Hershey Candy Cane Kisses

Have these always had shea oil in? Feels like that would have freaked me out, but anyway, we move. I gotta binge on cals before I'm off to NOLA, the #1 worst US city I've ever been in for (my) food allergies. My own tragic version of pre-Survivor carbo-loading. These are not as good as most other kisses. They have no chocolate. However, they are exactly like a big version of these tiny pastel mint chips (like these, but less sketch?) that I used to get at Boscov's after the holidays to great excitement. So there is some nostalgia baked in. I'd much rather a cookies 'n mint, though. Moderation is absolutely essential here.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 [on sale, 3$ish]
Taste: 7/10 (thru nostalgia glasses) 

Pepperidge Farm Milano - Mint Chocolate

The prodigal blogger returns! Things have been pretty fraught in my life so I took a wee hiatus, but, when it is time to seek comfort, we all may look to the cookie. Especially mint choco cookies! These are lovely. I thought I had them before, but that was just 8 million other milano flavors crossed with 5 million other peppermint chocolate cookies, I guess! Anyway, the milano formula is lit, and the peppermint choco is fairly subtle since it's just the innards. Andes-ish innards, which isn't as good as the big round peppermint cocoa cookies, but the milano shell is pretty hard to pass up. Basically these are a refreshing delight. The bag also says "Crafted by our bakers... for you." Me??? Maybe I should buy more of those snoopy goldfish since they seem less indulgent. But sometimes it's OK to indulge. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10 

Pepperidge Farm Peppermint Cocoa Cookies

These are a true delight. They're so good. Buttery, crispy, light mint chip but not crazy strong, gentle cocoa vibe. IDK why the picture is small. Here, have a bigger one.

These are even better than the Snoopys, although I will say, they aren't as cute. But they are delicious. I ate 3 servings all at once, cried a little, and then drove home without killing anyone. 'Tis the season! 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10 

Jelly Belly Holiday Favorites

See, now these are sweets (first ingredient rightfully sugar). Excited to fill my jelly bean box with a new medley of flavors. Jelly Belly are peanut free, traditionally, but the bag didn't say so this time, so I sent them an inquiring email. We'll see what's up. In any case, I ate these anyway since I've bellied many jellys in the past. It's a pretty fun mix. 

Egg Nog: 5 in this bag. OK well, this is bad. It tastes like a perfume or plant food. However I don't really know what eggnog tastes like, so. It might be dead on. Some sour....nog notes. Kinda grows on you. 5/10

Candy Cane: 7 in this bag. This is fully what a candy cane tastes like. Straight up peppermint, almost too strong to enjoy. Impressive. Takes me back to middle school when it was trendy to have strong Happy Bunny peppermints, and boy was I trendy. 8/10

Hot Chocolate: 9 in this bag. We've had this flavor before. It's good. Tastes like chocolate pudding. Malty. 8/10 

Gingerbread: 4 in this bag. Also a little poupourri-esque. A unique bean. Spicy, floral, doesn't have that ginger spice really, but cookie-ish. A little like the Dr. Pepper bean. Reminds me of the legions of Pumpkin Spice flavored confections. 5/10 

Cranberry: 2 in this bag! I thought I'd like it but it's a little generic. Needs more zip. 6/10

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Goldfish Peppermint Cocoa

Wow I love this. Like it was engineered in a lab just for me (just like the Dunkin goldfish). The package is beautiful. Everyone loves snoopy, the green color is so nice, the snow, snoopy has a big coat on, charlie brown is nowhere in sight. Winter wonderland. Take me there. Also, mint choco is my favorite flavor and I'm always lamenting that it's not in more things. Goldfish are often savory so it seems weird, and honestly the taste is not THAT good, but it's right up my alley and not artificial at all. 

The pieces are firmer than normal; not hollow or soft. They are shaped like fish, snoopy head, and pawprint. (Furries, this is for you too). The taste is mainly chocolate goldfish (similar to the choco annie's bunnies, or teddy grahams), which is fine, but there's also mint seasoning where salt would be, and that's fun. The more you eat, the better it is (as with many things). A serving is 34 pieces which seems just right. And it's accessible because it's a major brand! I hope you return every year, snoopy goldfish!!!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Pringles Mingles - Cinnamon & Sugar

Oh Pringles. My bag actually has the Pringle guy wearing a santa hat and a lot of Christmas lights on there. Holiday intrigue! You know I can't resist impulse buying such things! Because of my deep bag-read, I noticed for the first time the slogan "two flavors, one bowtie", so I now realise they are bowtie shaped (?) and that MINGLES refers to two flavors MINGLING. Even better! Worse, these are brown so look like bamba (Israeli peanut snack). But they have very reassuring allergy info still (may contain non-nuts). But but, a serving is now 35 and not 56. More normal, less exhilarating for bingers like myself. What's that? How's the taste? Eh. It's OK. The underlying puff is still addictive, but the flavoring is indeed "natural and artificial" and you can tell. The cinnamon has that "hot apple jack pop tart" note. Blech. Unpleasant aftertaste but not enough to stop me eating the full 35. Back to the drawing board Mr. Pringle. I actually think an unseasoned version would be top tier. D:

