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Sometimes the strangest holiday candies are released. Most make sense like the mint flavors I’m seeing everywhere; Mint Truffle Kisses, Hershey’s Bliss Creme de Menthe, Hershey’s Mint Miniatures, and the Mint M&Ms, just to name a few.  Then I spot these two oddities: Holiday Edition Sugar Babies and Inside Out Junior Mints. I was perplexed right away, but since I hadn’t tried them, and are a fan of the originals, I picked them up.

From the outside of the box, the Holiday Sugar Babies don’t seem to be very different. The selling point is that they’re covered in a “candy shell” in holiday colors: white, red and green.

 

They look terrible. They’re matte and flat looking. Nothing about them feels inviting or attractive. Which leads me to ask, why color them to begin with? If you were going to put the in a bowl for guests or anything, so you can “see” them in there festive colors, why not make them look…nice.

The candy shell is indeed a shell as opposed to a soft, colored coating as I suspected. It actually cracks when I bite down and it softens from there, turning into a regular Sugar Baby. The taste is the same: intensely creamy, burnt caramel flavors with a sticky, grainy chewy texture. I don’t see a point to getting these over the regular ones…unless you have a thing for food coloring.

 

The Inside Out Junior Mints I was excited about. They’ve been a limited edition candy for years, yet I haven’t seen them until now. I did see the new edition of Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch that were released last year and I reviewed for CandyAddict.

These have white outside and a chocolate interior, just the opposite from the originals. Reading the description on the back where it calls the outside a “white topping”, I knew something was amiss. Uh oh. Mockolate.

 

The exterior is slightly hard and it “cracks” a little when you bite into it. The intense minty flavor we associate with Junior Mints is there, but it’s hard to say exactly where it’s coming from. I just sucked on one for a bit and I got no mint from the exterior. So my guess is the center is doing double duty here. Other than the appearance, I don’t really see the draw of these. Nothing says to me that these are any improvement or especially unique, so I don’t get the point.

Both these candies don’t do anything to improve or tweak the original enough for me to justify buying them. I just had to satisfy my curiosity. Learn from me and stick with the originals.

Rating: Not Worth It

 

Links
Junior Mints Webpage
Sugar Babies Webpage

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I’m sure many of you have never heard of Boyer’s Smoothie, as it’s the ignored sibling to the ever popular Mallo Cup. The Smoothie was a creation that Boyer Candy Company made back in the day to ride the popularity of the Mallo Cup. It’s a unique candy, as it’s made of a smooth peanut butter center covered with butterscotch coating.

I was lucky to find a package of Smoothies in a random gas station in Upstate New York on my way to visit my parents. The package is so very dated in it’s design with almost garish colors and bland font. For some reason I find it terribly appealing, because it reminds me of a time when the flavor of a candy was it’s selling point. Not the package design and marketing campaigns. 

Opening the package reveals the two cups, same format as Mallo Cup. They’re yellowish brown in color and I’m reminded of those horrid Reeses’ Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups that came out a few years ago. The Smoothie also comes with those cute cardboard money cards you can collect and save up for prizes. I’m still saving mine up.

 

The butterscotch is very sweet with that strong buttery flavor. The texture a little greasy and therefore slick on the tongue. Like the Mallo Cup it has a bit of texture, but instead of bits of coconut there’s small chopped chunks of peanuts layered in the coating on the top. If I had to liken the taste to something else, I’d say that these tasted like Reese’s Pieces if they were in cup form. I was disappointed with the flavor a little as it’s hard to taste where the butterscotch flavor ends and the peanut butter flavor begins, and vise versa. Last time I ate one of each they tasted very different, so I was of let down by this. Texture was the only tell tale sign I was eating one or the other.

Despite the faults I find with Smoothie, I still liked it. I can’t really explain it, but something about it appeals to me. It’s not something I’d eat regularly, though.

Rating: Will Buy Again

 

Links:
Boyer Candy Company Website

 

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I’ve noticed Mallo Cups for a long time, but never picked them up until a little over a year ago. They always read “retro” candy to me, with the very bold and classic packaging design with the intense red lettering and yellow background. The fact that they always seemed to be placed next to the classic Sky Bar certainly didn’t help my impression either. Eventually curiosity got the best of me, and I am so glad it did.

Opening the package revealed several surprised. First, was the scent of coconut! I was under the impression that these were only marshmallow, but a careful inspection of the ingredients list shows coconut. Yum! Second, the cups were so cute, about the size of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. They even comes in similar little fluted wax paper cups! They’re nestled in a nice cardboard tray for protection, which is a nice effort on Boyer’s behalf. Last but not least is the cardboard play money that’s included in each package. I got a 5 point card piece. These are meant to be saved and redeemed for freebies on the Boyer website. A nice nod to a time when every company seemed to participate in these sorts of things. 

