I’m Dreaming of a White Chocolate..

For many years I (and I’ll bet you) have been told that white chocolate isn’t “real” chocolate, that as a candy it’s inferior to milk chocolate, and that it’s made from elephant tusks. OK, that last one I only heard once, from my neighbor friend Scott, when I was in elementary school.

But I’m here to tell you that white chocolate is indeed chocolate. It contains cocoa butter and milk solids, but no cocoa solids. And it’s carefully regulated by the FDA, as well as the European Union. So there are standards.

I’ve always thought white chocolate has a slightly less overpowering taste than milk chocolate (and certainly less than dark chocolate), and thus in many cases it pairs better with other foods. So, in case it isn’t obvious to you where this is going, let me say that today we’re going to review the Reese’s white chocolate pumpkin. And special thanks to Peter and Carrie who kindly nabbed this treat for me, and presented on china that’s identical to that which has consistently been used in this blog!

1. Packaging. Alert readers will recall that we earlier reviewed the Reese’s regular-chocolate pumpkins (on October 6), and we thought the packaging was pretty good. This packaging is similar, with the same Reese’s orange and an image of the pumpkin-shaped candy, with a jack o’lantern smile carved into it. We’ll give it the same 2 points we’d given the earlier version.

2. Appearance of the Treat. Ummm. This looks no more like a pumpkin than I look like Brad Pitt. Which is to say, it’s pretty close. I mean, if it just had an entirely different shape, with perhaps some decent pecs, they’d be indistinguishable.

In all seriousness, this is not a pumpkin. It looks like a bar of ivory soap. Zero points.

3. Taste. Oh happy day! The white chocolate pairs with the peanut butter even better than the milk chocolate did. And that earlier combo was no slouch. The peanut flavor is really allowed to shine through, and the delicate sweetness of the white chocolate nicely balances the salt in the peanut butter. This definitely has earned 3 points.

4. Value. Just as with the milk chocolate version, a 1.2 ounce pumpkin costs a buck. It’s not a tremendous value, but it’s still a pretty satisfying treat. I’ll give it the same 2 points as its sister pumpkin.

Steve’s Sweetoberfest Score: 7 out of 12 points, which just squeaks into the TREAT category. You might want to save your money and buy a bar of ivory soap instead.