Caramel Cold Brew M&M's

 

Product circa: 2022

The chocolate is infused with coffee powder.  The first few bites will have you think you’re chewing on a chocolate-covered coffee bean.  Soon after, the caramel center takes over, and it’s very chewy, with a pleasing texture.  The coffee flavor stays until the end.  A perfectly executed snack, very satisfying.

Caramel Apple Oreo

 

Product circa: 2014

Artificial green apple flavor tends to be pretty rough for me, usually.  But somehow, here they really manage to make it work.  The caramel flavoring in the bifurcated creme mingles with the apple creme and is quite pleasant, in the end.

Candy Corn Oreo

 

Product circa: 2020 (re-release)

These have been released intermittently throughout the years.

Honestly, I’m really struggling to discern how much these are different than the normal Golden Oreos without them in front of me to compare.  It’s possible that the creme has a bit of caramel in it, but otherwise it’s just a delicious, perhaps vanilla-heavy Golden Oreo.

Pepsi Salted Caramel

 

Product circa: 2017

I had high hopes for this one, but it falls flat a bit.  Your typical Pepsi with some added burnt sugar flavoring, the kind that would be added with any cheap “salted caramel” flavored product. (And there’s no additional salt in this stuff.)  I applaud Pepsi, as usual, for having such a creative variation, but sadly, this doesn’t stack up to their usual successes.

Goldfish Butterbeer

 

Product circa: 2025

Odd timing for this product in 2025, but it was exciting to spot it.

The butterscotch coating on these is occasionally evident, but otherwise they are just a delicious brown sugar/molasses cookie.

Coca-Cola Starlight

 

Product circa: Current as of this posting

Coke that tastes like space?  Whatever.

Silly marketing aside, it's great to see that Coke has made a "Creations" line that seems to have various ephemeral versions planned!

Anyway, the color of this stuff is more drastic than its flavor.  It took me quite a few cans before I found myself having any opinion.  At first I would have said that a cotton candy flavor was added to the original formula.  But after some hard thinking, I'm pretty sure that I also taste a strange nuttiness as well.

Have you ever been in a shopping mall and smelled the sugar-roasted nut kiosk?  Capture that essence and combine it with Coca-cola, and this is what you have.  But it's so close to the original that the result is a wash.

Coca-Cola Starlight:- Great

Original Coca-Cola(for comparison):- Great

Milky Way Salted Caramel

 

Product circa: 2021

Another salted caramel!

This is very similar to the Twix product that is previous to this post.

Much like the Twix, the caramel here has a saltier formula than the original and, also like the Twix, there are crystals of salt in the product which you'll occasionally detect.

In the end, this isn't more remarkable than the original product.

Milky Way Salted Caramel:- Great

Original Milky Way(for comparison):- Great

Twix Salted Caramel

 Not much to say here.  This is basically a saltier version of the original.  And it's just as good!

There's even large crunchy crystals of salt in it, but oddly... not located in the caramel, but in the chocolate instead.

Twix Salted Caramel:- Great

Original Twix(for comparison):- Great

Snickers Espresso, Sweet & Salty, and Fiery

Product circa: summer 2018

Glad to see Snickers getting into the "ephemeral trio" game!  They've been known to issue limited varieties before, but it's been a while.

Espresso: This is the most subtle of the three.  You can't actually taste the coffee, but whatever coffee flavoring that they do add to this product changes the flavor of the chocolate itself.  This is very nice, and a slightly different experience than the original product.  This goes to show why many different kinds of chocolate dessert recipes call for instant coffee as a flavor enhancer.

Sweet & Salty: I'm not sure what I expected here, but I liked this more that I thought I would.  On first bite you'll notice more salt than usual, which is confirmed on the product's sodium count on the label.  I guess I thought this product would simply contain more sodium, but in fact it has crunchy bits of salted toffee throughout.  It's quite pleasant.  If you're into salted caramel, you'll love this.

Fiery: The first bite or two will taste identical to the original product.  A few bites in, you'll notice a dull burn in your throat.  A few bites after that, you'll actually start to taste that chile was added to the flavor of this product.  It's really well executed.  This is probably the best spicy candy that I've ever tasted.

Overall, while none of these break the 3-NOM barrier, this trio is a great lesson in how to do balanced and nuanced variations of a classic.

Snickers Espresso:- Good

Snickers Sweet & Salty:- Good

Snickers Fiery:- Good

Original Snickers(for comparison):- Good

Kettle Corn Oreo

Product circa: Spring 2018

Shout-out to my girl Shannon for hooking me up with this!

Oreo is proving that quality and quantity isn't already a zero-sum game.  They're doing another trio of flavors for which consumers can vote.

One of new three flavors out this season is Kettle Corn.  For some reason, Oreo has decided to use pieces of puffed millet to simulate the texture of popped corn.  Maybe it's cheaper, or it fares better maintaining crispiness than corn when inside the creme?

Anyway, Oreo nails it again.  Upon first chomp, you'll taste a caramel-toffee note that makes you feel like you have a handful of caramel popcorn.  It's uncanny.  It's like you're at a baseball game with a box of Cracker Jacks.  You'll swear that you can feel the texture of the popcorn just by the flavor; the texture of this snack isn't extremely characteristic.  It's not mind-blowingly tasty, but again Oreo chooses an unique idea and executes the flavor to perfection.

Kettle Corn Oreo:- Great

Original Golden Oreo(for comparison):- Great

Milky Way French Vanilla and Caramel

It's a pleasant surprise seeing Milky Way experiment a bit.  The last time they mixed it up that I can remember was a few years ago when they implemented the now-permanent Milky Way Simply Caramel, which is an incredible product.

