Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Toffee Flavored Chocolate Covered Candy CornThe newest thing about Candy Corn over the past five years has been flavors: Green Apple, Pumpkin Spice, Caramel Apple, Tangerine and on and on. The odd thing is that their kin, little shaped mellocremes, have always come in different flavors - harvest mixes come in maple & chocolate and the Easter specialties often had delicate citrus & berry flavors. So now comes the ultimate mash-up of candy corn. Both flavored and covered in chocolate. It seems odd that this product hasn’t succeeded before. I found this bag of Toffee Flavored Candy Corn covered in Milk Chocolate at Target. They have a special line of little stand up pouches like this marketed in their house-brand. The package is cute & compelling - a dark orange accented thick cellophane bag with a clear window to show off the shiny chocolate covered mix. I thought it was a little expensive at $2.99 ... but $7 a pound for a chocolate item isn’t that bad, and this is a Candy Holiday. About one third of the package is chocolate covered. The rest are plain Naturally & Artificially Flavored Toffee Candy Corn. The colors are a muted amber center with the stereotypical yellow base and white tip. The package smells off-putting. It’s a fake butter flavor which leads me to a rant about toffee: Toffee is carefully boiled sugar and butter. The essential qualities of toffee (as it’s made in America) besides the crunchy texture & cleave are the toasted flavors of the caramelized sugar and the creamy melt of the butter/heavy cream. It’s not about the butter flavor, it’s about the burnt sugar. So when someone offers me something toffee flavored I expect dark sugar notes not artificially flavored buttered popcorn. I tried sampling it a few times and found it too artificial, so I left the package open overnight and that seems to have let some of the volatile organic compounds evaporate and it became a bit more appealing if bland. Rather like ordinary candy corn. I even detected the smell of milk & chocolate in there. The plain candy corn is nicely textured. It’s soft but not too crumbly, it melts easily and though it’s sweet it’s not too sickly. It could have used just a tad more salt to sell the toffee flavor. The chocolate covered pieces are very nicely panned. They’re huge and meaty, with a thick coat of chocolate. It seems more sugary than the uncoated stuff. The milk chocolate isn’t particularly creamy, though the flavor profile has a fair bit of the dairy component to really sell the toffee part. I liked the combination of textures - the fondant of the candy corn has a crumbly texture, kind of like the center of a York Peppermint Pattie. (Which makes me wonder why I’ve never seen Mint Candy Corn and then the logical conclusion of Chocolate Covered Mint Candy Corn.) I give them kudos for the attractive mix and the innovation factor here. It’s also available in Green Apple flavor (maybe some green apple fans would love it - I’m not keen on the combo of chocolate & green apple). The package gives full disclosure: Candy made in USA. Bag made in China. Packed in Mexico. (Best by December 27, 2010) It also says that it contains milk, eggs, soy and coconut and may contain peanut & tree nuts. The only thing it doesn’t mention is gluten. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:18 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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Mint candy corn! Great idea. And then coated in dark chocolate? You should sell that idea to a candy company .
How funny. I just got back from Target in Burbank and bought the same brand in the Pumpkin Spice and the Tangerine flavors to try. The Cotton Candy flavor looked a little scary to me.
Wow this candy is truly a byproduct of globalization. “The package gives full disclosure: Candy made in USA. Bag made in China. Packed in Mexico.” I do like the mint candy corn idea
I just picked these up at Target myself a couple of days ago. I haven’t opened it yet though. But by your review, I’m a little leary of opening it now. Usually, your reviews are dead on. And I believe we have very similar tastes in candy. It’ll be interesting to see if I agree with this one.
The one and only thing I like about Halloween is Candy Corn. Guess I’ll stick with the original.
This actually sounds pretty darn good. I’m going to look for it next time I’m at Target!
Haha! I just bought the regular variety. I’m not going to read your review until I try mine.
chocolate covered candy corn sounds really good (so does cotton candy corn haha). it would probably be a somewhat easy thing to do on your own. well for me anyways since canada doesn’t have target..
Mint Candy Corn exists! At Christmas it’s available in red white & green.
Tried chocolate coated candy corn, and the chocolate covered toffee candy corn yesterday.
I’m not impressed. Good quality chocolate, but the “candy corn” taste like Jelly Belly’s candy corn just wasn’t there. And the toffee flavor is just weird. I’m glad to try something new, but I won’t buy it again.
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