Mockolate
I was contacted some time ago by Palmer’s Candies in regard to reviewing some of their products. I was a little worried at first, because the previous experience I’ve had with Palmer’s chocolate is the “mockolate” candies you see sold in large bags at the holidays. They come in adorable packaging and the flavor isn’t very chocolatey at all, it just tastes very sweet. I decided to give Palmer’s Candies a chance, since one look at their website and you see they do lots of other confections besides the stuff you see during the holidays. I was excited to give their other offerings a try, so here we go!
Kiddie Chow:Like the “Muddy Buddies” Chex cereal recipe. Crispy square cereal with chocolate and powdered sugar. The flavor is crispy and sweet. You don’t’ get any flavor from the cereal, but you do get a hint of chocolate and a nice, refreshing sweetness from the powdered sugar. The cereal is perfectly crispy and gives a great texture. The sweetness isn’t too overpowering as one might think. the chocolate flavor isn’t as intense as I’m used to, but that is a difference in the recipe I’m sure. There aren’t messy either, the powdered sugar sticks to the pieces really well.
Peanut Butter Crispy Yums: Little mounded treats with a coating of chocolate and peanut butter stripes. They’re very soft, and the chocolate sticks to my fingers when I handle them. they smell sweet and peanutbuttery. The peanut butter inside is smooth and creamy ,with bits of crispiness to it, as if it has a crumbled up Butterfinger n it. It’s a delightful texture contrast. The peanut butter is salty/sweet and has a nice roasted peanut flavor. I don’t taste any of the chocolate, which, makes me wonder if it’s really mockolate. But since there’s not ingredients label I can only surmise. Still, they’re tasty and can see peanut butter fans enjoys these a lot.
Caramel Swirl Pretzels: Pretty looking with white chocolate base covering the pretzel with caramel stripes. They smell tangy and sweet like yogurt raisins. They taste tart, of the yogurt coating on the pretzels. They’re sweet and tangy. I don’t get too much of a caramel flavor in there. Its a nice sweet/salty combination, and therefore it’s a satisfying snack. The pretzel is fresh and crunchy and really is a great texture element.
Peanut Butter Swirl Pretzels: The smells sweet, no scent of chocolate or peanut butter. They’re pretty to look at, dipped in chocolate and drizzled with a line peanut butter. The pretzel crunches nicely so it’s good and fresh. The flavor is a nice mix of sweet and salty. I taste the starch and salt of the pretzel, and the sweetness of the chocolate coating. It doesn’t really taste much like peanut butter to be honest. It jut comes across as a sweet coating on a pretzel, which, is tasty, but not as the description really lends one to believe.
Peppermint Skippers: They’re little domes of chocolate with a peppermint center. They look like little mountains, actually. Pretty cute. They smell sweet and of peppermint oil. The peppermint interior is a think, sticky fondant. It’s very dense and grainy and extremely tasty. The chocolate exterior compliments it perfectly with a nice sweetness that depends the peppermint flavor. These taste like a richer, more intense York Peppermint Pattie.
I admit I was a little hesitant about these free samples at first. I knew I’d be sent something I’d appreciate, but these exceeded my expectations. It’s good to know that my old opinions were challenged. My boyfriend was a big fan of the Peanut Butter Crispy Yums, as were the friends I shared these with. Personally my favorite were the Peppermint Skippers, as I really loved the creamy center of those. Which, may I remind you readers, peppermint is a very hard sell for me. Overall I was impressed with this sampling and I look forward to trying the Twin Bing that Palmer’s also sent me. That review coming soon!
Rating: Will Eat Again
Links Palmer Candy 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
This was a gift from my sister who found it on one of her many culinary adventures in New York City. I’ve seen them around cyberspace and sometimes in Marshall’s candy aisle. I can’t tell you exactly why I haven’t picked them up myself, mainly it’s because I already had so much candy to deal with that I just didn’t bother. It’s good to know that something will eventually end up in my hands at some point, so I have many thanks to my sister for this review.
I love the packaging, it comes across as very tropical and fun to me. The greens really catch my eye, and the cartoon crocodile with the neon sunglasses. It makes me giggle.
The patties are flat, square, moist cakes of shredded coconut that are neon green the sides have been dipped in chocolate. It has this “stained glass” look with dark sides and a colored inside. it smells of coconut, with it’s fresh, tropical scent. I look at the ingredients and sadly he chocolate here is really mockolate.
