell like dairy milk chocolate before biting, but after biting through to the jam center, it’s definitely orange. The flavor of the jam is rather like marmalade, with a strong zest component along with some sweet syrup and tangy juice to it. The cookie base is soft and crumbly, like a graham cracker. The marshmallow, though soft and passable didn’t do much for me one way or the other. The milk chocolate coating is very sweet and has a dried milk flavor to it.

On the whole, these are very appealing. I really liked the flavorful punch of the center much better than the filled marshmallows I’ve had from Asia.

They were expensive though, at $2.99 for the tray (but I felt like I’ve been leaving my UK reader friends out lately). I’m not quite sure what makes them an Easter candy (maybe if they were egg shaped) or if there’s a non-Easter version that these are based on. The Cadbury site was no help. (But I did find out that these are sold at Aldi in the UK.)

Each Easter Mallow has 65 calories.

The gelatin is made from pork, so these are definitely not Halal, Kosher or vegetarian.

Related Candies

  1. EveryBurger
  2. Lindt Lindor Truffle Eggs
  3. Princess Marshmallow Eggs
  4. Lindt Chocolate Bunnies (Dark & Milk)
  5. Cadbury Canadian Creme Eggs
  6. Cadbury Orange Creme Eggs
Name: Easter Mallows (Limited Edition)
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: Cost Plus World Market (3rd & Fairfax)
Price: $2.99
Size: 5.29 ounces
Calories per ounce: 123
Categories: Chocolate, Cookie, Marshmallow, Cadbury, United Kingdom, Easter, Limited Edition

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:35 am    

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Napoleon BonBon

Napoleon LemonHard candy has a bad reputation as being cheap and a candy of last resort. Oh sure, a little starlight mint after a garlicky meal is usually gratefully accepted when offered. But really good hard candy is out there.

Some of my favorites are actually the most subtle such as the Japanese Juntsuyu and Barley Sugar Candy.  But sometimes bold is just what the doctor ordered. Napoleon BonBons are definitely bold.

As a kid I often got them around holidays, just a small handful included in my stocking candy. As I grew up I learned to find them on my own ... and was pretty shocked at the sticker price, especially compared to the more affordable Zotz.

Le Bon Bonbon NapoleonI don’t know when or where I got this tin. I think it was sometime in the late eighties, I’m pretty sure I bought it in Philadelphia or New York and I was probably mortified to pay something like three dollars for a little tin of lemon drops.

They’re made in Belgium and the packaging features the image of Napoleon Bonaparte. I have no idea when the candies originated or their history. The tin simply says: Le Bon Bonbon Napoleon Sour Lemon. The more recent bag that I acquired through a photo shoot for Candy Warehouse says Made by Napoleon-Breskens-Holland.

So even though I can’t tell you much about their background, I can review what I’ve got:

image

Though I most often see the Lemon, they also come in Cherry, Tangerine, Lime and Pineapple.

The candies are devilishly simple. Hard candy outside, and then a strip of super sour powder in the center. The powder center is often mistaken for a liquid, it’s rather cool on the tongue and so fine that it melts away instantly. It’s only before putting then in the mouth that I could really tell. (Yes, as a kid I sometimes broke them apart to create a big pile of super sour powder.)

  • Lemon - Yellow - a classic lemon hard candy, like any other lemon drop. The hard candy is smooth with few voids and has a good shatter to it when crunched. The lemon is a blend of zest and light tang. The acidic powder center really ramps up the sour. Sometimes I like to dissolve the whole candy as much as I can until I get to the sour for even release, sometimes I crunch as soon as a I can. A fun trick is to cleave the candy cleanly in half for as much surface area for the powder.
  • Pineapple - Clear - starts out sweet and floral but develops into a tangy and rather complex piece. The pineapple is more on the jam or boiled fruit side of the flavors than a fresh pineapple. The sour center is very strong and tastes a little more chemically on this one than the others.
  •  

  • Tangerine - Orange - I was really stunned when I tried this. The flavor was gloriously subtle, it tasted like orange blossom. Then the florals gave way to the zesty and sour notes. Then the really sour center. If I could buy a whole bag of Tangerine, I definitely would go with this one over the Lemon.
  •  

  • Lime - Green -  one of the more successful lime candies I’ve had in a while. I have a Persian lime tree, so I have a lot of experience with real limes, and of course my candy blogging brings me into contact with all sorts of fake limes. This has a sweet and slightly bitter zest start which mellows into a little bit of a floor cleaner vibe. But the sour packs enough scour power to bring it back round to that really tingly feeling. At the end of the candy though, there is still that bitter citrus oil vibe that lingers.
  •  

