Easter Onslaught

Regular readers will no doubt be familiar with our previous Easter related posts, Limited Edition Peeps, Cadbury White Mini Eggs, Marshmallow 3 Musketeers, and Nerds Jelly Beans. With a holiday so closely tied to candy though it would be a shame to stop there.  So today, under the guise of needing candy for my niece and nephews for Easter, I went to Walmart and went a little crazy.  Here is the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich Easter Onslaught!

Lifesavers Jelly Beans
These are a very straightforward approach to jelly beans. Based on Lifesavers hard candy they are very sweet and a little uninteresting. Not at all bad, but not at all exciting either.

Starburst Crazy Cores Jelly Beans
Another fairly straightforward approach but with a twist of whacky flavor combinations. Each color is dual flavored (one on the outer shell and one in the center) meaning you can really get "crazy" by mixing multiple colors. Also not bad and definitely more interesting than the Lifesavers.

Warheads Jelly Beans
Fairly standard jelly bean flavors coated in citric acid. Not as sour as a regular Warhead but delicious anyway. My favorite of this lot (although Nerds are still my favorite overall).

And now for the Peeps!

Party Cake
Tastes like a marshmallow dipped in cake batter. While it is a little on the sweet side, it stays tolerable and even a little pleasant.

Bubble Gum
Surprisingly good. A subtile enough flavor to not overwhelm. The only issue is forcing yourself to swallow something chewy and bubble gum flavored.

Sweet Lemonade
I liked this a lot. Almost tastes like the Peeps were dipped in Country Time powder (although a lot less sour).

Blue Raspberry
Another decent one here. A little sour and tart, it balances the sweetness of the marshmallow. A great option for someone who finds Peeps too sweet.

Sour Watermelon
Didn't love this one. The flavor felt a little too strong and the marshmallow does nothing to cut it. Tastes like watermelon Jolly Ranchers.

Given how little I liked the Limited Edition Peeps, I didn't have high hopes for these and was pleasantly surprised. I'd say Sweet Lemonade was my favorite of the lot.

Happy Easter from Twinkie Wiener Sandwich!

Triscuit Thin Crisps Cinnamon Sugar Flavor

When you have a blog about food sometimes you've got to suck it up and take one for the team by trying something that doesn't sound that good. If you read my review on the Wasabi & Soy Sauce flavor you know how much I loved it, so I figured I owe it to Nabisco (yes, I feel obligations to snack companies) to give the second of these new flavors a try. But sweet Triscuits?

 

There a a few things wrong here. First, what is the best cinnamon sugar flavored thing there is?  Cinnamon rolls, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, churros, snickerdoodles? All of these things are soft and even if you don't put milk on your Cinnamon Toast Crunch it's pretty light in texture. Now think about the texture of a Triscuit, and not just a regular Triscuit mind you, a brown rice Triscuit. And that's where these go wrong. Truth is these taste great, but it takes so much saliva and mastication to dispense one of these little rock hard wedges that by the time you swallow any cinnamon sugar goodness is long gone (something the wasabi solved in that other flavor by hitting late and up the back of the nose).

 

Second, these are not just brown rice Triscuits, they're brown rice and sweet potato Triscuits. My guess is the sweet potato is there to help hold the sweetness during the aforementioned problem, but it just ends up muddling up everything. Cinnamon, sugar, brown rice, wheat, and sweet potato just end up being a bit confusing for my taste buds.

 

So in the end I'd recommend you skip this one. I applaud Nabisco for trying something different again (the third of their new flavors is sour cream and chive which is obviously their safe offering), but I didn't like this one anywhere near as much as the wasabi & soy sauce flavor.

Limited Edition Peeps

With the possible exception of Cadbury Creme Eggs, no candy is most directly associated with Easter than Marshmallow Peeps. Oh sure, in recent years we've seen Peeps popping up shaped like ghosts at Halloween or gingerbread men at Christmas, but to many of us the novelty just isn't there. For me Easter just isn't Easter until I've bitten the head off a sugar coated marshmallow chick or bunny. Today I decided to give these limited edition flavored ones a shot.

Strawberry Creme

As soon as I opened the package the aroma hit me and I worried these would be much too strongly flavored.  Sadly I was sort of right. These don't taste at all like marshmallow anymore, just some ultra squishy strawberry candy. The strawberry flavor is pleasant however and I didn't have any trouble finishing off the package.

