Utterly Average: Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels Candy Bars.

The Good: Does not taste bad, All right ingredients, Affordable
The Bad: Not particularly flavorful, Not superlative in any way
The Basics: Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate bars are worth trying once, but hard to want to stock up on or try a second time.


Late last year, it made the news that Hershey's was releasing its first new candy bar in more than two decades. So, as the new year begins, I figured it was about time to try it. Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars are the first new candy bar since, it appears, I graduated from high school. And given that amount of time, I would have figured Hershey's would have made a candy bar that felt indispensable. Sadly, the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels is not that candy bar. The Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars are all right, but not exceptional in any way.

Basics

Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate candies are a full-sized candy that is made up of nine connected segments. A full candy bar is five and three-eighths inches long, two and one-eighth inches wide and one-quarter inches thick. Each of the bars comes individually wrapped in a tan plastic wrapper. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine these Hershey's chocolate candies not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.

The 1.4 oz. Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bar tends to run in the $1.00 range. These are an average-priced candy bar!

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the wrapper. There is no grand secret to eating Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate candy. The bar has nine segments and they easily snap apart.

Taste

Each Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bar smells like peanut butter. There is no real aroma of chocolate in the bouquet of the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars.

The Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candies taste sweet, like creamy caramel to begin with. The light caramel chocolate melts away to reveal the saltier, crispy flavor from the pretzels. The broken up peanuts in the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels bar manifests more as a texture than a flavor, adding a little more salt and solidity to the soft, creamy bar. The flavors of caramel and salt dominate the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars.

The Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candies leave a slightly sweet, mostly salty, aftertaste in the mouth after the last of the bar is consumed. The salty and sweet aftertaste lasts for several minutes after the bar is consumed, but it is not at all unpleasant.

Nutrition

The Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate bars are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being overly nutritious. The primary ingredients in the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars are sugar, vegetable oil and skim milk. There is nothing unpronounceable in these candies, save in - ironically - the enriched bleached flour!

A serving of the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate candy is considered an entire 39 gram candy bar. From a full bar, one takes in 220 calories, with 14 grams of fat. There is virtually no cholesterol (5 mg in a full serving), surprisingly little sodium (85 mg of Sodium - 4% RDA), and there are no vitamins in these chocolate candy. There is, surprisingly enough, 3 grams of protein and 2% RDA of Potassium in a serving.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they have peanuts in them. These are not marked as kosher and they are not (apparently) gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

The bars of Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate candy remain fresh for quite some time. The bars of Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolates we picked up a few weeks ago had an expiration date of September 2018, so they have a pretty decent shelf life. Given that these are chocolate and pretzels, one assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Because they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, one need only throw out the plastic wrapper in the garbage to clean up after the Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels chocolate bars. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these candies melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt is fairly easy, though.

Overall

Hershey's Gold Peanuts & Pretzels candy bars are nothing special, but they are not bad, either.

For other Hershey's candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups
Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces
Cadbury Caramel Egg

5/10

For other chocolate reviews, please visit my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Mediocre Execution: Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups Flop!

The Good: Peanut butter flavor is good, Inexpensive.
The Bad: Not the most nutritious thing ever, White chocolate is waxy and flavorless
The Basics: Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups are a bit of a disappointment for anyone who loves creamy, rich, white chocolate.


White Chocolate does not need to be flavorless. Sadly, though, some of the major mass-produced chocolatiers in the United States treat white chocolate like a flavorless cousin compared to milk or dark chocolate. Such is the case with Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups.

Basics

Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup are a fairly new Hershey's candy. The Reese’s White Peanut Butter Cups are the same size and shape as the traditional Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Like the rest of the Reese’s peanut butter cups, they come as pairs in a thin wax paper cup. The 1.5 oz. package houses two 21 gram candies.

Each Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup is sold as a pair for about $.99.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the wrapper, removing it from the paper tray, and then eating the candy. There is no trick or mystery to eating Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup.

Taste

The Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups smell almost entirely of peanut butter. The aroma from these peanut butter cups is strong and inviting for anyone who loves peanut butter.

In the mouth, the White Peanut Butter Cup are waxy and flavorless until the white chocolate shell is broken. When that happens, the tongue is almost instantly overwhelmed by the flavor of the peanut butter, with no real flavor from the white chocolate in the flavor palate.

The Reese’s White cups leave a dry, salty aftertaste in the mouth after the last of the candies is consumed.

Nutrition

These are candy and a mass produced one at that, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup have mostly recognizable ingredients, which surprised me. The primary ingredients are peanuts, sugar, and vegetable oil. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies, though there are couple of abbreviated preservatives; everything else is easily identified.

