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Easter

Monday, March 9, 2009

Elmer’s Toasted Marshmallow Eggs

Toasted Marshmallow EggsElmer’s Candy Corp is a very popular and inexpensive brand of boxed chocolates from Louisiana. More recently I’ve been seeing their Valentine’s heart assortments at drug stores and discount chains. For the price I’ve found their candies to be a decent value.

I also knew that they did Easter candies, though this was the first year I saw them at my stores here on the West Coast. The most famous products are their Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash Eggs, which are still devilishly out of reach.

What I did find at the Rite Aid was Chocolate Covered Toasted Marshmallow Eggs

Elmer's Toasted Marshmallow EggsThe candies are sold in a tray of six individually wrapped chocolate marshmallow eggs.

The cartoon rabbits on the package are the product of Jim Benton, part of the It’s Happy Bunny (tm) series. (Official website here.)

Inside the tray the little packages come in either pink or powder blue mylar and have a different saying on them:

  • I can’t stop the adorable.
  • You’d be cooler if you were me.
  • I’m not spoiled. I deserve all my stuff.
  • Each little marshmallow is about two and a half inches long.

    Elmer's Toasted Marshmallow EggsThey’re quite nice looking, especially for the price (I got my tray on sale for $1.50). The chocolate ripples on the top and for the most part they were in good shape. A few were cracked, but the marshmallow just seemed to seal any fissures. I was afraid they’d be like the Melster ones I got a couple of years ago, but the ingredients here looked decent. More importantly, these smelled sweet and toasty.

    The marshmallow here is rather like what you’d get if you just toasted a real marshmallow, it’s very soft, almost runny. The chocolate shell is soft as well, but at least it doesn’t flake off. The marshmallow center has a strong single note vanilla flavor (like fake vanilla extract) but then there’s a second component that’s a little toasted sugar flavor.

    The very soft texture of the marshmallow is a little different from other more foamy Easter concoctions, but it’s very smooth (no grain). I ate half of the candies in the package and was overall pleased with them but ultimately they’re too sweet for me to just eat without something to balance it. The little bunnies and their quips on the package was a nice change and would be a fun item to give to friends or pop in your kid’s lunch box. Each egg is about 80 calories.

    Related Candies

    1. Bubu Lubu
    2. Hiding Eggs
    3. Princess Marshmallow Eggs
    4. Peeps Mash Ups
    5. Cadbury Canadian Creme Eggs
    6. See’s Scotchmallow Eggs
    7. Cadbury Eggs: Creme & Caramel
    Name: Toasted Marshmallow 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 Corp.
    Place Purchased: RiteAid (Glendale)
    Price: $1.50
    Size: 4.5 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 107
    Categories: Chocolate, Marshmallow, United States, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:06 am    

    Tuesday, March 3, 2009

    Brach’s Robin Eggs (Solid Milk Chocolate)

    Brach's Robin Eggs - Solid Milk ChocolateEaster is all about eggs. It’s all about making classic candies available in the format of little ovoids.

    Brach’s Robin Eggs are a beautiful version of this. They’re simply a solid milk chocolate egg covered in a crunchy candy shell. They’re light blue, about one inch long and speckled to look like a real robin egg.

    I found mine on sale at Long’s for only $1.99 for the 7.5 ounce bag.

    Brach's Robin Eggs - Solid Milk Chocolate

    Upon opening the bag I found that they smelled a lot like most other sweet Easter candies - like sugar & milk, fake vanilla & cereal. Not much chocolate scent, but then again, a candy shell can do a good job of sealing in the chocolate goodness.

    The ingredients didn’t really give me a lot of confidence though.

    Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Whole Milk Powder, Chocolate Liquor, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Modified Food Starch, Artificial Colors, Artificial Flavor, Carnauba Wax, Confectioner’s Glaze, White Mineral Oil, Beeswax.

    Mostly what I was disappointed about was how far down on the list of the chocolate ingredients the actual chocolate liquor was. But cocoa butter being ahead of milk (and whole milk at that) had me intrigued.

