Goldfish Peppermint Cocoa

 

Product circa: holiday season 2025

I'm not a chocolate peppermint, but these are great.  Why?  Because of the restraint with the peppermint.  These seem to be plain chocolate cookies, with a peppermint "seasoning" on them.  That's it.  And the deft touch from the food scientists ends up being very pleasant, in a way that has you keep reaching for more.

Candy Cane & Peppermint Oreos

 

Products circa: 2013 & 2015

As expected, these both taste about the same: simply, chocolate cookie with a peppermint-flavored creme.  Not bad, but I'm not a chocolate (pepper)mint guy.

Ephemeral Crunchy M&M's

Products circa: summer 2018

M&M's have issued a poll product for no apparent reason.  Maybe they're trying to mimic some success had by Lay's as of recent?

These three flavors are new varieties of M&M's Crunchy version.  The rice-krispy part of these candies make them very pleasant and really easy to eat more and more.  Each flavor also comes with a corresponding change in the colors of the candy shells.  Fun!

The first is Crunchy Mint.  Nothing special here.  It's a refreshing peppermint flavor that you'd expect from any other mint-chocolate candy.  There's a cooling menthol in here as well, not unlike Junior Mint candies.

The second is Crunchy Raspberry.  The flavor here is actually quite good.  The raspberry is natural-tasting, and almost juicy.

The third is Crunchy Espresso.  Very nice.  The flavor is like instant coffee, and not in a bad way.  It could have been made a bit stronger though.

Overall, a very decent showing.

M&M's Crunchy Mint:- Good
M&M's Crunchy Raspberry:- Good
M&M's Crunch Espresso:- Good
Original M&M's Crunch(for comparison):- Good

Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint

We're taking a momentary detour for the next three posts, back to last winter.  Pringles took a step on the wild side for a change and offered White Chocolate Peppermint.

Now, chocolate covered potato chips are totally a thing.  And it makes perfect sense that such a snack could just as easily be covered with white chocolate, even some that's been flavored with peppermint.  Such a logical conclusion would lead you astray, in the case of this product.  Indeed, these are Pringles chips that are simply dusted with a flavor powder, just like any other Pringles variety.

How does this one stack up?  Poorly.  I commend Pringles for capturing both white chocolate and peppermint in their seasoning, but in the end, it just doesn't pair well with a salty potato crisp.

As always, I applaud radical experiments, but that doesn't meant it tastes good.


Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint:- Passable
Original Pringles(for comparison):- Good

Jello Seasonal Release Instant Puddings

The 2012 posts are going to continue for a bit... there's a backlog of Ephemeral Noms!

For several years now, Jello has issued several special flavors of instant pudding for the autumn/holiday season.  These are most (if not all) of them.

Candy Cane - My distaste for peppermint notwithstanding, this stuff just isn't that good.  The sweetness of the pudding does poorly in balancing out the onslaught of mint/menthol, which is so strong that you can feel it in your nasal passages, not unlike horseradish or wasabi.  It's like the Jello company ground up a bunch of candy canes straight into this mix... even the chalkiness is present.

Pumpkin Spice - The aroma is of earthy cinnamon as you dig into this stuff.  The flavors here are a valiant try: cinnamon, nutmeg, perhaps allspice, and sweet pumpkin.  What the hell... do they dry pumpkin flesh and grind the stuff into this mix?  The flavors are pleasant, but the sweetness needs to be amped in order for them to really sing.

Gingerbread - This one is a hit.  Rich and deep spices assault the tongue in harmony: ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon, molasses.  It's quite sweet, and it delivers the rest of the complex flavors perfectly.  I could eat this stuff until I got sick.


Jello Candy Cane Pudding: - Passable
Jello Pumpkin Spice Pudding: - Good
Jello Gingerbread Pudding: - Great
Original Jello Vanilla Pudding(for comparison): - Good

M&M's White Chocolate Peppermint

M&Ms has issued another seasonal flavor, again with white chocolate as a vehicle, and again in slightly larger sized candies.

This one is much simpler than the last.  The peppermint is so strong on these that you can smell the spicy scent through the candy shell as you pour them out of the bag.  After the crunch, a peppery and dry stab of peppermint fills your mouth.  The flavor is so strong that it mostly overpowers the subtle notes of the white chocolate and almost overpowers its sweetness, even.  This doesn't have what I would call balance, but true fans of peppermint won't care.

I'm inclined to give this product only 1 NOM, but given my general distaste of peppermint in anything but gum, I'll bump this up barely into the 2-NOM range to give the general public's taste a benefit of the doubt.


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

Chex Mix Muddy Buddies Peppermint Bark

Chex Mix has rolled out a holiday flavor: Muddy Buddies Peppermint Bark.  If you haven't looked at the Chex Mix products in your local stores recently, you should do so; you'd be surprised at how many different flavors they offer... from sweet to salty to sweet & salty.  The Muddy Buddies line usually involves chocolate, but this one does not (thankfully, more on that later).  Perhaps this has white chocolate in it?

It's hard to tell.  The traditional Chex cereal base is covered in the traditional confectioner's sugar, but what's making it stick to the cereal is a mystery.  It could be white chocolate, or it could be simply a fatty mix containing hydrogenated vegetable oil.  Either way, each bite has the expected crunch which very well combines with the fatty coating.

Along with sweetness of everything described above is a moderate dusting of peppermint flavor.  Its bitterness and dryness is completely balanced with sweet.  And... it's gloriously absent of chocolate.  I feel that chocolate-mint combos are a bit too prevalent in today's processed sweets, and so this stuff is quite refreshing (no pun intended).

As someone who's really not a fan of peppermint, I find myself keep reaching for these until the bag is empty.  If it weren't for my (admitted) distaste for peppermint, this would be rated 3 NOMs.


Chex Mix Muddy Buddies Peppermint Bark: - Good