  • Cherry - Red - this has an immediate maraschino flavor that is then tempered with a sour cherry. It’s an odd combination, unlike the American cherry that we’re familiar with through cough drops and LifeSavers. It’s not as dark or woodsy, it tastes more unripe. The tartness is fun and well balanced.
  • These are insanely expensive. The ones in the top photo I bought at Miette in San Francisco last year for 25 cents each. They’re spherical and a little less yellow, but still the same flavor profile as the disk shaped lemon. The bags that Candy Warehouse sells are $7.10 a pound, and come in 7 pound bags. (Yes, at one time I had 14 pounds of Napoleon Bonbons - one of just lemon and one of the mix. I’ve eaten about three pounds so far.)

    I’ve really vacillated between giving these a nine or a ten. The price is a formidable obstacle to perfection, but then again, I know I bought that tin when I was in college and had staggeringly little money so they must be worth it. So there you are, another 10 out of 10.

    Related Candies

    1. Mike and Ike Alex’s Lemonade Stand
    2. Kasugai Fruits Lemonade
    3. Topps Baby Bottle
    4. Zotz Apple
    5. Giant Pixy Stix
    6. The Lemonhead & Fruit Heads
    Name: Napoleon Bonbon Assorted Sours
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Napoleon
    Place Purchased: samples from CandyWarehouse
    Price: $7.10 a pound
    Size: 7 pounds
    Calories per ounce: unknown
    Categories: Hard Candy, Sour, Belgium

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:50 am    

    Monday, March 23, 2009

    Russell Stover Marshmallow Rabbits

    Russell Stover Marshmallow Rabbit PackagesA lot of Easter candies seem to get smaller as the years go by, and portion control is a responsible way to go. But sometimes you just want a big, luscious rabbit to sink your teeth into.

    Russell Stover offers a lot of Easter goodies, I’m most fond of their eggs, which are usually fresh and the perfect size at about an ounce for less than the price of a candy bar these days.

    But I was mighty tempted by these Marshmallow Rabbits. They’re two ounces, and since they’re marshmallow they’re pretty big. The packages are 6 inches tall in vibrant metallic colors with a rather realistic rabbit illustration on the front.

    They come in two varieties, the regular vanilla marshmallow covered in milk chocolate and a chocolate marshmallow covered in milk chocolate.

    Russell Stover Marshmallow RabbitsI wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened the package. Some marshmallow shapes can be curiously amorphous. These looked, for the most part, like the outline of the image on the package. They’re about 4.5 inches tall and about 2.5 inches at their widest part.

    I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a rabbit face with extra huge cheeks/jowls, or the whole body with a big meaty legs. (Part of me also thought they looked like a Buddha with rabbit ears.)

    The chocolate is wonderfully rippled and I was pleased with how well I’d picked my rabbits out, as they were practically flawless (though I ended up dropping the chocolate one and denting his ear as I was taking the photo).

    Russell Stover Marshmallow Rabbit

    Russell Stover Marshmallow Rabbit

    The chocolate shell has a nice snap to it and an overall chocolate malt scent. The marshmallow center is soft and moist with a strong vanilla flavor. It’s not quite as fluffy as some I’ve had, but it’s also very satisfying and has a bit of salt to it (60 mg in the whole 2 ounce portion).

    Though the package says that a whole rabbit is a single serving, I found just the ears was plenty satisfying. The problem with a very large marshmallow items is that it’s hard to save some more for later without it making a mess. Still, I found them pretty easy to slip back into their packages and pinch shut for later. (I wouldn’t save it for more than a day or two, or else they get hard and tacky.)

    Russell Stover Chocolate Marshmallow Rabbit

    Russell Stover Chocolate Marshmallow Rabbit

    The chocolate on this one looked slightly lighter than its vanilla counterpart, though that could have been all in my head (well, it’s all in my tummy now).

    This one has a light cocoa scent that reminded me of cookie dough.

    The chocolate has a similarly crisp snap but still doesn’t flake or crumble off of the marshmallow excessively.

    The marshmallow is soft, though not as mushy as the vanilla. It has a very springy and latexy quality to it. The flavor is mild, like a cup of hot cocoa, definitely less sweet than the vanilla but also much saltier (210 mg per 2 ounce portion).

