Line extension noted

Neo-Neocon, in her “Necco post” (linked here Sunday), noted:

...when NECCO yielded to pressure and put out the all-chocolate roll it was somehow too much of a good thing. The sport was gone, the game of it—and then, alas, my ability to eat chocolate was gone.

A stop in the candy department during Sunday’s visit to Walgreen’s confirmed that the all-chocolate Necco roll is indeed no longer carried there (although it is still listed on the Necco website). But, in its place, there’s something new:

Yep, “Smoothies.” In an ice-cream-stand-pastels package (the photo fails to capture the sheer intensity of the package’s pink and yellow). The flavors are [reading label] “Blueberry, Banana Caramel, Tropical, Peach, and Strawberry Crème”^[1] The wafers look (and crunch) just like the regular Neccos, but the selection of colors is different: There are no black, brown, or purple, but they’ve added a robin’s-egg blue (blueberry), and the red (strawberry) is more peach-colored (duh!). That leaves yellow (banana), orange (peach) and the flavor fooler, white (“tropical”).

“So get on with it! What about the taste?” you say. Well, mixed impressions. (Disclaimer: I’m not a great appreciator of fruit-flavored candies in general. So take this FWIW.)

Regular Necco wafers have kind of “pastel” flavors, far different from brands such as Altoids. Neccos won’t melt your dentures, but they also don’t clash disastrously should you accidentally (or intentionally) get two different flavors at once.

The Smoothies are different. The flavors are stronger, and more distinctive, and although they are all “fruits,” IMO some combinations don’t play well together. Also, the orange has a lingering sour note that I didn’t like. For me, Smoothies might work better as a “candy with” (coffee?) snack, rather than by themselves.

Buy again? Probably not. But then, there’s always the original!

And by the way, Neo-Neo, when I opened that regular wafers package, it turned out to have five chocolates in a row.

Crunch.

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:10:02 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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