The texture is very dense and moist, with the chew being thick and full of the coconut shavings. The flavor is first sweet from the chocolate, then the key limes flavor comes though with a lightly sour zesty note. You then taste the coconut with it’s sweet and nutty flavor, and it really marries the zesty lime and the sweet chocolate. It’s an interesting flavor, as the chocolate and the coconut remain center stage, yet the lime is a nice accent to it which really makes it taste unique.
So overall, they’re not too bad. They were tasty, but I wish it was real chocolate. If you’re a big tropical flavor/coconut fan, I recommend you give consider giving these a shot.
Rating: Might Eat Again
Ooooo, another limited edition candy based on different colors! There’s been a few like these in the past, most standard candies have color variants for the holidays. Some do color variations for movie tie-ins. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any, so I was surprised to see these at the local Dollar Tree. Considering that a lot of the Dollar Tree candy tends to be close to or past the expiration date on the package (or at least, from what I’ve noticed) I’m willing to bet these were a spring release earlier this year. I never actually saw them in the store, so I can’t say for sure.
Well, to be honest, there isn’t really anything special about these Pastel Junior Mints. They’re really just are regular Junior Mints but in pastel yellow and blue mockolate shells. That’s it. And I gotta admit, these candies don’t look good in these colors. You know how you have a friend who just looovees wearing that special puke green shirt, but it looks terrible on him? Well, that’s the case of these candies. These new colors make them appear special, but they look awful.
The cracks in the shell are very visible with the new colors. So the candies end up looking beat up and unkempt. The taste the same as regular Junior Mints do. Strongly of mint with that creamy center, and a hint of chocolate from the mockolate outsides.
So, I can’t quite find a reason to recommend these, They look gross and they taste the same as the regular Junior Mints. Maybe if they were on sale or something? I don’t know. Try these if you dare, or if a color change would be something you’d get a kick out of.
Rating: Inedible
Links Junior Mint Web page
Whatchamacallit has a new friend! It was…oh, I forgot the name already. What was it called? That Thingamajig type candy bar?
Thingamajig is a new Limited Edition bar that Hershey’s is producing, I am unsure for how long exactly, as a nice compliment to the Watchamacallit bar. It cleverly sports another placeholder name and is essentially the same sort of candy bar. A few things have been tweaked and switched, but the two are really candy bar siblings as so to speak.
Thingamajig comes in a sassy red wrapper, which is much more eye-catching than Watchamacallit’s beige/yellow color scheme. The wrapper describes it as “Made with chocolate, cocoa crisps and peanut butter”. I admit, I’m suspicious of this, as I know Watchamacallit is made with mockolate. So I can’t help but scrutinize the semantics here. Does “made with” mean the same as “chocolatey”? From a glance at the ingredients, it does. *sigh*
I’ll refrain from comparing the two bars for the sake of brevity, as that territory has been covered by many of the other candy blogs out there. The main difference is that the crispies in Thingamajig are cocoa flavored, and it has a stripe of peanut butter instead of caramel like Whatchamacallit. We all clear here now?
Out of the wrapper, the Thingamajig smells a little like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (RPBC): sweet, peanut buttery with a hint of chocolate.
The flavor is sweet and chocolatey at first, with notes of caramel and cream and that signature mockolate greay texture. Then the peanut butter taste comes in, similar to a Reese’s PBC, but not as intense and fresh. I don’t get any extra chocolate kick from the cocoa crispies, which doesn’t surprise me, as flavored crisped rice is a mild beast to begin with. As I taste this, I am annoyed by the fact that the mockolate coating melts on my fingers as I hold the bar (yes, I don’t like to use the wrapper for that, I like my bars to be free and break off pieces). The cripiss are very fresh and crispy, as I hear them crunch so loudly in my head when I chew them, it’s like there’s a war going on the there.
It was good, better than I expected, but still nothing stellar to knock me off my feet. Use real chocolate next time and it’s very possible I’ll change my mind.
Also check out these reviews at Candyblog.net, Candy Yum Yum!, Cocoa Heaven, A.V. Club, and Limited Edition Foods.
Rating: Might Eat Again
Links Hershey’s Website
