Recently, the folks at Route 29 Napa sent over a box of their sweetest treats for review. When I saw the ice-cold gel pack nestled right on top of the candy box, I knew I was dealing with something special. You don’t get that level of detail and care from many companies, and I hoped their candies would follow suit. Route 29 packaged one tin each of their Peanut Butter Sticks, Chewy Peps, and Cocoa Chips and resealable bag of assorted caramels.
Being a fan of the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, I went for the Peanut Butter Sticks first. These sticks are a little smaller than the average Twix bar, and they don’t have the same ripple effect on the chocolate surface. From the description on the tin (“rich, buttery, peanut butter crisps covered in creamy milk chocolate”), I assumed these to be like a Butterfinger. Boy, was I wrong. That’s like saying a Ferrari’s the same as a VW Bus because they’re both cars.
For starters, the smaller size means you don’t get so much of it stuck in your teeth. Plus, the candy smells like peanut butter from a jar instead of say, chemical flavorings extracted from an industrial-sized tube. The texture is, if you can imagine, more crunchy than crispy, and the peanut flavor really stands out. Out of curiosity, I checked the ingredient list, and it says it contains potato chips.
Yes, that’s right. Potato chips give the sticks a sort of salty crunch that you can’t get in a Butterfinger, and I’m glad. The texture is like a peanut butter toffee, but I had to eat these quickly since the milk chocolate coating tended to melt in my fingers. Not an entirely unpleasant experience, but kind of messy if you’re not prepared for it.
The Cocoa Chips carry the Peanut Butter Sticks ingredients list one step further; they’re actually chocolate-covered potato chips. I’ve tried this goodie in other incarnations and have been fairly disappointed. Either there wasn’t enough chocolate to counteract the saltiness of the chips or the chips were too thin to meld well with the chocolate. Neither is the case with Route 29′s version, which has a thick coating of chocolate to enrobe a hefty ridged potato chip. The combination of sweet, salty, and crunchy works better here than it does with the Peanut Butter Sticks. The outcome ends up tasting a lot like a chocolate-covered shortbread cookie, only with a little more earthiness thanks to the fried potato flavor.
The caramels, I think, were hit and miss. Maybe part of that was because I had to guess at the different flavors, but I did enjoy the texture, chewy without making your jaw work. Out of the handful of caramels I tried, the ordinary caramel (what Route 29 calls Traditional Vanilla) and the coffee (Cafe Epresso) fared the best. The chocolate tasted fairly good too, but I prefer the actual snap and melt of real chocolate instead of muted and mixed into caramel. And I’m not a big fan of fruit-flavored caramel, so the raspberry and orange didn’t make much of an impression. They tasted fine, but they just weren’t my thing.
And then there’s the Chewy Peps. Oh, those Chewy Peps. One of my indicators of an excellent candy is if I immediately reach for a second piece, and I ate about seven of these things in one sitting. At first, it looks like an old-fashioned peppermint candy, a hard concoction with a taste that is wonderfully rich, smooth, and minty. The texture is really interesting, somewhere between taffy and gum. For a second or two, I actually imagined I was chewing on gum, which was weird, but I liked this unique take on a traditional penny candy. Route 29 calls them “A succulent dilemma” for just that reason. Should you chew it? Should you suck on it? Should you do both? I love that the candy gives you a choice.
I mentioned in my Candy Cane Tootsie Pop review how much I love crunching down on candy canes, and I think I’ve met my match with the Chewy Pep. I’m pleased to give Chewy Peps the CandyAddict.com Awesomely Addictive Award. I think it’s the best peppermint ever, and if you try them, I hope you’ll agree!
Editor’s note:I tried all of these candies also and the caramels were by far my favorite. Sweet, but not too sweet, extremely smooth, and oh-so-tasty. I would give the caramels the CandyAddict.com Awesomely Addictive Award. Just goes to show you that reviews are just opinions. They have a ton of other candy on their website and I’d be willing to bet that the other candy is just as good.
oh man, chewy peps are my favorite! i can’t help but to chew them, which may be bad for my teeth. really bad.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:43 pmI love Butterfingers when I was in the states, I was obsessed with them and peanut butter cups. You guys are lucky.
May 27th, 2007 at 2:00 am