Soft and Smushy on the Inside

I am alive!!!!  I know I've been off the radar for the past month or so, but I have a great reason.

First, let me catch you all up.  Flower Man (the guy who I had a lunch date with and who sent me flowers the next day) disappeared.  He had said we might go out that weekend, but I heard nothing.  In the meantime, I had a date with someone else.  He and I have been going out ever since.  Flower Man e-mailed a week later, said he called and left a message on the wrong voice mail.  Seriously? 

The good news is the new guy does what he says he will and loves to eat almost as much as I do.  I feel I've found my soul mate when we're picking an ice cream flavor to share and he chooses Cake Batter.  He makes me laugh.  He even saw me speak before we went out so the dreaded Big Personality doesn't bother him.  He even took the time to read my book!  So things are good, but finding time to work, work out, date AND blog is tricky!  Thanks for not giving up on me!!!

In honor of my mutation into a big marshmallow, I thought I'd review this great new product:

As you all know, I've been railing that something like this should be made!  Those horrible chocolate "flavored" marshmallows are creepy.  Those marshmallows at Candy Expo with some dark chocolate drizzled on them (Zebras) didn't have enough chocolate.  Kraft finally got it together!!!  These are miniature marshmallows, which makes the chocolate to marshmallow ratio perfect.  They are addictive alone and would be great in trail mix, over ice cream, in popcorn - you name it!

Not only are they impossible to stop eating - I ate the whole bag today - but the whole bag has only 300 calories.  Yahoo!!!

One comment - Kraft has got to change the choking warning.  It says: Eat one at a time.  (HA!) For children under 6, cut marshmallows into bite-sized pieces.  Children should always be seated and supervised while eating. 

For God's sake, Kraft, lighten up!  These are MINIATURE marshmallows, after all!  And who wants to sit down and be supervised while eating marshmallows?  I want to eat them while running with scissors!

And speaking of marshmallows, the new guy and I went to a fondue place this weekend - ordered the Triple Play - peanut butter, caramel and chocolate in the fondue pot with pretzels, fruit and marshmallows to dip in.  He let me have almost all the peanut butter.  Is he a good man or what?

Marshmallow and Easter Candy Weirdness

Well, since we got started with some marshmallow, let's just continue with the sticky stuff.

Since I'm off the evil RS (well, mostly.....), let's look at the old standard for the marshmallow egg:

These are good - but the marshmallow didn't seem as soft and fresh as it should. In fact - the chocolate covered Peeps were better!!! WAY better. Hershey - what the heck???

I've noticed that the chocolate covered Peeps seems to be sold out everywhere - I must not be the only one who LOVED them. I'm serious - I appreciate them even more now that I've compared them to the competition. (Maybe I'll get to drive that Peepmobile yet!)

These marshmallow eggs were made by Whitman's:

The colors are really pretty and festive:

And the marshmallow inside is delicious - nice and soft and creamy, but the outer shell is too sweet. I sooooo wished it was chocolate! Rats!!

From Kraft we have BunnyMallows to go with our Halloween GhostMallows:

For some reason these bunnies make me think of dinosaurs:

These are in great colors and I like the attempt at a holiday shape. The taste is perfectly average marshmallow. I have no complaints, but there is nothing really exciting here. They might be really good dipped in chocolate! Yum!

These marshmallow chicks and bunnies by Frankford Candy and Chocolate Co. of Pennsylvania are unbelievably horrible:

Are those parrots? (Why do they have pink wings? Are those wings?) The taste and texture of these are so, so, so bad. They come closest to tasting like really stale cotton candy - but that is generous. Anyone who disses Peeps should eat a couple of these. They are truly horrifying.

I can remember these from when I was a kid:

And I don't like them any more now than I did then.

They come in a bunch of colors and are festive enough. They have a thick sugary shell and something inside that looks kind of like marshmallow, but tastes weird. I'd have to say these are pretty awful.

These are an Easter staple, but are probably best as decoration. Personally I think they waste valuable Easter basket space that could be filled by chocolate!!

I'm not a big candy corn fan, but lots of people are wild about it. It is kind of cool to see it in Easter colors:

It says on the bag that this is made with real honey -and I believe it - you can taste the honey. I think honey has kind of an odd taste, so these don't set me on fire. If you like honey, though, these might be your new fav. There aren't that many candies that have a strong honey taste.

