There is no candy company out there that is both as famous and infamous as the New England Confectionery Company, aka Necco. That is because they produce many products people adore (Clark Bar and Sky Bar) and many products people despise (Conversation Hearts and Mary Jane).
I have never really had anything against the company. I do enjoy several of their products, and have no major qualms with some of their more disliked candy. I don’t think Necco is as good in quality as other brands out there, but I know what I am getting and am satisfied when I pay ten-cents for a day-after Valentine’s Day candy sale box of conversation hearts.
Except during the holidays, I rarely see Necco products in stores, excluding Necco Wafers. That is why when I saw this orange bag dangling at a Walgreens, I was immediately drawn to it. The bag read, Necco Old Fashioned Cream Drops.
I had never heard of these, or of cream drops in general for that matter, and was curious about them right off the bat. The bag itself is designed with a beautiful, nostalgic eye, and a color pallet borrowed from the den of a generic 1970s sitcom. I have been deceived by pretty candy packages before, but I was willing to be made a fool of again for a dollar fifty.
When I got home, I tried to find out as much as I could about them. And guess what? Everyone else knows as much (or little) as I do. They aren’t listed on Necco’s homepage, there isn’t anything about them on Wikipedia, and no one sells these online. I felt as if I had stumbled onto the El Dorado of candy when I opened this bag to review what apparently few had ever tasted, much less seen.
Each piece is shaped like a gumdrop and is about an inch in height and diameter. From the picture on the bag and the ingredients, I deduced that these were essentially cream-filled mockolates.
You should know by now my proclivities for all things candy, especially how I like to play around with temperature. Here is what these tasted like in the standard three temperature gradients:
Room Temperature: This piece is incredibly creamy, and will most likely burn your throat with the richness. The mockolate is thick with a waxy aftertaste. Despite my disliking of the piece, I couldn’t get the taste of Little Debbie’s Swiss Cake Rolls out of my mouth.
Chilled: The shell retains more of a milk chocolate flavor here and is less pronounced, which is a good thing. The cream blend is a bit more viscous, as is the shell, but not in such a way that its hard to chew. The intensity in this version was muted compared to the room temperature ones, which in turn made this my favorite of the three.
Frozen: The mockolate shell is hard, and you need to give it a good chomp to get through it. The mockolate flavor is most contained in this form, and even the cream to a lesser extent. I tasted hints of coconut, and if not for the texture being a little too congealed for my liking, I probably would have liked this more than the chilled variety.
Overall, my personal opinion on these is that they’re too dense and sweet for my own liking; however, if you’re a fan of those mockolate cakes with the cream filling, then you’ll probably enjoy these too. This product would most likely be considered in the upper echelon of Necco products for most people, as it isn’t terrible, and as far as mockolate products go, this is one of the better ones. So for all you Necco haters out there, if you come across these in a store, you can relax and enjoy them. They might not become your favorite candy, but they’ll never develop the reputation their cousins possess.
These cream drops were favorites of two of my uncles. They used to stop at the “seconds” store in MA and buy big bags of them – and they were reluctant to share them!!
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 amWalgreen’s carries those.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pmwhen i first spotted these, i too tried to find some info on the inernet but couldn’t. Glad to see that they have now been properly reviewed! i thought they were pretty bad though – way too sweet, and i have a fairly high tolerance.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 pmMy husband LOVES these. His grandmother gives him a bag every Christmas. I’d never heard of them before I met him, but after a while they start to grow on you.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 pmMy Dad liked these. I never saw Cream Drops by Necco, I think they bought out someone else.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pmThe ones we got for my Dad were better than what you describe.
I’ve seen these at Hobby Lobby a million times but was never brave enough to try them.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:05 amMy parents have been eating these for YEARS. My grandma grew up in the south and she remembers eating them when she was a kid back in the 20s. They weren’t made by Necco, but they were the same thing. There’s a bunch of places that make them.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:24 amMy stepdad found some of these at either the local supermarket or Family Dollar, I think family dollar. They looked exactly the same but were called Zachary, which was what inclined him to buy them. I thought they were quite good frozen.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pmOhhhhh how I love these!! I actually buy a different brand though – they’re called “Melsters.” The ones I buy are probably even worse quality than these and the chocolate seems to be dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, but I love ‘em. They’re only available around Christmas though, and I get them at Dollar General for a dollar a bag…
November 11th, 2008 at 7:56 pmMy mom used these to make a dessert when I was young in the 60′s. I can not find the recipes but have been searching for it. They were more than delicious. Yes, they are made with dark chocolate and I would not eat them by themselves for that reason.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pmWell, well….
I’m delighted to see mention of my favorite candy. This is the only candy I care for and it goes beautifully with a mug of cold milk.
I used to eat the Zachary cream drops until they disappeared from the store shelves. Note: I just looked up Zachary’s website and they claim to still sell the cream drops. I’ll check it out. I’ve eaten Zachary’s happily in the past before they disappeared from the shelves of the “biggest retailer in the world (aka WalMart). Site: http://www.zacharyconfections.com
I have found the Necco cream drops in *some* Walgreens Stores. However it seems that Walgreens has dropped the line entirely. The Walgreens that used to carry them has stopped stocking them. I’ve contacted Walgreens to see if they would order a few bags for me and carry a small stock in my local store… No reply to date.