    The shell is nice and crunchy, with a good snap to it. The chocolate inside is immediately sweet and has a slight nutty flavor to it, like peanuts or sunflower seeds. The melt of the chocolate is a bit grainy, as milk chocolate can often have that fudgy grain and this obviously has a lot of milk in it.

    But it lacked a chocolate punch. I’m not saying that I didn’t find them edible and interesting, certainly better than the fake chocolate in the Whoppers Robin Eggs (made by Hershey’s) that I’ve been chowing down on for the past week.

    Hershey's Candy Coated Milk Chocolate EggsMy guess immediately was that I was expecting something else. And part of that is that my ideal egg-shaped candy shelled chocolate candy is the Hershey’s Candy Coated Milk Chocolate Eggs (original review).

    As harsh as I am on Hershey’s as a brand, part of it is because I love some of the products so much.

    So I picked up some of the Hershey’s Eggs, not just for this comparison but also to give them a check since Hershey’s has been mucking around with so many of their formulas & packaging.

    The package is redesigned from the previous shoot that I did. I can’t say that it’s better, but at least they’ve finally given the candy a name. (Before they were just Hershey’s Eggs, but so were the foil wrapped eggs.)

    Hershey's Eggs & Brach's Robin EggsThe Hershey’s Eggs are smaller than the Robin Eggs. According to the packages a single Hershey’s Egg weighs about 6.33 grams and a single Robin Egg weighs 8.60 grams.

    The Hershey’s Eggs obviously come in an array of solid pastels and the Brach’s Robin Eggs are this blue with speckles.

    In the package the Hershey’s Eggs smell like Kisses, a tangy, fudgy aroma. The Brach’s Robin Eggs don’t give away their chocolate insides.

    Given a choice between the two, I’m going to have to go with the Hershey’s. The Brach’s just lack a distinct & pleasing flavor to them. I think they’re lovely, and the aesthetics of them certainly tips in their favor. The price is good, there are also certainly folks who would wish to purchase from someone other than Hershey’s at this time with the backlash over the Mexican move of some of the manufacturing. (The Eggs are still made in the US.) However the Brach’s Robin Eggs are made in the US and Canada.

    I think it all goes to personal taste at this point. There are a few options for this type of candy (though Mars stopped making the Mega M&Ms which were rather close in size to the Hershey Eggs) so go with what you like.

    Related Candies

    1. Godiva Easter Eggs
    2. Brach’s Fiesta Eggs
    3. Runts Freckled Eggs
    4. See’s Scotchmallow Eggs
    5. Cadbury Royal Dark Mini Eggs
    6. Brachs Bunny Basket Eggs
    7. Cadbury Mini Eggs
    Name: Robin Eggs Solid Milk Chocolate
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Brach's (Farley's & Sathers Candy Co.)
    Place Purchased: Long's (Laguna Woods)
    Price: $1.99 (on sale)
    Size: 7.5 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 125
    Categories: Chocolate, United States, Canada, Brach's, Farley's & Sathers, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:43 am    

    Monday, March 2, 2009

    R.M. Palmer Quax - The Yummy Ducky

    Palmer QuaxI will start by saying that I’m a sucker.

    I bought another molded Palmer Easter item. (A product which I generally consider a biodegradable decoration, not actually meant to be eaten.)

    I have to hand it to R.M. Palmer. They do a great job of keeping their prices low and their designs contemporary.

    Quax: The Yummy Ducky pretty much had me with the packaging. (It certainly wasn’t the description of Hollow Milk Flavored Candy Duck that sold me.) It looks just like a bathtub rubber ducky. But it was also on sale for only a dollar.

        Palmer Quax

    Quax is a bit smaller than the average toy duck. He’s about 3 inches from beak to tail and three inches high.

    He’s well molded, with a seam through his head and down his sides. (I would have thought it would be constructed with mirror-image sides, but this way presents a flawless face.)

    He sounds like plastic, looks like plastic but thankfully smells like an Easter basket. (Mmm, vanillin.)

