Hostess Milky Way Brownies!

Folks, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't really care about Hostess stuff. Remember a few years back when they were going out of business and everyone threw a fit? Eventually, against all odds, Hostess came back from the brink, like Rocky Balboa turning it all around in the final moments of a title fight.  People's fears of a Twinkie-less world were put to rest. Well I'm going to throw it out there, I felt no sadness at the death of the Twinkie. They aren't good! I don't think I've ever spent money on one. I've definitely eaten them when given them, and it helps remind me of why I don't ever buy them. Tastes vary from one fatguyfoodblogger to another, so I'm sure my peers will have an ear full to send my way. But that's just me. I don't really like much of what they have to offer. Those little cupcakes? 

Uhhh...what about the fruit pies?

Ho Hos? Zingers?

But I have to be honest, Ding Dongs are great (Insert penis joke here). Despite being half the size they used to be.  Chocolate Zingers are decent too. Those fruit ones? Nasty. But in the end it kind of just feels like Hostess likes to do what's comfortable and what people expect from them. The problem there is that people feel nostalgic when it's going to go away, but they rarely purchase the items because they are old hat. Things they have had a million times before, but that are nothing new. You gotta give them points for trying to put different filling in the Twinkies over the past couple years, but come on, gang, you gotta do better than that.  I have heard that their Salted Caramel Cupcakes are pretty good, but haven't run into them to try them yet. 

Perhaps someone at Hostess finally knows what's up. When I saw the new Milky Way Hostess Brownies in my local grocery store I was like...

So I bought a box! Let's check them out! 

The Hostess Milky Way Brownies come in a box of six. Makes sense. I guess a half dozen is a solid number when you're talking about brownies. Of course, I ripped the box open and just dumped them all out on the table at once. Just in case they are so good that I decide I need to eat all of them right there at that moment, like Cookie Monster...but with brownies. 

You always have to brace yourself when un-boxing a pastry item like this because it's never going to look like it does on the box. Let's be realistic. They are tumbling around inside of that box like a bunch of astronauts training in zero g. But these don't look too bad! Lots of chocolate and nougat chunks stuck in the caramel! My first thought is that they smell like Cosmic Brownies. You know, those awesome little brownies with the multi-colored candies on top that are put out by Little Debbie, aka the Queen of Pastries. Mother of snack cakes. Breaker of diets.

The Hostess Milky Way Brownies themselves do kind of taste like Cosmic Brownies, but not as moist. The caramel on top is more like caramel flavored frosting. I was hoping it would be as gooey as the caramel on the box and the caramel you find inside a Milky Way Bar. But...this is okay too. 

The Milky Way pieces on top are kind of disappointing. It's really sort of just dry pieces of chocolate and nougat with the occasional melty piece. It really all just combines in your mouth into a strange sweet paste. Not bad, but also it doesn't really get me too excited. Also it really doesn't taste that much like a Milky Way.  I think they missed the boat with the nougat. Imagine the brownie having a gooey nougat center? Perhaps with caramel frosting and chocolate pieces on top? Seems like they took the lazy way out. 

When a world famous snack cake company teams up with one of the greatest candy bars of all time, you expect to see sparks flying. You want to bite into it and see a fireworks display like they have at Disney World every night. But the Hostess Milky Way Brownies are more like a sparkler.  Hissing away in your hand for a moment. It's cool, and it's better than not having fireworks. But is it the sky lighting up and filling your brain with wonder? Nope. Same here. I think Hostess needs to hire someone to mix things up. Baseball themed cupcakes? That's what you're doing? Really? In 2016? Really? Sigh. If you're curious and want to try these out, go for it, but be prepared for mediocrity.  Are they better than not having a brownie at all? Sure. But if you need me, I'll be eating this here Cosmic Brownie. My allegiance lies with my Queen.

I give Hostess Milky Way Brownies a C. Such potential, but in the end, just an average sweet pastry snack that won't get you that excited at all. 

Review by Rich Brunelle, who can be found walking all around Seattle to find items to review on this very website.

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Snickers Crisper!

Ah, Snickers. A classic candy bar! Packed with peanuts! It really satisfies you! If you're hungry, why wait? Yup, they have had their share of cool ad campaigns over the years and lots of weird variant versions of the original. But we haven't seen anything new from them since they put out the Peanut Butter Squared Snickers. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the Snickers Crisper the other day while at a store! 

Whats the deal with the Snickers Crisper? Well, it's four square pieces and the package boasts Crisp Rice, Milk Chocolate, Caramel and Peanuts. Basically, this is Snickers version of the Whatchamacallit. Now, if you're like me, that doesn't get me excited in the least.  Why? Well, quite frankly, the Whatchamacallit is a bottom of the barrel candy bar that is nobodies favorite. It's boring as hell! It has a bunch of good ingredients but it's so thin you could use one to jimmy the lock on an old sedan. The layer of caramel on a Whatchamacallit is so thin and tasteless that it might as well be a layer of glue that just holds it together. Think about it. I've never bought one. The only times I've ever eaten one is if someone gave me one. They're junk!

