First looks
Katie:
This looks like a jewel that is the currency of a far-flung video game land. How many of these do I need to buy a thunderblade??? Anyway, it's shiny and smells a skosh like pumpkin but only really because I know it's supposed to be pumpkin. I have to say, I'm really glad not everything in this special is going to be pumpkin.
Nick:
I'm a little worried about these. Like Katie noted, the outside looks very nice; they look like little pumpkin jewels. What I'm worried about is the insides, and the cross-section on the box showing chocolate ganache spilling out isn't filling me with a lot of confidence. I hope this isn't going to be a big mistake!
Post-bite thoughts
Oh geez. I think if the middle part hadn't been goop this might have been okay. The taste isn't bad, a bit odd to have chocolate and pumpkin together--very heavily spiced pumpkin at that--but the goopy center killed it for me. Not a fan. If you like goopy crap in your chocolate, I guess this would be your thing but it's not mine.
Nick:
Mmm, I'm afraid I'm not a fan either. I'm actually okay with the texture inside after all; for me it's more the tastes inside clashing. The heavily spiced pumpkin is nice, and the dark chocolate is nice, but they just don't work together; I think one or the other really needed to take center stage, because they end up fighting for dominance in a mouth experience that is not my favorite. It works in a chocolate orange, but not here, and I really think that's because a chocolate orange is slightly orange-flavored chocolate, whereas this can't decide what it is. I'm sure someone out there will love this, but it's a swing and a miss from me.
Product #2 Maple Nut Goodies
Ahhh, these smell great = a very nice maple smell with a tiny little undercurrent of peanut. Actually, I'm not sure we even need the peanut in here; just shoot that maple-flavored toffee right into my mouth. I've got high hopes for this, and I think Katie's going to try them even though her enemy peanut is duplicitously ensconced in the centers of these, uh, Goodies.
Katie:
I agree with Nick, take the peanut out and just give me the toffee. I really hope I'm not going to regret this...the mouthfeel of nuts is not my thing in the slightest. The smell is really good though.
Post-bite thoughts
Mmmf, these suckers are hard! I expected soft toffee around a hard peanut core, but the inside is so hard I can't even tell where the peanut is. I'm not really a fan of the texture, which can't decide if it's chewy or crunchy and has to kind of be chewed down into a stubborn little maple mass you can then swallow. The taste is great, but I don't know how many of these I'd want to really eat in a row.
Katie:
Mleck. The toffee was alright but it was ruined by the peanut's saltiness. I didn't like how hard it was and the whole time I was making a nope face. The maple toffee would make great ice cream though. Someone make that happen.
First looks
Katie:
These just look like pretzels. I don't really smell cinnamon or much of anything really. Are these just going to be normal pretzel sticks with a sort of cinnamon flavor or obnoxiously cinnamon salt rods?
Nick:
Um... you know, now that I'm thinking about it, cinnamon-flavored pretzels actually sounds like it might be kind of nasty. It looks like there's still salt on these, so it's going to be salty cinnamon? I don't know about these, dog. No, I don't know about this at all. I'm preparing myself for the worst.
Katie:
Not bad. The cinnamon is barely there at all to the point where I wondered if I'd read the bag wrong. It's very subtle. I think it was baked in the pretzel dough rather than coated on. I guess these would be for someone who really likes pretzels and wants a nice change?
Nick:
Oh, god. This is weird. I thought the chocolate and pumpkin back in the truffles clashed. This... oh, I don't care for this in the least. The salt and the cinnamon do not go together at ALL. Think about, like, a nice cinnamon cookie, then sprinkle salt on top. No, I'm afraid this just doesn't work. I think the way to fix these is leave the salt off; then maybe the pretzel would be like a nice little gingerbread rod? I don't know. These didn't work for me at all. I'd rather just have regular pretzel sticks.
First looks
Nick:
Well, these certainly look good; they smell like warm dough, which is at least a flavor that goes with pumpkin pie. I'm not expecting a super strong pumpkin flavor, and I'm hoping the dough and frosting on top will create a nice combination instead of the weird stuff we've been tasting so far. And, I mean, this can't be more weird than watermelon Jolly Rancher pop-tarts, right?
Katie:
Right away, I like the festive autumnal sprinkle bits on the tarts. I think these will be good, maybe like a pumpkin version of the old(?) apple cinnamon flavor when I was kid. Do they still have that? Nick already covered a lot of my initial thoughts and I really want to eat some before it gets cold so...the end.
Nick:
Ahhh, these are great! I'm not an expert in pumpkin pie, but these come pretty close to what I'd imagine a good one tastes like - warm sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin, in that order. Not quite as good as my favorite Pop-tart flavor (S'mores), but very tasty and a very nice treat on a frozen Winter night.
Katie:
I'm still not used to toasting these. I used to just microwave them so now when they're toasted, sometimes I'm like "too crunchy" (pouty face) but more often "just right!". Anyway, these are delicious. Sorry we didn't post this in time for anyone to buy any! Might still be on Amazon, these things are still good into the summer.
Product #5 Apple mix candy corn
First looks
Katie:
Opening the bag unleashed a cloud of fake green apple scent into my face. I think the green apple ones will be bad, but apple pie and caramel apple might be good. We shall see. Candy corn is something I like having a few pieces of every Halloween so I should enjoy these if they're like normal candy corn except appley.
Nick:
Post-bite thoughts
Katie:
Green apple was actually fine, the green apple taste was very mild and more like an actual green apple than the sour green apple candy taste that's usually in candy. Apple pie was good and caramel apple was fine. I think overall these are worth getting to very slowly consume over time but don't go out of your way to hunt them done.
Nick:
Super weird. These taste more like sugar and kinda vague cinnamon and caramel more than anything else. They're not bad, just odd; I think I'd probably rather just have regular candy corn, so I guess in that respect they're not great, but they're much less gross than I expected, so, that's something, right?
PS from Katie: I think I'd rather have these over regular candy corn BUT only because they're not as facepunchingly sweet.
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