This is my Brain on Marshmallow

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve! I was out dancing to a great rock band AND was wearing three inch heels. Hip replacement? What hip replacement?

Anyway, my Sorbet Sistah, Sassy and I were out till three last night and as a result, my brain is somewhat marshmallowey today. Thus our theme - holiday marshmallow.

I went by Crate and Barrel a couple of days ago and all their holiday candy is on sale - so you might want to check it out. I have several of their treats - let's start with their S'mores:

These are nothing to rave about. The marshmallow is not evenly distributed (as you can see in the picture) - it sits in a blob roughly in the middle. The chocolate is okay. Real s'mores are better. Hell, Goldfish S'mores (reviewed months back) are better. There are much better treats out there.

They also have these mini mighty marshmallows - and the tag line reads - "drenched in milk chocolate - perfect for dunking in hot chocolate or for eating right out of the bag."

,

These would probably kick butt in hot chocolate - what a great idea! And as far as chocolate covered marshmallows go, they are good. Exciting? Nope. I just can't get really excited about the chocolate covered marshmallow. Unless......




Do you see that? It's peanut butter!!! Let's just check these bad boys by Harry and David out. There are three kinds in the box - dark chocolate and marshmallow:

Eh. Okay.

Let's do milk chocolate caramel next:

Looks good!! I have some high hopes!! Okay, NOW we're talking. These have delicious and not skimpy caramel which makes them awesome! The only ones worth eating yet. Very, very good - awesome chewy caramel, good milk chocolate, and the marshmallow really works - outstanding!

And the one I've been waiting for (drum roll please).....milk chocolate and PEANUT BUTTER!

Hmmm......while these are not bad, I don't think the marshmallow brings anything to the peanut butter. In fact, I think it takes away. Booo!!! I hate marshmallow. Now I want a Reese's Tree.

Harry and David also has these caramel marshmallow bars billed as "fluffy clouds of yum, wrapped in caramel":

These remind me of Modjeskas (blogged about in another post) and I won't lie to you, these are pretty darn good. But I prefer the Modjeskas I had that were completely covered in caramel. If you like marshmallow, you will do back flips for these. If you don't, pass and just get some caramel. These are super sweet, but somewhat light due to the marshmallow. Wow.

Look at these crazy things I found in World Market:

These are made by Tunnock's, a Scottish company established in 1890. And they are god-awful. They are covered in coconut and are filled with that whipped marshmallow - kind of like Fluff - that stuff some people put on sandwiches. They are very rich, yet at the same time have very little taste. They have a thin layer of something that tastes vaguely like coco and holds the thing together. Awful in a weird fascinating way, like when you can't help but look at a car wreck.

And now I have marshmallow fluff on my keyboard. Great.

You all are very familiar with how much I despise Russell Stover. But I can't seem to walk away. (Sounds a little like my love life - I keep going back to the same guys thinking they are going to be different). Anyway let's move to the world of festive marshmallow shapes:


Well, at least it looks like a snowman, pretty amazing for RS, King of Blobs. But when I performed the autopsy, look at that:


Chocolate marshmallow! Any good? Well, better than white marshmallow, but still not really worth anything. Caramel still way better. Crate and Barrel Mini marshmallows have better chocolate. RS just never really makes the grade. I wonder how much longer they are going to be around.


Speaking of blobs, check out this "Santa" by Georgia Nut company:




Are you kidding me? What the hell is that?

The Christmas Blob is filled with something with the same consistency of marshmallow fluff, but they call it "whipped vanilla cream". It's sinful. It's totally sweet and if you bite into it, you will eat the whole thing, even if you don't want to. I can't explain it. It's good, but it's also so sickeningly sweet that after you eat it, you immediately want to eat green vegetables. It's over-the-top.

The next one is chocolate covered marshmallow Santa's made by Brach's:

This Santa is just plain weird. I don't know how they make it, but you can see that it's kind of detailed, but the chocolate coating is so thin the white shows through and the whole thing looks weird. The taste is not horrible, just boring. At least these are cheap. I am reminded that I still don't like marshmallow and again want a Reese's Tree.

Before we go, look at these chocolate covered cherry cordial flavored marshmallow reindeer treats by a company called Melster Candies:

Okay - these are actually reindeer, not reindeer treats. But, what the hell. Again the weird detail, the thin chocolate, and this time, pink marshmallow peeks through. If you like cherry, you may like these, but it was too much for me. Cheap marshmallow, cheap chocolate, and overpowering cherry. Well, at least we have a different shape and some wildly colored marshmallow.

The take away?

What a celebration of marshmallow creativity! We had different shapes, and coatings, and flavors and fillings. Are you this creative with how you view yourself? Are you someone with a bad hip or a dancing queen? Are you too old to do what you want? Too fat to wear that? Or are you someone who does what makes them happy, convention be damned? You get to decide who you are - only you and no one else. Who will you be this year?

Your life is as sweet as you decide to make it. Happy 2010 - make it your year.