A serving of the Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup is considered one package (two cups). From a single package, Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups provides 220 calories, 120 of those calories being from fat. There is no cholesterol in the White Peanut Butter Cups, but they do have 7% of one's daily sodium. There is only 4% of one's daily iron in the cups.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they contain peanuts! They are not noted to be either kosher or gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

The pack of these Reese's White Peanut Butter Cup remain fresh for quite some time. The ones I found in advance of Halloween had an expiration date of May 2018. Given that they are wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing. Hershey's chocolates, even the white chocolates, do seem especially susceptible to melting, though.

As for cleanup, throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to littering. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If this chocolate melts into most fabrics, at least dark colored fabrics, it will stain. Getting them to melt, sadly, does not take much.

Overall

Reese's White Peanut Butter Cups fail to embody well the flavor of a decent white chocolate, undermining their overall novelty.

For other Hershey's candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint
Cadbury Screme Egg
Whoppers

3/10

For other food reviews, please visit my index page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Good, But Somewhat Underwhelming: Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint Chocolate Candies (My 8000th Review!)

The Good: Decent flavor, Pretty good ingredients
The Bad: Mild chocolate flavor, Cookie flavor is not impressive
The Basics: Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate candies are nice, but not a great representation of mint and dark chocolate.


One of the nice trends in current candymaking has been that candy bars that try to embody cookies and cream have expanded outward from "cream" to chocolate. As one who is not overly fond of white chocolate, the idea of a cookie and chocolate bar is far more appealing to me than chocolate cookie bars and white chocolate. So, when I found the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate bars, I was pretty psyched. Unfortunately for me, as one who loves dark chocolate and mint, the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint were not all they could have been.

Between a fairly generic chocolate that is more like milk chocolate than dark chocolate and a cookie center that is more dry than actually flavorful the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candy bars are one of Hershey's less impressive creations as they try to build their premium chocolate line.

Basics

Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate candies are a mini-bar that is made up of three connected blocks. The full piece of candy is two and one-quarter inches long, one and one-quarter inches wide and one-half inch thick. Each of the bars comes individually wrapped in a brown wrapper with green text. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine these Hershey's chocolate candies not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.

Each connected bar of chocolate squares is a triumvirate of rectangle bars that is chocolate covering the rough cookie-piece bottom of the bar. In this form, the 6.3 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped chocolate candies are packaged together in a thick paper bag. This size has nine chocolate bars and the paper bag does little to protect the candy. The bag is not resealable, though that matters very little considering that the chocolate candy does not go bad as they are individually wrapped.

One of these bags, even with only nine chocolate bars, tends to run in the $5.00 range. These are not entirely inexpensive candies!

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the plastic wrappers around the actual chocolates one wishes to eat. There is no grand secret to eating Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate candy. With these having a seam between the two domes, it is easy to consume far less than the full, recommended, serving at any given time.

Taste

Each Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candy bar smells of milk chocolate and peppermint. The mint scent is muted by the sweet chocolate aroma from each candy.

The Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candies are sweet and minty. The cookie base of the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate bars make each one dry, but the mint infused in the sweet chocolate makes the consumer salivate! The dark chocolate for the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candy bars is so mild that it tastes like milk chocolate infused with peppermint flavoring. The chocolate in the cookie portion of the bar is dry and not noticeably chocolate flavored.

The Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candies leave a very sweet, slightly dry, aftertaste in the mouth after the last of the bar is consumed. The minty aftertaste endures for about ten minutes after the last of the bar is eaten.

Nutrition

The Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate bars are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Hershey's chocolate candies are made of pretty decent ingredients, though. The primary ingredients are sweet chocolate, sugar, and enriched wheat flour. There is nothing unpronounceable in these candies and there are minimal preservatives; everything in these could be readily identified by me.

A serving of the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate candy is considered two pieces. From two pieces, one takes in 200 calories, 110 of those calories being from fat. There is virtually no cholesterol (less than 5 mg in a full serving), very little sodium (65 mg of Sodium - 3% RDA), and there are no vitamins in these chocolate candy. There is, surprisingly enough, 15% of one's daily iron and 2% of their daily calcium in two pieces, so that is nice.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts and almonds pass over. These are not marked as kosher and there is a notation that some of the ingredients might be genetically-engineered.

Storage/Clean-up

The bags of these Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate candy remain fresh for quite some time. The bag of Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolates we picked up a month ago had an expiration date of December 2017, so they have a pretty decent shelf life. Given that these are chocolate, one assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Because they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, one need only throw out the wrappers in the garbage to clean up after the Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint chocolate bars. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these candies melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt, though, is a bit of a feat.

Overall

Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch Mint candy bars are all right, but for the price, I tend to want something more impressive than average.

For other candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling
Ferrara Milk Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Orange
Klondike The Candy! Mint Chocolate Chip Candy

6/10

For other chocolate reviews, please visit my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Overwhelmed By The Oreos, Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies Are Still Good!

The Good: Taste good, Fun, Not overly expensive
The Bad: Varying amounts of peanut butter flavor, Not nutritious at all, Environmental impact of the mini-packs
The Basics: Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are a fun, but the dry chocolate Oreo flavor occasionally overwhelms the peanut butter center.


