Review: Candy from Split Bean Coffee

Sunday, March 12, 2006 - by Brian

You wouldn’t think a company called Split Bean Coffee would make candy, but they do. They sent me a package of all kinds of stuff to review – mostly candy and marshmallows, but some other things too:

Southern Peanut Brittle (seen above): I’ve never really cared much for peanut brittle, so I’m probably not the best person to review this. I tried it and thought it was OK, but I took the package with me to visit family and my mother-in-law LOVED it. Loved it so much she finished the whole batch. Good thing I tried it before the visit.

Almond Toffee: I love Heath Toffee Bars so I was hoping this would be really good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled with it, not sure why. It didn’t have chocolate on it, it was toffee with sliced almonds. Maybe the lack of chocolate threw me, or maybe this was real toffee and I was used to inferior Heath toffee. Idunno….but my father-in-law loved it. He finished off the whole batch and said he would rate this toffee as a 9.5/10. So maybe it’s just me.

Gourmet Marshmallows: Much like the Plush Puffs I reviewed previously, these marshmallows were dense. They sent me a real variety of flavors: coconut, rose, banana, and cherry:

• Coconut: the coconut was coated in real coconut and had a nice coconut flavor throughout – not too overwhelming – very nice.
• Rose: this was their featured flavor but like I said in my review of Turkish Delight, I’m just not ready to taste rose. I didn’t like these at all. Rose must be an acquired taste.
• Banana: this had a serious banana kick to it. It’s weird to taste banana flavor in a marshmallow.
• Cherry: these too had some serious cherry flavor to them.

Marshmallows, to me, aren’t something I sit down and munch on. Most of the time they are an ingredient in other candies or in recipes. I could see these being used in some really creative recipes. You could make some really interesting s’mores out of them. I was thinking melting them down and using them as ice cream topping would be great too.

Along with the candy, they sent a few other non-candy items so I figured I’d review them too (even though they don’t quite fit into the site).

Coffee: As I said before, I don’t drink coffee, but my wife does, and she said the coffee is fabulous. The coffee they sent was the Nicaraguan Shade-Grown Single-Origin coffee that was 100% Arabica Beans.

Dulce de Leche Alfajores: Split Bean Coffee specializes in their alfajores (a South American shortbread cookie, traditionally filled with Dulce de Leche aka Milk Caramel). These were fantastic. We brewed a pot of the coffee and drank it while eating the cookies and it was wonderful. The ingredients are 100% natural – the shortbread cookie itself contains only flour, margarine, and sugar. The caramel filling contains only milk, sugar, and spices. The cookies are barely sweet and the caramel inside is also barely sweet but very tasty.

So, to summarize…..I wasn’t thrilled with the Almond Toffee and Peanut Brittle, but my in-laws loved them. The Gourmet Marshmallows would be great for recipes. The coffee and alfajores were phenomenal. If I were going to buy one thing from Split Bean Coffee, I’d get the alfajores, definitely.

• Split Bean Coffee website

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