Andes – Mint Cookie Crunch

My memory of Andes is generally positive. As a kid I would get Andes mint flavoured chocolates as a nice cheap, chocolate snack. While it’s relatively easy to find in the Frigid North, most of my experiences with it were interestingly enough during my overseas visit to Hong Kong. Back when I was younger I spent a majority of my time in a specific grocery store and I found myself always going for Andes for some reason. Maybe it was the portability or the sheer volume of pieces for the price, but it always reminds me of Christmas, and my trips to Hong Kong.

At no point do I feel like the packaging indicates that this qualifies as actual chocolate, which would explain why the wording never really quite indicates that it’s chocolate. I consider this more of a guilty pleasure chocolate-like candy. It’s laden with nostalgia and sugar and fat. Just in time for the bargain bin on clearance after Christmas is well beyond us.

These pieces are actually quite a bit bigger than what I remember. To give a bit of context, the standard size I remember coming in the boxes felt like they were at least 3/4 of this. Look at just the pieces visually, they are bigger in every dimension – length, width and height. Not only are these bigger, they are also a bit thicker. These clock in at about 80 calories a piece, compared to the standard sized pieces which are about 25 calories each. So yea, these are big.

These really don’t deviate that much from what I expect – it has that classic chocolate mint combination that isn’t too minty and not overly sweet thanks to the mint. I can’t say the cookie top half tastes specifically like cookies and cream, but I assume that’s because the mint flavour is covering it up.

The main selling point of this is the cookie crunch, as seen by the bits of chocolate cookie pieces strewn throughout the top half of the bar. This part certainly reminds me of cookies and cream, at least from a texture perspective. To reiterate, these don’t exactly exude quality but there’s something that’s oh so satisfying about them regardless. The perfectly executed cookie crunch texture with the somewhat soft chocolate works well enough together that it keeps me going back for more.

I would absolutely do these again, but for the same of my health I would rather share this with others or have someone else nearby to keep me from eating too much in a sitting. I really do think these are dangerous, especially if left in an area without proper adult supervision.