Earlier this week, Russell Stover was kind enough to send sdnews.com a basket of Easter candy. The company was promoting some of its newer candy treats along with the classics, such as a chocolate bunny. We decided to let Hanna Laukkanen, our intern from Finland, who has never had Russell Stover candy, sample some of it and we recorded her opinions. In Finland, she says, they hide chocolate kinder eggs for the kids to find on Easter morning and then the rest of the day is just about being with family. Their holiday usually culminates in a big dinner with lamb as the main course. On March 23, Hanna was sequestered in the conference room with the basket of candy, a cup of water, and editor Thomas Melville, who documented the taste test. Here are the results – from best to worst. Cookies and Cream bunny: “The appearance is good.” She bites off the ears. “This is really good. It reminds me of the kinder eggs I loved as a child. I could eat this whole bunny.
Dip-it Rabbit chocolate bunny (comes with a container of peanut butter to dip in segmented pieces of the bunny): “The chocolate and peanut butter go well together. I’m not a big fan of peanut butter, though. But the sweetness of the chocolate and the saltiness of the peanut butter are good together.”
Mini chocolate eggs (filled with marshmallow): “This works well together. The marshmallow is not too sweet and the chocolate is good. I like these.”
Chocolate eggs filled with banana whip: “The chocolate has a nice flavor. The banana filling is too sweet and way too much. It would be better with darker chocolate.”
Milk chocolate bunny: Bites off the ears. “This chocolate tastes really regular – nothing special. It’s not the best milk chocolate I’ve tasted. It needs to be more creamy.”
Peanut butter filled chocolate bunny: Again, goes for the ears first. “It’s pretty similar to the other one with peanut butter but not as good. The one with the dip you can control the ratio of peanut butter and chocolate but with this one you can’t. Too much peanut butter, which I don’t like. And the chocolate isn’t that great. This is my least favorite.” (I’m Hanna Laukkanen, a 26-year-old journalist, who moved from Finland to San Diego for an internship in San Diego Community Newspaper Group. In this blog I will compare Finnish and American lifestyles and try to find out a lot more about the Californian way of living. Please send me feedback at [email protected].)