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

Holiday Dots

Although I am not a born Christmas celebrator, I like the gimmick of holiday things (and am open to foods related to winter holidays for other religious traditions also!!). I also, of course, like explicitly nut free candies, as all tootsie products are. Having gotten that out of the way, these are a little disappointing. The texture is great: a firm chew but not haribo level gnawing. The appearance is annoying: two flavors (both green/red hybrids) which are, as far as I can tell, identical to the eye! And it's not fun like a jelly bean, because these flavors are very different from each other. One is good (cherry, lime) on each pair, and the other (strawberry, apple) is much less so. Some weird vibes because the pairings also don't really "go" together. I think green apple is the only non-canonical dot flavor here, and it's nothing special. The lime, even though it's good, also sometimes has a funky rancid/bitter undernote. Eating these just makes me wish I had normal dots instead, Christmas be darned! 

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [1.20$]
Taste: 6/10

Pepperidge Farm Holiday Nog Cookies

Humm. I wonder if 'nog' and 'holiday' have the same vowel for New Yorkers. Does nog rhyme with blog? It does for me. I'm very tired today, nog blog, so I apologize in advance. I keep talking about Christmas Break to my non-Christian class and it's not a great time to do that, AND I'm not even Christian nor do I have any Christmassy plans so IDK why I've been conditioned thus vis a vis winter break. Whew. Anyway, these cookies. They ain't great. I think I also smell bad even though I showered. What is wrong with me?! 

Well, whatever's wrong, these cookies didn't fix it. My first reaction upon opening was "Smells.....interesting..." which isn't a good sign. They have a weird sweetness to them. Like the overpowering coconut milk Raaka Chocco. I don't love it. Maybe it's just sour milk? But fruity? Just a weird artificial-ish sweetness that I don't like. I much prefer the other pep farms. All of the cookies they make are superior to these, probably even the nut ones. They're edible, but not super enjoyable. Maybe I'd call it banana custard? I also admit I've only had eggnog like once so I don't really know what they're targeitng, either. But I did have the egglog latte at Dunkin, which I loved, and that doesn't taste a thing like these! So there!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10
Apologies, Blog Readers: 9/10

Raaka Gingerbread Family Limited Edition Box

I don't usually buy extra chocos just for me, but the box is so darn cute! And it wasn't insanely priced, so I thought, hey, why not. The box is indeed very cute and festive. The gingerbread chocos, though, are just placed right in there, on top of some messy paper grass!! (I know that's how it is in the photos, but I was still surprised.) This is bad because they are VERY melty, in your hand, not your mouth, and so it was a little messy to try to pick one up and pick off all the grass bits that were attached. Maybe this was user error. Anyway, they are indeed spicy, but also gritty, creamy, and not chocolatey or coconutty in the least (which is weird). They're tasty, but in a spiced-hot-choco-mix way, not in a gingerbread-man way or even a chocolate way. Still fun and very cute. But also small! And melty! Also, the guys are different sizes, so some are small and thin, but some are Thicc. I guess that's family for you!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

favorite day bakery sugar cookie ornament cookie kit

My mom randomly got this for me, which was sweet since I never go to Target myself (due to driving inadequacies). It had an allergy warning that didn't mention nuts, so it seemed pretty safe. Came with 4 cookies and 2 icings, plus very cute (but not very tasty) sprinkles called "quins" :|. It's a fun idea and at 220cals each, the cookies are pretty satisfying, especially with icing on. And they held up after a few days of sitting around, although I certainly wasn't going to hang them up like I apparently(?!) was supposed to do. 

Overall
Cost: ?/10
Taste: 7/10

Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer Hot Cocoa Cereal

Does this cereal taste like hot cocoa? If you think cocoa puffs taste like hot cocoa, then yes. Basically it tastes like chocolate flavored cereal, because it is cold and not hot. But it's pretty solid, and the reindeer is cute even though I don't know his oeuvre very well. The only reason this is different from cocoa puffs with marshmallows is the texture and size of the cereal pieces is a little smaller/denser, which I think is preferable for the ol' mouthfeel. Decent cereal.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Vermont Nut Free Peppermint Crunch Bark

Ahoy-hoy, friends. I just got back from the dentist, so it's a perfect time to review a cronchy candy! One weird situation with this bark is that it's 6 servings but comes in 4 long pieces. What am I supposed to do with that? It's obviously 4 servings. Gosh. Otherwise, it's pretty good. A little too thick to actually chomp on, but the chocolate (layered dark and white) is good, and the mints aren't too crunchy or too minty. I do prefer the white half but at least it's a noticeable amount of the choco ratio. Better than the Dean's Sweets version (though I love them as people), and better than the VNF pretzel bark (though that sounds better on paper)!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Santa Hat Hershey Kiss