    The ingredients are what I’d expect from Palmer:

    Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm Kernel and/or Palm Oil), Whey, Lactose, Skim Milk, Soy Lecithin, Colors (Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 40 & Red 3), Vanillin.

    The packaging seems a bit excessive for such a tiny candy toy - it’s 4 inches wide and 6 inches tall. But it does have a little to and from tag area on the back for gifting.

    Quax in WaterAfter a certain point though, I just had to know ... would it float?

    So I got out a bowl of water and plopped my Yummy Ducky friend into it.

    Sure enough, he floats. He floats just fine. But he’s not balanced, so try as I might, I couldn’t get him to bob like a duck should, upright (or even tail up like a feeding duck might). Instead he did the duck equivalent of belly up and rested on his side. What this duck needs is a keel. Or feet. Then I think we might have something, an edible decoration for a punch bowl.

    At this point I was pretty happy with my one buck purchase. It was cute, it smelled better than some vinyl toy and provided at least 800 words for my review without even cracking it open.

    imageBut I have to actually eat some, don’t I?

    So I bit off the top of his skull.

    The milk flavored candy has a very strong vanilla flavor with a little bit of dairy/dried milk going on. It’s incredibly sweet, actually throat searing.

    It’s not that bad! Since it’s not trying to be actual chocolate, it succeeds at being better than plastic. I don’t plan on finishing it, but it was a fun little novelty item. It might even be amusing if they made them in a few sizes. You know, because they’re really not for eating, just decoration.

    For those of you who for some reason now want to watch Ernie sing Rubber Duckie, here it is on YouTube.

    Related Candies

    1. Guylian Twists
    2. Peeps inside a Milk Chocolate Egg
    3. See’s Hollow Eggs with Novelty
    4. Upscale Hollow Chocolate: Michel Cluizel & Hotel Chocolat
    5. Russell Stover Hollow Milk Chocolate Bunny
    6. Lindt Chocolate Bunnies (Dark & Milk)
    Name: Quax - Hollow Milk Flavored Candy Duck
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: R.M. Palmer
    Place Purchased: RiteAid (Glendale)
    Price: $1.00 (on sale)
    Size: 1.75 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 154
    Categories: Mockolate, United States, Palmer, Easter, Novelty, Kosher

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:29 am    

    Thursday, June 5, 2008

    Peeps Chocolate Mousse (Bears & Bunnies)

    Chocolate Mousse Marshmallow BearsJust Born is expanding its efforts of Peeps World Domination with a new line of Chocolate Mousse Peeps.

    The first version will premiere next Valentine’s Day in the shape of Peeps Chocolate Mousse Marshmallow Bears.

    I’m not sure why there hasn’t been a bear shaped Peeps all along, they’re an ideal Valentine’s emblem (and really, why can’t we have Bear Peeps all year round?). However, this package is all about love, with its red wrapper & little hearts.

    The packages I got were for evaluation purposes only, so I don’t have the complete nutritional info & ingredients list. I decided to open the Peeps Chocolate Mousse Marshmallow Bunnies for the purposes of the review.

    image

    Look familiar?

    They’re nice looking, medium brown. They’re sparkly with the light sanding of sugar. (I’ve often wondered what corn starch dusted Peeps would be like.)

    They’re extremely soft, softer than regular Peeps are, if you ask me. They smell like chocolate breakfast cereal, like Cocoa Puffs.

    image

    But the big question, at least in my mind, was are these different from the Cocoa Peeps?

    I just so happened to have a package of Peeps Cocoa Marshmallow Bunnies (left) for a direct comparison.

    Though they looked similar in my memory, putting them side by side, it’s easy to see that the new Mousse Peeps are darker.

    The cross section shows that the Mousse Peeps is cocoa through and through, where the only slightly creamy colored on the inside.

    Peeps Chocolate Mousse BunniesThe difference in taste? Well, if you’re expecting some sort of decadent mousse-like product, you’re going to be disappointed. The new Mousse version are kind of like a fluffy, watered down Tootsie roll. Pleasant and less-sweet than the ordinary Peeps, but still, not a chocolate phenomenon.

