July 27th: Hershey's Milk Duds

Kcal 170 Fat 6.0g Fat(sats) 3.5g Carbs 28.0g (per 13 pieces 39.0g)

What with the cinema season being in full swing at the minute (Dark Knight & Wall-E are both must sees!!) when CandyPirate told me they were sending these across I couldn't help but appreciate their appropriateness, as from what I hear these milk chocolate coated caramels are quite the popular US cinema snack. Speaking of US candy and the cinema, Jeanna over at Wisconsin Candy has been doing some great combined reviews of films and candy...most notbably this review on the Reese's Whoppers - check it out if you have a minute.

I recieved these Milk Duds in a 114g pack which I ate over two sittings - neither of which left me feeling that satisfied. The chocolates came in a yellow cardboard box as you can see above - that packaging aside the Duds litterally sat in the box rattling around loosely. Personally I think an extra inner layer of packaging would have helped keep freshness and maybe have helped the issue of some of them sticking together. The Duds themselves were about the size of a £1 coin though many were odd shaped and misfigured - they also had a not so great looking dusty surface coating. After opening the box I couldn't detect a very evident smell...a very minor sweet smell lingered but was hardly forthcoming.

At first I ate these singly though it wasn't long before I was shovelling several in my mouth at a time. Im not going to beat around the bush...the milk chocolate coating was awfully poor. Texturewise it was much like its appearance suggested lumpy and grainy - it just felt gritty on my tongue. It wasn't very impactful flavourwise either - it tasted very mundane offering little more than a gritty milk flavour...it really lacked a chocolatey edge. The caramel centres fortunately offered a little more than the poor chocolate coating. The texture of the caramels started as being quite firm and resistant to the bite - though once in the mouth and left on the tongue, softened to have more of a chewy feel. Caramels are very easily made overly sweet though thankfully these didn't have this particular problem. Again like the product in general they were not the most compelling tastewise; they did have a nice buttery flavour that was alogether great tasting, however it just wasn't potent or strong enough to really provide any satisfaction. What this culminated in was a situation that often occurs when I eat Malteasers and that was finding myself eating several at a time in order to achieve a flavour hit of some worth.

Overall its easy to see why these are such a popular cinema snack..they fit the bill 100%. To me the epitome of cinema food is that its bassically grazing food - snacks with very little taste that you can simply sit down and munch through for a good hour and a half. Though they fit the situation in this sense they do not fit the bill as a great tasting option. The milk chocolate had a poor grainy texture and offered a very minor milky taste. The caramel centres had a nice buttery sweet taste though just wern't impactful on the tastebuds. I wouldn't go as far as recommending these but if your visiting the cinema soon and are bored of your Maltesers and Revels these could be worth you seeking out to at least sample.

5.9 out of 10

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