This was a sweet little Christmas gift to me from my parents. It is, as it appears to be, exactly like a normal Hershey kiss but with a santa-hat wrapper and a larger size. The texture is decently chompable, it's cute, and not insanely decadent (I think about 200 cals), so really I have no complaints.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Junior Mints - Peppermint Crunch

This very charming box of candy touts that it contains "Real Junior Mints", which raises the question: is anyone is producing "fake junior mints"? (I don't think they are). In essence these are just regular junior mints. The peppermint crunch is a tiny bit of crushed peppermint pieces (crushed very finely) sprinkled on the outsides only. So the taste is really not changed at all, and the texture only slightly cronchy. I like junior mints and irrelevant holiday repackagings, so this is pretty good for me. Refreshing little snack for a winter's day (even when sick)!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Bakery Bling Cozy Cottage Designer Gingerbread House

I always wanted to make a gingerbread house, so at the age of 31 I finally found a safe one online and did it. However, I have no artistic sensibilities so I will not shame myself with the picture of the finished house. It was, let's say, pretty similar to what age-6-me might have produced. 

Luckily I can try again since this company has multiple house-building kits, and cookie decorating kits too, and they're clearly nut free, which is so great. The actual taste of the gingerbread (and icing/sugar) was like, not that good, but I think that's probably par for the course with food that is also a structure. It was edible, and I did indeed eat the whole thing over the period of a week or so, but it was a firm, not-that-flavorful sugar bomb. Still, I'm glad I got to have the full experience! Even if I was alone...and old...and it's February. Check it off the bucket list baybee!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (20$)
Taste: 6/10

Cella's Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries

Ah, these are a classic in my family, because my dad likes 'em. Or at least I hope he does, because at Christmas he always got between 10-30 boxes. Nowadays he gets less because we have fewer family members, but it's still a tradition! I typically steal a few for myself because there are so many, even though I don't especially like them. I'd much rather have a truffle, for instance!! But, these are a Tootsie (subsidiary?) product, and they have that nice peanut-free logo on them, which I appreciate more and more every year. They're very very sweet, and the inside has an ice-cream cherry with about a teaspoon of sugary goo. I don't love dark chocolate but maybe I'd prefer the milk chocolate if I ever had 'em. Either way, these are a pleasant treat but I certainly wouldn't want hundreds of them!

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (About 4$ a box at Weis)
Taste: 7/10

fancypants Peppermint Chocolate Cookies

 

These are apparently only available at VNF, I couldn't find 'em anywhere else online (and online is all there is for me right now). This company makes other flavors that are on Amazon though, or potentially in stores. I had never heard of it til I got this as a Christmas gift, and it's nut free but with a far-off expiry date so I figured they wouldn't be that great. But I was wrong, these are great! They're very similar to Girl Scout Thin Mints in taste, except there's no chocolate coating and there's chocolate chips instead (which are subtle but fun). Plus these are lower-cal, and safer! Wonderful. I really liked them and am interested to try the other flavors too. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10

Dean's Sweets - Peppermint Bark

After that bad VNF pretzel bark, I'm learning that "bark" just means "rectangle of chocolate, possibly with other stuff on top of it". So this is chocolate with crushed candy canes on top. And it is good.

White Chocolate: This is my preference; the candy cane is very crunchy (I mean, you know what candy cane is like - you can't just bite into them like a pizza) so small bites are best. It's tasty, a nice mint flavor, refreshing. 7/10

Dark Chocolate: Unlike the White version, the predominant flavor here is the chocolate, not the mint. In fact I could hardly taste the peppermint. The chocolate itself does have a nice rich cherry flavor, and now it has crunch to it! Lol. The chocolate is definitely nicer when it's thin like this (compared to just a dark chocolate shape) but it's more of a chocolate treat than a peppermint treat. So, not as good as the white chocolate, although visually this one looks much prettier! 7/10

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Toy Soldier Cookies

I expected these to be not great, because the shape and concept of "toy soldier" is no "chessmen", and also because I don't usually like shortbread or brown sugar types of cookies (so plain and crunchy). But I actually enjoyed these quite a bit. They were still a bit boring as cookies go, but the overwhelming flavor was "buttery", which is wonderful. Not too sweet, not too crunchy, just a nice pleasant butter cookie. Not bad, Pep Farm. (And my parents, who bought these for the hols.)

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Mint Brussels

These taste a lot like Mint Milanos (which are, of course, tasty), but with a somewhat firmer texture, which I like. The mint is really the overwhelming flavor note; I can't sense the coconut which I know is in here. A little dark chocolate flavor too, and some nice crispy cookie. These are pretty unhealthy but that's a delicious cookie for ya!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10