Monday, December 13, 2010

Russell Stover Assorted Wrapped Chocolates

Russell Stover Assorted Wrapped ChocolatesFor the past few months I’ve noticed this king sized bag of Russell Stover Assorted Fine Chocolates {individually wrapped} at CVS and RiteAid. It’s a rather simple looking bag and perhaps this photo doesn’t convey the massive size of it. It holds 20 ounces (1.4 pounds), so it’s kind of like picking up a gallon of milk.

The price wasn’t bad, both places were selling them for $9.99. But I didn’t really want them, so I didn’t buy them. Then I saw them on sale at Rite Aid for $7.88 and thought this was as good an opportunity as any ... especially when the price was down to a little more than $6 a pound for American made candy that uses real chocolate.

Inside unassuming bag are individually wrapped pieces of some of Russell Stover’s most popular “handcrafted in small batches” pieces of candy: Pecan Delight, Caramel, Mint Patty and Coconut. The wrappers are pretty subdued as well, just a plain white plastic with a picture of the candy and the name. They’re also a bit color coded, so it’s easy to pick them out.

Russell Stover Pecan Delight

The Pecan Delights really are delights. Sure they’re sweet and not terribly complex, but I get the impression that this package is all about comfort candies that satisfy a wide variety of people.

The milk chocolate coating is sweet but very smooth and has a good sticky milky quality. There caramel inside is stiff and chewy without being too hard or a danger to dental work. The pecans aren’t quite as dense as I would like, but they were fresh and crunchy.

I’ve tried the organic version of these before and thought they were good but not great. These were actually better as far as I was concerned than the DeMets Pecan Turtles, which I find sweet and lacking a strong toasted sugar flavor from the caramel.

Russell Stover Caramel

The Caramel is a small patty, with an appealing artisan look. The milk chocolate forms pleasing ripples on top and smells milky. The piece is about an inch and a half around.

The caramel is firm and has a good chew to it without being too tough or stiff. The flavor is salty and has adequate burnt sugar notes to it. It’s a nice size, about two bites for me, but I could eat it all at once if I wanted to. The caramel reminded me of Milk Duds, but of course with a much better, real chocolate coating.

Russell Stover Coconut

The Coconut piece is simple. If you’re a Mounds fan, this will be very familiar. A moist little log of sweet coconut covered in dark chocolate. It’s not as sweet or creamy as the Easter fare, which is fine with me. The coconut is chewy and not too sweet. The dark chocolate had just the lightest haze of bloom on it, but I find that’s not uncommon with coconut products because of the moisture/fat content. The flavor of the dark chocolate is good, it’s not as chalky and rough as Mounds though not completely decadent, it holds its own.

The pieces are small but easy to pop or savor slowly as two bites.
Russell Stover Mint Patty

My Mint Patty I photographed has a slight bloom on it. I opened three for the photos and found them all in a similar state. Then I started eating them for review and found the rest to be pristine - dark and glossy and nicely molded.

The chocolate takes the center stage here because of the proportions. There’s a lot of chocolate and it has a strong woodsy and smoky flavor. The mint center is smooth and a little runny but also a bit salty. The mint flavor is subtle and has an almost toothpaste combination of both peppermint and spearmint.

I have to say that doing Candy Blog has really made me look at brands like Russell Stover again. I don’t think that I was wrong about them back in the eighties, I just think they’re a bit better than they used to be, at least they taste fresher. It’s pure luck that this assortment has all of my favorite combinations. Half the pieces are dark, there are some good quality nuts in there and for the sale price, I thought these were a good value.

The packaging isn’t really sexy or nifty, but it gets the job done. They’re a step above the Hershey’s, Mars or DeMets, so expect to pay for that. This is an assortment I plan on sharing at the office - a little something for everyone.

Related Candies

  1. Haviland Dark Chocolate Covered Thin Mints
  2. Mounds
  3. Milky Way Simply Caramel
  4. Robitaille’s Presidential Inaugural Mints & Turtles
  5. Junior Mints Deluxe
  6. See’s Scotchmallow


Name: Assorted Chocolates Individually Wrapped
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Russell Stover
Place Purchased: Rite Aid (Echo Park)
Price: $7.88 (on sale)
Size: 20.7 ounces
Calories per ounce: 135
Categories: Candy, Russell Stover, Caramel, Chocolate, Coconut, Mints, Nuts, 7-Worth It, United States, Rite Aid

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:13 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewRussell StoverCaramelChocolateCoconutMintsNuts7-Worth ItUnited StatesRite Aid

Comments
  1. I bought this bag yesterday and I’m going through it faster than I would like to admit. I’m not a fan of coconut so I gave those to my mother but the rest are very, very yummy. I saved the mint patties for last and I have to say that I have not put something so delicious into my mouth for a long time. Your description is right on. The chocolate is good quality and just the right texture and the runny mint centre is luxurious and cool, like silk bed sheets!

    Comment by Ann-Margret on 12/30/11 at 12:04 pm #
  2. We bought the Rusell Stover assorted bag and we just loved them.. Where can I find them? All of the candies are so good and fresh and I like the idea of individually wrapped…  Thank you for your help… Kathleen

    Comment by Kathleen on 3/07/12 at 6:37 am #
  3. looking for bags of russell stover pecan delights with university of kentucky logo on them. i bought these at hallmark before Christmas

    Comment by christie snowden on 3/02/13 at 11:30 am #
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