Pumpkin spice is, of course, the ubiquitous flavor this time of year--gracing everything from latte and cakes to Mini Wheats cereal and English muffins. A close second, however, is caramel apple. Considering the fact that pumpkin spice is completely fictional, you might expect confectioners to have more success recreating the taste of caramel apple when flavoring other desserts. Sadly, you would be wrong.
I'm not sure why this is the case, but Hostess seems to have had trouble reproducing both caramel and apple flavors. It's not as if they don't have previous experience with both. In fact, the Hostess Apple wheat flour, beef fat and high fructose corn syrup concoction...which you might otherwise know as "Hostess Apple Pie"...has been a kids' lunch staple for decades. And they've tried, albeit unsuccessfully, bringing a sea salt caramel cupcake to market in the past.
In this case, the new cup cake doesn't taste much like caramel or like apple, which sort of defeats the purpose. It would be like a peanut butter and grape jelly flavored sandwich that tasted like almonds and boysenberries. Close, but no cigar. If I had to pick one flavor that broke through, it would have to be the caramel. But that's about as much of a victory as the winner of a boxing match between two washed-up old fighters where one falls down and breaks a hip in the first round before a punch is thrown. So, yeah, the imitation caramel taste wins...just barely.
If you didn't read the box and weren't expecting this to taste like caramel apple, which sadly I did and was, it is a passable cupcake. Certainly no worse than many other Hostess cupcake flavors. But considering what this could have and should have tasted like, Hostess Caramel Apple Cupcakes are definitely a missed opportunity.
RATING: 3/5
