Friday, October 10, 2008
Andes Fall Harvest MixWhile I’m probably painted as something of an anti-mockolate crusader, I don’t hate all quasi-chocolate products. Things like Andes Mints and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chew are pretty good even though they’re not quite real chocolate candies. So I thought I’d give the Andes Fall Harvet limited edition mix a try. It includes three flavors: toffee, orange and cocoa. Each little plank of candy is individually wrapped and comes in a nicely designed bag with orange leaf outlines all over it. Instead of the usual Andes logo on each piece of candy, these have three random embossed harvest themed designs. The ingredients aren’t promising: Sugar, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (palm kernel & palm), nonfat milk, cocoa, lactose, milk protein concentrate, cocoa processed wtih alkalai, corn syrup solids, soy lecithin, salt, baking soda, molasses, orange oil, natural and artificial flavors, artificial colors (yellow 5 & 6). The burnt yellow wrapper makes me think more of mustard than Toffee. It smells of butter and sugar, which is a very encouraging sign. This piece is the only one of the set that’s not layered like Andes Mints. Instead it’s a milk chocolatey confection with toffee bits mixed in. The toffee bits are very crisp and crunchy and remind me more of a brittle (which is often a bit foamy but not quite a honeycomb or sponge candy). The crunches are a little salty as well. The mockolate confection is very sweet but doesn’t have much cocoa flavor to it. A little on the waxy side at room temperature, it does okay texture-wise in the mouth. I love the combo of orange and chocolate. The Orange was really what got me to buy this bag. It smells like orange confection, kind of like a cheap version of Terry’s Chocolate Orange. It’s quite sweet and a little grainy on the tongue (kind of like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange). The orange essence is quite pronounced with a strong zest and slight bitterness to it. To balance that there’s plenty of sugar. But don’t expect any dash of chocolate flavor in there. It might be a cocoa colored confection on the top and bottom, but the orange flavor goes straight through. The least appealing of the assortment was Cocoa. It’s the same light colored mockolate confection as the other two, this time with a darker mockolate sandwiched in the middle. It’s a little saltier than the orange one, which helps. It does taste a bit like hot cocoa, but also a little like cardboard and Tootsie Rolls. Four pieces provided 50% of my daily intake of saturated fat ... and not even a good one like cocoa butter. I think I’ll stick with the original from now on. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:07 am |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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I came by your site through an article in the Sunday Chronicle. Nice work. I didn’t find any comment on
Joseph Schmidt’s chocolate truffles. Are you likely to review them at some future time? I’ll admit to being seriously spoiled by them, my only objection
being that 6 blocks away is much too close to my apartment for my waistline.
Thanks for your nice work.
Peace,
Windy
I picked up a bag of these a couple weeks ago because I love Andes mints and thought they were worth a shot. I have to say, I couldn’t finish one piece (and I have been known to eat some bad chocolate). I wasn’t expecting fancy gourmet, but these looked and tasted like the bag had been left in someone’s basement for a few years. I don’t mind a little fake orange flavor, but this was too much. And as a lover of toffee, well, that was a pretty serious offense. Hopefully we’ll get trick-or-treaters this year so I don’t feel bad about tossing them.
I LOVED THESE! I WANT TO BUY MORE AND CAN’T FIND ANY. CAN SOMEONE HELP???
WHERE CAN YOU FIND THE FALL MIX IN A STORE?
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