I don’t understand why I am hesitant to eat mint-flavored candy. I mean, I do like the taste of it. Hand me a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream and watch me make it disappear in seconds. But probably because of my dislike for gum, I avoid most mint products. It isn’t that there isn’t a non-gum mint candy out there, but not enough of them, and not enough of them done well.
As I strolled down the candy aisle at my local Dollar Tree Store, a pretty red box caught my attention. “Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins” the box proclaimed. Hmm I thought. I never much cared for regular Andes Thins: Crème de Menthe, but we all know that I am a sucker for fruit in chocolate.
Maybe because it was the cherry, maybe it was because I wanted to branch out from my mint horizons, or maybe I will just buy candy because I love it, but whatever the reason, I picked up a box and headed to the register with a dollar clenched in my fist.
These are identical in size to the Crème de Menthe, but dressed in a red foil that bears the trademark emblem of Peruvian peaks. Unwrapping it, I see that these are comprised of the same three-layer structure of the original, but instead of a light green layer sandwiched between two mockolate ones, there is a pink one.
The package boasts that it contains real cherries, but if there in there, I don’t see them. I take a whiff and it smells faintly of cherry. The snap is excellently firm, which made my tasting of the products odd. A nice snap is indicative of a fresh product, or so I thought, but these tasted dry (which is considerably more odd when you discover how much saturated fat is packed into these, which you would assume would give it a longer shelf-life).
The mint flavor buds as an aftertaste, while the cherry flavor is minimal at best, leaving me somewhat duped. Sorry, but when you say made from real cherries, I expect there to be cherries in my candy!
Both flavors are drowned out by the taste of the dry mockolate. But even in the limited appearance of the two key flavors that I do receive, I am forced to a realization: cherry and mint don’t mesh. Each is a bold flavor that doesn’t sit right with the other.
Tootsie produces several other flavors of Andes, including Toffee Crunch, another flavor I don’t think mingles well with mint. Would I consume these other flavors? Maybe the Peppermint Crunch since it’s inherently more agreeable with the coating. And even then, if those suffer from the same dryness that the cherry jubilee version was plagued by, it still wouldn’t taste very good.
Buy Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins Online:
- at Amazon.com
Bleah – I can’t think of the cherry/mint combo without thinking of throat lozenges, which make me think of RAW BURNING THROAT PAIN. So I think I’ll steer clear.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:52 amThese flavors (toffee crunch and cherry jubilee) are not mixed with mint as you say, they are just chocolate and the layer in the middle with the flavor.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:02 amI am eating these as we type – did you even try them? There is no mint at all in these, just cherry.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 am