Every now and then, I manage to find a good deal on a snack at my local discount store. Not long ago, my mother came to visit and before she left, we went shopping around. One of the many places we went was to our awesome discount store and there, my mom stocked me up on a number of treats. One was a couple of bags of Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are a snack that acts more like a cracker than a cookie, but they are very good.

Basics

Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are smaller versions of Oreo cookies, with Reese's peanut butter in the place of the usual white sugary filling in Oreo cookies. Intended as a snack more than a dessert, the Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are drier than most sugary snacks.

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies come in various sizes, but always in a bag. I picked mine up in a 3 oz. bag. Each sandwich cookie is round and approximately 7/8" in diameter and 3/8” thick. Many of them are slightly lopsided, as the tops and bottoms are not perfectly aligned. At $1.49 for the 3 oz. bag, these seem a bit pricey to me, but not stiflingly expensive.

Ease Of Preparation

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the bag and remove the sandwich cookies from it! There is no trick to eating Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies smell intensely like peanut butter. The peanut butter aroma that comes out of the bag entirely overwhelms any scent of chocolate from the Oreo cookie base.

On the taste front, the Oreo Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies taste very dry. The chocolate Oreo cookies that surround the peanut butter are dry and not a true chocolate flavor. Moments after the Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are placed on the tongue, the sweet and nutty flavor of the Reese's peanut butter manifests. The center to the Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies is sweeter and, strangely, less dry than the exterior. The Reese's peanut butter is distinct and instantly recognizable. The peanut butter flavor breaks out of the dry, vaguely-sweet, and somewhat indistinct Oreo cookie flavor.

The Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies have virtually no aftertaste, which is somewhat surprising!

Nutrition

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are not at all a natural snack, with a fair amount of preservatives. The primary ingredients are unbleached enriched flour, sugar and canola and/or palm oil, it is not surprising that the cookies do not have the strongest chocolate flavor to them. The Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies have a shelf life of approximately one year, so it's not a bad snack to stock up on.

Each nine cookie serving of Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies has 130 calories, forty-five of which come from fat. There is less than a gram of dietary fiber. While there are 5 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein, there are 140 mg of sodium, which represents 6% of one's RDA of sodium. There are a smattering of vitamins and minerals, but nothing significant. There is a dietary note that the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies includes peanuts, wheat, and soy ingredients, which prevents them from being Gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies will remain fresh for a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last for several weeks before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

Cleanup is simple as well. Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind, save crumbs.

Overall

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are not enough to satisfy those who truly love chocolate, but they are a decent treat that balances the familiar chocolate cookie flavor with the similarly familiar flavor of Reese's peanut butter.

For other snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Snakkers Chocolate Creme Filled Wafer Rolls
Good Thins The Oat One Sweet Oat & Flax snacks
BSN Syntha-6 Protein Crisp Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

6/10

For other food and drink reviews, please check out my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Of The Most Fun And Accurate Ice Cream Treats: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars!

The Good: Wonderfully accurate flavor, Generally good ingredients, Fairly affordable
The Bad: Still pricier than most ice cream.
The Basics: Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are a surprisingly good rendition of peanut butter cups in ice cream form, which makes them a real winner!


My local grocery store is pretty incredible. Because I live in a pretty small community, our grocery store gets in a lot of products that they stock without the consumer base responding to. As a result, I get a good number of cool products on clearance. I tend to try products that are on clearance here, knowing that in most marketplaces, they are still full price, but being a cheapskate, I usually only adventurous enough to try them on half price. As such, one of the best compliments I can think of to give a new (to me) product is that I would pay for the product at full price.

Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are worth paying full price for.

Basics

Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars come in a package of six 3.3 ounce ice cream bars that are individually wrapped and come with the round chocolate-covered ice cream "bars" on their own. These are a frozen treat with a simple white plastic wrapper in an orange box that is indicative of the Reese's peanut butter brand. These are exceptionally easy to enjoy, but they have to be kept completely frozen or else they melt.

Each Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bar is a disc with scalloped edges (more wavy than the traditional Reese's Peanut Butter Cup). Each Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bar is a disc that is 3“ in diameter and 7/8“ thick.

Ease Of Preparation

Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are a pretty wonderful frozen dessert. They come frozen and must be kept that way. The only way these lasted for us was using our deep freeze freezer (reviewed here!) to keep the Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars entirely solid!

Because they come in the individual wrappers, one must simply unwrap each Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bar and then eat them. That is it.

Taste

The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars smell pretty strongly of Reese's Peanut Butter. The peanut butter scent is strong and recognizable as the overly-sweet peanut butter that defines Reese's peanut butter. The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars smell strongly of peanut butter and not at all the chocolate that coats each ice cream peanut butter cup.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars have a fairly mild milk chocolate flavor to the thin, chocolate coating that surrounds the ice cream. As the thin chocolate coating melts away in the mouth as a sweet introduction to the ice cream, the dry peanut butter ice cream takes over to dominate the flavor palate. The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are satisfying for anyone who loves peanut butter flavoring as these have peanut butter flavored ice cream, not just a lame peanut butter swirl underneath the chocolate coating. These are a dry, but very satisfying ice cream treat that might well be the best possible incarnation of Reese's Peanut Butter in ice cream form!