    They’re great with coffee but like the Cocoa version, it’s very hard to get them stale. I’ve had this package open for two weeks and they’re still pretty squishy.

    However, these are awesome broiled. The center becomes frothy and runny and the sugar dust becomes a crunchy shell. I put them in the toaster over for 3 minutes. Be sure to have them on foil or parchment or else they run all over the place. You also might need a spoon to eat them. Microwaving also gets the same soupy center, but the outside doesn’t get crispy (so it’s the confectionery equivalent of trying to make pizza in a microwave ... it’s edible but it’s not the same).

    In the end, I’m more inclined towards the Chocolate Mousse Peeps than any other Peeps to date, but that’s not necessarily a rave review.

    For the record, the available shapes for Peeps are:

  • Valentines: Hearts and now Bears

  • Easter: Eggs, Bunnies, Chicks & new Tulips

  • Halloween: Spooky Cats, Pumpkins & Ghosts (love those, no dyes)

  • Christmas: Trees, Snowmen, Gingerbread Men & Stars + the new JOY letters

  • These should be in stores starting in January, but you can also buy many Peeps items all year round now directly from Just Born.

    Related Candies

    1. Peeps Mash Ups - Savory
    2. Peeps inside a Milk Chocolate Egg
    3. Peeps Chick & Bunny Candy
    4. Marshmallow Pig
    5. Candy Wrapper Purses from Endangered Species
    6. Peeps Mash Ups
    7. Peeps
    Name: Chocolate Mousse Peeps (Bears & Bunnies)
      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: samples from All Candy Expo
    Price: $1.29 retail
    Size: 2.375 ounces
    Calories per ounce: unknown
    Categories: Marshmallow, United States, Just Born, Valentines, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:09 am    

    Monday, March 31, 2008

    Cadbury Popping Mini Eggs

    Cadbury Popping Mini EggsAmber, a dear reader from Toronto, came to Los Angeles over Easter weekend and was kind enough to run around to three stores before leaving Canada in search of a list o’ candies from the Great White North. Her timing couldn’t have been better for this one, the Cadbury Popping Mini Eggs which are pretty much what the name implies.

    They’re Cadbury Mini Eggs (a creamy milk chocolate egg with a crunchy shell) with a little bit of carbonated candy thrown in.

    They look just like their non-bubbly counterparts, except they don’t have the little speckles on them. They come in all the standard eraser colors: white, yellow, pink and turquoise.

    Cadbury Popping Mini Eggs

    I have to say that the bag is teensy and contains a rather small amount: 32 grams (1.13 ounces). The standard Canadian single serve bags are 39 grams. I guess instead of charging more for that special ingredient they just give you less.

    Where the Pop Rocks Chocolate Bar had an odd texture because of the addition of Pop Rocks, these don’t have that jarring granularity, because we’re already accustomed to the crunchy bits of the shell.

    After chewing a few times the chocolate melts away, it’s sweet, creamy and a little malty ... then the popping starts. It’s not a lot of popping, not as much as the Pop Rocks bar, but still a nice experience.

    The regular packaging is purple, this is yellow, so it’s hard to mistake one for the other on the shelves. And once you pop it in your mouth, well, it’s the same sort of shocking difference.

    I thought these were a bit of a novelty item, but I like it. I wouldn’t want to have a huge 11 ounce bag of them, but a little handful brought a smile to my face.

    Related Candies

    1. Cadbury Crunchie
    2. Chocolate Poppers
    3. Pop Rocks Milk Chocolate Bar
    4. Peeps Mash Ups
    5. Cadbury Orange Creme Eggs
    6. Cadbury Royal Dark Mini Eggs
    7. Cadbury Mini Eggs
    Name: Popping Mini Eggs
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Cadbury (Canada)
    Place Purchased: unknown
    Price: unknown
    Size: 1.13 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 133
    Categories: Chocolate, Carbonated, Canada, Cadbury, Easter

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:19 am    

    Friday, March 21, 2008

    Easter Novelty Toys (with candy)

    Here are a few combo candy-toy items for Easter baskets and beyond:

    M&Ms Mini

    I thought this little M&Ms mini figure was pretty cute. He’s made of some sort of durable hard plastic, not that cheap thin stuff.