The cups are nice to look at and area little uneven on the surface from the toasted coconut that sits atop the marshmallow interior. The aroma is lightly chocolatey with a hint of coconut.

 

The first bite you immediately feel the gooey marshmallow and I find myself carefully pulling my mouth away so I don’t make a mess. I didn’t of course, but that’s the sensation I felt. The marshmallow is fresh and soft, but thankfully not enough so that more of it ends up on your lap than in your mouth. The flavor is lovely: a good chocolately hit from the shell the a cool, smooth fluffy vanilla flavor from the soft marshmallow that’s mixed with the toasted coconut flavor from the coconut shavings. The coconut also adds a great textural contrast to the whole cup: soft marshmallow, smooth chocolate and slightly chewy coconut shavings.

Could this get any yummier? I don’t think so. I’m officially addicted.

Rating: Hoard

 

Links:
Boyer Candies Website

 

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Happy Halloween! Today is the candy lover’s holiday! Even though I’m no longer of age to go trick-or-treating, it’s still my favorite holiday. I think the fact that I can still satisfy my need for a sugar high tonight plays a big part of it.

One of my favorite candies is Halloween specific, and I’m referring not only to Brach’s candy corn, but more specifically their Mellowcreme Pumpkins. To even out my craving, I love buying bags of the Autumn Mix as it has a little bit of everything.

 

The mix has the traditional candy corn, along with indian corn and my beloved pumpkins. I sometimes find myself hesitating to eat them up right away as they’re so cute to look at. Then I gather my wits and remember how good they taste.

Candy Corn: Nicely shaped little kernels of corn with a yellow base, orange center and a white tip. The flavor is very sweet and sugary with a hint of honey, which makes Brach’s candy corn stand out to me from the other brands. The texture has a slight sugary graininess to it which I enjoy.

Indian Corn: Same shape as the candy corn, but with a brown cap that’s flavored with real cocoa. You can taste the difference, as the flavor is subtly chocolatey and it comes across as more complex as the regular kind.

Mellowcreme Pumpkins: They taste like the candy corn, but there’s just more to it as these are much larger.  The shape is very tall for pumpkins, as they’re not as round and squat as the real things. I prefer this, as it makes it easy to eat these in two bites. I adore how they make the effort to color the stem part green. So cute! I can’t get enough of these…

I’ve already got my bags of these hoarded away safely in my kitchen cupboards (shhh! Don’t tell anyone!) and I try to get enough to last me until next Halloween. Candy corn at other holidays just isn’t the same (looking at you Reindeer Corn!) along with the fact that the mixes lack pumpkins. I just hope I bought enough.

Rating: HOARD

 

Links:
Brach’s Website

 

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I honestly can’t remember when I first had Bit-O-Honey. Or where I first saw of them or where I first heard of them. It was as if “Bam!” one day I saw them and due to the “unfamiliarity default”, I bought them to try. I believe part of the reason I finally noticed them was the fact that I’d recently discovered one of my favorite bars, Big Hunk, and Bit-O-Honey seemed like it’d be something similar. 

Bit-O-Honey is described as a honey flavored taffy with bits of almonds blended in. From what I’ve seen, you can either find them in bar form or in bite sized pieces like I have shown here. I prefer getting the bag simply because it allows me to get more of a good thing. But in the end, it’s the flavor that matters and not how it’s packaged. Bit-O-Honey has quite a bit of history behind it as well, as it first hit shelves in 1924 and was eventually acquired by Nestle in the 1980s. It looks like Nestle was eager to include this enduring classic into its repertoire.

 

Smells sweet and lightly of nuts. The texture is sooooo nice. It’s dense and firm, yet is easily bitten into. The chew takes some working in the mouth but it never is a threat to your teeth and/or fillings. I’d like to think of it as a Starburst on steriods. And the flavor? Sweet, creamy with a smooth flavor of honey and almonds. It’s not intense like the flavor of marzipan, it’s much milder and reminds me more of a nougat in a Zero bar. Just enough flavor to compliment the sweetness and texture. I don’t really feel the almonds in the texture of the bar, but I prefer it that way. I hate getting nuts caught in my teeth.

I love these. They may not push Big Hunk from my favorite nougat/taffy bar, but they come in a close second. I’ll have have room for these in my stash.

Rating: Will Buy Again

 

Links:
Bit-O-Honey on Nestle’s Website