You can see the off-white color - shows the honey:

These are new this year:

and are totally weird, yet somehow fascinating. I love Brach's Nougat peppermint candies. I love their Nougat cherry chocolate candy. These are good too, but not as good as plain old jelly beans in my book. They are made out of jelly bean pieces in sugary, chewy nougat:

Some have lots of jelly bean pieces, some have no jelly bean pieces. And some are kind of mutated:

But when they get it right, they are really pretty - like a glass mosaic:

These are very sweet and have ingredients like apple cider butter, strawberry jam, grape jam, and grape jelly. If you like chewy, sweet and fruity, these are for you!! I do give Brach's huge points for coming up with something new and original, even though a lot of jelly beans had to give their lives for it. But still, sacrifices have to be made. I say - yay!!

These are from my friends at Just Born (of course, if they were really my friends I'd be cruising around in that Peepmobile right now):

These are the best jelly beans I've had this year:

This is the Americana Medley and the flavors are Savannah Strawberry, Laredo Lime, Chesapeake Cherry, Napa Grape, Indian River Orange and La Jolla Lemon. And they are all good with no weird aftertaste (like all the others reviewed below). Apparently making a good jelly bean is way harder than you'd think. Not that I've ever really thought about it. Until now.

Isn't this a great assortment from See's? We'll review the chocolate eggs soon:

See's makes two types of jelly eggs:

Regular jelly beans on the left and non-pareil jelly eggs on the left:

Now let me tell you, I love jelly beans, I really do. And these look great! But they were very disappointing. The jelly beans have a too thick outer coating and just taste crummy. And where's red - the most popular flavor??? These were so bad, I tried 'em, spit 'em out and threw the whole bag away. (I consider that a huge sin, but sometime candy is too terrible to even give away.)

The jelly eggs are no better - and the texture kind of creeps me out. Too jellyish, with those too hard non-pareils on them. Ugh. Boo to both of these!

I thought these were festive and I really wanted to see what was inside them:

This is the Harry & David Easter Candy Mix:

There are lots of little molded sugar candies - two different rabbits, an Easter egg, a duck, and a rooster. They are in white (I have no idea what flavor this is, but I didn't like it), lemon, lime, pink (cherry? strawberry? not good), and purple (grape? horrible taste!). These were MUCH better in the Jelly Belly assortment (below). They were really, really bad.

There are non-pareil jelly eggs like the See's, but with multicolored non-pareils instead of white. While these look terrific, the taste is not so wonderful. These vile things are jelly beans without the usual candy shell. Instead the gelatin bean is coated in these round sprinkles. Just creepy. The regular jelly beans were really good though!! Loved them!

The white, pink and purple balls are those great chocolate covered, candy coated mints. These were really good.

There was ONE foil covered chocolate egg which was terrible - surprising from H & D. The Jelly Belly chocolate eggs were better (see below). Although neither mix had enough chocolate. Wait - the H & D chocolate was so bad, there was too much of it.

This is the Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix:

It also has pastel candy corn, but it's white and has no taste of honey. I prefer this to the Brach's, but it's really too sweet for me. Good jelly beans kick Easter candy corn's butt. If it had a butt. And if jelly beans had legs.

Both mixes have these little pastel candy shapes - this one has three different rabbits, a duck and a rooster. They are in lemon, lime, strawberry and grape. They are way sweet and way fruity. I would never crave these and plan to never eat them again. But they are weird and festive - and I love weird and festive.

There were a bunch of Jelly Belly jelly beans - but I wish they were in better flavors - hate lemon and lime, don't care for cantaloupe or grapefruit, I did like the blue (not sure what flavor it is, but it's good) and the purple had some kind of funky aftertaste. Boo!!!

There were three foil covered chocolate eggs which were fine - average.

There were also two malted milk eggs which we'll review in the next post. You're going to learn more about malted milk eggs than you ever wanted to know.