However, if you're thinking I'm going to lump the Snickers Crisper into that same category, you're quite wrong. The Snickers Crisper is the Whatchamacallit done right. Instead of making it as thin as a Sun Belt granola bar, it's thick as hell! Which is great because it's so packed with giant crisp rice pieces, chunks of peanuts and a very generous amount of caramel!

It really seems like they improved on the original design in every way. Instead of being a hard, near tasteless block of chocolate, the Snickers Crisper is a big, crispy, crunchy, gooey, delicious mess. The amount of soft caramel really rivals any other candy bar in the game. I'm not even sure if a Caramello has more caramel than one of these! Not only that, but when you take a bite, the textures are really satisfying, (see what I did there?) and different. The peanuts mixed in with the rice are almost the best part for that reason alone!

In the end, I think the Snickers Crisper is a fun addition to their line of candy bars. Will it last? Who's to say. But if you're into all those classic elements that this bar has in it, then scoop one up. It seems like a weird idea for a candy company to basically just remake another long standing candy bar, but hell, if you can do it better, why not?

Give the Snickers Crisper a try today! I'm giving it a solid B!

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This review was written by Rich Brunelle, who lives in Seattle Washington where he eats at a million restaurants and then never does any reviews of them.

Canada Week part 3! Canadian candy! Orange Aero, Reese's Clusters, Kit Kat Chunky Double Caramel, and the Reese's Oh Henry!

When you're the cool kind of dude who visits another country for Christmas, sometimes you pack light. Me? I had my one backpack with a few items in it,(comics, underwear, cell phone charger), and that was it. This works out great until I start buying bags of chips and an absurd amount of candy bars. I imagine people in the stores where I was buying this stuff must have thought I had just gotten out of prison or been stranded somewhere for years without sweets. I was stuffing them into my overflowing backpack like some kind of lunatic, with Loonies and Toonies clattering on the ground all around me. But in the end I somehow pulled it off and the only real casualties were one bag of chips that popped open. No big deal, I just ate them right away. But today we're going to take a quick look at all the sugar filled goodies that came back with me from our neighbor to the north!

As a kid visiting Canada, there was nothing cooler than an Aero bar. I remember my mom letting me buy a few because I would tell her how much I wanted to show my friends at school. Let's be honest here, though, not one of those ever survived the drive back. They were so cool! Chocolate on the outside with crazy chocolate bubble magic in the middle? It defied logic. Well I have no idea how long an Orange Aero has been available, but I've never seen one, so I was quite excited to try it.

Aero Orange has that distinct Aero chocolate you are used to on the outside, but the inside, porous light, bubbled chocolate is orange and has a great orange flavor to it. The flavor brings me back to the old chocolate orange that you have to bang against the table to separate all the slices. But in Aero candy bar form. I thought this was quite good and when it was gone I instantly wished I had bought more.

Aero Orange basically takes their usual formula and adds in some orange flavor. If you're not a fan of fruit in your chocolate, maybe stick with the original, but if you're up for trying new things, it's great!

Next up, when I see a Reese's item that I've never seen before, you can imagine my surprise and excitement!

I initially tried to find a smaller package but when it appeared that they did not exist, I bought this giant one that has a ton of individually wrapped Clusters in it. But, as you can see, even with this many, it was a dangerous game to play, because when the day came for the review, this is what was left in the box...

Don't think that I didn't reach for that final cluster many times thinking, "Eh, I can just leave these out of the review and nobody will ever know..." But I didn't! My will was so steadfast that I started thinking I should have been a Mountie...

Who am I kidding? I'm not nearly that cool. But you know what was? Reese's Clusters! Once that box was cracked I was reaching for one every thirty damned seconds! Creamy peanut butter, caramel, peanuts and pecans wrapped in milk chocolate! How can you go wrong?

These were a great mixture of flavors and textures. That salty Reese peanut butter that we all know and love, with a great crunch from the two different kinds of nuts. Then you have the caramel for a blast of almost buttery sweetness and the sugary chocolate on the outside.

I found myself popping an entire cluster in my mouth and letting it melt down.  Doing it that way you got each layer as it melted away. It was quite interesting.

Reese Clusters were great. My only wish is that perhaps they could have been bigger. One of these the size of a Big Cup would be incredible. But these pretty darn good despite being a weird mash up of past Reese's cup flavors.  A smaller package of them might be nice too so I don't end up eating enough candy for four people. All in all? Awesome! 