Orange Creme

Creamsicle. That's it. That's what they were going for and that's exactly what they accomplished. Like the strawberry ones however they don't taste of marshmallow at all.

Neither one of these flavors tasted bad, but neither one was terribly interesting either. The fact is there are plenty of other candies on the market that taste exactly like these. I can't help but feel they should have toned down the flavor a bit because I feel strawberry/marshmallow and orange/marshmallow would have been unique. Also, at $1.99 for a 3 pack these are not cheap, certainly too expensive for a flavor you can get elsewhere. Kids would probably love the fun novelty though and I suppose that's what is important.

Triscuit Thin Crisps Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavor

This is my first venture into Triscuit's Thin Crisps line. At first I was hesitant because my perception is that they're trying for a lower calorie option with these. That hesitation was bolstered by the fact that these are also the brown rice variety of Thin Crisps. However I try to be an equal opportunity snacker so I plunked down $2.50 and decided to give these a shot.

BEST DECISION EVER!

First the texture. The rice / wheat combination produces a cracker that's crisp like a rice cracker but hearty like a Triscuit. However it is a bit lighter than a regular Triscuit which means less of a workout for your jaws. This makes them very easy to keep eating.

Then there's the flavor. For whatever reason Americans have never really embraced a lot of Asian flavors in our snacks. Sure, that's starting to change as wasabi seems to be popping up a lot more (especially in things like mustard) but it's still a bit of a niche flavor. These are excellent. The soy is up front and hits immediately but it's almost not until you swallow that you get the pleasant, somewhat floral wasabi wafting up through your nose. If I have one complaint, I wish the wasabi was a little stronger, but considering the risk of this flavor with Americans I can understand starting slow.

All I can say is that I really enjoyed these. Hopefully this is a gateway for Americans to experience flavors in their snacks other that cheese and salt.

Cadbury White Mini Eggs

I love white chocolate. On any given day I'd much rather have white chocolate than any other candy out there. Easter is a great time of year for me because of the increased availability of white chocolate. This year my favorite (non white chocolate) Easter candy, Cadbury Mini Eggs, released a white chocolate variety. Imagine my excitement! 

I'm pleased to report that these lived up to everything I wanted them to be. They have the same sugar shell as the regular Cadbury Mini Eggs but with a white chocolate center. The white chocolate used appears to be high quality too, at least it tastes that way. This makes for a very rich flavor that does get a little overwhelming after a few pieces but that is their only drawback.

Obviously this is a seasonal novelty, but it's made even rarer by the fact that it's only available at Target. Hopefully next year we get a wider release as I can't see sales from one department store chain justifying Cadbury keeping this one around. In the meantime, white chocolate fans need to get to Target and check this one out! 

Tostitos Fajita Scoops

Tortilla chips are a staple for us. We find them to be a delicious snack that morphs easily into a meal with a little chili and cheese. Naturally we were intrigued by this new flavor on store shelves, but with a pretty saturated tortilla chip market would these stand out or drown in a sea of mediocrity and cheese powder?

I'm happy to report these are a total success!  For starters, these are lightly seasoned. They taste like regular chips with just a little something extra and don't bludgeon your taste buds with spice or fake cheese powder.  Secondly, it's not just a spice powder at work here but also a blend of bell peppers in the corn itself that give these a deeper flavor. They've really hit on something here, they're tasty enough to snack on unadorned but subtile enough to not get in the way of a plate of nachos. 

Highly recommended, we immediately went out and bought a second bag. 

Chips Ahoy Root Beer Float Flavor

A few weeks ago Nabisco launched this new line of flavors called "Ice Cream Creations". None of the flavors sounded particularly interesting to us, but I do love a good root beet float so I figured I'd give this one a try.

 

I'm pleased to report that these are not anywhere near as bad as I expected. There's a pretty distinct root beer flavor but it stays sweet and doesn't cross that line into offensive. The flavor appears to be in both the cookie and the chips, and the vanilla chips keep the root beer in check. I'm also glad these are chewy cookies because I'm not sure the flavor would translate well to crispy ones.

 

I suppose the verdict is that these are decent. Certainly nowhere near as disgusting as I expected them to be, but not really good enough to get into my regular cookie rotation. I would like to try them with some vanilla ice cream though.