    The little figure is full of mini M&Ms. They’re regular M&Ms, not the Easter pastel version, but I’m okay with that.

    The most vexing thing about this is the little hat that twists/pops off to reveal the candy. It was like a frelling child safety cap without the insane instructions.

    There were a few varieties, including Green, Red and Yellow. I liked the Blue because it felt most like Easter pastels even if he did have some sort of a goofy look on his face. I don’t know if the bunny hats are swappable for other non-holiday novelties.

    It was expensive for the scant amount of candy involved, $1.99 regular price. But a fun grab next week on sale, perhaps.

    Hershey's Lamb with Kisses

    When I was a teenager I had a thing for sheep items. (Well, in college we actually had a sheep living at a house I was renting a room at, but he was more of a lawnmower.)

    My obsession caused me to rewrite passages of Shakespeare with sheep in mind:

    Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sheep no more!
    Macbeth does murder sheep’, the innocent sheep,
    Sheep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care (1)

    I’ve kind of moved on from the sheep thing (though if I ever have one I get to name, he’ll be called Fleance).

    While this little cheap plastic egg with sheep features was only 99 cents, it also only has give Hershey’s Kisses in them. (At least they’re pastel foil.)

    M&Ms Toys with CandyMoving up in price, Candyrific recently expanded their toy/candy line with some M&Ms themed items.

    They fall more in the realm of toys than candy containers and are pretty fun combinations.

    The first is a set of fans. Candyrific came out with a really good candy novelty a couple of years ago, which is the fan that has little LED lights on it and a candy container in the handle. This new version has the M&Ms characters in various colors holding the fan. The central container at the base of the handle holds .7 ounces of regular M&Ms. (There’s supposedly a version of this for Easter, but I got the year-round version as a sample and haven’t seen the pastel ones with bunny ears in stores.)

    The second is a miniature Etch A Sketch that holds a small fun-sized pack of M&Ms.

              M&Ms Fan Toy

    I have to admit that I enjoy these a lot. I don’t care about the candy inside. I wish that they lit up like the other versions do, but I’m guessing the money they spend on those LEDs in this instance goes to M&MS for the licensing of the characters. But at least they have real M&Ms in there.

    They’re well made and even have a real battery compartment that can be opened and replaced for actual lasting play.

    I really could have used a few of these last September during that blackout on Labor Day weekend where my house was over 100 degrees inside.

    The fan blade is made of a soft foam, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hurt myself with it. Maybe if I stuck it in my eye. (Please don’t try that, or if you do, please don’t blame me.)

    M&Ms Etch A Sketch

    The other fun item is this little Etch A Sketch with a couple of M&Ms on there. They come in a few different colors, but they’re pretty much the same. I had an Etch A Sketch as a kid and enjoyed it ... actually got pretty good at drawing on it. This one doesn’t work quite as well, the little stylus draws a very thin line, probably a little too thin on the first pass, so I ended up going over my lines twice.

    M&Ms Etch A SketchIt’s a crazy small amount of candy, but like the fan, it’s pretty easy to put any kind of candy in there and refill it however you like.

    The biggest drawback is trying to clear the Etch A Sketch, which everyone knows involves turning it over and shaking it wildly. With the M&Ms in the little container part it makes a lotta noise and to clear the EAS properly, I broke some of my M&MS.

    There is an easy solution to this of course, just take the lid off (the part that has the EAS on it) and just shake that. Like my problems with getting the hat off of the Easter minis, I’m sure a child would figure this out much quicker than I did.

    The last item is a bit of a re-review of one of my favorite candy novelties so far, an Easter version of the Gummy Lightning Bugs.

    Lightning Bunny Gummy CandyThis version has little gummy rabbits and is called Lightning Bunny Candy by Kandy Kastle. They’re all one flavor, instead of a mix. I was worried when I saw that they’re all red, but it’s cool, they’re strawberry, not cherry.

