Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Hershey’s Heart’s Desire

Heart's DesireYes, take an ordinary product and make it heart-shaped and suddenly it’s a Valentine’s Day special edition.

In general, it’s a great idea. Why not have pretty foil confections?

Hershey’s has a few heart-shaped chocolates this year, but they’ve also created a special mix called Heart’s Desire. It features Hershey’s Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate Hearts, Reese’s Peanut Butter Filled Hearts and Hershey’s Special Dark Hearts (natural source of flavinol antioxidants (tm))

Hershey's Heart's DesireI was actually kind of pleased that they weren’t completely pink and red and pink. Instead the color coding is a little more intuitive. The Special Dark employs the global-standard purple, the milk chocolate is in the typical pink and the Reese’s is in gold.

They’re about 1.25” wide and 1.5” tall and weigh about .29 ounces each. (A Hershey’s Kiss weighs about .16 ounces.)

Hershey's Heart's Desire

Special Dark - I used to think that the Special bar was just that. Mostly because I thought that it was my mother’s favorite chocolate bar. Back when it first came out in the 70s there simply weren’t any mass-produced dark chocolate bars available at the corner store. (To get a dark chocolate fix I had to eat chocolate chips.) I didn’t care much for it as a child, I found it a bit waxy and bitter. As an adult I find it chalky, grainy, too sweet and lacking in real chocolate oomph. It contains 45% cocoa solids, which you would think would make it extra chocolatey, but it is simply middle or the road fare. It’s not true dark chocolate as it contains milkfat. They are pretty though.

Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate - this version is, I guess, Hershey’s answer to critics who said that their chocolate tastes weird. The “extra creamy” kick may come from extra emulsifiers, this one sports both soy lecithin and PGPR. This version of Hershey’s chocolate actually tastes quite a bit different than the typical Hershey’s bar or Kiss. It is sweeter and lacks those deep musky dairy notes. Instead this has a bit of a toasted marshmallow taste ... and very little chocolate-ness. (I did some calculations ... standard Hershey’s chocolate is 27% carbs, the extra creamy variety is 29% carbs. So there you go, it is actually made up of more sugar.)

Reese’s Peanut Butter Filled Hearts - this was the one that I bought the bag for. In fact, I looked around at all the bags and picked the one with the most gold wrappers visible. The outside was a little greasy but still smelled over wonderfully roasted nuts (I love a fresh Reese’s!). The inside wasn’t quite the soft crumbly version of Reese’s peanut butter, instead it still had the same “crumb” to it, but it was slicker, maybe a little sweeter or a little oilier. It didn’t quite satisfy me the same way that a peanut butter cup does, but still, it’s a Reese’s!

They’re a pretty assortment, rather traditional and in a rare, large bag (16.5 ounces.). I don’t think I’d buy them again for myself, but everyone at the office seemed pretty jazzed when I popped the remainder in the communal candy jar (but then again, all that’s been in the jar for the past week is Tootsie Rolls).

I don’t know how far in advance Hershey’s makes these, but the expiration date is June 2008 ... that doesn’t seem like a very long shelf life to me.

Name: Heart's Desire: Milk Chocolate, Special Dark & Reese's Peanut Butter
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: Walgreen's (Echo Park)
Price: $3.59
Size: 16.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 152
Categories: Chocolate, Peanut, United States, Hershey's, Kosher, Valentine's

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:45 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Too bad the Reese’s hearts aren’t like their mini Easter eggs.  Those are good…

    Comment by Justin on 2/06/08 at 5:09 pm #
  2. The Hershey’s Extra Creamy chocolates come out at VDay, Christmas and Easter.  I love the Extra Creamy eggs, but will not purchase the other two (hearts, bells) as the taste is completely different and the texture grainy.  However, now that you’ve pointed out the ingredients, not so hungry for the eggs. smile

    Comment by janelle on 2/09/08 at 12:02 pm #
  3. Is the extra creamy one the same stuff they use for a Symphony bar?  Because I LOVE Symphony bars.  They’re my favorite candy bar.  I’m generally not too crazy about chocolate, but I’ll eat one of those in a sitting.

    Comment by Rita on 2/12/08 at 10:07 am #
  4. How many calories are in each style of heart?

    Comment by Ed R. Eberhardy on 2/14/08 at 3:31 pm #
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