The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars leave a very slightly sweet aftertaste in the mouth after the last of the treat is consumed, without lingering very long.

Nutrition

The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are a frozen dessert. Each 69 gram bar is a single serving. In the 1 bar serving, there are a whopping 260 calories, 150 of which come from fat, and they have 17 grams of fat. Each bar accounts for 50% of the RDA of saturated fat from the 10 grams of saturated fat. One serving also has 25 grams of carbohydrates (that’s 8% of the RDA!) and 125 mg of Sodium (5% RDA). There are a smattering of other significant nutrients in the Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars, most notably 6% of the RDA of Calcium and Iron.

Good Humor has quality ingredients, which is good for frozen treats. Made primarily of nonfat milk, milk chocolate flavored coating, and Reese's peanut butter swirl, Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are not a bad frozen dessert! There is nothing unpronounceable in the ingredients list and there are no allergy notes on the box. Obviously, these ice cream treats are not for those with a nut allergy or who are lactose intolerant. These are, obviously, not vegan-compliant.

Storage/Clean-Up

Good Humor ice cream bars are, obviously, milk-based, so when it is not frozen, it spoils exceptionally quickly. The Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars we found on clearance at the beginning of the year had a February 7, 2017 expiration date on the box and what was truly surprising was that well after the expiration date, these still taste exceptional.

The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are chocolate-coated and will certainly stain light clothing, at the very least. When the frozen dessert melts and gets onto fabrics, it will require one to wash it right out. On nonporous surfaces, the fluid wipes off exceptionally easily.

Overall

Good Humor Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars are a delightful version of peanut butter ice cream that is a very accurate to what it is supposed to be at a reasonable price.

For other frozen desserts, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Edy's Vermont Maple Syrup ice cream
Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Pistachio ice cream
Magnum Mint Ice Cream Bars

9/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling Candies Are Worth Trying!

The Good: Good flavor, Good ingredients, Decent balance between chocolate and mint flavors
The Bad: Dark chocolate could be a bit darker for my tastes
The Basics: Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolate candies are good, but not quite the epitome of dark chocolate flavor, even though the mint flavor balances nicely with the chocolate well.


I am a sucker for trying anything that is chocolate mint, though I manage to retain a sense of objectivity and professionalism when I try new things. My favorite chocolate mint products are dark chocolate mint and when there is something new to the market, I eagerly try it. The latest mass-produced chocolate to get my attention for being dark chocolate and mint are the Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling candies. The Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling are a decently-priced mint chocolate candy that manages to find the right balance between mass-produced chocolate and premium chocolate product.

Basics

Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolate candies are a mini-bar that is made up of two connected squares. The full piece of candy is two inches long, one inch wide and one-half inch thick. Each of the bars comes individually wrapped in a green and eggplant colored wrapper with gold foil text. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine these Cadbury chocolate candies not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.

Each connected pair of chocolate squares is a pair of seamless squares that is essentially a chocolate envelope sealing in a white mint-flavored paste. In this form, the 5.5 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped chocolate candy are packaged together in a thick foil paper bag. This size has approximately ten candies and the thick foil paper bag does little to protect the candy. The bag is not resealable, though this matters very little considering that the chocolate candy do not go bad as they are individually wrapped.

One of these bags, even with only ten squares, tends to run in the $5.00 range. These are not entirely inexpensive candies!

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the plastic wrappers around the actual chocolates one wishes to eat. There is no grand secret to eating Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolate candy. With these having a seam between the two domes, it is easy to consume far less than the full, recommended, serving at any given time.

Taste

There is a very mild minty aroma to each Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling, even when they have not been broken open. The Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling smells appropriately muted by the dark chocolate, though there is nothing distinctively "chocolate" in the bouquet.

The Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling candies are very sweet and slightly dry. As the dark chocolate, which is fairly satisfying to anyone who loves dark chocolate, melts away, the minty center explodes with flavor. The cool peppermint flavor of the Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling manages to find a great balance with the sweet, slightly dry dark chocolate that coats it. There is nothing waxy in the chocolate flavor of the Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling candies, so this tastes like a decent higher-quality candy than most would expect.

The Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling candies leave a slightly dry, powerfully sweet aftertaste in the mouth that endures for about five minutes after the last chocolate is consumed.

Nutrition

The Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolates are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Cadbury chocolate candies are made of pretty decent ingredients, though. The primary ingredients are semi-sweet chocolate, sugar, and palm kernel oil. Still, there is nothing unpronounable in these candies and there are minimal preservaties, everything in these could be readily identified by me.

