Back to the Chocolate Pumpkin Patch 2009

Last year we had a face-off between Hershey's Marshmallow Pumpkin and Russell Stover's Marshmallow Pumpkin. Hershey crushed Russell Stover in my opinion. But there's a new kid in town this year. I found this contender hanging out in Cracker Barrel:

Made by the never heard of Chocolate House, aka the Georgia Nut Company http://www.georgianut.com/. The wrapper seems mysteriously similar to the Hershey wrapper:

The Hershey one is better, but both feature purple foil and giant orange pumpkins. Maybe just a coincidence, but in Chocolate CSI we know there are no coincidences.

Here they are naked:

Hershey is on the left, looking more like a pumpkin. Georgia Nut's version is a little flatter, but actually weighs a tiny bit less.

Autopsy:

Hershey has marshmallow, whereas Georgia Nut (GN) has marshmallow creme. It's like that Fluff stuff you can put on sandwiches - very sticky, kind of yucky. So sticky it gets all over your fingers, and lips, and elbows and maybe even on your eyelashes.

So they have two very different tastes. I prefer Hershey - it has a more chocolately flavor. In the GN version, the fluff overpowers the chocolate. But for only 120 calories (130 for GN), they are both pretty good Halloween treats. Not much calcium though - don't get your hopes up.

New to the patch this year is Palmer - remember the peanut butter pumpkin I reviewed a few posts ago? I admired its artistry. It had the ugliest wrapper I have ever seen, but the candy itself was very festive. Well, check these out:

The ugly wrapper tradition continues! But look inside:

So cute! Look at the green stem! That's no blob - look at those leaves - admire the detail!! We're talking Chocolate Michelangelo here! As far as taste? Well, this IS Palmer, but again, the chocolate cream filling saves it. These are actually pretty good. We're not talking artisan chocolate, but for 39 cents - it's a winner!

Bad wrapper:

But, look at this!

Look at that orange - yahoo! But as soon as you notice the orange, you are hit with an overpowering, sickly sweet orange creamsicle smell. And WOW these are sweet! Too sweet - unless you really like orange creamsicle - in which case you have just died and gone to heaven. For the rest of us - no. This is not a maybe, this is a no. But it's festive!!

Now after a feast like this, we need an after dinner mint:

These are solid - York Peppermint Pattie Pumpkins are just as you would expect. The dark chocolate is not the richest, best dark chocolate and the mint isn't creamy, but they're good. And so cute and little - about the size of a fifty cent piece. I like cute, little candy - you can tell yourself they have hardly any calories. A slice of fried pecan pie? Not so much.

I'm proud of the York people - they didn't have to bother to but a stem on the PPPs - and they didn't have to put that unholy orange color in there. They could just have put regular ol' peppermint patties in orange wrappers. But no - they made special ones for the holiday. Yay York!!

You never know who out there appreciates what you do. You may have been kind to someone just in passing, but it made their day. You might have helped a customer and not thought twice about it, but it meant the world to them. Heck, right now someone could be blogging about you - making you the unsung hero of the candy world. I bet the York workers have no idea how cool I think their efforts are and how it makes my Halloween! Realize that what you do doesn't go unappreciated. You impact many more people than you know. Never doubt that you make a difference - what you do matters to more people than you will ever know.

And Russell Stover, I'm watching you.