Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hershey's Kisses: Caramel Apple



I'm excited about this review for two reasons:

1. It's the first "Halloween" candy review of the season! And anyone who knows me knows how much I love Halloween. Yes, I am one of those pathetic adults who will try to trick or treat...and given my height, with a good costume choice and a mask, I can totally pull it off. (Yes, I could just go buy my own candy, but that is slightly less fun.)

-And-

2. I have been trying to hunt this flavor of kiss down since way back in 2008 when Cybele reviewed it on Candy Blog (read her review here). Kinda sad that it took two years to finally get my hands on them, but better late than never.



When you open the bag, the fragrance wafts out immediately. Smelling the inside of the bag is sort of like taking a big whiff of apple-filled cereal bars that have been tinged with chocolate. Not a bad way to start things off.



I should admit I'm more a fan of the idea of caramel apples than I am of actually eating caramel apples. I don't know why. I like caramel, I like apples, I like dipping slices of apples into caramel sauce -- but you will never catch me gnawing on a whole caramel covered apple. And that said, I also love the thought of a caramel apple flavored kiss.

The kiss itself is the larger, molded and filled style kiss rather than the smaller traditional extruded kiss. Which makes sense, because of course these are filled kisses.



The caramel that fills the center is quite fluid and readily spills out. Don't expect a thicker, more solid, chewy type of caramel -- this is more like what you'd use as a dessert topping. The caramel itself has a nice sweet flavor. I have to agree with Cybele in that I didn't pick up any of the burnt sugar or buttery flavors one expects from caramel either, but it has enough of a caramel-type taste that you get the idea.

It's the apple flavor that I really liked. I won't say it's the most natural apple flavor out there, but it's good. It's not too sweet and at the same time it isn't bitter. It reminded me a lot of the apple flavoring used in oatmeals.

The apple combined with the caramel actually makes it easy to down several of these kisses at a time. The only thing that keeps you from snarfing the entire bag too quickly is the chocolate. Granted, it's not bad chocolate -- it's just the boring, standard issue Hershey's milk chocolate. It's cool on the tongue, a little grainy, and a little too sweet. Still, all in all, this is one of the best of the special edition kisses.

Also back in stores (or at least Target) for fall are the Pumpkin Spice and Candy Corn kisses.



PURCHASED FROM:

Target

PRICE:

$2.69

CALORIES:

190 calorie per 9 pieces.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:

hersheys.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering about these when I saw them at Target. I think they had a few other "Fall" flavors as well.

Unknown said...

Food: I really liked these Kisses.

I have also tried the returning other fall flavors of Pumpkin Spice and Candy Corn (the past reviews are linked in).

The Pumpkin Spice were quite good. They reminded me very much of pumpkin pie.

The Candy Corn... I am not the biggest fan of candy corn to start with. They look really cute and I would use them to decorate cupcakes in a heartbeat. I just think they don't taste very good.

Jerri-Lea said...

I'm so excited!! I hope they still have some this weekend when we make a trip down to ND from SK Canada!! I have big ideas for the kisses on top of pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing topped with a pumpkin spice kiss!!!