A serving of the Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolate candy is considered three pieces. From three pieces, one takes in 220 calories, 120 of those calories being from fat. There is virtually no cholesterol (less than 5 mg in a full serving), incredibly little sodium (25 mg of Sodium - 1% RDA), and there are no vitamins in these chocolate candy. There is, surprisingly enough, 10% of one's daily iron and 2% of their daily calcium in three pieces, so that is nice.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts and almonds pass over. These are not marked as kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

The bags of these Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolate candy remain fresh for quite some time. The bag of Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling chocolates we picked up two months ago had an expiration date of August 2, 2017, so they do not have the longest shelf life in the world. Given that these are chocolate, one assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Given that they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, I applaud those who actually throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to litter. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these chocolate candy melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt, though, is quite a task; these are a decent dark chocolate candy.

Overall

Cadbury Royal Dark Creamy Mint Dark Chocolate With Creamy Mint Filling candies are pretty wonderful, even if they are not the most dry and chocolatey flavored chocolate mint candies.

For other candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Chuao Chocolatier Maple Bacon Bar
Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint Lindor truffles
Dolfin Dark Chocolate With Mint Leaves Chocolate Bar

8.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Mouthful To Say, Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces Are "Meh."

The Good: Generally good flavor, Comparatively inexpensive.
The Bad: Not the most nutritious thing ever, The Reese's Pieces do not add anything to the flavor.
The Basics: Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces are surprisingly unimpressive given how cool the concept is.


I am a sucker for a concept that combines two things that I enjoy. So, when my local grocery store started stocking the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces, I was right there ready to try them! The Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces combine Reese's peanut butter cups and one of my favorite candies - Reese's Pieces. And, as excited as I was to try the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces, the results were less impressive than I would have hoped.

Instead of zesting up an average peanut butter cup, the Reese's Pieces in the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces barely enhance the flavor - adding only a minor texture to the peanut butter cups.

Basics

Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces are a fairly new Hershey's candy. The Reese’s Dark Peanut Butter Cups are the same size and shape as the traditional Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which means that each one is approximately 2" in diameter and 1/2" thick. Like the rest of the Reese’s peanut butter cups, they come as pairs in a thin wax paper cup. The 1.5 oz. package houses two 21 gram candies.

Each Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces is sold as a pair for about $.99.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the wrapper, removing it from the paper wrapper, and then eating the candy. There is no trick or mystery to eating Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces. As long as you have opposable thumbs and a mouth, the Dark Peanut Butter Cup is pretty much yours for the consuming!

Taste

The Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces smell both chocolatey and like peanut butter. The scent is distinct and inviting for anyone who loves peanut butter or milk chocolate. The Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces smell great!

In the mouth, the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces are sweet and dry, as one expects of something that starts with a light, sweet chocolate shell and then blends with the peanut butter center. The peanut butter center is nutty and grainy, flavored exactly like the sweet peanut butter one expects from Reese's products. Unfortunately, the Reese's Pieces inside the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces manifest entirely as a texture instead of a varied flavor that truly adds anything to the candy.

The Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces leave a slightly sweet - not at all dry - aftertaste in the mouth for about five minutes after the last one is consumed.

Nutrition

These are candy and a mass produced one at that, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces are not nearly as bad as they could be on the nutrition front, though, which surprised me as the ingredient list did not degenerate into a listing of chemicals I could not pronounce. Instead, the primary ingredients are milk chocolate, peanuts, and sugar. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies, which is somewhat surprising.

A serving of the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces is considered one package (two cups). From a single package, Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces provides 220 calories, 100 of those calories being from fat. There is 1% of the RDA of cholesterol and 5% of one's daily sodium, but there are no vitamins in these chocolates, unsurprisingly. There is, also, 6% of one's daily iron and 4% of the RDA of Calcium in the cups.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they contain peanuts! They are not noted to be either kosher or gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

The pack of these Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces remain fresh for quite some time. The ones we picked up last week would have expired in July of 2017, had I not eaten them already. Given that they are wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing. Hershey's chocolates do seem especially susceptible to melting, though.

As for cleanup, I applaud those who actually throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to litter. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If this chocolate bar melts into most fabrics, it will stain. Getting them to melt, unfortunately, does not take much.

Overall

Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Stuffed With Pieces seem initially clever, but the execution of them is entirely underwhelming.

For other Hershey's candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cadbury Screme Egg
Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup
Whopper's

4.5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my index page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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But Where's The Caramel?! Betty Crocker Chocolate Caramel Frosting.

The Good: Good chocolate flavor, Very easy to use, No storage issues
The Bad: Nutrition, Caramel flavor is virtually absent
The Basics: Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel frosting is more straightforward than it is flavorful.