    The chocolate on both was really flavorful and helped to make these some of the better chocolate marshmallows I’ve bought at the drug store. The novelty shape and price makes them a really good deal. But the large portion size and awkward shape makes them difficult to share (as I think traditional chocolate rabbits are). There are no artificial colors in them.

    Related Candies

    1. Peeps Chocolate Mousse (Bears & Bunnies)
    2. Easter Novelty Toys (with candy)
    3. Russell Stover Eggs
    4. Russell Stover Orange Marshmallow Pumpkin
    5. Russell Stover Eggs (2007 edition)
    6. Russell Stover Cream Eggs
    Name: Marshmallow Rabbits
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Russell Stover
    Place Purchased: Rite Aid (Echo Park)
    Price: $1.00
    Size: 2 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 115 & 120
    Categories: Chocolate, Marshmallow, United States, Russell Stover, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:21 am    

    Friday, March 20, 2009

    Elmer’s Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash & Gold Brick Eggs

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash EggA few years ago, after trying a petite box of Valentine’s chocolates from Elmer’s Candy Company I decided to track down their two most famous products: Heavenly Hash Egg and Gold Brick Egg. Oddly enough last week I was contacted by Elmer’s as they were promoting their new introduction, a dark chocolate version of both of the flagship products (can there be two flagships?).

    I requested that they send along some of the original, as I’d tried very hard to find them in my area and they had no webstore. Sadly, they didn’t include them so this review today is in a bit of a vacuum.

    The packaging is rather bold, a black background with a fluffy blue and white cloud for the logo & description. (It does look like it belongs with the Hot Tamales Licorice Jelly Beans from yesterday’s review.)

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash EggThe Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash Egg is rich dark chocolate, tender marshmallow and roasted almonds. This is a pretty big egg, clocking in at 1.33 ounces. I’m guessing these are sold individually like the Russell Stover eggs are, though mine arrived in a tray of six. For reference the Toasted Marshmallow Eggs I tried a couple of weeks ago were just .75 ounces each.

    The eggs are pretty big, though each was a little different ranging from 3.5 to 3.75 inches long and about 2 inches at the widest.

    From the description, I assumed that the almonds would be crushed bits mixed in with the marshmallow. I don’t know why that was what I was expecting, but when I saw the candy out of the package, I thought it was really lovely. A marshmallow plank with four or five little lumps (almonds) covered in rippled and shiny dark chocolate.

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash EggThe chocolate has a nice snap to it and adheres to the marshmallow well, I didn’t have any issue with flaking. The almonds, when encountered, provide a crisp crunch. They’re well roasted, most I came across had a good toasted flavor. And it was pretty easy to plan my bites so as to get some almond in each one.

    The marshmallow is sweet and moist, but it’s a bit soft and forms little peaks when I bite it. (Vastly different from the Pete’s Gourmet, as you can imagine.)

    There’s very little flavor to the marshmallow, though every once in a while I got a bit of a honey note from it (though none is listed in the ingredients).

    The dark chocolate isn’t complex but is definitely less sweet than the milk chocolate from the Toasted Marshmallow Eggs, which is definitely a plus. However, since I still had a Toasted egg left, I tried one and much preferred the cotton candy flavor of that center to the rather plain Heavenly Hash. In the end, the textures and overall execution is much better with the Heavenly Hash.

    Rating: 7 out of 10

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Gold Brick EggThe original Elmer’s Gold Brick candy bar was introduced in 1936. It was priced at ten cents, twice the regular price for a bar at that time. Now they’re sold as an egg during Easter.

    The Dark Chocolate Gold Brick Egg package describes it simply as dark chocolate covered pecan melt-a-way.

    The wrapper is similarly bold & dark, a black background with a bright yellow egg holding the logo.

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Gold Brick EggIt clocks in a bit lighter than the Heavenly Hash, at only 1 ounce instead of 1.33 ounces (which was also far bigger because it had fluffy center).

    This piece consists of a molded center, which is the melt-a-way which is then enrobed. Some of mine had big puddly feet, but the one I chose to photograph was more crisp looking.

    There’s a slight rippling on the enrobing. They smell sweet, but a little more like fudge or hot cocoa than chocolate. It didn’t seem promising. Neither did the ingredients. It went like this: sugar, dark chocolate, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, pecans, chocolate, skim milk ... and so on to list the less than 2 percent ingredients.

    Elmer's Dark Chocolate Gold Brick EggI had to nibble away pretty far on the one in the picture to make sure I got a pecan in there. (I did eat some pecans along the way, just no cross sections.)

