Friday, April 17, 2009

Rosa’s Fudge

Rosa's FudgeI don’t know much about fudge. What I do know is that when I accepted an offer of fudge samples from Rosa’s Fudge last month I became the proud recipient of more fudge than I have ever possessed before.

The box pictured is over 6 inches long, 4 and a half inches wide and almost three inches deep. Inside were 24 1.25 ounce squares. Yes, the box weighed about two pounds (counting the weight of the box itself).

This was an ideal time for me to get over my fudge ambivalence. It’s not that I don’t like fudge, it’s that I don’t know fudge.

For the most part I find fudge tasty, but difficult. After all, it usually requires implements to eat ... cutting it with a knife, storing it awkwardly, it dries out easily. Candy should be low fuss.

Rosa's FudgeRosa’s Fudge, based in Springfield, Massachusetts makes 22 flavors. They sent me 16 of them to try (no walnut or cherry for me!). It took me two weeks to get through them. 

Their fudge is sold in these little cubes, one serving, each stays fresh and they’re easy to eat, store & share.

They’re made with mostly wholesome ingredients: milk, butter, sugar but also a dash of hydrogenated palm kernel oil (can’t be much based on how far down on the list it comes) plus chocolate or nuts as dictated by the flavor then some potassium sorbate to keep it all fresh.

Rosa's Fudge - ChocolateChocolate - the bite is soft and the chocolate flavor is immediate (chocolate is the second ingredient in this flavor). It’s rich and has both the cocoa flavors and some nice fatty “melt” going on with the slight sugary grain. It was appealing and went especially well with salty/crunchy snacks like pretzels or plain almonds. *

Peanut Butter - this is a classic flavor and I find that fudge made from peanut butter to be one of the ideal ways to use peanuts in confection (along with peanut butter cups & peanut brittle). It smells dark and a little bitter. The stuff is fatty, but not greasy ... though it did make the little waxed paperboard bottom label a clear translucent. It has a softer and crumblier bite than the chocolate. The nut flavors were wonderful with a mellow not-too-sweet powdery quality that kept it together without giving me that “sticky” feeling on the tongue. *

Rosa's Fudge - Chocolate Peanut ButterChocolate & Peanut Butter - this block is a combination of the first two flavors, about 25% is chocolate on the top and the 75% on the bottom is peanut butter. The variation between the two textures is awesome, and of course chocolate and peanut butter are a natural fit. *

Chocolate Mint - this piece could have gone a few ways. It could have been a vanilla piece flavored with mint and then a layer of chocolate fudge. Instead this is a chocolate fudge with a creme de menthe flavor to it. It was quite cool, not too strong and refreshing with a good authentic peppermint note (it does have peppermint oil in it). The mint made it seem a bit less sweet but the mint wasn’t so overpowering that it infected the neighboring pieces. *

Rosa's FudgeVanilla - I was a bit lost on what this should be. It’s just butter and sugar, right? Well, this isn’t quite grandma’s recipe. Sugar, milk, butter, partially hydrogenated palm kernel and cottonseed oils, cream, corn syrup, maltodextrins, natural and artificial flavors, invert sugar, soy lecithin, potassium sorbate and salt. Maybe it needs some real vanilla bean in there.

Penuche - I love the idea of penuche and sometimes get a version of it I love at the local shop by my office. Penuche is basically a brown sugar fudge. It’s grainy and maybe even a bit greasy, but I love it. This one was smooth and had the brown sugar notes, but mostly it just tasted like a good cooked buttercream frosting would.

Rosa's Fudge - MapleMaple - was much softer than the other pieces. Not so soft that it lost its shape once out of the wrapper, but definitely a little droopy. The flavor also seemed smoother, very strong in the woodsy pecan end of things. Sweet, aromatic and definitely one of my favorites. *

Butterscotch - I wasn’t sure what butterscotch would be like, I assumed it’d be like butterscotch pudding. Instead, when I opened the package I was greeted with an aroma like putting my head into a bucket of butterscotch disks (the hard candy). The fake “flavorishness” aside, I enjoyed it. It was artificial and throat-searingly sugary, but the texture was nice and I really knew that this was supposed to be butterscotch.

