Marshmallow Treats Archives

February 17, 2021February 20, 2021 Michael

Huckleberry Gems – Like Viva Puffs without the Cookie

Marshmallow Treats

I learned something today: I had assumed that huckleberry wasn’t an actual thing, like a bumbleberry, but nope, it’s real. It apparently tastes like a blueberry, and it’s the state fruit of Idaho. So I suppose there are a bunch of Idahoans currently shaking their head at my disturbing lack of huckleberry knowledge.

Here’s the other odd thing: Huckleberry Gems, which the wrapper describes as “huckleberry marshmallow creme covered in rich milk chocolate,” contains zero huckleberries or anything even huckleberry-adjacent. A quick perusal of the ingredients confirms that no fruit was harmed in the making of this product.

That’s never a great sign, but this turned out to be decent enough. The marshmallow is creamy and not too rubbery, the chocolate is okay if overly sweet, and despite the odd lack of fruit in the ingredients, it has a pleasantly berry-tinged flavour. It reminded me of a more chocolatey version of Viva Puffs (which I just discovered is a Canadian thing; sorry Americans, you’re missing out) but without the cookie.

It’s fine, but honestly, if I’m craving something like this, I’d rather just have a Viva Puff.

Manufactured by: Idaho Candy Co.
Nutritional info (2 pieces, 34 grams): 140 calories, 4 grams of fat (2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 10 mg sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 20 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, soy lecithin (added as an emulsifier), and vanilla), corn syrup, sugar, invertsweet congealed sugar, sorbitol, gelatin, egg albumen, natural and artificial flavors, invertase (glycerine and aqueous extract of invertase from yeast and sodium citrate), and glycerine.

January 12, 2009January 10, 2021 Michael

Goo Goo Cluster – A Classic for a Reason

Marshmallow Treats, Nut Clusters

I’ve already reviewed the Cinnabon Cinnamon Caramel Pecan Cluster, which is made by the Standard Candy Company, the same people who make the Goo Goo Cluster. I kind of liked that one, though it wasn’t really something I’d ever want to eat again. The Goo Goo Cluster is the candy that’s allowed Standard to stick around for so many years (since 1912), so I was definitely curious to try it even if I had some misgivings about their Cinnabon-branded confection.

The Goo Goo Cluster consists of chewy marshmallow, topped with caramel and roasted peanuts and covered in milk chocolate. The marshmallow is quite dense and chewy; it’s sweet, but without the vanilla taste that you expect from marshmallow. I liked it, but if I had eaten this blind I probably would have pegged it as nougat rather than marshmallow. The caramel adds more chewiness and is definitely less sweet than the norm.

As for the peanuts, there are a lot of them, which gives the cluster a satisfying crunch as well as a nutty taste. They’re unsalted, which is good because the Goo Goo Cluster isn’t overly sweet (salted peanuts would have overwhelmed the other tastes of this candy). The whole thing is covered in decent milk chocolate. It’s quite good, and unlike the Cinnabon one, I can definitely see myself buying this again.

Manufactured by: Standard Candy Company
Calories (50 g cluster): 230

November 14, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Valomilk – Absolutely Delicious (if you can find a Fresh One)

Marshmallow Treats

I recently took a day trip into the States, and of course, I had to stop by a Cracker Barrel in order to pick up a candy I have a definite love/hate relationship with: Valomilk. Love, because when Valomilk is fresh, it’s delicious and easily among my favourites. Hate, because finding a fresh one is ridiculously hit-and-miss.

Each package of Valomilk contains two chocolate cups – each about the size of a Reese’s Big Cup – filled with a soft, flowing marshmallow centre. The marshmallow in here is very unique; it’s not fluffy at all (or at least it shouldn’t be, assuming it’s not too stale) and is similar in consistency to the caramel inside a Caramilk or Caramello. It has a satisfyingly rich vanilla taste, and combined with the better-than-average milk chocolate, it thoroughly hits the spot.

As you can see from the picture, both cups suffered from a bit of leakage, which seems to be the norm with these (in fact, I think I got lucky with the minimal amount of leaking in these cups – I’ve seen far worse). The only way to ensure that you get a pair of cups without too much damage is to stand there in the store and feel the tops of each package, until you find one that feels smooth.

Of course, this being Valomilk, staleness has reared its ugly head – while I’ve had much worse, these cups were already a bit past their prime. You can’t tell from the picture, but the flowing marshmallow had started to partially solidify in certain areas.

Which leads me to this: I have some advice for the good folks at the Russell Sifers Candy Company: change the packaging. Seriously. Change the packaging. What you’ve got right now, which I can only assume is sealed by hand, is completely inadequate. Maybe it has some kind of old-timey appeal, but I couldn’t care less about that. You need to completely overhaul your packaging to maximize the freshness of the product. When buying your candy is like rolling the dice at a craps table, you know you’ve got trouble.

I have a suggestion: lose the flimsy paper wrapper. It does absolutely nothing to protect the delicate cups, nor does it particularly do much to slow down the product’s disconcertingly fast march towards staleness. Perhaps a small cardboard box would work better; one just big enough for the two cups so they don’t slide around at all. And vacuum pack it. I know this will be more expensive. You’ll have to raise the price. Do it! I’d pay double if I knew that I was almost certainly going to get a fresh product. I don’t buy nearly as many of these as I used to, and it’s only because finding a completely fresh, undamaged one is sort of like finding a four-leaf clover.

Finally, you need to print a “best before” date on the packaging. I know you’ll probably lose some money once the product goes past its date, and people no longer want to buy it, but in the long run I’m sure you will gain sales. People will be much more likely to buy your product if they know it’s going to be (reasonably) fresh. Perhaps I’m wrong, though I suspect otherwise.

This is starting to get a bit long, so let’s just say that I think Valomilk is great, but with a few substantial caveats. I’m going to give it three-and-a-half chips; at its best it easily deserves four, but finding a pristine Valomilk is much harder than it should be.

Manufactured by: Russell Sifers Candy Company
Calories (2 cups, 57 g): 260

November 3, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Hershey’s Marshmallow Pumpkin – An Overly Chewy, Tasteless Blob

Marshmallow Treats

Hershey’s Marshmallow Pumpkin is presumably meant to cash-in on Halloween, though the actual product looks nothing like a pumpkin (it’s more of a semi-round blob). It also doesn’t have any pumpkin flavour, though that much is clear just by looking at the wrapper.

I’m generally not a fan of chocolates with marshmallow in it; there are a few exceptions (such as the amazingly good but difficult to find Valomilk), but for the most part marshmallows in candy tend to have an unpleasantly chewy/spongy texture. That is certainly true here.

Hershey’s Marshmallow Pumpkin consists of a thick, chewy marshmallow coated with a generous topping of dark chocolate. The chocolate coating is fine, if a little sweet. It’s the marshmallow where this candy seriously falters. It has an unpleasantly rubbery, almost chewing gum-like texture. It also doesn’t really have the vanilla flavour that you’d expect; it’s pretty bland, with a subtler-than-average marshmallow taste that seems slightly off. Pretty much all the sweetness comes from the chocolate.

I’m not sure what it is about marshmallow that makes it so hard to pull off in candy form. I think that anyone who wants to make a marshmallow-based candy should be required to eat a few Valomilks (I’ll post a Valomilk review once I can get my hands on one – they’re pretty much impossible to find in Canada); it just gets everything right, as far as marshmallow goes. This, on the other hand, is the anti-Valomilk.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (31 g pumpkin): 110