Saturday, December 9, 2017
PEPPERMINT TWINKIES
It's that time of year...when the world falls in love...and when the confectioners take the green food coloring (benched since St. Patrick's Day) and red food coloring (boxed up after the 4th of July) off the shelves and swap out their pumpkin spice flavoring for peppermint and egg nog.
So, here we are, with Hostess' most recent attempt at a peppermint Twinkie. Last year, they released White Peppermint Twinkies (which I gave a mediocre 3/5 review score). I'd like to think that my scathing review led to disappointing sales, causing Hostess to rethink the treat for this year...but it was more likely due to the recall over salmonella concerns.
You'll notice that Hostess has dropped the white chocolate coating (where they feared the salmonella last year) in favor of simply dyeing the Twinkie cake a bright red. This isn't the rich deep red of a red velvet cake, by the way. No, it is more of a bright crimson red not to be found in nature. Unless you consider Play-doh, Hawaiian Punch and Crayola crayons to be natural. In any event, it won't color your mouth red...a strike against it, in my book...but you might notice the color somewhere else later on. I'd rather talk about that. Too bad that's not a selling point...
Without the coating containing flakes of peppermint candy, this Twinkie has no candy bits at all--not even in the creme. According to the box, the peppermint flavor comes from the cake itself, but it was difficult for me to determine if that was true. Both the creme filling and the cake had just a slight taste of peppermint, but it was just as underwhelming as last year. I've always said in these reviews that companies need to go big or go home, but most of them seem to hold back and downplay the special flavor. Which is sort of the entire point of these special edition concoctions. Why buy a peppermint Twinkie from Hostess if you can get a better combination of the two flavors by simply jamming a candy cane in a regular Twinkie? Or by crushing up some peppermint candies and sprinkling them over a Twinkie?
The good news, I suppose, is that the flavor is not so overwhelming that it makes these dessert cakes inedible...but, once again, apart from the red coloring, there is nothing about it that stands out either. If they continue down this road, I predict that next year Hostess will find a way to swirl red and white cake together...but it still won't taste peppermint enough!
RATING: 3/5