Then there's the KitKat Chunky Double Caramel! This is one I had never seen before at all. KitKats are supposed to be four sticks melted together! This is just one giant one! The package tells me there's both crunchy and smooth caramel in here? Canada what will you think of next?

See that scored line in the middle? that's where you snap it in half and one side is crunch and the other side is smooth.

The Crunchy side was my favorite of the two. It has the chocolate and wafers just like a normal KitKat but then above the top layer of wafers there is a thick layer of what tastes like light toffee. It's crispy and buttery and the entire thing goes together for an awesome unique take on a KitKat.

The smooth side wasn't bad either. Basically the same thing but it's top layer is a gooey strip of caramel. It does taste like a darker caramel than most candy bars have though, so it's a bit more rich. Overall I think the KitKat Chunky Double Caramel is a great candy bar and one you should definitely try out if you find yourself enjoying some time in the land of the Trailer Park Boys. 

Finally we come to the Reese's Oh Henry! I can't tell you the last time I had a regular Oh Henry, but I can assure you that when I did, it wasn't nearly as good as this one here with Reese's peanut butter added in.

Crunchy peanuts, Reese's Peanut Butter, creamy caramel and chocolate. This was quite similar to the Reese's clusters in taste, but this had a much different texture due to all the peanuts. The peanut butter was plentiful and it seemed to have a perfect amount of caramel to go together really well.

If I were the folks making Oh Henry, I would make sure this team-up with Reese's is one that isn't going away anytime soon. This was a great candy bar.

Now, I know what you're thinking, THIS IS ALL I GOT?! No, it's really not. I also purchased a number of Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp and a bunch of other classic Canadian candy bars, but figuring those have been around forever, I decided to have the review focus on things I hadn't ever seen before. Sorry, Eh!

This concludes Canada Week on Fatguyfoodblog! Hope you had as much fun as we did! Check back next week for more fun! I'll leave you with this important message from Gene Creamers, better known as Coach Teacher on the hit show Wheels Ontario...

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Review by Rich Brunelle. Who lives in Seattle and still feels like a creep taking pictures of his food so much out in public.

Hershey's Candy Corn candy bar!

Ah yes,  the summer is coming to and end. It might still be hot where you are, and the leaves haven't yet started changing. However, once we start seeing pumpkin flavored items showing up in the stores, we know that Fall is almost here. Now, this isn't pumpkin flavored, but just in time for all that nonsense to start up, Hershey's debuts their newest limited edition candy bar...The Hershey's Candy Corn bar! 

Once upon a time Mike would have jumped at the chance to review this. He loved candy corn, God bless his poor soul. But since he vanished a few months ago under strange circumstances, I guess this review is up to me! Actually, now that I look back, I was the one to review both the Candy Corn M&M's AND the Candy Corn Oreos! Maybe I have a secret love for Candy Corn that I haven't yet come to grips with. So let's do this!

As someone who doesn't really enjoy candy corn, I can't fathom how it's still around. Who goes into the Halloween candy aisle and amidst all the wonders to be found there, leaves with a bag of candy corn? WHO? WHO DOES THIS? I can't understand it at all. Is it just old ladies? Well whoever it is, someone out there likes chewing on waxy little blobs of sweet "corn". But when I read this package and it says "Candy corn creme with candy bits" I'm not too excited. But as I ripped this monster open I'll tell you one thing that jumped out, the aroma. I left the room after taking pictures of this and returned twenty minutes later and could smell it in the hallway. Major Candy Corn aroma happening here. It's like I had a Bath and Body Works Candy Corn candle burning in here for an entire night. Is that even a thing? I'm not going to look. I'll leave that up to you readers!

I'll add another positive while we're at it. I think the Candy Corn bar was quite pretty! White chocolate with cool orange and yellow sprinkles throughout it. Well done, Hershey's! but people want to know about the taste. I'll tell you this...it's better than Candy Corn. Way better. The white chocolate gives it a very creamy texture and the sprinkles inside it are clearly a different consistency. They really could be made of candy corn. They have that waxy, chewy, candy corn feel.

If I had to choose between this and eating a handful of plain old Candy Corn? I'm going with this bar ten times over. It definitely captures the flavor of Candy Corn while putting a spin on it. That spin is covering it in white chocolate. Granted, that white chocolate is flavored like Candy Corn, but you aren't left with the weird aftertaste and debris that the real deal leaves behind.

In the end, this is a fun gimmick and worth checking out if you're into Candy Corn. Or, even if you aren't. I'm not really and I finished the entire thing no problem! I think in the end I would have liked to see Hershey's do something a little more wild with their limited edition flavors. But if this is as crazy as they get, it could be worse.
I give the Hershey's Candy Corn bar a B. They nailed the flavor, 100% even if it's not a flavor I completely love. Let's hope the other candy companies have some more exciting limited edition flavors for the 2015 Halloween candy season!

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Review by Rich.