Russell Stover, the classic American boxed chocolate maker was bought by Lindt & Sprungli about 18 months ago. I was looking forward to Russell Stover becoming, well, better.
This year Russell Stover jumped on the strawberry trend quite well. They already make a Strawberry Cream Heart for Valentine’s Day, but this year they’ve also added at least three new items with the strawberry theme. I picked up two. The first is the Russell Stover Strawberries & Cream Mix which the package says is strawberry and white pastelle hearts combine for a rich strawberry and cream taste.
The pink package sports lots and lots of hearts, including a few that show the size and shape of the candies. And it’s actually pretty accurate, they do look like little drawings of hearts colored in off white and palest pink. It’s a white confection version of the iddy biddy Santas and Bunnies they do in milk chocolate. (Though they mercifully sell those in little single-serve packages.)
The pieces do smell rather sweet, mild and with a decent strawberry note. They’re soft and matte and kind of strange because they’re very quiet. They’re light and have no candy shell, so pouring them from the package means more sound from the bag than the tumbling of the candy.
When Russell Stover says pastelle, they really mean a combination of sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, partially hydrogenated palm oil, some milk solids & fats plus a few dabs of food coloring and flavor.
The effect is pretty much what you might think. Mostly waxy, rather sweet, a smidge milky and vaguely strawberry. The white pieces are supposed to be vanilla, but are really just less strawberry because of their proximity in the bag.
They’re not as sweet as I feared they would be. Mostly I’m disappointed that they’re so expensive when Mars was able to make actual white chocolate strawberry M&Ms for less for Easter this year. The one thing they have going for them is that they are pretty darn cute and would be great as a decorative element for a cake or cupcakes or just scattered on a dessert plate. Because they’re a mockolate product, not a coated candy, the colors won’t run and they’re not as likely to melt in most serving situations.
Related Candies
- Russell Stover Red Velvet Santa
- Russell Stover Eggs (2009 edition)
- Divine Fair Trade Chocolate
- Meiji Gummy Choco
- Russell Stover Eggs (2007 edition)
- KitKat Chocolatier (Strawberry & Green Tea)
- KitKat Tsubu Ichigo and Hershey’s Strawberries ‘n’ Creme
I love your blog—always a great read!!
Is the texture/mouthfeel of these candies similar to those little mints covered in nonpareils?
I never thought I’d read about a candy being quiet in a review.
Is there any other place i can buys these? They seem really good
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