I was excited to hear that there was a new Limited Edition flavor of M&Ms in stores for the holidays this year: Cinnamon M&Ms. Cinnamon specifically isn’t a specific holiday flavor that comes to mind, as it’s usually combined into “Holiday Spices” that I see so often this time of year. Nevertheless cinnamon is indeed evocative of this time of year, and I applaud M&Ms for giving us a new flavor option for the season. A quick trip to Target, where I believe this flavor is sold exclusively at, and I had these beauties ready to review.

The bag is very festive. With a deep maroon background featuring Green in a cute silver hat and scarf combination. She’s hugging some cinnamon sticks held together with a bright crimson bow. It’s beautiful how it keeps in theme with both the holiday and cinnamon spice theme. Green is always an excellent spokeswomen for the new flavors too, who can resist her?

The M&Ms are pretty and they are larger than the plain ones, but smaller than the peanut or pretzel varieties. They come in two colors, maroon and red. I like how they’re both holiday colors and colors that one often sees with cinnamon flavors.

The flavor is subtle. Which I am relieved about as I was expecting it to be a powerful taste. Instead you first taste the chocolate, with it’s sweet notes and chocolatey tones. Then the cinnamon flavor kinds in as the shell starts to melt and crack. It’s a nice cinnamon flavor, it’s neither hot or spicy. Combined with the chocolate it’s a sweet, holiday flavor that mild but noticeable.

I can see these as an adorable festive candy for a candy dish, or just as a snack if you’re looking for something a little different. I think they’d be very pretty mixed with the Mint ones they also release this time of year. So if you’re interested to see what cinnamon and chocolate taste like together, I recommend trying these as they’re at a very “beginner” level for chocolates with a twist to them. I very much liked this flavor and hope they bring it back next year.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links M&Ms Website

One thing I love about See’s Candies and what I very much look forward to with the passing seasons is their releases of limited edition flavors of their popular lollypops. They have root beer in the summers, pumpkin in the fall, and this past Easter they had orange cream which I sadly missed out on. Next year! I was super excited to find some of their new Christmas Mint lollypops in my box of samples which included the Victoria Toffee that I reviewed the other day. These lollypops were a surprise because they have a limited edition Cinnamon flavor they release this time of year, and I had no idea they planned to do another. So without further delay, the Christmas Mint Lollypop!

The lollypops are beautiful. The have a bright pine green metallic wrapper, with white and red lettering. The pops are all a nice, uniform size with a rectangular shape. Removing the green wrapper to my surprise, the lollypop is white. For some reason I imagine it green or brown, as my mind concluded that it possibly be mixed with chocolate. But, no. They’re a beautiful white, much like Christmas snow.

It smells sweet and not at all minty. I’m more reminded of vanilla and white chocolate.

My first lick produces at first a sweet flavor, then the growing familiar and delightful taste of mint. It’s mind and sweet, and not at all overpowering like most gum and toothpaste is. Instead this is subtle, elegant, minty flavor that has a slight peppermint sharpness to it. It’s extremely enjoyable and I much rather have this as an after meal dessert.

I really loved this lollypop. Not only is it beautiful but its flavor is amazing. Not too minty and not too sweet, just a harmonious middle ground. I also have to give props to See’s for using the word “Christmas” in this candy’s name, as many prefer to use the more PC “Holiday”. There’s nothing wrong with calling something “Christmas” and I’m glad See’s did so. It’s a great lollypop and I can easily see these as a tasty stocking stuffer.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links See’s Candies Website

‘Tis the holiday season! That brings to mind many things about this special time of year. For many it means dinners, parties, gifts, overspending, travel, etc. One thing it means for me is sweets, specifically the ones my Mom makes. She has so many cookies, cakes, and pies she cooks for when the family all gets together. One of these special sweets she makes is homemade toffee, and let me tell you, it’s really wonderful stuff. So imagine my excitement when See’s sent me some Holiday samples in the mail and I saw this beautiful red box of their Victoria Toffee. It was as if Christmas came early!