I am a fan of dark chocolate and I love virtually anything that has an authentic chocolate flavor to it. My wife is a big fan of toffee and caramel flavored snacks, so when we found the Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel frosting, it seemed like it would be a treat we would both enjoy. Alas, while I found the flavor chocolatey enough for me, there was virtually no caramel flavor in the palate, making it a bit of an oversell for the promised flavors.

Basics

Betty Crocker Chocolate Caramel frosting is a premade frosting produced by Betty Crocker. It is a frosting that is available year-round. Using real Hershey’s chocolate, the Chocolate Caramel frosting actually tastes like a full, rich, chocolate flavor, but there is no real hint even of caramel in the frosting to make one feel like they are getting their money's worth out of it.

Betty Crocker’s Chocolate frosting comes in the company’s standard 16 oz. plastic can. The Chocolate frosting is dark brown and creamy and the container comes with an easy to snap on red top that allows one to reseal the leftovers for a limited amount of time.

Ease Of Preparation

Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy is a frosting, so there is not much needed in terms of preparation. Simply pop off the plastic cap, tear off the foil safety seal below that and consume! It is that simple. Most people use frosting as a component in baking as opposed to eating it right out of the container like a glutton. For those who actually want to use this frosting to frost cookies or a cake, this is an exceptionally easy-to-use frosting. It spreads very easily and it does not get hard, even for a week after being applied to the baked goods you put it on!

Taste

Opening the container of Chocolate Caramel frosting, the aroma that greets the nose is powerfully chocolate in nature. In fact, I cannot recall a milk chocolate frosting I have smelled before this that smelled more like dark chocolate. There is no hint of caramel even in the frosting's bouquet.

On the tongue, the Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel tastes entirely like chocolate. The chocolate flavor is slightly sweet, but strongly of cocoa. It's like Hershey's and Betty Crocker found a way to eliminate the bitterness of dark chocolate frosting without losing the full chocolate flavor. In other words, the Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel frosting has a strong chocolate punch. What the frosting does not have is a caramel flavor to it.

The Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel frosting leaves a lingering sweet taste in the mouth for several minutes after one has consumed it.

Nutrition

Obviously, as a frosting, Betty Crocker cannot do much about the lack of nutritious benefits to their frosting. Given that the frosting is made largely of sugar, water and palm oil, this was never going to be a nutritious product. There are various artificial colors and preservatives, so this is not an all-natural product.

It is also not the best product in the world for you on a nutrition front, though it is gluten free. A 2 Tbsp serving of Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Caramel frosting has 140 calories, 50 of which are from fat. Those 5 grams of fat represent 8% of one’s RDA of tat. Unsurprisingly, one serving is 7% of your RDA of carbohydrates and there is no protein in this frosting. There are, however, 95 mg of sodium and 2% of the RDA of Iron in the frosting. This is not a food to try to live off of and while it is gluten free, the Betty Crocker Hershey's Chocolate Caramel may contain milk ingredients.

Storage/Cleanup

Keep the frosting sealed and it will last for quite some time. The container we bought before Halloween would have expired in 2017, had we not opened and consumed it first! This frosting remains supple and spreadable for quite some time, even if the leftovers have been refrigerated.

As a product made mostly of sugar, the Chocolate Caramel frosting is very easy to clean up. Simply washing it off with hot water helps clean off anything this gets on. This is a darker frosting, though, so it must be washed out fast of lighter clothes/fabrics.

Overall

The Betty Crocker Chocolate Caramel frosting is all right, but it does not taste like caramel at all, so it is a tough sell for those who love both flavors.

For other foods, please check out my reviews of:
Betty Crocker Limited Edition Maple Bacon Frosting
Tangled Tree Honey Roasted Pecans
Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Limited Edition Peppermint Frosting

5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for the various type of food reviews I have written!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup Lives Up To Its Potential!

The Good: Good chocolate flavor, Easy to prepare, Affordable
The Bad: Weak finishing flavor on its own
The Basics: Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup might be the best baseline chocolate syrup I have tried as it provides pure and true chocolate flavor, even if it does not overwhelm with the strongest cocoa.


Today, I’m not feeling particularly well and, after sleeping much of the day, my wife has been pampering me. It seems like everything she has brought me today – coffee, ice cream, etc. – has been delightfully chocolate-covered. Today’s accent piece has been Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup . . . and it is good!

Basics

The Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup is part of Hershey’s ice cream topping line and it works just like a chocolate syrup and it makes a better glass of chocolate milk than the standard Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Syrup. The 22 oz. bottle has a flip top which allows one to squeeze the fluid out onto ice cream. This doesn’t solidify, but it is one of the sundae syrups that does not run when placed on ice cream.

Ease Of Preparation

One need not even shake the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup. Simply remove the safety seal, flip open the cap and squeeze out the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup. There is no trick to using this sundae syrup.

Taste

For all of my ice cream topping reviews, I am utilizing Blue Bunny Chocolate Chip ice cream (reviewed here!) as it provides a neutral flavor base.

