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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wonka Exceptionals Peppermint Shortbread Chocolate Pieces
The line of upscale Wonka Exceptionals includes new chocolate pieces. They’re little rectangles that are individually wrapped and feature a little bit of a different take on the standard morsel. The first introductions were Scrumdiddlyumptious (cookie pieces in milk chocolate), Chocolate Waterfall (milk & white chocolate swirled) and Domed Dark Chocolate (milk & dark stack) In addition, Wonka came up with Marvels and Fruit Jellies with all natural colors and flavors. The holiday Wonka Exceptionals Peppermint Shortbread Chocolate Pieces come in a tall box like the Jellies and Marvels. (The previous Pieces I reviewed came in a purple hologram emblazoned bag.) Inside the slim box is a purple mylar pouch with the Wonka Ws all over it. The box only holds four ounces of the foil wrapped chocolates and at nearly $4 for the package, that’s a dollar an ounce. That’s about what I pay for See’s by the pound. (There are approximately 12 pieces in the box.)
So, Wonka is trucking along, reinventing the brand. They’re going for quality and recapturing the imagination that everyone loves so much in the Dahl books ... and then this Christmas candy comes along. The previous candies in this Exceptionals line have been good, a little expensive but they also have a unique selling position - they’re made with all natural flavors and colors. So I bite into one of these new milk chocolate pieces that have peppermint candy pieces and shortbread cookie morsels.
There are red bits in there. They’re bright red. They’re kind of minty but they’re also kind of bitter to me towards the end, there’s something slightly off about them. They have artificial colors in them. Why? They’re inside! Why would you put coloring in something that’s not even meant to be seen? That aside, the milk chocolate pieces are creamy. They’re very sweet and don’t have a huge cocoa punch, it’s quite mild and overshadowed by the mint and a bit of the milky flavors. The candy pieces are crunchy and then there are little bits of shortbread sometimes - they’re a kind of sandy and crumbly cookie crunch that has a light salty note to it. But they’re really sandy sometimes, like cornmeal sandy. The whole thing wasn’t working for me. It was too sweet and though most of the texture components were right (except for the lingering sand, like that stuff in your jeans pockets after going through the wash). I was irritated that I paid $4 for a box of candy I didn’t want to eat. They’ve already shown that they can do better, so I want Wonka to do better next time around. I got a handful of these as a sample from Nestle at first, but I didn’t get the box or label with it, so that’s why I went out and bought them, so I could find out how expensive they were for myself and see that there Red #3, Red #40 and Blue #1 in there. Bah, humbug. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:46 pm
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Comment by
chefamyj on 11/30/10 at 6:01 pm #
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Julie on 12/01/10 at 9:55 am #
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Michelle F on 12/01/10 at 4:13 pm #
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Comment by
SJCarras on 12/16/15 at 11:21 pm #
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.It’s so strange. From the books and movies i have always wanted/expected the Wonka branded chocolates and candies to be fantastical. super creative. the waterfall things and domed chocolate things were so boring and uninspired.
They feel totally “off brand” to me and i certainly don’t want to buy some molded chocolate things from Wonka. They felt like dove should have made them. I want something funky shaped, quirky unique candy…dammit!
don’t know if this makes sense… but it’s how i feel—just my 2 cents from a chef who used to be a marketing exec!
Yeah, I feel the same way about these. Nestle sent me some to review and I haven’t because after I tried one about a month ago, I just had no desire to eat any more. Too bad, because the idea of them sounds good—chocolate, peppermint and cookies!—but the final product is sweet, gritty and underwhelming.
Bah,humbug INDEED!!!! Pretty eye catching wrapping on the individual pieces, though. The outer packaging does nothing for me. Besides the entertainment value of your prose, you have probably saved me lots of money on candy items I don’t try after reading your review! Thank you, thank you! Keep ‘em coming!
And by now there’s hardly any, to say the least, CHOCOLATE Wonka candies!
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