    For only 99 cents there are 9 little gummis and the cute purple light up tongs.

    The package said that the tongs were redesigned. Actually, it says “New & Improved Tong Included” so they’re better than before and there’s only one. (Tongs, I’m guessing are like scissors and pants and are always plural.)

    The tongs aren’t really improved, if you ask me. They’re just shorter than before, probably easier to grasp for little fingers and they don’t stay on as readily, which probably provides a lot more longevity.

    This is the kind of exploratory toy that I think is good for kids. It makes them slow down and really look at everyday things in a different way.

    Lightning Bunny Gummy CandyI tried them on some other items, they don’t open as widely as they used to, so anything as large as say, a Spearmint Leaf is too big. But small items like jelly beans (awesome!) and chocolate covered coffee beans (boring) are the right size.

    I think adding a little toy in an Easter basket is fun. (I think the best one I ever got was a kite, which me & my brother and sister took out to the field across the street behind the cemetery and promptly got caught in a tree within an hour.)

    The Hershey’s one isn’t the best toy in the world, but the design is nice. The filled M&M is also nice and certainly well built, but doesn’t offer much opportunity for interaction. I can see it being collectible though. The fan & Etch A Sketch are the best of the bunch, but a little pricier for “candy” items at $3.99 retail, but still a good value for a small toy.

    If parents are looking for a way to still have a bit of bounty in the basket, a novelty item that contains a small amount of candy (especially something that can be refilled on a regular basis) is a good compromise. I mean, I wouldn’t have felt cheated if I got one of these as a kid.

    They all get a solid 7 out of 10. The Lightning Bunny was made in China, in all other cases the candy was made in the USA, but the toys were made in China.

    Related Candies

    1. Gummy Fishies
    2. Bug Jar Candy
    3. M&M and Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Eggs
    4. Gummi Lightning Bugs
    5. Light Lollipops

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:32 pm     CandyReviewEasterHershey'sMarsChocolateGummi CandyNovelty/Toy7-Worth ItChinaUnited StatesRite AidSav-On/CVS

    Happy Easter Island

    Thursday, March 20, 2008

    Lake Champlain & See’s Bunny Battle

    Lake ChamplainYou thought I was done with hollow chocolate rabbits?

    I can’t stop buying them. (And, um, taking photos of them, as this post will demonstrate, it’s mostly photos.)

    Here are a couple of other more upscale models, in case you still haven’t outfitted your Easter basket for the year. Call it my Bunny Battle, spawned in part by sticker shock at Whole Foods (who doesn’t come away from WF without some degree of sticker shock?).

    I picked up this extremely cute and extremely small goodie basket (I think they call it a favor basket) from Lake Champlain. It contains three filled half eggs and one tiny .6 ounce hollow milk chocolate rabbit. The price? $8.49.

    Now, lest you think that it’s the little eggs that are racking up the tally there, the bunny all by itself on the Lake Champlain website is $3.25 ... it’s just chocolate, nothin’ special there. Just all natural milk chocolate.

    Lake Champlain Eggs

    I’ll get to the bunny in a moment, but first the unique items in this little basket (well, more like a cup) are the Lake Champlain filled eggs. They’re lovely little half eggs with a pretty molded shell that has the Lake Champlain logo and the word “Vermont” on it.

    It comes with three eggs. I reviewed the blue foil wrapped egg before that has a hazelnut cream inside before, so I picked up the rest of the eggs in their set to make sure that I’ve covered them all. (The basket came with Raspberry, Caramel & Peanut Butter.)

    Lake Champlain Gold EggGold = Caramel in Milk Chocolate. The shell is sweet and firm, the center is creamy and flowing. It’s pretty salty on the inside and with a real taste of burnt sugars.

    Pink = Raspberry Cream in Dark Chocolate - very jammy center, definitely more fruit than chocolate.
    Light Green = Coffee Ganache in Dark Chocolate - this was quite a treat, rich and robust coffee flavor, a little salty and not at all sweet. Not quite enough filling for me though, it seemed like there was a lot of shell and not a lot of cream.
    Orange = Peanut Butter Cream in Milk Chocolate - oh so sweet. The filling is very light in color, much lighter than a Reese’s. It’s salty and a little grainy and very nutty.