On its own, the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup smells incredible, like a true dark chocolate bar. The scent is bold and inviting for anyone who loves dark chocolate. The flavor is just a touch more watery than the aroma implies. The syrup is chocolatey and its sweetness is definitely sublimated to its cocoa flavor. Still, as the flavor finishes, it tastes more like water than a bold, cocoa kick, which was somewhat surprising.

On ice cream, the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup somehow manages to eliminate its mild finishing flavor! Every ice cream I’ve tried the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup on has suddenly tasted like it was coated in pure, dark chocolate. The flavor is strong, finishes with a dark chocolate aftertaste with just a hint of dryness and it is thoroughly delightful for anyone who loves dark chocolate.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was how Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup accents coffee. I like dark, flavorful coffees and my wife recently picked us up a milk frother. Accenting the tops of strong, frothy coffees she delivers to me while I’m working have been various syrups. The only one so far to get me to stop what I was doing and ask her, “What is that?” as the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup. The dark flavor is that bold and pleasant. When a chocolate syrup’s flavor can hold its own against very dark coffee and accent it in a way that pleases, it is a worthwhile syrup to me!

Nutrition

Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup is a dessert topping therefore not the most nutritious thing. I was not surprised (having reviewed other Hershey’s products) that there was nothing unrecognizable in the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup. The primary ingredients are high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, and water. None of the ingredients insinuate that this is not vegan compliant and there are no allergy warnings on the bottle.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each 2 Tb serving (who measures this out, as opposed to squirting it on their ice cream?!) of Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup, there are 100 calories, none of which come from fat! As a fat free product, it is easy to enjoy this quite a bit without guilt! While there is no fat and no cholesterol, a consumer gets 1% of their recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single serving of this topping! There is a little protein, but not enough to live off this. The only other nutrient is 4% of the RDA of Iron. This is not a bad-for-you product!

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup in its bottle, refrigerated after being opened, it ought to stay usable. Given that it has an expiration date over a year away, one assumes it will last quite a while unopened. I was surprised, though, that one 22 oz. bottle yields only sixteen servings, but it does seem to stretch.

Cleanup is very easy as a general rule as it may easily be wiped up with a warm cloth. Because it is a chocolate base, this ice cream topping does stain. On dishes, it washes off very easily.

Overall

Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup is an affordable, easy-to-use chocolate syrup that might well be the best, basic chocolate flavor chocolate syrup on the market at affordable prices. I was impressed most by how this chocolate syrup accents mild-flavored ice creams, milk, and coffee, though it is less impressive on its own.

For other ice cream toppings, please visit my reviews of:
Torani Dark Chocolate Sauce
Smuckers Sugar Free Caramel Dessert Topping
Root Beer Magic Shell

7.5/10

For other ice cream reviews, please visit my Ice Cream Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Exceptionally Accurate: Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping For Ice Cream Satisfies!

The Good: Wonderful taste, Easy to prepare, Fairly inexpensive
The Bad: Never gets entirely hard, Not at all healthy
The Basics: A pleasant surprise, Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Topping lives up on most fronts!


Sometimes, it is not until I am actually using a product that I look closely enough at it to see what I missed in the grocery store when I bought it. In the case of Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping for ice cream, given that others from the brand in the same area on the shelf were “Magic Shell” style ice cream toppings, I was very surprised when the Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping was not. I suspect that it is supposed to be a shell-type topping, given the way it does firm up some when placed on ice cream, but because it is made of real peanuts, it is unable to actually fully solidify. As a result, Hershey just markets this as an ice cream topping, as opposed to a shell ice cream topping and they are right to do so. Fortunately, this is an absolutely delicious ice cream topping for anyone who loves creamy peanut butter!

Basics

The Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping is part of Hershey’s ice cream topping line and it works similar to a Magic Shell ice cream topping, though it does not get as hard. The 7 oz. bottle has a flip top which allows one to squeeze the fluid out onto ice cream.

Ease Of Preparation

Shaking well is essential to Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping. One needs to shake the product up quite a bit, then dispense it by flipping the top and giving it about a minute to set on ice cream; it does not become solid, though it does firm up. It is that easy. It is equally important not to refrigerate the bottle of Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping.

Taste

For all of my ice cream topping reviews, I am utilizing Blue Bunny Chocolate Chip ice cream (reviewed here!) as it provides a neutral flavor base.

On its own, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping smells perfectly like roasted peanuts. It is an ideal embodiment of peanut butter scent , the topping is very inviting to those who love peanut butter. Out of the bottle, this ice cream topping is very salty and accurate to the flavor of peanut butter.

On ice cream, the saltiness dissipates quickly and what one is left with is a perfect embodiment of the flavor of creamy peanut butter! This flavor is like eating liquid peanuts, it is so true to the flavor of peanuts (even more than the flavor of peanut butter!). It has a slightly dry aftertaste, which is easily cut by the flavor of most ice creams. This topping overwhelms the flavor of weaker ice creams and is a compliment to ice creams – like plain chocolate – that have a more robust initial flavoring.

