Easter Jordan Almonds

I like Jordan Almonds. Mostly because I love almonds. And hey, a candy coating can only make things better in my book! I didn't realize they were a big Easter/springtime treat until this year. Not that I've been laying awake at night contemplating this. But anyway.....

Here are all the ones I could find and unlike the malted milk balls, every assortment has slightly different colors:

Harry and David had the weirdest colors, but all these were slightly different. And here is what I think of all the different offerings:

These are by CVS:

I think they have them all the time as part of their candy collection. They were hard as rocks. No good.

These are by Target:

These tasted more like sugar than almonds and were the smallest of the bunch. I guess there are some almonds in there. Maybe.

These were from The Chocolate Bear:

These had delicious, big almonds with a great, light coating. Much softer than the CVS rocks. YUM!

These are by Jelly Belly:

And they were the only ones that seemed to have some kind of flavor in the candy coating. I didn't care for that - it was like a weird aftertaste. Yuck!

These are Harry and David's:

and they have a great almond taste. These are enhanced by the candy coating, not overwhelmed by it. But they are not quite as soft and good as those from The Chocolate Bear.

These Medicis are truly in a league of their own:

I bought them at Williams-Sonoma and they are amazing. The sugar coating is very thin and they have GIANT almonds. The back of the box reads: "When Catherine de Medicis married the future King Henry II of France in 1533, her chefs dazzled wedding guests with these sweet, crunchy confections. They are slender Lerida almonds from Spain enclosed in a very thin sugar shell. The classic assortment in pastel colors (made at Easter - every other time I've gotten them, they have been white) is made at the family-owned Confiserie de Medicis, a French confectionery named for the legendary queen."

How cool is that?

This was really interesting to me - I had no idea there would be that much difference among the different offerings:

And you know what? Once you have the Medicis the others really pale in comparison. (Hell, they've been working on those things for 477 years - they outta be good!) The ones from The Chocolate Bear were second best and were MUCH better than all the others, but the Medicis are truly amazing. If you love Jordan Almonds, you owe it to yourself to try these. Wow!!!