    I didn’t want to overwhelm everyone with too many See’s items, so I’ve had these Rabbits for a while. I picked up one of the milk (small in gold foil) and one of the dark (in blue foil). They’re hollow, but still rather hefty.

    See's Milk & Dark Chocolate Rabbit

    Lake Champlain & See's Milk Chocolate RabbitsThe See’s Milk Chocolate bunny is less than 5” tall, yet it towers over the little one bite Lake Champlain Hollow Rabbit.

    Lake Champlain Milk Chocolate - it’s sweet and milky, but smooth and has a very slick melt on the tongue, almost like it has hazelnut in it. ($3.25 for .6 ounces) The larger sizes are priced at: $15 for a 9.5 ounce solid rabbit and a novelty one driving a car for $20 for 8 ounces.

    Lake Champlain uses Belgian chocolate for their molded items. The ingredients are all natural.

    See’s Milk Chocolate - it’s sweet and slightly less milky, with more of a roasted base to it. It’s not quite as sweet as the Lake Champlain, but still has similar silky qualities. ($2.45 for 2.2 ounces.) There is a smaller one that’s solid that goes for $1.00 at the stores and the other hollow novelites available are $4.90 for 4.5 ounces and the largest standing rabbit is $8.50 for 10 ounces.

    Lake Champlain & See's Milk Chocolate RabbitsThe ingredients on the See’s are pretty standard, the only one that throws up a flag is the use of vanillin (but they also use real vanilla, go figure).

    So they both taste good. They’re both good quality. They’re both cute ... I’ll admit that I like the squat and fat Lake Champlain format, but the foil wrapping and doe-like eye of the See’s is awfully lovable, too.

    It comes down to two other things, I guess. Price and availability. See’s is pretty easy to find on the West Coast and of course you can order via the internet.

    There’s a nice campaign to raise awareness about the hazards of giving children real rabbits (or baby ducks or chicks) at the holidays called Make Mine Chocolate. While a chocolate rabbit is not going to engender the same sort of squishy lovey feelings in a kid that a real animal will, it’s much more humane.

    I had rabbits as a kid and I can attest to how much responsibility it is to care for a pet (especially one in a cage).

    Dark Chocolate See's RabbitFinally, there is my huge friend the See’s Dark Chocolate Hollow Rabbit who clocks in at 4.5 ounces.

    He sat around my office for weeks, I really liked the look of this rabbit in the light blue foil with his drowsy, heavily-lashed eyes and real bow.

    Eventually the foil had to come off though, I had no idea what was beneath, I expected something similar to the milk chocolate one. The 2.2 ounce version (which also comes in dark chocolate) has those little drawn on hairs, so you know it’s a rabbit.

    This one, well, it was startling. Mostly because it’s so stylized. I immediately thought of those Draw Me! ads that used to appear in the back of comic books and magazines.

    It’s so smooth yet angular. And the eyes are so vacant.

    The dark chocolate is tasty, very smooth but middle-of-the-road. Kind of like very good chocolate chips or a good cup of hot chocolate. A little hint of bitterness, no dry finish and a buttery melt.

    The bunny isn’t really that much taller than the 2.2 ounce one, just wider and of course has a very thick wall. (Honestly, I had a hard time ringing his neck to break him after I bit off the ears.) They come in milk or dark, but no white.

         Dark Chocolate See's Rabbit

    Related Candies

    1. Upscale Hollow Chocolate: Michel Cluizel & Hotel Chocolat
    2. Wonka Golden Egg
    3. Palmer Hollow Chocolate Flavored Bunny
    4. Russell Stover Hollow Milk Chocolate Bunny
    5. Lindt Chocolate Bunnies (Dark & Milk)

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:25 am     CandyReviewEasterLake ChamplainSee'sCaramelChocolateCoffeeKosherPeanuts8-TastyBelgiumUnited StatesHead to Head

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