The box weighs in at a pound and is decorated in a beautifully festive red box. Red is such a gorgeous, vibrant color, and I think it looks its best at Christmas. One the front you see a beautiful image of the toffee, a hint as to what’s inside. A nice presentation of the confection, bravo See’s.

I was greatly impressed when I opened the box, as the slab of toffee inside is just enormous. It’s one giant piece! I had to grab the block of it in my hand, using the protective plastic that keeps it nice and safe, and try to break a corner off it. This toffee is easily almost an inch thick, so that might sound easier than it was. I managed to get a small piece off to taste.

You can see big chunks of almonds in the toffee, which is very attractive. The toffee is buttery and sweet and crumbles beautifully when you chew it. The chocolate that covers it is very sweet and compliments the toffee with extremely rich, chocolately notes. The chopped almonds on the outside are fresh and crunchy, but at the same time makes it easy to chew when you take a bite. The flavors all together is a very rich and flavorful. The butteryness of the toffee mixed with the salty almonds and sweet chocolate is just a heavenly combination.

Overall I was very impressed with this toffee. I think if you don’t have time or know-how (when in fact it’s really easy) to make your own, this is an excellent substitute. A treat that will be appreciated by many!

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links See’s Candies Website

Theo is a chocolate company whose work I really love. They make really delicious chocolate and they have a strong ethic to organic and fair trade which makes them a really respectable company. So I was very excited to find that they produced some holiday limited edition flavors. Once of which is this Nutcracker Toffee bar.

This Nutcracker toffee bar is made with 70% dark chocolate with toffee and hazelnuts and almonds. The wrapper is adorable with its chocolatey brown background color and decorated with images of a nutcracker, snowflakes, hazelnuts and almonds. For an unconventional color scheme, this bar still looks very festive.

The dark chocolate has a clean snap and it extremely glossy with a nice reddish-brown color. You can see hints of the bits of nuts and toffee in there. Once the chocolate is on your tongue, it melts very smoothly, delivering very nice chocolatey notes. One things that surprised me about this bar is that the chocolate is very fruity. It starts of creamy and blossoms into bright raspberry and cherry notes. It’s very yummy. The nuts and toffee provide a wonderful crunch which contrasts the smooth chocolate beautifully. You get flavors of the nuts and toffee, all very fresh and buttery, but they’re lost in the intense dark chocolate.

A really delicious and festive holiday chocolate bar. Keep you eyes peeled in stores in case they’re still available on shelves.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Vosges Website

Links Theo Chocolate Website

This week’s review is brought to you by one of my bosses who passed these packets of Palmer’s Merry Christmas Double Crisp at work. A thoughtful gesture for sure, especially considering that Palmer is a chocolate I would never buy for myself, because let’s be honest here, it’s really mockolate. I always feel bad for my body when I eat that stuff, so I avoid it whenever possible.

So these Palmer “chocolates” are a more modest type of Nestle Crunch with bits of crunchy rice crispies in it. They’re decorated with Santa and Snowmen foil wrappers and look festive. The actual chocolate pieces are not large, probably an inch and a half long, 3/4 inch wide at the bottom and maybe 1/4 tall. It smells very sweet and milky.

Upon opening the chocolate you can easily see the bits of rice crisps in it, and the light colored milk chocolate shows them off nicely.

The chocolate has a nice crispness to it. The chocolate is smooth and the flavor is very, very sweet. It’s creamy and has nice milky notes to it, but, the flavor is not “chocolatey” at all. That’s mockolate for ya. It’s tasty, but you can tell it’s not the real thing for sure. The flavor just comes across as sweet and flat to me.

Not a bad candy choice if you’re on a budget. However, speaking for myself I’m always willing to pay a little more to get the real chocolate over the stuff make with tropical oils instead of cocoa butter. Some people love these types of candies and I can understand why, they’re just not for me.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Palmer Website