Anyway, French vanilla sounded like an interesting angle for a chocolate bar.  Wikipedia tells me that "French vanilla" is distinguished from normal vanilla flavoring by conventionally (not technically) containing a stronger vanilla flavor, or instead a custard flavor, since French ice cream was historically in the style of frozen custard.  For products that do not contain custard, like this one, Wiki says that caramel or butterscotch are sometimes added.

As you sink your teeth in, you can tell that something isn't quite as expected.  The vanilla is indeed strong; a perfume of it fills your mouth as you chew.  As you get further, it becomes clear that something is added to the vanilla nougat to make it feel richer.  My bet is on butter flavoring.  This isn't the first time I've seen butter used as an attempt to mimic other flavors.

In the end, it's just not quite right.  You literally can't taste the caramel or chocolate in each bite, and instead you're left with a mix of vanilla and butter.  I supposed it's not bad for a change, but I can't see myself reaching for one of these ever again.


Milky Way French Vanilla and Caramel:- Passable
Original Milky Way (for comparison):- Good

Milky Way Caramel Apple

Brace yourself for a rare ephemeral nom from Milky Way: a Caramel Apple version that was just in time to be sold in mini size for Halloween!  Red apples seem like a strange pairing with chocolate, but I went in optimistic.

As soon as you open the package, you can detect something slightly different with the aroma of the chocolate coating.  At first bite you'll notice that the candy's nougat has an assertive flavor of apple.  Unfortunately, the apple flavoring is quite reminiscent of the kind used in cheap apple cinnamon tea, which is something I despise.  Along with the apple, you might detect the slightest amount of cinnamon as well.

I hate to admit it, but this combination works.  It's delicious, and in a completely different way than normal Milky Way.  I can't eat too many of these in one sitting, but their complexity and intrigue stand alone.  I'd love to see these next year.


Milky Way Caramel Apple:- Great
Original Milky Way(for comparison):- Great

Toll House Oatmeal Scotchies

It's not often that "Limited Edition" graces your local store's refrigerated cookie dough case, but here we are.  Nestlé Toll House has issued Oatmeal Scotchies, a curious combination of butterscotch morsels within an oatmeal cookie mix.

There isn't much to this one.  After being baked per the package's directions, these things are good.  The spices within the cookie batter were surprisingly complex, being heavy on the cinnamon and perhaps with some nutmeg as well.  The cookie was so good that the morsels may have even taken away from the experience.  Aside from that, I'm not sure how well butterscotch pairs with the oatmeal batter, anyway.  Overall, really good stuff.


Toll House Oatmeal Scotchies:- Great
Original Toll House Chocolate Chip(for comparison):- Great

Candy Corn Oreo

Oreo has been issuing these each Halloween season, and I finally got my hands on them after they eluded me last year.

Simply put, they are Golden Oreos with a dual-sided creme filling, both of which combined are supposed to invoke the flavor of candy corn.  Preliminary tests suggest that the two different colors of creme don't actually taste different, but that is not conclusive.

Sadly, I believe Oreo may have been a bit too heavy handed here with their flavoring.  The first flavor I get is cake, just like Oreo's no-longer-ephemeral Birthday Cake Oreo, except that it tastes more buttery.  A moment later, I am slapped with saccharine butterscotch.  The two go well together, but they're just too strong.  I really can't eat more than one at a time.  A lighter hand in the designing the snack, I believe, would have made it stellar.

Candy Corn Oreo:- Good
Original Golden Oreo(for comparison):- Great


acquired: Target

M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn

M&M's are offering a seasonal variation to add to the sugary onslaught that is Halloween.

These candies come in a variety of warm autumn colors, and their size and shape are a bit more like Peanut M&M's despite that there's only a chocolate mixture inside.

The chocolate mixture is all white chocolate, with no cocoa solids to be found.  These teach me that I like white chocolate in M&Ms... I wonder why they don't make them regularly?  This is no regular white chocolate, however... it's supposedly flavored like candy corn.  It tastes nothing like candy corn, ultimately, which is good, because I despise the stuff.  The flavor instead is of burnt sugar, caramel, and maybe toffee.  There's a sugary note in there that reminds me of cotton candy.

Not bad, overall.  This departure in flavor from the normal M&M's stable is worth a detour.  The "candy corn" flavoring isn't a huge hit (even among candy corn fans I've consulted), but in my opinion, the white chocolate filling is worth your attention, if only for one go-round.

M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn: - Good
Original M&M's (for comparison):  - Good

Dulce de Leche Cheerios

 Note: I try only to remark upon limited time and/or rare products on this blog, not simply new products.  Unless otherwise confirmed via research, any product presented on this site is presumed to be limited time and/or rare by my own personal opinion.  This product is an example.

I would say that this stuff is mostly disappointing.  A trend I've come across is that when processed food is flavored with "dulce de leche", it will most often simply contain both sugar and some sort of butter flavoring in an attempt to capture the milky flavor of dulce de leche. (This product may suffer from an identity crisis, since the product's front packaging indicate, at different spots, that it's both flavored with dulce de leche and caramel, which are not the same thing.)

That may be an oversimplification in this case, but the flavor of these Cheerios are not completely unlike the Honey Nut variety.  Half of the cheerios in this box are made of corn (as opposed to the normal wheat), which I imagine is thought to add to the caramel-like flavor via the corn's natural sweetness, but instead it lends the flavor of a simple corn cereal, like Corn Pops.

In the end, while this cereal isn't bad, it simply tastes like sweet Cheerios with additional flavors of corn, butter, and perhaps brown sugar.



Dulce de Leche Cheerios: (Good)

Original Honey Nut Cheerios (for comparison): (Good)

Acquired: supermarket