I was in New England this Fall, where Necco candy is made (New England Candy Company – NECCO). I stopped at any number of stores and could not find cream drops anywhere.. verrrrrrry interesting.
I used to buy these cream drops from candy specialty stores (at a *fancy* price). However several of my suppliers informed me that they could not get cream drops any more and that when their current stock is gone there would be no more cream drops.
For the record… I’m not the most discriminating of candy eaters but I do have certain preferences. Over the years I’ve eaten many types of chocolates. In recent years however, my tastes have focused on cream drops almost exclusively. You could call it an *addiction* to these cream drops. I admit it freely and feel no shame.
Of course I have to pick the one candy that has little appeal to the general public… thus making it hard to impossible to find. Shopkeepers don’t carry items that don’t turn quickly. Unsold items are not contributing to the bottom line of profits.
Reading these replies gives me renewed hope that I’ll find these cream drops somewhere and not have to buy them from Necco by the case. If any of you have any more ideas, please post or send me an email.
January 17th, 2009 at 3:05 amI am completely addicted to these as well. I thought they were gone forever until we found them in the 99 cent store at Christmas time. I should have bought more than 5 bags because now I cannot find them anywhere.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:09 amThe search lead me online which is where I found this site, but there are actually lots of similar sites full of people expressing their love for these so why can’t they make them year round?
I will be looking at my local Walgreens tomorrow but I won’t be holding my breath! I certainly hope I don’t have to wait until next Christmas.
You need to melt these between saltine crackers in the microwave… numnumnummy… been eating them since I was a baby!
January 4th, 2011 at 11:39 amI think that everyone is having trouble finding these on the internet because they’ve only recently become known as “Necco Old Fashioned Cream Drops”. They used to be known as “Zachary Old Fashioned Creme[sic] Drops.”
You can see the old bag here… http://i52.tinypic.com/2j4d3cm.jpg
I think that these are delicious, by the way, and I decided to search on the internet because my local Walgreens AND my local Dollar Tree stopped carrying them. They sell them at groovycandies.com but the Drops are seasonal, and it’s out of season, as ridiculous as that is.
January 6th, 2011 at 1:50 pmMy husband doesn’t think he has had Christmas unless he has had several bags of drops. My son-in-law’s family has them Christmas morning in a “hot” homemade biscuit. Wish we could find them year round.
January 15th, 2011 at 11:34 amI found the Melsters brand creme drops at our local dollar store and like they said only during christmas. I started buying 3 or 4 bags at a time and then ended up buying the rest of the box ( the last 5 bags ). I then came across BRACH’s creme drops which werent too bad as well, those were at Walgreens, but again only during Christmas but cost $2.99 bag, but I was desperate and gave in
January 28th, 2011 at 12:00 amDaughter ordered the chocolate drops for me for my birthday last year. Was very disappointed. Although the flavors were good, they were expensive, smaller than the usual chocdrops and the chocolate outer layer was hard,not soft. Won’t be ordering from them again.
June 5th, 2011 at 7:22 pmWhen I lived in Boston (1983-1984) I often visited the Necco company store in the Lechmere section of Cambridge, MA. My favorite purchase was a four pound box of these for $3.00! Oh my! It would take me about three weeks to go through them. I always bought a box to take out of town and another to give as a gift. I ate so many of these in the year that I was in Boston. After moving back to NYC, I would visit the store to get a box to go. Don’t know if the store is still there.
October 29th, 2011 at 7:45 pmJust wanted to say thank you to the person who suggested the Family Dollar store. I live in Michigan and have a hard time finding these locally. My Walgreens did not carry them and I haven’t seen them at any other grocery or drugstore. My local ACO hardware store carries them seasonally but they were gone early. I did finally find the Melster brand at Family Dollar, but I haven’t tried them yet so I hope they’re decent. My grandmother used to set Creme Drops out on a pretty festive dish every Christmas, so I was looking to recreate that experience for my mom who loves these candies.. Thanks for the helpful posts!
December 24th, 2011 at 9:36 amIn all honest, I miss these! They where good then, and the bag I got, this year, for Christmas (after a decade and a half of unrelenting, and unsatisfied craving), and loved ‘em!
For those who doesn’t know what these where called, by some southern old timers, think n***r toes!
Sorry, it is a politically incorrect name, and I only supplied the first and last letter, for informational purposes only. I’m not racist, just remember my grandmother’s name for them!
December 27th, 2011 at 10:59 pmWilliam Pickering and I must have grown up in the same region because that’s what my grandparents called them too. I never considered it a slur because these things were SO GOOD!
August 13th, 2013 at 2:20 pmAs a grownup, I learned to refer to them as “chocolate drops” and I buy them whenever I find them, which isn’t often. Yes, they are fake chocolate, fake cream, fake everything. And SO delicious!