As certain as the sun rises in the East, the "pumpkin spice" of October and "peppermint" of December give way to "dark chocolate raspberry" every February. Apparently, that's now become the official flavor of Valentine's Day...even though I think that's just as unimaginative as associating "mint" with St. Patrick's Day just because it is green. (By that same criteria, peanut butter will eventually become the official flavor of Thanksgiving.)
In any event, a slew of dark chocolate raspberry and/or chocolate snacks are coming your way. So, I guess I had better put down my Ghirardelli dark chocolates and glass of red wine to let my taste buds go slumming for your benefit. (You're welcome!)
Let me break it down for you: this cupcake promises dark chocolate and raspberry. I probably should have purchased a box of the regular chocolate cupcakes just to be sure, but I don't think Hostess simply used the existing recipe as I would have suspected. I actually believe that the cake consists of a darker chocolate than their usual version, even if they look almost the same. But let's be honest--trying to compare the "chocolateness" of Hostess cupcakes is not even close to the same level as comparing a 60% cacao artisan candy bar with a 80% cacao artisan candy bar. At best, I can just say that it seems more dark "chocolatey" than usual, okay?
Now let's move onto the cream filling*, which is the most important part of this cupcake. Sadly, here's where Hostess falls short. There is raspberry flavor to be found...real raspberries, per the list of ingredients...and the taste is distinctive from the usual strawberry, blueberry, boysenberry (the official flavor of Boxing Day?) or generic berry flavors. That said, there just wasn't enough of it. This seems to be the Achilles' heel of most of the limited edition Hostess snack foods I've tried lately. Whatever flavor they are going for, they seem to be holding back. Now, perhaps I'd hate this cupcake if the raspberry taste was too strong, but personally I'd prefer that they go "all-in."
Instead, this is another ho-hum snack. It's slightly more chocolatey than the usual chocolate Hostess cupcake with a hint of raspberries in the filling. Not bad, but not great either--just another example of junk food mediocrity.
RATING: 3/5
* The box description is actually "artificially flavored creamy filling," which means that the filling has as much to do with milk and cream as Apple Jacks has to do with apples. Or jacks...