Rosa's FudgeCoffee - looked a lot like the Maple or Penuche. Instead the texture was quite different once I bit into it. It has the same grainy consistency that melts in the mouth that I like about fudge. The coffee flavors were mild but sweet and milky. It reminded me of coffee ice cream. This was my top pick of the whole assortment. *

Coffee & Chocolate - this one is rather simple, just a coffee fudge with a layer of chocolate fudge. But I didn’t like the addition of the chocolate much. It didn’t give it a chocolate punch, but did lessen the coffee flavors. The two fudges had a slight consistency difference as well, the chocolate was firmer with a tighter grain (is that a way to describe fudge or hardwood?).

Amaretto - my appreciation of amaretto is pretty shallow. I like almonds but I don’t care for marzipan because of the strong amaretto notes, which I associate with the same fake flavor that butterscotch is to true toffee. This smelled, to me, like a fine bath product. Sweet, a little floral and a lot like amaretto. It was actually pretty good ... nothing I’d eat, but I think amaretto fans would like it.

Irish Creme - is a combination of three flavors: Irish Whiskey, coffee and cream. Instead this tastes like coconut, butterscotch and maple. I’m missing the deep woodsy tones that whiskey can bring ... and I’m definitely not getting any coffee in there, but there’s a creamy flavor. I’d definitely keep eating it, if I didn’t have a bunch of other fruit & nut flavors to get to.

Rosa's FudgeChocolate & Coconut - looking at the side of this, it was evident that this was more than a coconut flavored chocolate fudge, there’s coconut flakes all through it. It smells woodsy, herby and a little bit like granola. Biting into it, it has a lot of chew from the coconut but the biggest flavor hit here is chocolate. The chocolate tastes deeper, richer and less sweet than the other versions I tried singularly and in combination earlier. This stuff is awesome. It reminds me of a less-sweet Mounds bar. *

This was where I reached a stumbling block. While I usually like bright colors & fun incorporated into my candy, something about these fruit ones just seemed wrong. So I picked around them in the box.

Pina Colada - this was bright yellow. While I was hesitant because of the color and the idea of pineapple and coconut in fudge didn’t sound like a good idea, the chocolate coconut was a pleasant surprise. This one doesn’t have as much coconut in it as the chocolate version, but there’s still a fair bit. It smells sweet and like a floral/peppery pineapple. The bite is soft, dry but with a very small grain (besides the bits of coconut). There’s a lot of pineapple flavor, but no tang to it. The coconut gives a lot of texture and a fair bit of authentic coconut butter flavor. It’s better than I expected, but still far too sweet.

Rosa's Fudge - Raspberry ChocolateChocolate Raspberry - the bright pink and malleable texture makes this look something I made with Playdoh. The raspberry flavor is all fragrance and food coloring. I ate that one bite shown and didn’t want to go back for more even if it meant a scathing paragraph here.

Chocolate Strawberry - this smelled like strawberry ice cream and kind of tasted like it too. It was very sugary and the chocolate kind of brought it down a notch, but then the bitter taste of the food coloring kicked in. I know some folks probably like this, but it’s not my thing.

Even though it ended on a down note, the tasting experience with Rosa’s Fudge was fun. I found out that there are some specific flavors that I think go well with fudge. (I also think nuts go great with fudge, so if you’re a walnut person, I wholeheartedly recommend it even though I’ve never tried theirs.)

Rosa's FudgeRosa’s offers custom packed boxes based on your flavor preferences, so you’ll never end up with a block you don’t want. My choices (marked with a *) now ranked in order: Chocolate & Coconut, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Chocolate & Mint and Maple.

The whole thing gets a 7 out of 10 rating. Good price, spare packaging & excellent shipping. The flavors were distinct, classic and well executed.

Rosa’s Fudge is sold on their website ($12 for 12 pieces - 15 ounces) as well as at some candy counters in the northeastern United States.