Lesson - it takes guts to try something new. Does it always work? Will honey flavored Easter candy corn become an Easter staple? Will weird Jelly Bean Nougat? I have my doubts. But I think the chocolate covered Peep is going to be a huge success! It's easy to do the same old thing - it's safe and no one will mock you in blog postings. But doing the same old thing gets boring - trying something new keeps life interesting and keeps you growing. Try one new thing this week - personally and professionally. You've got nothing to lose except stagnation. Peep, peep!

The Festive Marshmallow

Ah the marshmallow. Used in so many confections, and so often, such a disappointment.

Kraft just can't stop, offering StawberryMallows for Valentine's Day:

They still have the choking warning on the bag, thank God. I almost killed myself with these.

These are pretty much the standard marshmallow with a vague hint of strawberry. ZZZZZZ

They might be okay in hot chocolate or a S'more for something different.

Of course, in my book, Just Born is the King of Marshmallow. And they've pulled all the stops out for Valentine's Day:

The chocolate mousse bears were new last year. They are really good - for marshmallow that is. Way better (and way cheaper) than those Williams- Sonoma marshmallows. and so cute!!! These are chocolate through and through as you can see in the pic below.

These are different - they are strawberry creme flavored:

And let me tell you, these have some SERIOUS strawberry flavor. they are WAY better than the Kraft marshmallows - they are really soft and, well surprisingly good. And you have to love the cute red hearts.

Both of these are just regular marshmallow flavor:

Like the I heart U - very creative! And look at the close uu - its sugar is glittery!!!

Very festive!!!

Here are the autopsy photos:

You can see the strawberry in the smaller red heart.

And there's the cocoa in the bear. Even if you hate Peeps, they are some of the most festive candies out there. And they are low in fat and calories!


This is a whipped creme cherry heart by Georgia Nut Company:

At least this one looks like a heart.. Georgia Nut is notorius for blobs. The cherry flavor is there but fairly subtle. These are soooo rich because of the creme filling, but because it's creme, it's better than marshmallow. I've said it before - it's like Fluff. For some reason I like these. You'll only want one - too rich, but for only 140 calories it tastes pretty darn good!

I can't explain it - it's good!


These surprised me and I have no explanation for it. I tried them at Christmas - they were red and green - and didn't like them:

These I liked! It makes no sense unless they have somehow changed the ingredients. Maybe the green in the crisped rice freaked me out. Maybe I am insane. I dunno. But these were pretty good. Are they the greatest thing ever? Oh hell, no! But if you want a Valentine's Day rice krispy treat - this is for you!

The marshmallow disappoints me more than it delights me, but as long as there are Peeps in the world, it will always make me smile. And I do believe the world would be a lesser place without the marshmallow. It doesn't have a lot of taste, but often marshmallow is the glue that holds the rest of the confection together.

Hey, everybody can't be chocolate.

Marshmallow Show Down

Marshmallows are not all bad - they are great in hot chocolate, in cereal (who didn't like Lucky Charms as a kid?), and roasted over a campfire. They're also low in fat and calories. But not all marshmallows are created equal.

Kraft, creator of the infamous Swirlmallow (which also comes in strawberry - yikes!), has this Halloween entry:

These are supposed to be ghosts. All taste the same - vanilla. I'm not sure the brown color really adds anything to the mix, but it is fall-like. (Think dead leaves.)

Now look at these from our friends at Just Born:

and my favorite - chocolate mousse flavored cats:

Here's what they look like outside their packages:

Aren't they cute? The ghosts and the pumpkins taste the same - they are filled with white marshmallow. But the cats really taste like chocolate (well, as much as marshmallow CAN taste like chocolate). The Peeps really taste a lot better than the Kraft GhostMallows (good grief - I think Kraft needs to fire their creative team) - they are coasted with granular sugar crystals whereas the Kraft ghosts have that dusty powdery sugar coating. And the Peep marshmallow is fluffier, has more give. And there is just no comparing the artistry:

I really think Kraft needs to work on that brown color. It's just not good.

The GhostMallows still have the choking warning (although I can't imagine needing to cut one into bite-sized pieces - they are tiny. Come on, Kraft, lighten up!). No warning on the wild and crazy Peeps. I guess you'll just have to take your chances. Oh, and Peeps have a Halloween costume:

If a kid came to my door in that adorable costume, I would give them ALL my candy.