    Instead of a soft and melty melt-a-way, what I had here was more of a waxy and fudgy center. The texture wasn’t quite crumbly, but it certainly didn’t have that mouthfeel of even some candies made with tropical oils (coconut oil is good for that).

    The flavor is rather empty, a bit like cocoa but not at all like deep, rich chocolate. There were a few pecan pieces, but they only provided some scant texture and not much on the flavor front.

    Rating: 4 out of 10

    I’m interested to taste the original Heavenly Hash, but have no interest in the Gold Brick. But they do have something called a Gold Brick Malt Egg that seems to be tempting me against my better judgment.

    The Girl Tastes did a roundup last year of the classic milk chocolate Elmer’s Eggs (with similar results): Heavenly Hash & Gold Brick plus Pecan Egg & Eggceptionals

    Related Candies

    1. Pete’s Gourmet Confections: Marshmallows
    2. Hershey’s Bliss
    3. Princess Marshmallow Eggs
    4. Russell Stover Orange Marshmallow Pumpkin
    5. Elmer’s Chocolate
    6. Boyer’s Mallo Cup
    7. Cup-O-Gold
    Name: Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash & Gold Brick Eggs
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Elmer's Candy Company
    Place Purchased: samples from Elmer's
    Price: retail $.50 each
    Size: 1.33 ounces & 1 ounce
    Calories per ounce: 128 & 160
    Categories: Chocolate, Nuts, Marshmallow, United States, Elmer's Candy Company, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:39 am    

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    Hot Tamales Black Licorice Jelly Beans

    Hot Tamales Licorice Flavored Jelly BeansI was a little confused that this package says “new” since I saw them on sale last year, but the freshness date says best by 06/2010. I was also confused when I tried to find these via the Just Born website and it said they were carried by a handful of Albertson’s markets in Southern California ... but then I stumbled across them at the 99 Cent Only Store near my office. They also had the all-cinnamon Hot Tamales Jelly Beans and the Hot Tamales Spice Jelly Beans.

    Before gourmet jelly beans came along, the only jelly bean I knew of that was sold as a single flavor was licorice. (It ranks among Jelly Belly’s top sellers.) I often felt like the beans were being segregated, like they didn’t belong in the regular mix of beans. I certainly had friends and family members that would sort them out of their mixes (and give them to me).  But in this case, the Hot Tamales Spice Beans don’t actually include licorice, they are definitely sold separately.

    The packaging is rather unusual. Though as far as I can tell the Hot Tamales beans are only sold around Easter, but they’re packaged as if they’re an all-year round item. No pastels, eggs, bunnies or baby animals on this package. It’s black and gray with the red Hot Tamales logo & fireball mascot.

    Licorice Hot Tamales Jelly Beans

    The beans are attractive and very black. They’re rather tall and narrow - the same length & width of a Jelly Belly but much taller and boxier.

    The bag smells a bit like licorice spice tea, but mostly like sweet beeswax (not unpleasant).

    The beans are soft, they can easily be squished between my fingers (Jelly Belly tend to be firmer). The shell isn’t very thick so there’s not much grain to these beans.

    The licorice notes are high on the anise side with a clean and sweet lingering aftertaste. It’s missing a lot of the darker woodsy notes that a licorice whip has but they’re definitely beans that I have no trouble eating, no sickly feeling of consuming too much sugar like those Bunny Basket Eggs can do.

    Though the ingredients list pectin, they’re not a true pectin bean - they utilize modified food starch as the primary thickener. That said, it is a smooth flavor that’s not too sweet.

    There’s a fair bit of food coloring in here, which meant that after a handful my tongue was greenish/blue. Licorice twists tend to be black because of the molasses ... it seems to me that licorice jelly beans sold separately could simply be uncolored and we could skip all that Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 1.

    These may be Kosher, it’s hard to tell. It’s not mentioned on the package, but the Just Born website says that only their Peeps products are not Kosher. They are gluten free! (And made in the USA.)

    Related Candies

    1. Russell Stover Pectin Jelly Beans
    2. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
    3. Jelly Belly Licorice Bears
    4. Licorice Mentos
    5. Navigating a Candy Expo
    Name: Hot Tamales Licorice Flavored Jelly Beans
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Just Born
    Place Purchased: 99 Cent Store (Miracle Mile)
    Price: $1.00
    Size: 9 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 99
    Categories: Jelly, Licorice, United States, Just Born, Kosher, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:46 am    

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