Related Candies

  1. Spoonfudge
  2. Mint Chocolate M&Ms
  3. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
  4. Trader Joe’s Irish Cream Chocolates
  5. Flippin’ Fudge
  6. Jim Beam Fudge
  7. Coffee Beat
Name: Rosa's Fudge Assortment
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Rosa's Fudge
Place Purchased: samples from Rosa's Fudge
Price: $17 for 24 pieces (30 ounces)
Size: 30 ounces
Calories per ounce: 112-140 (varies)
Categories: Chocolate, Coffee, coconut, Mint, Peanuts, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:18 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. bettyfelon's avatar

    mmm I don’t know much about fudge either but those look amazing

    Comment by bettyfelon on 4/17/09 at 11:39 am #
  2. seian's avatar

    I live in Springfield, and I’d never heard of them! Mind, I’ve had some bad fudge experiences, so it’s not something I’d hunt for. I ought to give it another go though. I do like the idea of small serving sizes.

    Comment by seian on 4/17/09 at 12:05 pm #
  3. Wow, that’s a lot of fudge to try!  I like the packaging too.

    Comment by Delia on 4/17/09 at 12:24 pm #
  4. Am I the only person who thinks that in the package they look like blocks of soap?
    As a former walnut hater I think you should give them a go every now and again. I used to hate them because of their bitterness but I’ve found that some walnuts don’t have the bitterness and are actually quite delicious.

    Comment by Leigh on 4/17/09 at 10:36 pm #
  5. Wow! that fudge sounds delicious..mouthwatering. nice pictures.

    Comment by Dave Jones on 4/18/09 at 3:34 am #
  6. i love fudge; whenever i visit the outerbanks there is a great homemade fudge place and i always end up eating too much at once and make myself sick, hah

    Comment by Steph (I am Bee) on 4/18/09 at 12:33 pm #
  7. Synesthesia's avatar

    fudge is fun to eat in small doses and only every now and again, for me anyways. however, the coffee one sounds really yummy!

    Leigh - if I’m not mistaken, it’s not that Cybele doesn’t like walnuts, but is allergic to them…I think!

    Comment by Synesthesia on 4/18/09 at 4:40 pm #
  8. Fudge is yummy!  Cookies and Cream is one of my favorite flavors!  I have had excellent Key Lime Cheesecake fudge as well!

    Comment by Sofa821 on 4/20/09 at 7:18 am #
  9. I have a question, how come the fudge is in the mint catagory?

    Comment by Riel on 4/25/09 at 9:19 am #
  10. bettyfelon's avatar

    Riel- chocolate mint is one of the flavors that were reviewed

    Comment by bettyfelon on 4/26/09 at 6:06 am #
  11. Wow, they have these ALL THE TIME at delis in New York, right by the register… somehow they always look a little dusty and I’ve assumed they’d be terrible. Maybe I’ll give them a go.

    Comment by Emily on 5/06/09 at 7:02 am #
  12. I love rosas fudge!
    I also make rosas fudge.
    I am the master fudge maker at Rosas..
    Thanks for the honest critique.
    check me out at rosasfudge.com

    Joe Velez

    Comment by Joe Velez on 5/08/09 at 6:07 am #
  13. Bought some of this in Walgreens Drug in Cincinnati….the Vanilla Walnut was awesome. So was the maple walnut. Vanilla reminded me of vanilla fudge we used to make as kids….lost the recipe though.  Funny as I was looking on internet about Rosa’s fudge and saw it was based out of Springfield Mass.  Springfield Mass is my hometown…grew up there.  What a surprise.  No wonder I liked it.

    Comment by Arlie Wulfe on 5/01/10 at 7:22 pm #
  14. Rosa’s used to make coconut fudge. Does anybody know how to ask them to make more of that?

    Comment by Tom Rozzi on 6/19/13 at 12:45 pm #
  15. I would like to speak to someone concerning ordering some fudge. Is this business still open. What is the phone number.

    Comment by sandra camaron on 9/02/14 at 7:02 am #
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