Here’s a Valentine’s gift I received this year. I am not sure exactly where this came from, but I bet you can find these in shops like Target or Wegman’s.

The outside wrapping has a Valentine’s Day inspired design featuring hearts and chocolate dipped strawberries. (Which relate to the flavor combination.)  Inside, there are three peeps nestled in a white plastic tray. The package design isn’t bad, but it does remind me of student work.

Artificial strawberry and milky chocolate were the first things I could smell when I took these of the of the package. It was very sweet and very artificial, like someone had mixed Marshmallow Fluff with strawberry and chocolate Nesquick.

Man, these are sweet! Each component is very sweet enough on it’s own, combined these are a diabetic’s worst nightmare. It really does taste like marshmallow fluff mixed with strawberry milk powder, topped with a coating of red sugar crystals, and dipped in sweet milk chocolate. The chocolate is VERY sweet on it’s own, like Cadbury chocolates, which was way too much. I think they should have used a dark chocolate instead to cut through all this sugar.

These are cute, and novelty, but they are WAY too sweet for me.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Kabaya Puchi Pasuteru - Asian Food Market: Cherry Hill, NJ

It’s been a while since I reviewed anything from the Asian Food Market. I picked this package up back in October and never got around to reviewing it, better late than never.

The box is really bright and busy. There is a LOT going on here.The entire box is absolutely covered in information. The front has the least going on, it features little chocolate ice cream cones and a cute bear mascot. (Isn’t he adorable?) The rest of the box is covered in words I can’t understand, and math. That’s right, MATH! There are 5 flavors of “ice cream” and 4 cone options, so there are 20 different possible combinations inside. I really liked this, because I have always liked math, and it’s fun to include education with candy.

The box opened up, and I was surprised that there were two packages inside. I thought there would just be one large package, but the portion control of two bags is always welcome. (They are much easier to share this way.) Plus there seems to be a game inside the box, but I can’t read the instructions. It looks like a slide puzzle mixed with sudoku…I will have to look this up so I can play.

Inside the pouch are a bunch of little ice cream shaped chocolates. The cones are made of solid milk chocolate, and the ice cream scoops are some sort of malt ball, or cookie ball, covered in colored white chocolate. I couldn’t taste a difference in any of the colors, so I don’t think the scoops are actually flavored.

The overall taste isn’t fantastic. The chocolate is VERY sweet, and the crunchy center of the ice cream scoop adds a nice texture, but nothing to the flavor.

These were really adorable and fun, but I wouldn’t buy them again just for the taste. Maybe to decorate a cake or other treat.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Meiji Almond Meltykiss - Asian Food Market, NJ

Another special flavor of Meiji Almond, this time it is Meltykiss. What is it? Judging from the box it looks like an almond is first coated in white chocolate, then in milk chocolate, and finished with cocoa-powder. Sounds good to me!

I like the look of this box much more than the Crispy Puff one. This design is more elegant with the blue and white ribbons and gold writing. The only thing I don’t like is that when you open the box, you have to rip the front open. I prefer the drawer-style opening from the Crispy Puff box.

This time the smell is stronger, I can smell dry cocoa-powder, the candies are matte and larger than the Crispy Puff almonds. (Which makes sense, these are double coated.)

The chocolate tastes a bit darker than I expected. It isn’t a full-blown dark chocolate, but the cocoa-powder adds a nice richness to it. The white coating seems to be milk, not a white chocolate confection, but it tastes just like milk! It is so interesting. Both coatings are velvety and melt right in your mouth. All of that combined with a crunchy almond? Amazing.

I loved these! (A lot more than the Crispy Puff ones!) This is another example where Meiji products taste like gourmet treats!

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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