It really seems as though Hostess isn't trying very hard these days. A lot of their "limited edition" snacks are the same year after year, and even when they dare to try something new, they don't seem to give it their best effort. It's almost as if someone in their lab realizes at the last possible moment that a coffee-flavored Twinkie might actually taste terrible, so they give the order to "water it down" and make it taste mostly like a regular Twinkie with only the slightest possible hint of coffee.
Unfortunately, the S'mores Cupcakes are more of the same.
As the name would suggest, these cupcakes attempt to mimic the flavor of that classic campfire treat consisting of Graham crackers, Hershey chocolate bars and toasted marshmallows. Three ingredients seems like a lot bar to me, but Hostess only delivers on one of the three--the chocolate, which is the easiest to duplicate. Hostess already has chocolate cupcakes and yellow cupcakes both with chocolate frosting, so it isn't as if they had to re-tool the factory on this one.
The cake isn't the same as their standard yellow cupcake...at least, not visually. It's tan colored, looking very much like a spice flavor (which they've done before). Taste-wise? If you close your eyes, you'll think you are eating the regular regular golden cupcakes. Perhaps a Graham cracker-flavored cake would have been too difficult, but why couldn't they have just diluted their pumpkin spice cake? At least it would have been the same color, and within the "realm" of flavor. But, no...strike one.
Finally, we have the cream...sorry, creme..filling. A truly wasted opportunity, as it's just the standard cupcake creme filling. Why didn't they partner with Smuckers or Kraft or someone else to use marshmallow topping as the center of these cupcakes? Just the slightest marshmallow flavor or the smallest change in consistency would have satisfied me, but no. So, strike two.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but a S'mores without a marshmallow or a Graham cracker is just...chocolate, right? These cupcakes taste identical to the golden cupcakes already on the store shelves which is fine, since I like those, but I call "false advertising" as they taste nothing like the name promises.
Oh, and by the way, these S'mores cupcakes are a Wal-Mart exclusive. Wal-Mart has become my newest go-to for a lot of odd junk food varieties which cannot be found anywhere else, but I think that has less to do with the idea of Wal-Mart being a great place for "limited editions" and more with Wal-Mart being a great place to dump failed products that no one wants.
RATING: 3 / 5
(as a Golden cupcake. As as S'mores cupcake, it's more like 1/3!)
