Hershey’s Chocolate Almonds – Gingerbread
What Christmas holiday would be complete without some sort of cinnamon, peppermint, or ginger flavoured chocolate? It’s probably a living nightmare for people who don’t like those particular flavours, but it’s great for me since I love all three of them, whether or not its the holidays. American candy companies are no slouch when it comes to cranking out the seasonal flavours, and the ones today are no different.
Truth be told, I don’t partake much in the bigger brands of chocolate like Hershey’s or Cadbury that much these days, mostly because I find their stuff to be overly sweet, and nothing special. Call me a chocolate snob, but I’d rather pay more for something more unique or less one note. But that’s just the inner hipster in me talking. I decided to give this a try because who doesn’t love chocolate almonds? That and I love gingerbread, so in theory it’s a winning combination, right?
These seem to be more of a premium product, based on how small the bag is in comparison to the price. I’m slightly ashamed to admit that the packaging drew me in, what with the pleasant colour palette, and the little gingerbread man in the corner. Damn you Hershey’s marketing!
As a tear open the top of this resealable bag, I’m hit with a very sweet smell – the combination of ginger and chocolate seems to be overwhelmingly sweet in smell, and I’m reminded of why I don’t do Hershey’s much anymore. Smell aside, these look to be a decently sized chocolate. They appear to have a powder coating, as opposed to the shiny shellac like coating that typical chocolate almonds have. I’m assuming the gingerbread coating is what gives them the extra flavour.
Biting into one of these, they have a substantial chocolate coating, but not more than the average. I tend to prefer a higher ratio of nut to chocolate, but this is serviceable. The gingerbread flavour comes through pretty strong, and stays throughout. Despite being sweet, it isn’t completely one note and has hints of ginger and cinnamon like a real gingerbread cookie, and ends up being a surprisingly pleasant experience. While they are on the sweeter side, I still ended up eating two handfuls, so I suspect they put some crack in it. I can’t find it on the ingredient label, but I still have my suspicions…
The nice thing about it being in a smaller size is you can’t overdose on it even if you wanted to. It comes in a resealable pouch, but let’s be real…you won’t be resealing this if you are sharing this with friends. Not something I would usually pick up, but as they say, tis the season!
