If you are like most folks, when you think of Christmas candy you probably think of red and white stripped peppermint candy canes. While you can now find candy canes in a vast array of flavors, it turns out that peppermint continues to be the go to flavoring for several variations of specialty Christmas candy. Here are a few seasonal candy reviews, I hope to share more since it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!
I'm a fan of the 'Pop Drops' that Tootsie has created, the peppermint isn't my favorite however, it is tastier than a boring old peppermint. It's what you would expect, a mint hard candy that tastes like a candy cane with a tiny tootsie roll inside. They have been making candy cane tootsie pops for a while and these Pop Drops are a milder approach if you just want a bit of peppermint.
Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch are not a particularly appealing candy. They used such a small amount of 'crunch' that it actually looks like sad misplaced sprinkles. There is no benefit from having the 'crunchy' sprinkles, they don't really make them crunchy like a Nestle's Crunch and quite frankly, the original Junior Mints are far superior to these sad crunchlettes.
When I was younger I used to go to a near by gas station to purchase Royals, which were basically mint M&Ms in green and brown with little crowns printed on them. Years after Royals were discontinued, I was thrilled to find mint M&Ms at Christmas, not quite the same as Royals but close enough. For the past two years I have not been able to find these seasonal treats, so I was quite excited to see them again this year. Unfortunately, it seems M&Ms has inflated these mint M&Ms to be the size of their limited edition 'Jumbo' M&Ms. I am likely jaded by my desire for the original Royals, but these pumped up mint M&Ms are not as delicious as previous years. The flavor is ok but it seems that in this case, size does matter.
I have to give it to DOTS, they have been cranking out quite a few seasonal varieties lately including three Halloween inspired versions: blood orange, ghost (their original flavors all 'hiding' in the same greenish translucent color) and candy corn. These Christmas DOTS are ok, I wouldn't pick them over the original version though. The white vanilla tops take away from the cherry and lime too much and it is somewhat like eating a chewy cherry or lime flavored marshmallow.
Year two of Dove's Peppermint Bark pieces won me over. Last year I couldn't bring myself to purchase them as they had Martha Stewart sayings in place of the traditional 'promises.' They have one layer of dark chocolate and one layer of white chocolate with peppermint pieces. The peppermint is not particularly strong and I think they would be far better without the white chocolate, but then again, I'm not really a fan of white 'chocolate.'
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