Nutrition

Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping is a dessert topping therefore not the most nutritious things in the known world. I was shocked that there was nothing unrecognizable in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping. The primary ingredients are peanuts, peanut oil and sugar. It seems to be vegan compliant, but is not marked as Kosher or gluten free.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each 2 Tb serving (who measures this out, as opposed to squirting it on their ice cream?!) of Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping, there are 190 calories, sixteen of which are from fat. There are 2.5 grams of saturated fat, so one serving of this accounts for 13% of one’s saturated fat for a day! While there is no cholesterol, a consumer gets a whopping 8% of their recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single serving of this topping! There are also 6 grams of protein, but not enough to live off this. In other words, this product is not a nutritious food product.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping in its bottle at room temperature, it ought to stay usable. Given that it has an expiration date only six months away, this seems to be one of the more perishable ice cream toppings from Hershey’s. I was surprised, though, that one 7 oz. bottle yields only six servings, which makes it more expensive than most syrup-style toppings.

Cleanup is very easy as a general rule. Before it freezes, it may easily be wiped up with a warm cloth. Because it is a fairly dark brown fluid, this ice cream topping does stain. In dishes, it may be washed off with warm water prior to being placed in a dishwasher.

Overall

Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping is good, but a little different from what one might expect when they pick up the bottle. Fortunately, this ice cream topper helps to prove that different can be really good!

For other ice cream toppings, please visit my reviews of:
Heath Shell Ice Cream Topping
York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup
Dr. Pepper Cherry Dessert Topping

7/10

For other ice cream reviews, please visit my Ice Cream Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Weaker On The Chocolate Front, York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup Is Unimpressive.

The Good: Great aftertaste, Easy to prepare, Affordable
The Bad: Weaker chocolate flavor, Mint flavor does not endure
The Basics: York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup lacks the peppermint kick fans of York Peppermint Patties or actual chocolate will want.


Following on the heels of the Heath Magic Topping ice cream topping review I wrote (that’s here!), I thought it was important to keep trying different ice cream toppings to create more of a library of topping reviews. So, I thought I would try the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup. This is a Hershey’s product and is thicker than any of their other chocolate syrups I have had (but not reviewed) to date!

Basics

The York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup is part of Hershey’s ice cream topping line and it works just like a chocolate syrup, though it does not blend with milk to make a chocolate mint milk (rather disappointingly). The 15 oz. bottle has a flip top which allows one to squeeze the fluid out onto ice cream. This doesn’t solidify, but it is one of the sundae syrups that does not run when placed on ice cream.

Ease Of Preparation

One need not even shake the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup. Simply remove the safety seal, flip open the cap and squeeze out the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup. There is no trick to using this sundae syrup.

Taste

For all of my ice cream topping reviews, I am utilizing Blue Bunny Chocolate Chip ice cream (reviewed here!) as it provides a neutral flavor base.

On its own, the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup smells exceptionally minty. This has an inviting aroma. Straight out of the bottle the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup sweet and slightly dry, sweeter than dark chocolate. It has almost no mint flavor to the primary taste. However, a peppermint flavor kicks in for the aftertaste, though is dissipates within twenty seconds.

On ice cream, the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup is even more mild, almost robbed of any dark chocolate flavor. The syrup is chocolate flavored, but the flavor is more like a milk chocolate than a bold dark chocolate. The peppermint flavor is virtually nonexistent when this is on ice cream.

Nutrition

York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup is a dessert topping therefore not the most nutritious things in the known world. I was shocked that there was nothing unrecognizable in the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup, but given that it comes from Hershey’s, perhaps I should not have been surprised! The primary ingredients are high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and water. None of the ingredients insinuate that this is not vegan compliant and there are no allergy warnings on the bottle.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each 2 Tb serving (who measures this out, as opposed to squirting it on their ice cream?!) of York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup, there are 100 calories, none of which come from fat! As a fat free product, it is easy to enjoy this quite a bit without guilt! While there is no fat and no cholesterol, a consumer gets 1% of their recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single serving of this topping! There is a little protein, but not enough to live off this. This is not a bad-for-you product!

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup in its bottle, refrigerated after being opened, it ought to stay usable. Given that it has an expiration date almost a year away, one assumes it will last quite a while unopened. I was surprised, though, that one 15 oz. bottle yields only eleven servings, but it does seem to stretch.

Cleanup is very easy as a general rule as it may easily be wiped up with a warm cloth. Because it is a chocolate base, this ice cream topping does stain. On dishes, it washes off very easily.

Overall

York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup is good, but it ends up as a basic chocolate sauce as opposed to something that lives up to its promised flavor.

For other ice cream products, please visit my reviews of:
Cuisinart ICE-20 Ice Cream Maker
Edy's Peppermint Limited Edition Ice Cream
Breyers CarbSmart Vanilla

4/10

For other ice cream reviews, please visit my Ice Cream Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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