After a lengthy hiatus from this page, I decided that I had better return with something out of the ordinary. But then I realized--all of these things are out of the ordinary. That's why I am writing about them!
So, here's another new variation of a classic "snack" that continues the trend of combining one junk food with another. And, unless your mother packed your lunch while you lived with the circus, it is a combination you probably never imagined: cotton candy and Twinkies.
Twinkies, of course, are a classic sponge cake with vanilla-flavored creamy filling. One Twinkie contains 19 grams of sugar--just one gram less than the recommended *daily* allowance for women. And Hostess has decided to combine this with a confection that consists of spun sugar...well, the taste of it, anyway.
And that's where this combination falls apart. Unless it is intentionally flavored, cotton candy doesn't really taste like anything other than slightly caramelized sugar. (By the way, did you know cotton candy, originally named "fairy floss," was invented by a dentist? Isn't that like a heart surgeon inventing deep fat fried mozzarella cheese sticks? But I digress...)
The main reason that I enjoy the occasional new Twinkie flavor is because the cake on its own is rather plain. Cover it with chocolate, add peppermint sticks in the cake, or fill it with strawberry, banana or key lime cream and the plain cake becomes more interesting. But add filling which tastes vaguely like burnt sugar, and you've got a Twinkie which just tastes slightly "off" from the plain ol' Twinkie you might remember. Without the pink coloring, or the circus tents on the box, you might just think that the factory let the creamy filling sit in the kettle too long.
Considering the circus theme, I suppose it could have been a lot worse. Compared to a pink popcorn Twinkie or a marshmallow circus "peanut" Twinkie, a cotton candy one is relatively benign. But that still doesn't make it a good idea...
RATING: 2 / 5
