The Atkinson Candy Company is quickly becoming my favorite candy company. My love affair began with Chick-o-Sticks, then Peanut Butter Bars, and moved on to Long Boys. While I can think of many other manufacturers out there who produce great products, none come to mind who consistently create candy I love regardless of what it is.
So with their awesome track record on the line, I purchased a square of Peco Brittle from a local convenience store. I gotta say, Texans love them some brittle! Peanut, cashew, pecan… everywhere I go I see tons of brittle out here. Do I have a problem with that? I honestly don’t know since I can’t remember ever eating any sort of brittle as kid.
Well, if I were ever going to start eating it, Atkinson seemed to be the best place for such a journey to commence from. The name behind this candy reveals the type of brittle it is: Peco is a portmanteau of peanuts and coconut. Now, Atkinson does produce a regular peanut brittle, but I couldn’t find it. Luckily, I didn’t mind so much, as this whole “coconut can go into anything” craze I have discovered in Texas is starting to grow on me.
The piece smells deliciously and strongly of roasted peanuts. In fact, all you can see in this chunk of candy is a giant scoop of peanuts embedded in the brittle. If there is coconut in it, I surely can’t tell with my eyes.
Taking a bite, my mind thinks of the Mr. Peanut Bars I ate often in Los Angeles. But it’s not quite the same. Whereas Mr. Peanut Bars are salty and really about the peanuts, this piece is sweet, but not overly so. It also has a firm snap to it when I break off pieces. As a slight misstep, the piece is sticky, though not enough to become lodged in your teeth.
The flavor is spectacular for lovers of peanuts, as each bite tastes fresh and is crunchy. The peanuts themselves offer an interesting textural juxtaposition to the smoother and somewhat chewy brittle framework that contains the nuts. There’s a great buttery and honey aftertaste of the piece that lingers on your tongue when you have finished.
“It’s peanut coconut brittle, so where is the coconut?” you might be asking. Well, the coconut is a diva in this candy, as in it’s fashionably late, but much appreciated when it finally arrives. The flavor seems to be heavily concentrated in the center, and reminds me of macaroons. There are no flakes in it, and the coconut is purely a flavor, as opposed to a textural presence. Meshing with the peanuts and brittle, the coconut unifies the various ingredients into a more refined flavor.
I don’t have any other experiences with brittle to compare this to, so I can’t really says how it stacks up in the grand universe of brittle; however, as a far a candy goes, this sure is scrumptious, adding another notch into the win column for Atkinson’s. Does Atkinson make a candy I don’t like? As far as I know, they do not.
Buy Atkinson’s Peco Brittle Online:
- at Amazon.com
Atkinson’s candies sound amazing – I wonder if I can get them where I live?
Though everytime you review one, without fail, I read it as “Atkins” at first and think “Blech, low-carb candy,” only to remember that it’s 2009 and nobody has cared about carbs for three or four years now…
January 8th, 2009 at 9:13 amOh man, I LOVE Chick-o-Sticks! A true original. Glad to hear the Atkinson Candy Company is still crankin’ out the goodness.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:15 amJust ran into this a few days ago. The coconut is huge shavings, you can’t miss them.
Pretty darn good too.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:10 pm